Privacy policy — Acutance

1. Controller and contact

The controller is David Bongiorno, resident in Palermo, Italy. For privacy questions, support or rights requests: acutancephotosuite@gmail.com. Official websites: https://acutancephotography.com and https://www.acutancephotography.com. This notice covers the website, correspondence, Acutance Studio and Photo-View, including optional YouTube uploads.

2. Local processing

Photographs, projects and exports are processed on your computer. The controller does not operate a cloud service to collect or store your photographs or projects. Optional external services receive the information necessary for the function you choose.

Optional local face search. When initiated by the user, Studio analyses photographs in the selected folder and stores a local index containing file paths, numerical face descriptors, bounding boxes and thumbnails in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Acutance\Studio\FaceSearch. Photographs and descriptors are not sent to the Publisher or a remote recognition service. Confirmed references and the development selection remain in the search window’s memory and are discarded when that window closes.

The index remains local until Delete local index is used or Studio is removed through the updated installer. Development of selected photographs exports new copies to the chosen folders. Only use face search on photographs for which you have the necessary permissions.

3. Website navigation

The website is hosted by Aruba S.p.A. using the configured Italian hosting infrastructure. Technical logs may contain your IP address, request time, requested resource, response status and browser information. They support availability, diagnostics and security, based on legitimate interests under GDPR Article 6(1)(f). Retention follows the applicable hosting and security arrangements; details can be requested from the controller.

4. Cookies and correspondence

The current website does not use advertising or profiling cookies, Google Analytics or Meta Pixel. Language selection uses the page path. There is no website account registration, newsletter signup or contact form database. Email correspondence is used to answer and manage your request. Product, sales and contractual support requests are processed under GDPR Article 6(1)(b); other relevant correspondence is handled under legitimate interests. The contact mailbox uses Google Gmail. Do not send passwords or authorization tokens.

5. Licenses and trial

The applications use Lemon Squeezy to activate, validate and deactivate Studio licenses. Activation sends your license key and a device name containing your computer name and a short part of its hardware identifier over HTTPS. Validation and deactivation send the license key and activation instance identifier. The service also receives normal connection data, including IP address.

Responses can include the customer's name and email, purchased product, variant and activation limit. These are stored locally in a Windows DPAPI encrypted vault bound to the current Windows user, with an encrypted registry backup. Photo-View reads Studio's license status to enable Premium features. Processing needed to administer the license is based on GDPR Article 6(1)(b).

The ten-day trial verifies network time using HTTPS requests to Lemon Squeezy, Google or Cloudflare. Observed times and a hardware identifier are stored locally to verify trial duration and detect clock changes. Time services receive ordinary technical connection data, not photographs or projects. Purchases made using the Lemon Squeezy checkout are handled under its privacy notice: https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/privacy. Deactivating this device does not cancel a purchase or subscription.

6. Optional YouTube connection

Acutance Studio uses YouTube API Services to upload a video you select to your own channel. You choose whether to authorize this function and personally initiate each upload, choosing publication details and visibility. Authentication takes place in the browser on Google's official pages. Acutance does not receive or store your Google password.

The youtube.upload permission uploads your selected video with the title, description, tags and visibility you specify. The youtube.readonly permission retrieves the connected channel's information to display its name. This integration does not read your email, contacts, browsing history or other Google services. Authorization is voluntary and can be revoked; consent-based processing falls under GDPR Article 6(1)(a).

7. Transfers and local storage

Videos and publication details are sent directly from your computer to Google over HTTPS, without intermediary servers operated by the controller. Access and refresh tokens, authorization information, and the channel identifier and name are stored in %APPDATA%\AcutanceStudio\youtube_token.dpapi, encrypted using user-bound Windows DPAPI. Legacy youtube_token.json files are migrated and removed when read successfully.

Tokens remain locally while needed for the connection. Cached channel data is refreshed or discarded after thirty days at the next read. When Google reports revocation or authorization can no longer be refreshed, the application invalidates the session and removes local connection data. The application must run to detect these events; an unused computer retains its encrypted copy until local removal. youtube_session.state and youtube_session.lock may remain after disconnection to block stale writes; they contain technical state without credentials or channel information.

8. Revocation, uninstallation and deletion

Disconnect and revoke access sends a revocation request to Google and deletes local tokens, channel information and temporary authorization copies. If Google does not confirm revocation, the application explains how to complete it at https://myaccount.google.com/connections.

Suite setup lets you select Studio, Photo-View or both. Open with entries, folder context menus and Explorer thumbnails are optional. The thumbnail provider can read images viewed in Explorer and create local thumbnails; it does not send them to the controller.

Uninstallation can remove the entire suite or only Studio, retaining Photo-View in Standard mode. Removing Studio deactivates any license activation through Lemon Squeezy and revokes Google access. If a service fails to confirm, setup offers retry or cancellation without claiming successful completion. An unreadable or already invalid Google token requires you to verify and confirm removal in your Google account connections before its local copies are purged.

Local license keys, activation identifiers, customer details and Google connection information are removed. An encrypted technical receipt may temporarily record a confirmed deactivation to support recovery after interruption; it is removed when the local reset completes. An encrypted, non-identifying exhausted-trial marker remains to prevent automatically restarting the trial or Photo-View Premium access. Deleting the vault yourself is not the correct uninstall procedure.

Setup acts on the current Windows user. Other computers and user profiles must be cleaned separately. Keeping Photo-View preserves its uninstaller and optional shell integration. Full removal unregisters integration owned by this setup and restores the previous thumbnail provider where available. Personal photographs, projects, exported files and videos already uploaded to YouTube are not deleted. Manage uploaded videos using YouTube Studio. Contact acutancephotosuite@gmail.com for deletion assistance.

9. Use of Google data

Google data is used to identify the connected channel and perform the upload you request. The controller does not sell it or use it for advertising, commercial profiling or AI model training. Information you voluntarily provide in a support request is used for that request. Google's privacy policy applies: https://policies.google.com/privacy. The YouTube function is also subject to the YouTube Terms of Service, https://www.youtube.com/t/terms, and Google's API Services User Data Policy, https://developers.google.com/terms/api-services-user-data-policy. Using the YouTube function means agreeing to the YouTube Terms of Service.

10. Recipients and international transfers

Necessary service providers include Aruba for hosting, Google for contact email and optional YouTube authentication and uploads, Lemon Squeezy for purchases and license activation management, Cloudflare where used for network time, and recipients required by law. Google, Lemon Squeezy and Cloudflare may process data outside the European Economic Area. Refer to each provider's applicable safeguards and privacy information: https://policies.google.com/privacy/frameworks?hl=en, https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/privacy and https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/.

11. Correspondence retention

Email is retained for the time needed to manage the request and related support. Further retention may be required for legal obligations, contractual documentation or protection of rights, limited to those purposes. Website logs and local application data follow the retention arrangements described above.

12. Your rights

Where provided by the GDPR, you can request access, correction, erasure, restriction and portability, object to legitimate-interest processing, and withdraw consent without affecting earlier lawful processing. Contact acutancephotosuite@gmail.com. The controller can explain how to delete data held only on your computer but cannot remotely access it to delete it. You may complain to the competent supervisory authority; in Italy, https://www.garanteprivacy.it.

13. Updates

This notice is updated when processing, functions or service providers change. The date identifies the version. Any new purpose requiring consent will be presented before that processing starts. Reading this notice does not connect your Google account: that optional authorization is requested separately in your browser.