Privacy Policy

Apastron Labs Pvt Ltd (“Photon Studio”, “we”, “us” or“our”) offers an AI-powered platform that features various user tools, including AI-powered tools to help users create marketing materials. This Privacy Policy describes how Photon Studio processes personal information that we collect through our digital properties that link to this Privacy Policy, including our website (photonstudio.ai,) and social media pages (collectively, the “Service”), as well as our marketing activities, live events and other activities described in this Privacy Policy.

Photon Studio may provide additional or supplemental privacy policies to individuals for specific products or services that we offer at the time we collect personal information.

NOTICE TO EUROPEAN USERS: Please see the Notice to European Users section for additional information for individuals located in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom (which we refer to as “Europe”, and “European” should be understood accordingly) below.

1. Personal information we collect

1.1. Information you provide to us. Personal information you may provide to us through the Service or otherwise includes:

• Contact data, such as your first and last name, email address, billing and mailing addresses, and phone number.
• Profile data, such as the username and password that you may set to establish an online account on the Service, biographical details, links to your profiles on social networks, interests, preferences, information about your participation in our contests, promotions, or surveys, and any other information that you add to your account profile.
• Demographic data, such as your date of birth, age, and gender.
• Communications data based on our exchanges with you, including the contents of your messages, when you contact us through the Service, social media, or otherwise.
• Transactional data, such as information relating to or needed to complete your orders on or through the Service, including order numbers and transaction history.
• Payment data needed to complete transactions, including payment card information or bank account number. Please note that payment data is collected and stored by our payment processors and not by Photon Studio directly.
• Marketing data, such as your preferences for receiving our marketing and other communications and details about your engagement with them.
• User-shared multimedia data, such as text, photos, images, and videos that you upload to and process through the Service, as well as associated metadata. Metadata includes information on how, when, where and by whom a piece of content was collected and how that content has been formatted or edited. Metadata also includes information that users can add or can have added to their content, such as keywords, geographical or location information, and other similar data.
• Query and prompt data, such as commands, descriptions, comments, questions, messages, and other content or information that you generate, transmit, or otherwise make available through our Demos and otherwise through the Service, as well as associated metadata.
• Feedback data, such as information regarding your experiences with the Service.
• Other data not specifically listed here, which we will use as described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed at the time of collection.
• YOU SHOULD NOT PROVIDE US WITH ANY CONFIDENTIAL, SENSITIVE, UNLICENSED PROPRIETARY, OR BIOMETRIC INFORMATION THROUGH THE SERVICE.

1.2. Third-party sources. We may combine personal information we receive from you with personal information falling within one of the categories identified above that we obtain from other sources, such as:

• Public sources, such as government agencies, public records, social media platforms, and other publicly available sources.
• Service providers that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Service or our business.
• Third-party services, such as social media services and cloud storage platforms that you use to log into, or otherwise link to your Service account, for example, Google. For example, you may log in with your Google account. This data may include your Google username, profile picture and other information associated with your Google account on that third-party service that is made available to us based on your account settings on that service. Our use and disclosure of information received from Google’s APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

1.3. Automatic data collection. We, our service providers, and our business partners may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile device, and your interaction over time with the Service, our communications and other online services, such as:

• Device data, such as your computer or mobile device’s operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, RAM and disk size, CPU usage, device type (e.g., phone, tablet), IP address, unique identifiers (including identifiers used for advertising purposes), language settings, mobile device carrier, radio/network information (e.g., Wi-Fi, LTE, 3G), and general location information such as city, state or geographic area.
• Online activity data, such as pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, the website you visited before browsing to the Service, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times and duration of access, and whether you have opened our emails or clicked links within them.
• Location data when you authorize our mobile application or the Service to access your device’s location.
• Communication interaction data such as your interactions with our email, text or other communications (e.g., whether you open and/or forward emails) – we may do this through use of pixel tags (which are also known as clear GIFs), which may be embedded invisibly in our emails.

1.4. Data about others. We may offer features that help users invite their friends or contacts to use the Service, and we may collect contact details about these invitees so we can deliver their invitations. Please do not refer someone to us or share their contact details with us unless you have their permission to do so. If you share your, or others’, details via third-party platforms (e.g., messaging applications), those third-party platforms process your personal information in accordance with their privacy policies.

1.5. Cookies and similar technologies. Some of our automatic data collection is facilitated by cookies and similar technologies. For more information, see our Cookie Notice. We will also store a record of your preferences in respect of the use of these technologies in connection with the Service.

2. How We Use Your Personal Information

We may use your personal information for the following purposes or as otherwise described at the time of collection:

2.1. Service delivery and operations. We may use your personal information to:

• provide the Service;
• to develop new programs and services;
• enable security features of the Service;
• establish and maintain your user profile on the Service;
• facilitate your invitations to friends and associates who you want to invite to join the Service and/or with whom you choose to share data;
• facilitate features of the Service, such as uploading, processing and syncing user-shared multimedia data and query and prompt data;
• communicate with you about the Service, including by sending Service-related announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
• communicate with you about events or contests in which you participate;
• provide support for the Service, and respond to your requests, questions and feedback.

2.2. Service personalization, which may include using your personal information to:

• understand your needs and interests;
• personalize your experience with the Service and our Service-related communications; and
• remember your selections and preferences as you navigate webpages.

2.3. Service improvement and analytics. We may use your personal information to analyze your usage of the Service, improve the Service (including by using your user-shared text and multimedia data and query and prompt data to train our algorithms), improve the rest of our business, help us understand user activity on the Service, including which pages are most and least visited and how visitors utilize and move around the Service, as well as user interactions with our emails, and to develop new products and services.

2.4. Marketing. We and our service providers may send you direct marketing communications and may personalize these messages based on your needs and interests. You may opt-out of our marketing communications as described in the Opt-out of communications section below.

2.5. Compliance and protection. We may use your personal information to:

• comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas, investigations or requests from government authorities;
• protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by making and defending legal claims);
• audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements or our internal policies;
• enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Service; and
• prevent, identify, investigate and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.

2.6. To create aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data. We may create aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data from your personal information and other individuals whose personal information we collect. We make personal information into de-identified and/or anonymized data by removing information that makes the data identifiable to you. We may use this aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes, including to analyze and improve the Service and promote our business.

Further uses, in some cases, we may use your personal information for further uses, in which case we will ask for your consent to use of your personal information for those further purposes if they are not compatible with the initial purpose for which information was collected.

3. Retention

3.1. General. We generally retain personal information to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, to establish or defend legal claims, or for fraud prevention purposes. The length of time for which we retain information depends on the purposes for which we collected and use it and your choices. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we may consider factors such as the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

3.2. When Information No Longer Needed. When we no longer require the personal information we have collected about you, we may either delete it, anonymize or aggregate it, or isolate it from further processing.

4. How We Share Your Personal Information

We may share your personal information with the following categories of parties and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, in other applicable notices, or at the time of collection.

• Affiliates. Our corporate parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates.
• Service providers. Third parties that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Service (including third-party application programming interfaces or APIs) or our business (such as hosting, information technology, customer support, email delivery, marketing, consumer research and website analytics).
• Payment processors. Any payment card information you use to make a purchase on the Service is collected and processed directly by the relevant app store or by our payment processors, such as Stripe. Stripe may use your payment data in accordance with its privacy policy, available at https://stripe.com/privacy.
• Advertising partners. Third-party advertising companies for the interest-based advertising purposes described above.
• Third parties designated by you. We may share your personal information with third parties where you have instructed us or provided your consent to do so, including contacts to whom you consent sharing your user-shared multimedia data.
• Partners. Third parties with whom we partner, including parties with whom we co-sponsor events or promotions, with whom we jointly offer products or services, or whose products or services may be of interest to you.
• Linked third-party services. If you log into the Service with, or otherwise link or sync your Service account to or with, an authentication, social media or other third-party service, we may share your personal information with that third-party service. The third party’s use of the shared information will be governed by its privacy policy and the settings associated with your account with the third-party service.
• Professional advisors. Professional advisors, such as lawyers, auditors, bankers, and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.
• Authorities and others. Law enforcement, government authorities, and private parties, as we believe in good faith to be necessary or appropriate for the Compliance and protection purposes described above.
• Business transferees. We may disclose personal information in the context of actual or prospective business transactions (e.g., investments in Photon Studio, financing of Photon Studio, public stock offerings, or the sale, transfer or merger of all or part of our business, assets or shares). For example, we may need to share certain personal information with prospective counterparties and their advisers. We may also disclose your personal information to an acquirer, successor, or assignee of Photon Studio as part of any merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, and/or in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which personal information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets.
• Other users and the public. Your profile, user-shared multimedia data, and query and prompt data are visible to other users of the Service and the public. For example, other users of the Service or the public may have access to your information if you chose to make your profile or other personal information available to them through the Service, such as when you provide comments, reviews, survey responses, or share other content. In addition, we may feature or otherwise make available user-shared multimedia data to other users of the Service. This information can be seen, collected and used by others, including being cached, copied, screen captured or stored elsewhere by others (e.g., search engines), and we are not responsible for any such use of this information.

5. Your Choices

5.1. In this section, we describe the rights and choices available to all users. Users who are located in Europe can find additional information about their rights in the Notice to European Users section.

5.2. Access or update your information. If you have registered for an account with us through the Service, you may review and update certain account information by logging into the account.

5.3. Opt-out of communications. You may opt-out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email, or by contacting us. Please note that if you choose to opt-out of marketing-related emails, you may continue to receive service-related and other non-marketing emails.

5.4. Cookies. For more information about cookies and other tracking technology that we use on the Service and how to control them, see our Cookie Notice. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. Please note that if you set your browser to disable cookies, the Service may not work properly. For more information about cookies generally, including how to see what cookies have been set on your browser and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. You can also configure your device to prevent images from loading to prevent web beacons from functioning.

5.5. Blocking images/clear gifs. Most browsers and devices allow you to configure your device to prevent images from loading. To do this, follow the instructions in your particular browser or device settings.

5.6. Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit https://www.allaboutdnt.com.

5.7. Declining to provide information. We need to collect personal information to provide certain services. If you do not provide the information we identify as required or mandatory, we may not be able to provide those services.

5.8. Linked third-party platforms. If you choose to connect to the Service through your social media account or other third-party platform, you may be able to use your settings in your account with that platform to limit the information we receive from it. If you revoke our ability to access information from a third-party platform, that choice will not apply to information that we have already received from that third party.

5.9. Delete your content or close your account. We give you the option to remove content from your account after it has been uploaded. Anything you remove from your account may remain on our active servers for 30 days while they are active, and copies of the content may be held in backups of our application databases after that. If you choose to cancel your account, your content will become immediately inaccessible and should be purged from our systems in full within 90 days. This applies both for cases when an account owner directly cancels and for auto-canceled accounts. These retention periods may be extended if required for legal purposes such as litigation holds, law enforcement requests, or specific tax/financial audits. You can choose to delete certain content through your account. If you wish to request to close your account, please contact us at support@photonstudio.ai.

6. Other Sites and Services

The Service may contain links to websites, mobile applications, and other online services operated by third parties. In addition, our content may be integrated into web pages or other online services that are not associated with us. These links and integrations are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. We do not control websites, mobile applications or online services operated by third parties, and we are not responsible for their actions. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of the other websites, mobile applications and online services you use.

7. Security

We employ a number of technical, organizational and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we collect. However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies and we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.

8. International Data Transfer

We are headquartered in the United States and may use service providers that operate in other countries. Your personal information may be transferred to the United States or other locations where privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your state, province, or country.

9. Children

The Service is not intended for use by anyone under 18 years of age. If you are a parent or guardian of a child from whom you believe we have collected personal information in a manner prohibited by law, please contact us at support@photonstudio.ai. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Service from a child without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian where required by law, we will comply with applicable legal requirements to delete the information.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the Service or other appropriate means. Any modifications to this Privacy Policy will be effective upon our posting the modified version (or as otherwise indicated at the time of posting). In all cases, your use of the Service after the effective date of any modified Privacy Policy indicates your acknowledging and agreeing that the modified Privacy Policy applies to your interactions with the Service and our business.

NOTICE TO EUROPEAN USERS

11. General

11.1. Where this Notice to European users applies. The information provided in this Notice to European Users section applies only to individuals located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom (UK) (i.e., “Europe” as defined at the top of this Privacy Policy).

11.2. Personal information. References to “personal information” in this Privacy Policy should be understood to include a reference to “personal data” as defined in the “GDPR” (defined as the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and aligned laws of the United Kingdom). Under the GDPR, “personal data” means information about individuals from which they are either directly identified or can be identified. The personal information that we collect from and about you is described in greater detail in the section “Personal Information we collect.”

11.3. Controller. Photon Studio is the “controller” in respect of the processing of your personal information covered by this Privacy Policy for purposes of the GDPR. See the ‘How to contact us’ section above for our contact details.

11.4. Our GDPR Representatives. We have appointed the following representatives in Europe as required by the GDPR – you can contact them directly should you wish:

11.5. Our Representative in the EU/EEA. Our EU/EEA representative appointed under the EU/EEA GDPR is Data Protection Representative Limited (trading as DataRep). You can contact them:

• By email to: photonstudio@datarep.com.
• By postal mail to: DataRep, 72 rue de Lessard, Rouen, 76100, France

11.6. Our legal bases for processing. In respect of each of the purposes for which we use your personal information, the GDPR requires us to ensure that we have a “legal basis” for that use. Our legal bases for processing your personal information described in this Privacy Policy are listed below.

• Where we need to process your personal information in order to deliver the Service to you, or where you have asked us to take specific action which requires us to process your personal information (“Contractual Necessity”).
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests (“Legitimate Interests”). More detail about the specific legitimate interests pursued in respect of each Purpose we use your personal information for is set out in the table below.
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (“Compliance with Law”).
• Where we have your specific consent to carry out the processing for the Purpose in question (“Consent”).

11.7. Purposes. Below, we have set out the legal bases we rely on in respect of the relevant purposes for which we use and share your personal information – for more information on these purposes and the data types involved, see the ‘How we use your personal information’ section above and the description of associated data sharing relevant to such purposes set out in the ‘How we share your personal information’ section also above. Note that we likewise share your personal information with vendors and other third parties (which may not be located in Europe) in accordance with, and for the purposes described in, the chart below.

12. Retention

12.1. General. We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, to establish or defend legal claims, or for the ‘Compliance and protection’ purposes outlined above.

12.2. Factors. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

12.3. When we no longer need data. When we no longer require the personal information that we have collected about you, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. If we anonymize your personal information (so that it can no longer be associated with you), we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

13. Other Information

13.1. No obligation to provide personal information. You do not have to provide personal information to us. However, where we need to process your personal information either to comply with applicable law or to deliver our Service to you, and you fail to provide that personal information when requested, we may not be able to provide some or all of our Service to you. We will notify you if this is the case at the time via the email address you provide.

13.2. No sensitive information. Do not provide us with any sensitive personal information (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, criminal background or trade union membership, or biometric or genetic characteristic) on or through the Service, or otherwise to us. If you provide us with any such sensitive personal information when you use the Service, you thereby consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal information, you must not submit such sensitive personal information through our Service.

13.3. No automated decision-making and profiling. As part of the Service, we do not engage in automated decision-making and/or profiling, which produces legal or similarly significant effects. We provide our analysis to our business customers and our business customers make decisions that may affect you.

13.4. Security. We have put in place procedures designed to deal with breaches of personal information. In the event of such breaches, we have procedures in place to work with applicable regulators. In addition, in certain circumstances (including where we are legally required to do so), we may notify you of breaches affecting your personal information.

14. Your Additional Rights

14.1. General. European data protection laws may give you certain rights regarding your personal information in certain circumstances. If you are located in Europe, you may ask us to take the following actions in relation to your personal information that we hold:

• Access. Provide you with information about our processing of your personal information and give you access to your personal information.
• Correct. Update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
• Delete. Delete your personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it – you also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Transfer/Portability. Transfer to you or a third party of your choice a machine-readable copy of your personal information which you have provided to us.
• Restrict. Restrict the processing of your personal information, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Object. Object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on Legitimate Interests – you also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Withdraw Consent. When we use your personal information based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

14.2. Exercising These Rights. You may submit these requests by contacting us at support@photonstudio.ai. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and process your request. Whether or not we are required to fulfill any request you make will depend on a number of factors (e.g., why and how we are processing your personal information). If we reject any request you may make (whether in whole or in part), we will let you know our grounds for doing so at the time, subject to any legal restrictions. Typically, you will not have to pay a fee to exercise your rights; however, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. We try to respond to all legitimate requests promptly and try to provide you with a disposition within a month of receipt. It may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or if you have made a number of requests; in this case, we will notify you and keep you updated via the email address you provide.

14.3. Your Right to Lodge a Complaint with your Supervisory Authority. Although we urge you to contact us first to find a solution for any concern you may have, in addition to your rights outlined above, if you are not satisfied with our response to a request you make, or how we process your personal information, you can make a complaint to the data protection regulator in your habitual place of residence.

• For users in the European Economic Area – the contact information for the data protection regulator in your place of residence can be found here: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en
• For users in the UK – the contact information for the UK data protection regulator can be found here: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

15. Data Processing Outside Europe

15.1. General. We are a U.S.-based company and many of our service providers, advisers, partners or other recipients of data are also based in the U.S. This means that, if you use the Service, your personal information will necessarily be accessed and processed in the U.S. It may also be provided to recipients in other countries outside Europe. We also have locations in the UK and Kazakhstan, and vendors and partners located throughout the world, including in the U.S., EU, UK, and China.

15.2. Sharing Outside the US. Where we share your personal information with third parties who are based outside Europe, we try to ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by making sure one of the following mechanisms is implemented:

• Transfers to territories with an adequacy decision. We may transfer your personal information to countries or territories whose laws have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal information by the European Commission or UK Government (as and where applicable) (from time to time) or under specific adequacy frameworks approved by the European Commission or UK Government (as and where applicable) (from time to time), such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or the UK Extension thereto.
• Transfers to territories without an adequacy decision. We may transfer your personal information to countries or territories whose laws have not been deemed to provide such an adequate level of protection. However, in these cases:
• we seek to use specific appropriate safeguards, which are designed to give personal information effectively the same protection it has in Europe – for example, standard-form contracts approved by relevant authorities for this purpose (e.g., Standard Contractual Clauses/ ‘SSCs’ as approved by the European Commission); or
• in limited circumstances, we may rely on an exception, or ‘derogation’, which permits us to transfer your personal information to such country despite the absence of an ‘adequacy decision’ or ‘appropriate safeguards’ – for example, reliance on your explicit consent to that transfer.

16. Contact Us.

You may contact us at support@photonstudio.ai if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal information out of Europe.