Privacy Policy

SnapEcho lets you collect photos, videos and audio from the people at your event. This page explains what we store, where it lives, who can see it, and how to get rid of it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.

Anyone with the link can see the gallery

Event galleries are not password-protected. Anyone who has the event link or can scan the event QR code is able to view everything uploaded to it and add uploads of their own, without signing in or identifying themselves.

Please treat an event gallery as a shared space rather than a private one, and do not upload anything you would not want seen by everyone holding that link. A person viewing a ready item can also download it or send a copy through their device's share sheet. Shared photos and videos are watermarked; voice notes are sent unchanged. Deleting the gallery later cannot recall copies people have already saved or sent elsewhere.

What we collect

If you create an account

Only event organisers need an account. We store your email address and a cryptographic hash of your password — never the password itself. Your email is used to confirm your address, to reset your password, and to contact you about your account.

We also store the name you give when you sign up. That name is shown publicly on your event pages, as "Hosted by …", so guests can see who is behind an event. Choose something you are happy for guests to see — it does not have to be your legal name, and you can change it at any time on your profile page. Your email address is never shown to guests.

Events you create

Creating an event requires a name, a start date, a location or venue, and a cover photo. A description and an end date are optional, and you can change any of them later.

Uploads

The photos, videos and audio recordings contributed to an event, any caption typed alongside them, and the date and time they were uploaded. Guests do not need an account, and we do not ask contributors for a name, email address or phone number.

Uploads made before August 2026 also carry the file's original name, as it was on the device it came from — which can itself contain a person's name, such as "kate-and-tom-wedding.jpg". We no longer record it: uploads from that point on store no filename at all. The older ones are still held, are not shown anywhere in the app, and will be cleared if you ask us.

Shared media copies

When someone chooses Share beneath a ready photo, SnapEcho reads the stored gallery photo to create a separate JPEG carrying the SnapEcho mark, snapecho.ca, and the event name when the watermark font supports its characters. This does not change the stored photo or create another persistent copy in the event gallery.

The generated JPEG may remain in a temporary server cache for up to five minutes so repeated shares do not reprocess the photo. That cache is cleared when the photo or its event is deleted and when the event name changes. Audio sharing reads the stored file without changing it or creating another server-side copy. Your device decides whether to send a shared file to an app you choose or save it as a download; copies outside SnapEcho are controlled by that device, app, and recipient.

Video sharing works differently, and stores a second file. A watermark cannot be added to a video while you wait, so after a video finishes processing SnapEcho prepares a separate watermarked copy in the background and keeps it alongside the original. It is smaller than the original, carries the SnapEcho mark and the event name, and is what Share sends. The stored video you uploaded is read but never changed, and Download still returns it.

That copy is deleted when the video, the event or the account is deleted, and it is deleted and prepared again when the event name changes, because the name is part of the watermark. Until the new copy is ready that video has no Share button.

Technical information

Standard web server logs, and three cookies that are strictly necessary for the site to function: one that keeps you signed in if you have an account, one that protects forms against cross-site request forgery, and a short-lived one that carries a status message such as "Upload complete" from one page to the next. Guests receive the last two when they upload, even without an account. We do not use advertising cookies, and the site carries no third-party analytics or tracking scripts.

Location data in your photos

Phone cameras often embed hidden metadata in a photo, including the exact GPS coordinates where it was taken. We remove this from photos. Images are re-encoded in your browser before they are uploaded, and stripped again on our servers, which clears EXIF, ICC, IPTC and XMP data — so the location where a photo was taken is not stored or shown to anyone.

Two honest limits. GIF and WebP files do not go through that metadata removal step, so any metadata they already carry may be kept. And while we add no metadata of our own to video and audio, we cannot guarantee that we remove everything your device embedded in a recording. A watermarked photo created through Share is always re-encoded without EXIF, ICC, IPTC or XMP metadata, even when the stored GIF or WebP retains it. A watermarked video is re-encoded too, which drops most of what a recording carries, but we make no guarantee that every embedded field is removed. Downloading the original still returns the stored file unchanged.

Where your data is stored

SnapEcho runs entirely on Microsoft Azure in the Canada Central region, located in Ontario. Your account details and event records are held in a managed PostgreSQL database, and uploaded files in Azure Blob Storage. Both stay in Canada.

Uploaded files are kept in private storage — they are never publicly listable. When a gallery displays a photo, video or recording, the site generates a link that expires after a short period rather than exposing a permanent public address.

Who else is involved

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for advertising. We rely on a small number of service providers to run the site:

• Microsoft Azure — hosting, database and file storage, in the Canada Central region described above.
• Resend — sends account emails such as address confirmation and password resets. It receives your email address for that purpose only. This applies to account holders; guests who only upload never trigger an email.
• jsDelivr and Video.js — content delivery networks that serve some of the site's scripts and styles. Because your browser fetches files from them directly, they can see your IP address and which page requested the file.

We may also disclose information where we are legally required to do so.

Keeping and deleting things

We keep event content until it is deleted. The organiser who owns an event can remove any individual upload, or delete the whole event; either action deletes the underlying files from storage as well as the database records.

One honest exception. An upload that is still being processed when its event is deleted can leave a temporary working copy in storage. It is not shown anywhere, not reachable from any gallery, and not linked to the deleted event, but it is not removed automatically either. Write to us and we will clear it.

You can close your account yourself, from your profile page. Deleting your account deletes every event you own, which removes their files from storage, and then removes your account details. It is immediate and cannot be undone — we do not keep a copy to restore from. The one exception above applies here too: an upload still being processed at that moment can leave a temporary working copy, which we will clear on request.

One thing worth knowing as a guest: because uploading does not require an account, you cannot delete your own contribution yourself. Ask the event organiser to remove it, or contact us using the details below and we will help.

Security

Traffic to the site is encrypted with HTTPS. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. Our servers reach the database and file storage using managed identities rather than stored passwords or access keys. No system is perfectly secure, but we aim not to hold anything we do not need in the first place.

Your rights

SnapEcho is operated from Edmonton, Alberta. Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), and Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) where it applies, give you the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected if it is wrong, to have it deleted, and to withdraw your consent to our using it.

Write to us at the address below and we will respond. If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your request, you may complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta.

Children

SnapEcho is not directed at children, and accounts are intended for adults. Children may of course appear in photos taken at an event; if you are a parent or guardian and want an image of your child removed, contact the event organiser or us directly and we will remove it.

Changes, and how to reach us

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. Material changes affecting account holders will also be sent by email.

Questions, requests or complaints: snapecho.ca@gmail.com
SnapEcho — Edmonton, Alberta, Canada