Privacy Policy

Last updated October 19, 2026 · Sullivest LLC

The short version

The Hael Studio app organizes your library on your own computer, and your photos are never stored on our servers. The one thing that passes through us is a small preview of each new photo for smart event tags, which you can switch off. This website knows about your account, your purchase, which computers your licence key is activated on, and your smart-tag usage. We don’t sell data, show ads, or use tracking cookies.

Sullivest LLC is responsible for the data described here. Questions: support@haelstudio.com.

What we collect

• Account: your email address and password. The password is stored hashed, so we never see it.
• Purchase: your plan, Paddle order and subscription IDs, and subscription status, sent to us by Paddle. Paddle collects your name, billing address and payment details; we never see your card number.
• Licence and activation: your licence key, plus for each activated computer an anonymous computer ID (a one-way hash of Windows’ machine ID, which can’t be turned back into it), the computer’s name as Windows reports it (for example “Brad’s PC” — it can contain a person’s name; it’s only shown to you under “Your computers”), the app version, and when it was activated or deactivated. We use this to enforce the 3-computer limit and to show you your computers.
• Downloads: which installer versions your account downloaded, and when.
• Technical logs: our hosting provider keeps short-lived server logs (such as IP address and browser type) to run and secure the site.
• Smart tags: your smart-tag balance, the tags found for each photo (with a hash of the photo, never the photo itself), and a usage record per request.
• Support: emails you send us.

What we don’t collect

Your photos or videos (we don’t keep the smart-tag previews), faces, names you give people, your folders, or anything else in your archive. Scanning, duplicate detection, and face recognition all run on your computer, and the app sends us no usage tracking. The app contacts us only to activate, refresh or deactivate a licence key, for smart event tags, and to check for updates.

Update check. About once a day (and when you click “Check now”), the app asks haelstudio.com what the newest version is. The request is anonymous: no licence key, no computer ID, no photos, nothing about you. Like any web page, our hosting provider sees the IP address it came from.

Smart event tags. When smart tags are on, the app sends, for each new photo, a small re-made preview (about 768 pixels across, with location, camera and other hidden photo details removed — no file names, folders or people’s names) and a fingerprint (hash) of the photo file, through haelstudio.com to our AI provider, OpenAI, to suggest events. We don’t keep the photo. We keep the tags found for it — a few words and a confidence score, tied to your licence and a fingerprint (hash) of the photo — so you’re never charged twice, plus a usage record (which computer, when, and the cost) for billing and abuse prevention. OpenAI processes the preview under its API terms: it doesn’t use it to train models and may keep it for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring. Smart tags are optional; switch them off and nothing is sent. If you use the advanced option of your own OpenAI key instead, previews go straight to OpenAI under your account; OpenAI’s privacy policy covers that data; it never passes through us.

Cookies

We use only the cookies needed to keep you logged in. Paddle’s checkout may set its own cookies to process your payment securely. No analytics or advertising cookies.

Who we share data with

Only the services that run this website and your purchase, each for that purpose alone:

• Paddle — checkout, payment, tax and invoicing (merchant of record).
• Supabase — account login and our database.
• Vercel — website hosting.
• OpenAI — smart event tags (photo previews only, not stored by us).
• Microsoft — our support email.

These providers may process data in the United States and other countries. We may also disclose data if the law requires it. We never sell your data.

How long we keep it

We keep account, licence and activation records while your account exists, so your key and downloads keep working. If you ask us to delete your account, we delete it and its licence and activation records, except anything we must keep for legal or tax reasons. Paddle keeps its own purchase records under its policy.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct, export, or delete your data at any time by emailing support@haelstudio.com. Depending on where you live, for example the EU, UK or California, you may have more rights under local law, including the right to complain to your data protection authority. We’ll honour them.

Children

This website isn’t intended for children under 16, and we don’t knowingly collect their data.

Changes

If we change this policy, we’ll post the new version here with a new date.