Is it safe to upload your child's photo? What happens to it here

If you hesitated before uploading a photo of your child to a website, good. You should. Plenty of parents have started asking where their kids' pictures end up, and "it's in our privacy policy" isn't much of an answer. So here's the plain version of what happens to a photo you give us, step by step. The formal wording is on our photo privacy page, and it says the same thing.

Yes, we use AI. Here's the job it does.

Our portraits are made with AI image generation. It takes your child's face, skin tone and hair from your photo and places them into the scene you picked. We'd rather tell you that up front than have you wonder.

To do that, your photo is sent securely to an image-generation provider (Google, OpenAI or BytePlus) that processes it on our behalf to make your portrait. The photo itself is stored on Cloudflare's cloud platform while it's with us.

Who can see it

• Not the public. Your original photos are never public. They don't appear on our site, in our ads or in anyone's search results.
• Previews are watermarked. The previews you make can be opened by anyone who has the link, which is how you can send one to your partner and ask which scene they prefer. They carry a watermark.
• One person on our team, once. If you order, a member of our team looks at the finished portrait before it prints, to check the print quality. That person may be located outside the United States.
• The print partner gets the artwork, not your photo. Our US print partner receives the finished portrait and your shipping details. Never your original photos.

What we don't do

• We don't sell your photos.
• We don't use them in advertising.
• We don't use face recognition, and we don't create or store face measurements or any other biometric data from them.
• We don't share them with anyone other than the service providers above, and only to make and deliver your order.

When it's deleted

Uploaded photos and previews are deleted automatically 30 days after upload, whether you order or not. We don't keep backups.

If you place an order, we keep one thing longer: the finished print file, for 90 days. Not your original photo. That's so we can reprint your canvas without asking you for anything if it gets damaged on the way. After 90 days it's deleted too.

Don't want to wait 30 days? Email cs@dovelie.com or use our contact form and ask us to delete your photos now. We'll write back once it's done.

Who can upload

Photos have to be uploaded by a parent or legal guardian who is 18 or older, or by someone who has their permission. If you're an aunt or a grandparent planning a surprise, ask a parent first and borrow a photo they're happy to share. It makes the gift better anyway, since they'll know which picture looks most like their kid.

A few habits worth keeping, here or anywhere

These apply to any site you upload a child's photo to, not just ours:

• Read where the photo goes and how long it stays. If a site can't tell you in a sentence or two, that tells you something.
• Use a photo of your child alone, cropped tight, rather than one that shows your house number, school logo or other kids.
• Look for a way to ask for deletion, and use it if you change your mind.

If anything here isn't clear, or you'd like to ask about something we didn't cover, write to us. A real person answers, usually within two business days.