Image Rights & Privacy
Using images responsibly. General information, not legal advice.
Can I upload any image I find online?
No. You need the rights or permission to upload, edit and use an image for your purpose. Being publicly available doesn't make an image free to use.
Can I upload photographs of models or other people?
Only when you have a proper legal basis and the permissions needed for the processing and use you intend, including AI editing.
Depending on the situation, portrait rights, privacy law and contracts with models may apply.
What about product photos, logos and branded products?
Product photos, designs, logos and other brand assets can be protected by copyright, trademarks or contracts. Make sure your permissions cover AI editing and the commercial use you intend.
Does GDPR apply?
GDPR may apply when images show people who can be identified, or contain other personal data.
Your responsibilities depend on your role, your purpose and your legal basis for processing. Check the privacy rules that apply before you upload such material. Our Privacy Policy explains how SwapCat handles personal data.
Who is responsible for uploaded content?
You and your company are responsible for having the rights and permissions for what you upload. You are also responsible for checking whether results suit their intended use.
This is subject to SwapCat's Terms and to the law.
Are my images visible to other companies?
No. Your company's images and private templates can only be seen by people in your company. Authorised SwapCat administrators can see them too, when needed to run and support the service.
Shared Campaign Templates are managed separately by SwapCat.
Can I use another photographer's editorial image as a reference?
Only when you have permission or a licence for that use. A photo being publicly visible doesn't allow you to use it as an AI reference.
What happens to uploaded images and generated results?
Images are stored so that SwapCat can work, and they are processed as needed to provide the AI services you ask for. This includes sending them to the AI service that makes your image.
The Privacy Policy describes how images are stored, which services process them, and how long they are kept.
Where are my images stored, and who processes them?
Your images are stored in the European Union, in a private store with no public access. Your account, campaigns and credits are in a database in Frankfurt, Germany.
To make an image, SwapCat sends the images involved and your instructions to OpenAI or to Google, using SwapCat's own business accounts. Neither of them uses your images to train AI models. Both keep a short log for abuse detection.
The Privacy & AI Processing page gives the short version, including what we have verified and what we are still working on. It is linked at the bottom of every page and from Settings.
How do I delete an image, and when is it really gone?
Delete an image in Media. It disappears from your company at once, and the file leaves our storage on the next scheduled clean-up, within 24 hours. It leaves our backups as those expire, within 30 days.
To close a company account, write to support. Its images and campaigns are deleted 30 days later. We keep the credit and invoice records for 7 years, because Dutch tax law requires it; those records contain no images.
Do we need a data processing agreement with SwapCat?
Yes, and it is already written. Where SwapCat processes personal data for your company — above all the people in your photographs — your company is the controller and SwapCat is the processor, and article 28 of the GDPR requires an agreement between the two.
An approver in your company accepts it once, in Settings, on behalf of the company. Nobody can generate an image until it has been accepted. It is versioned: if we change it materially, we ask again.
It lists which providers process your images, where, and on what basis anything leaves the EU, together with the retention periods and the security measures.
Contact support
Email hello@boldboy.nl. Tell us the workflow, roughly when it happened and a link to the image page. Never send passwords or other secrets.