Privacy
What Ansel sees, what it keeps, and who else is involved. Last updated November 9, 2026.
The short version
- Your photo library is read on your phone. It is not uploaded.
- To design a book, small contact sheets of the photos a chapter is choosing between go to Ansel's server and to the AI model that acts as picture editor. The sheets are not kept.
- An online edition exists only if you publish one. Anyone with its link can open it.
- A print order sends the original files of the photos in that book and nothing else from your library. They are deleted 30 days after delivery.
- Each phone has an account with no name on it unless you sign in with Apple or order a book. You can export or delete it in the app.
- No advertising, no analytics, no tracking.
On your phone
Ansel looks through your photo library on the phone itself: when and where photos were taken, which are sharp and well composed, which look alike, and where the faces are, so that nobody is cropped. It finds faces; it does not recognise who they are. This work uses Apple's on-device frameworks. Your library and what Ansel learns about it stay on the phone.
To put a name to a place, your phone asks Apple's maps service, which receives the coordinates, as it does for any app that looks up a place name.
Ansel shows its first ideas after your newest photos, then goes on through the rest of the library while the app is open and, when the phone is charging, for a while in the background. If you say yes when it offers, it sends one notification when it has seen every photo. The notification is made on the phone; nothing is sent to a server for it.
When Ansel designs a book
The app asks your permission first, on the first book's page, naming who would see it. If you say no, nothing in this section is sent: Ansel chooses on the phone alone, and cannot read notes. You can change the answer on the Ansel tab at any time.
When you ask for a book and have said yes, the phone sends Ansel's server, chapter by chapter:
- contact sheets: grids of small copies of the photos that chapter is choosing between;
- the chapter's date and the name of its place (for example “Paris, France”), and the time each photo was taken;
- the book's title and anything you typed as guidance or as a note on a proof;
- a few small copies of photos you kept or dropped before, so the editor learns your taste.
The coordinates of your photos are not sent. The server passes the sheets and that text to Anthropic's Claude models, which rate the photos and write the chapter titles and introductions. Anthropic processes them under its commercial terms, which do not allow it to train its models on them.
The contact sheets are held only until the editor has answered, normally in under a minute, and are then discarded. Ansel keeps the editor's answer for 90 days: a rating and a few words about each photo (such as “warm candid glance”), the titles and introductions, the book's title and your guidance, and the identifier of your account. After 90 days it is deleted, or at once when you delete your account.
Online editions
If you choose to keep a book online, your phone makes a PDF of the proof and uploads it. Ansel stores the PDF and a picture of each page and serves them at a link. The link is long and cannot be guessed, but anyone who has it can read and download the book, so share it as you would the book itself. Publishing again replaces the book at the same link.
An edition stays until you delete your account, ask us to take it offline, or 400 days pass without anyone opening it.
The edition page loads its typefaces from Google Fonts, so a reader's browser contacts Google when the page opens. Ansel sets no cookies and runs no analytics on these pages.
Print orders
When you order a printed book, the phone sends:
- the original files of the photos in that book, and no others;
- the layout of each page, including where the faces are, so the printed page matches your proof;
- the name, shipping address and email address you enter.
Original photo files are the files as your camera made them. They usually contain the time and the place the photo was taken.
A person checks every book before it is printed. The finished pages, not your original files, go with your name and shipping address to the printer, RPI Print or Blurb, which makes the book and ships it.
Today you pay by Venmo or Zelle after we email you; Ansel keeps the amount and the date. When card payment is offered it is handled by Stripe: your card details go to Stripe and never reach Ansel's server, and Ansel keeps Stripe's reference for the payment.
The original files are deleted from Ansel's server 30 days after the book is delivered, or at once if the order is cancelled or refunded. The order record (what was ordered, where it was sent, what was paid) and the finished print files are kept so the book can be reprinted and for tax records. You can ask us to delete the print files at any time.
Deleting your account deletes the original files and the print files at once and removes your name, address and email from the order record; what was ordered, what was paid and the state it was shipped to are kept for tax records. An order not yet at the printer is cancelled, and refunded if you had paid. A book already at the printer is still printed and shipped, so its shipping address stays with the print shop and the printer until it arrives.
What Ansel keeps, and for how long
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Contact sheets | Until the editor answers, normally under a minute |
| The editor's answer for a book | 90 days, or until you delete your account |
| An online edition | Until you delete your account or it is taken offline, or 400 days after it was last opened |
| Original photo files for a print order | 30 days after delivery; at once if cancelled or refunded, or when you delete your account |
| Order record and finished print files | Kept for reprints and tax records. Deleting your account deletes the print files and takes your name and address off the record |
| Your account: its phones, the titles of your books, and your Apple email address if you sign in | Until you delete it |
| A deleted account's empty record | 30 days |
Ansel does not ask you to sign up. The first time it runs, your copy of the app registers an account on Ansel's server: a random identifier, a key kept on the phone, the phone's model, the app's version and when the phone was last heard from. It is not tied to your name unless you sign in with Apple or place an order. The account also has a list of your books by title, so the app can show which are online. If you sign in with Apple, Ansel keeps the email address Apple gives it (your own, or Apple's relay address if you hide yours), Apple's identifier for you, and a token used only to tell Apple when you delete the account. Ansel does not receive your Apple ID password. Ansel also counts how much work the picture editor does for the account each month.
Ansel does not track who reads an edition or build a history of how you use the app. Technical logs that include internet addresses are kept only as long as needed to run and protect the server.
What Ansel does not do
- It does not show advertising or use advertising identifiers.
- It does not include analytics or tracking software, and does not follow you across other apps or websites.
- It does not sell personal information or share it for advertising.
- It does not use your photos to train AI models.
Who else is involved
- Apple: the place-name lookup described above, TestFlight, and crash reports if you choose to share them. Sign in with Apple, if you use it, and a check that your copy of the app is genuine.
- Anthropic: the picture editor. It receives the contact sheets and text described above.
- DigitalOcean: hosts Ansel's server and storage, in the United States.
- RPI Print or Blurb: prints and ships the book. They receive the finished pages and your name and shipping address.
- Venmo or Zelle: how you pay today. You make the payment in their app or your bank's, under their own terms.
- Stripe: takes card payments, when they are offered, under its own privacy policy.
- Google Fonts: serves the typefaces on edition pages and on this site.
Books are checked and the print files are made on a computer Ansel operates. It receives the order and a copy of the original files from the server, and deletes them when the server does.
Your choices
- You can give Ansel your whole library or a limited selection. With a limited selection Ansel sees only the photos you pick, and its suggestions are weaker.
- Nothing is published unless you publish it, and nothing is printed unless you order it.
- In the app, on the Ansel tab, Export my data gives you a copy of everything the server holds for your account, and Delete my account deletes it at once. To take one edition offline and keep the rest, or if you no longer have the app, write to privacy@ansel.pics; we act within 30 days and confirm when it is done.
- Deleting the app removes the books and everything else Ansel keeps on your phone, except the account's key, which iOS keeps in the phone's keychain. It does not delete your account or take online editions down; do that first, with Delete my account. Your photo library is not touched.
Children
Ansel is made for adults making books for their families. It is not directed to children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from them. Photos of children in a parent's library are the parent's photos. If you believe a child has sent us information, write to us and we will delete it.
Where
Ansel is offered in the United States, and what it holds is processed and stored there.
Changes
When this policy changes, the new version is posted here with a new date.
Contact
Ansel, made by Howard Michalski. Privacy questions: privacy@ansel.pics. Everything else: support@ansel.pics.