Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Best Mate Studio LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company ("Best Mate," "we," "us," or "our"), operates bestmatestudio.com, an AI-powered pet portrait service. We create personalised digital art from photos you upload. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and what your rights are.

If you have questions, contact us at privacy@bestmatestudio.com.

2. What We Collect

2a. Information You Give Us

• Name and email address when you make a purchase, save a portrait for later, or join our email list (for example from the wait screen).
• Pet photos you upload to generate your portrait.
• Payment information entered at checkout. We use Shopify Payments to process all transactions. We never see or store your card number, CVV, or full billing details. Shopify is PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant.
• Shipping address if you order a physical print.

2b. Information Collected Automatically

• IP address and device type from your browser when you visit the site.
• Pages visited, time spent, and clicks via Google Analytics 4. This data is anonymised.
• Cookies see Section 6.

3. How We Use Your Data

We do not use your pet photos to train any AI model. We do not sell your data to third parties.

4. Pet Photos: How We Handle Them

Your uploaded photo is the most sensitive thing you share with us. Here is exactly what happens to it:

• You upload your photo on our secure site. It is transmitted over encrypted HTTPS.
• Your photo is sent to our AI generation partner, Astria.ai, to create your portrait. Astria processes the photo under our instructions and is contractually prohibited from using it for any other purpose.
• Your photo and the generated portraits are stored temporarily in Cloudflare R2 (encrypted, access-controlled cloud storage) for the purpose of delivering your order.
• Your original uploaded photo is deleted within 48 hours of your portrait being delivered.
• Watermarked preview files are retained for at least 30 days from generation, so that if you save your portrait to return to it later, the link we email you still works. They are deleted once they are no longer needed.
• After purchase, your final unwatermarked file is available via a download link that remains valid for 72 hours from the time we email it, then it is deleted from our servers.

We do not retain pet photos for longer than necessary. We do not share them with any party other than Astria.ai for the purpose of generation.

5. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party processors:

Each processor handles your data under its own data processing agreement and only for the purpose we specify.

6. Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

• Essential cookies: Keep your session active during the portrait generation flow.
• Analytics cookies: Anonymised data via Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors use the site. We use IP anonymisation.
• Advertising cookies: Only placed with your explicit consent. Used by Meta to measure ad performance.

You can manage cookie preferences via the cookie banner on your first visit. You can also clear cookies at any time through your browser settings.

7. Data Retention

8. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights:

Everyone:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your data (subject to legal retention requirements).
• Withdraw consent for marketing emails at any time via the unsubscribe link in any email.

If you are in the European Economic Area or UK (GDPR):

• Restrict or object to how we process your data.
• Request a portable copy of your data.
• Lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

If you are in California (CCPA/CPRA):

• Know what categories of personal information we collect.
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. We do not sell personal information.
• Non-discrimination: we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

To exercise any right, email us at privacy@bestmatestudio.com with the subject line "Data Request." We will respond within 30 days. We may ask you to verify your identity before acting on a request.

9. Children's Privacy

Our service is not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a minor, contact us at privacy@bestmatestudio.com and we will delete it promptly.

10. International Transfers

If you are based in the European Economic Area or UK, your data may be transferred to and processed in the United States, where our servers and some of our service providers are located. Where this occurs, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission to ensure your data receives adequate protection.

11. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data: HTTPS encryption in transit, access controls on storage systems, and limited access to personal data by our team. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. If you have concerns about a specific interaction, contact privacy@bestmatestudio.com.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email (if we have your address) and by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact