Legal / Privacy

Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 22, 2026. This Privacy Policy explains in detail how InkMeld and OakDev & AI AB collect, use, store, protect, transfer, disclose, and delete personal data connected to the InkMeld website, mobile app, support channels, billing flows, AI image-processing features, and related business operations.

This notice is intentionally detailed. It is designed to describe what the service does today, what may happen when optional features are turned on, and what rights you may have depending on where you live. If mandatory law gives you stronger rights than this policy, that law controls.

1. Privacy At A Glance

InkMeld is an AI-powered tattoo preview service. It lets you import or capture body photos, import tattoo designs, generate cutouts, place artwork on body images, tune realism, export previews, and optionally sync certain library data between devices. Most creative content can remain on your device unless and until you choose a feature that needs cloud processing, synchronization, support, diagnostics, billing validation, advertising, or analytics.

By default, the app creates a Firebase user session so credits, purchases, and security controls can work. That session may begin anonymously and later be linked to Google or Apple.
If you use AI cutout or background removal, the image you choose is sent through the InkMeld backend and to configured AI-processing providers so the requested output can be generated.
If you use cloud sync, body photos, tattoo source files, cutouts, and certain preset metadata may be uploaded to Firebase Storage and Firestore under your user account.
If you make purchases, Apple or Google process the payment and InkMeld may verify receipts or purchase tokens server-side before credits or premium entitlements are granted.
If you use the free tier, the app may request consent for advertising and tracking-related permissions and may show personalized or non-personalized ads where legally and technically permitted.
If you use the website, you may choose to contact us by email, open a deletion request, or read legal pages. Website analytics tooling may also be enabled in some deployments, subject to applicable cookie and consent rules.

2. Data Controller And Scope

Unless a specific contract, marketplace page, app store disclosure, or jurisdiction-specific notice states otherwise, OakDev & AI AB ("OakDev", "InkMeld", "we", "our", or "us") is the controller responsible for the personal data covered by this policy in connection with the InkMeld website, mobile applications, legal pages, account and support flows, purchase verification flows, cloud sync flows, and related product operations.

This policy covers personal data we process when you:

visit the InkMeld website or our legal/support pages;
contact us by email, support, or deletion request;
download, install, open, or use the InkMeld mobile app;
import images, capture body photos, create previews, export images, or use AI-assisted cutout features;
link an anonymous session to Google or Apple sign-in;
buy credits, premium access, or restore purchases;
choose to upload, restore, or delete cloud-synced content;
receive ads or interact with consent and privacy options in the free version; or
otherwise communicate with us, our processors, or the infrastructure that delivers the service.

This policy does not override the privacy practices of app stores, mobile operating systems, email providers, ad networks, payment platforms, or third-party sites, apps, or services that you choose to use independently. Those third parties may act as independent controllers for their own purposes.

3. Implementation-Specific Transparency

As part of preparing this notice, we reviewed the current InkMeld website project and the current local InkMeld app codebase on April 22, 2026. That review indicated, among other things, that:

the mobile app signs users in with Firebase Authentication at startup and may begin with anonymous authentication;
the app can later link that user session to Google or Apple sign-in;
the app uses Firebase App Check, Firebase Crashlytics, Firebase Performance, Firestore, and Firebase Storage in connection with app functionality;
the AI cutout feature sends selected image bytes to an InkMeld backend endpoint protected by Firebase authentication and App Check;
the backend for AI cutout is configured in the app stack to run in europe-north1 and uses Replicate-based background removal before returning processed PNG output;
the app requests camera, photo/media library, and photo-library-save permissions, and on iOS may request tracking authorization for ad personalization in the free version;
the app includes Google Mobile Ads consent handling and privacy options, and premium users are intended to be ad-free;
the app supports manual cloud upload/download of tattoo library items, body photos, and editor presets;
purchase verification is designed to call Google Play or Apple receipt-verification endpoints before granting entitlements; and
the website contains Firebase Analytics scaffolding, but in the website code reviewed here analytics initialization is skipped unless full Firebase configuration values are supplied.

Product behavior may evolve over time. If we materially change what data we collect or how we process it, we may update this policy, publish additional notices, request new permissions, or seek additional consent where required.

4. Categories Of Personal Data We May Collect

4.1 Account, session, and identity data

We may process account and identity-related data such as a Firebase user identifier, anonymous session identifier, linked account identifiers, email address, display name, Apple relay email, sign-in provider, authentication events, and status information showing whether your account is anonymous or linked.

4.2 Images and user-submitted creative content

We may process body photos, tattoo reference images, sketches, logos, screenshots, traced masks, cropped selections, AI input images, generated cutouts, edited previews, exports, saved presets, and files you choose to share with us for support or troubleshooting.

4.3 Purchase, subscription, entitlement, and credit data

We may process product identifiers, platform information, purchase identifiers, order IDs, original transaction IDs, server verification data, receipt status, credits granted, credits balance, monthly quota, monthly usage, premium plan status, restore events, billing event type, and related anti-fraud or reconciliation records.

4.4 Diagnostics, device, technical, and security data

We may process device type, operating system, app version, platform, language, timestamps, performance traces, crash reports, error logs, authentication state changes, App Check verification status, HTTP headers, content type, bytes uploaded and downloaded, request metadata, usage logs, and other diagnostic or abuse-prevention signals.

4.5 Cloud sync and storage metadata

If you use cloud features, we may process remote storage paths, sync versions, upload and download timestamps, deletion tombstones, preset metadata, content signatures, sync state, and other records necessary to merge or restore content across devices and to handle conflict resolution or deletions.

4.6 Consent, advertising, and tracking-related data

In the free version, and depending on region, platform, and configuration, we may process ad-consent choices, privacy-options choices, whether personalized ads are allowed, iOS App Tracking Transparency authorization status, ad requests, and limited ad-related technical identifiers made available through the relevant SDKs and platforms.

4.7 Support, legal, and communication data

We may process the contents of emails, support requests, deletion requests, screenshots, attachments, billing complaints, bug reports, account-recovery messages, and any other information you decide to send us directly.

4.8 Website and cookie data

When you use the website, we may process standard web request data such as IP address, browser type, device information, referring page, approximate region, timestamps, page views, and cookie or local-storage information where analytics, security, or preference tools are enabled and legally allowed.

4.9 Data about other people

If you upload or share images containing another person, client, customer, or model, we may incidentally process that person's personal data too. You are responsible for ensuring that you have all rights, permissions, notices, and consents needed before submitting third-party content.

5. Where The Data Comes From

We collect personal data from several sources depending on how you use InkMeld:

Directly from you, when you upload an image, take a photo, edit a design, contact support, email us, link an account, or request deletion.
From your device and app session, when the app stores files locally, saves metadata, records settings, or logs diagnostics.
From app stores and billing systems, when Apple or Google return purchase and receipt-validation data.
From authentication providers, when you link Google or Apple sign-in.
From our processors and infrastructure providers, such as Firebase, cloud logging and storage systems, AI processing providers, advertising or consent SDKs, and email systems.
From website traffic and browser interactions, if analytics or security-related tools are enabled.

6. Why We Use Personal Data And Our Main Legal Bases

The exact legal basis depends on the jurisdiction, the feature you use, and the role played by the relevant third party. For users in the EEA, UK, and similar regimes, our principal legal bases are typically one or more of the following:

6.1 To provide the core service you ask for

We use personal data to create user sessions, import files, generate previews, store edits, export images, manage content libraries, restore purchases, provide premium access, sync content if you ask us to, and otherwise deliver the features you intentionally use. Legal basis: performance of a contract, taking steps at your request, and where appropriate our legitimate interests in running and improving the service.

6.2 To process AI cutout requests and related image transformations

We use the image you choose, plus limited technical metadata, to perform background removal, cutout generation, trimming, cropping, refinement, and related image-processing operations. Legal basis: performance of a contract, your direct instruction to process the content you submit, and where relevant legitimate interests in providing the requested functionality securely and efficiently.

6.3 To manage credits, purchases, anti-fraud, and entitlement enforcement

We use purchase and receipt data to verify transactions, prevent duplicate grants, update credit balances, enforce monthly quotas, handle refunds or failed operations, investigate abuse, and comply with accounting or chargeback duties. Legal basis: performance of a contract, legal obligations, and legitimate interests in fraud prevention, revenue protection, bookkeeping, and service integrity.

6.4 To secure the service

We use authentication data, App Check tokens, request metadata, error logs, usage records, and technical signals to defend the service, detect misuse, investigate incidents, prevent automated abuse, rate-limit expensive operations, and protect user accounts and infrastructure. Legal basis: legitimate interests and, where applicable, legal obligations.

6.5 To communicate with you and provide support

We use contact details, attachments, screenshots, and message content to answer questions, troubleshoot issues, handle deletion requests, resolve billing or entitlement disputes, and document support history. Legal basis: performance of a contract, legitimate interests, and sometimes compliance with legal obligations.

6.6 To measure reliability, performance, and product quality

We may use crash, diagnostic, and performance data to understand failures, measure latency, fix bugs, improve reliability, and prioritize product quality work. Legal basis: legitimate interests, and consent where required by law or platform rules.

6.7 To serve ads or manage ad privacy settings

In free tiers and supported regions, we may use consent, tracking, and advertising data to determine whether ads can be requested, whether they should be personalized, and whether a privacy-options form should be shown. Legal basis: consent where required, and otherwise legitimate interests in funding the free service.

6.8 To comply with law, enforce rights, and handle corporate events

We may use personal data to comply with court orders, valid legal requests, tax and accounting duties, law enforcement obligations, sanctions requirements, insurance claims, audits, dispute resolution, or merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or asset sale activities. Legal basis: legal obligation and legitimate interests.

7. Sensitive Content, Photos, And Biometric Issues

The service is built around photos of real bodies and tattoo ideas. That means user-submitted images can sometimes reveal more than a standard profile picture. For example, a body photo may show scars, skin conditions, disability indicators, surgery marks, religious or political symbols, ethnic or racial traits, intimate body areas, or other information that could be sensitive under some laws.

We do not describe InkMeld as a facial-recognition, identity-verification, or biometric-identification service. We do not intentionally use body photos or tattoo images to uniquely identify individuals, perform facial recognition, fingerprinting, remote biometric identification, or emotion recognition. Under GDPR, ordinary photos are not automatically treated as special-category biometric data solely because they are photos; however, the content of images can still be sensitive and deserves extra care.

If you choose to submit images that contain sensitive information, please only submit what is necessary for your purpose. We process that content only for the limited purposes described in this policy, such as generating the requested preview, syncing the content if you ask us to, or addressing support, security, compliance, and legal issues connected to the service. Where applicable law requires additional consent or another specific legal condition for certain sensitive content, we rely on the mechanism made available at the point of collection or the direct, voluntary action by which you submit the content and request processing.

Please do not upload images of children, intimate content, medical conditions, or third-party body photos unless you are legally entitled to do so and the upload is strictly necessary for your intended use.

8. Device Permissions And On-Device Storage

Based on the app configuration reviewed on April 22, 2026, InkMeld may request the following device permissions:

Camera, to photograph the body area you want to preview tattoos on.
Photo or media library access, to import body photos and tattoo designs.
Photo library add/save access, to save generated previews or exports to your system gallery when you explicitly choose to do so.
App Tracking Transparency on iOS, to determine whether personalized advertising may be used in the free version.

We did not identify code requesting microphone, contacts, SMS, call logs, or precise location access in the app build reviewed for this notice. Future versions may request additional permissions if features change, in which case we may update this policy and provide an in-app explanation or platform permission prompt.

The app also stores files locally on your device, including tattoo assets, body photos, exports, presets, and metadata. Local content may be saved inside the app's document storage and referenced through local metadata stores such as preferences or sync-state entries. Deleting items from the app library is intended to remove those local files from the device. If you save exports to your device's system gallery, those copies are additionally governed by your device and gallery provider.

9. AI Image Processing And Background Removal

InkMeld includes AI-assisted cutout functionality. When you intentionally trigger that feature, the image file you selected is sent to an InkMeld backend endpoint together with security credentials such as an authenticated user token and, where supported, a Firebase App Check token. The backend may record limited usage metadata, such as the request timestamp, status, month key, byte counts, and the charging source used for that operation.

Based on the current code reviewed for this policy, the AI cutout path works broadly as follows:

the app sends the selected image bytes to an InkMeld backend endpoint;
the backend verifies authorization and App Check;
the backend logs or updates your remaining quota or purchased credits;
the backend passes the submitted image to a configured AI-processing provider for background removal;
the returned output is post-processed, which may include trimming, tattoo-ink extraction, cropping, or related image refinement; and
the resulting PNG output is returned to the app.

The code reviewed for the current app stack uses Replicate as an AI-processing provider for background removal. Replicate's public documentation states that API prediction input parameters, output values, output files, and logs are automatically removed after about one hour by default, but third-party retention and internal infrastructure logs may still vary. We do not control the independent privacy practices of outside providers and may change providers over time. For that reason, please avoid sending unnecessary personal or highly sensitive data through AI features.

If an AI request fails after charging logic has started, the backend may attempt to refund the relevant quota or purchased credit. Operational records about failed or refunded requests may still be retained for security, support, reconciliation, or abuse-prevention reasons.

10. Anonymous Sessions, Linked Accounts, And Authentication

The current InkMeld app is designed to sign users into Firebase at startup. If you have not created or linked a named account, the app may create an anonymous Firebase-authenticated session so that credits, quotas, purchases, and cloud controls can still function. That means we may still hold a stable backend user ID even if you never create a password-based account.

If you later choose to link your session with Google or Apple, we may receive or create additional identity data such as an email address, provider identifier, and account-linking events. If Apple provides a private relay email, that relay address may become the contact point associated with the linked account. Depending on the authentication provider and platform, names or display information may also be shared.

Linking a session can help preserve access to entitlements across devices or re-installs. If you remain anonymous and then lose the session, replace the device, or uninstall the app before linking, recovery may be limited because the entitlements may still be associated with the old Firebase user ID rather than a named account.

11. Cloud Sync, Firestore, And Firebase Storage

InkMeld includes optional cloud sync flows. Based on the current app settings screen reviewed for this policy, cloud sync is user-triggered rather than automatic by default: users can choose to upload or restore tattoo library items, body photos, and editor presets.

If you use cloud sync, the app may upload the following categories of content to Firebase services associated with your account:

original tattoo source files;
generated cutout files;
body photos;
editor preset metadata;
remote storage paths and sync version data;
timestamps showing creation, update, sync, deletion, and restore events; and
tombstone or conflict-resolution records used to propagate deletions or resolve cross-device differences.

Cloud sync is intended to help you move content across devices while keeping local libraries usable offline. Because sync is an optional feature, you can generally avoid this category of upload by not using cloud upload or restore features. If you delete local content but do not sync that deletion, a remote copy may remain available until the deletion has been propagated or another cleanup process occurs.

Where cloud data is restored to a device, the app may recreate local files from Firebase Storage into app-local folders. This means copies can exist locally, remotely, or both, depending on your actions.

12. Purchases, Credits, Premium Access, And Store Notifications

Apple and Google are responsible for the actual payment transaction in their respective app stores. InkMeld does not process your full payment card number inside the app. However, to grant credits or premium entitlements, the app may send store-provided verification data to an InkMeld backend endpoint, which then communicates with Google Play or Apple's receipt-verification services.

Based on the current backend code reviewed for this policy, purchase processing may involve:

product IDs and platform type;
purchase IDs, order IDs, original transaction IDs, or transaction timestamps;
server verification data or receipt blobs;
records showing whether credits were granted or premium was activated;
idempotency documents to prevent duplicate grants;
credit balances, quota changes, plan changes, and purchase-source labels; and
store notification ingestion logs that may include platform, event type, payload, user agent, and content type.

We use this data to verify legitimacy, prevent abuse, honor purchases, investigate billing issues, reconcile entitlements, comply with tax and bookkeeping duties, defend chargebacks or disputes, and maintain the integrity of the credit system.

13. Ads, Consent Management, And Tracking Controls

InkMeld may offer a free version supported in part by advertising. The current app code includes Google Mobile Ads tooling and consent-management logic. Depending on the build, the region, the platform, your product tier, and your consent choices, ads shown in the app may be personalized, non-personalized, or not shown at all.

The app code reviewed for this policy includes:

a consent flow for ad privacy choices;
an iOS App Tracking Transparency prompt when relevant;
logic to determine whether personalized ads are allowed; and
a privacy-options form if required by the ad-consent framework in use.

If you deny permission for personalized ads, the app may still request non-personalized ads where legally allowed. Premium access is intended to remove ads from the premium experience. Advertising providers may act as independent controllers for some data they receive and may use their own privacy policies, cookies, SDK identifiers, and compliance notices.

14. Website Cookies, Analytics, And Email-Based Forms

The InkMeld website may use cookies, similar technologies, and analytics or logging tools to keep pages working, understand usage, measure performance, and improve content. A separate Cookie Policy also applies where relevant.

The current website code reviewed on April 22, 2026 contains Firebase Analytics scaffolding, but analytics is skipped unless complete Firebase configuration values are present. That means a particular site deployment may collect less analytics than a fully configured deployment. If we later enable analytics in a live environment, the categories of data may include browser identifiers, page views, referral paths, approximate location, device information, and other analytics signals permitted by the tool and your consent settings.

Some website forms in this project use mailto links or open your email client rather than posting directly to a website database. In those cases, the message you send is processed by your email provider before it reaches us, and we receive the contents only if you actually send the email.

You can usually manage website cookies through browser settings, consent banners when shown, and the controls described in our Cookie Policy.

16. International Data Transfers

InkMeld uses globally distributed technology providers. As a result, your personal data may be processed in Sweden, the wider EEA, the United States, or other countries where we, our processors, or relevant service providers operate. Some providers may also mirror, route, cache, support, or secure data across borders.

Where applicable law requires safeguards for international transfers, we may rely on one or more of the following:

adequacy decisions issued by competent authorities;
standard contractual clauses or similar approved transfer mechanisms;
the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or equivalent UK mechanism;
Swiss transfer supplements where relevant; or
other lawful derogations or mechanisms available under applicable privacy law.

Because some providers also act as independent businesses under their own legal obligations, you should review their own privacy materials as well when you use their ecosystems.

17. Security And Abuse Prevention

We use administrative, organizational, and technical measures intended to reduce unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration of personal data. Depending on the system involved, these measures may include authentication, token-based authorization, Firebase App Check, server-side verification of purchases, managed cloud security controls, environment-variable based secrets, logging, access restrictions, storage separation, and deletion flows.

We also try to limit direct client-side modification of sensitive entitlement records and to use backend logic for credit grants, purchase verification, and quota enforcement. We may review logs, diagnostics, and other signals to investigate suspicious activity or to prevent abuse of expensive compute features.

No system is perfectly secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security, uninterrupted service, or that data will never be accessed, altered, disclosed, or destroyed through a breach, exploit, human error, or events outside our reasonable control. You are responsible for securing your device, your accounts, and any copies you export or share outside InkMeld.

18. How Long We Keep Personal Data

We keep personal data for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law for compliance, accounting, fraud prevention, backup integrity, dispute resolution, or the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

18.1 Local device files

Body photos, tattoo files, cutouts, exports, presets, and related local metadata may remain on your device until you delete them, clear app storage, remove the app, or overwrite the relevant local store.

18.2 Cloud-synced content

Cloud copies of synced library items and body photos may remain until you delete the relevant content and the deletion is propagated, until account deletion is processed, or until retention or backup cycles expire. Temporary residual copies may persist in logs, caches, or backups for a limited period.

18.3 Account, quota, and usage records

User-account, quota, credit, and usage-log records may be kept for as long as needed to provide the service, protect against abuse, diagnose issues, investigate complaints, and handle entitlements or deletion requests.

18.4 Purchase and accounting records

Purchase-verification records, anti-fraud records, tax records, invoices, receipts, store notifications, and other financial documentation may be kept for as long as required by applicable accounting, tax, audit, chargeback, and record-retention rules. In Sweden, bookkeeping and supporting documentation may need to be retained for at least seven years.

18.5 Support and legal records

Support requests and legal communications may be kept for as long as needed to resolve the matter and for a reasonable period thereafter to document what happened, improve support quality, or handle claims and compliance.

18.6 Diagnostics and analytics

Crash, performance, analytics, consent, and ad-related records may be retained according to provider settings, technical needs, and applicable law. We may shorten or extend retention where necessary to preserve evidence of abuse, investigate incidents, or satisfy legal requirements.

19. Deletion, Uninstall, And Account Closure

You have several different deletion paths, and they do not all do the same thing:

Delete a tattoo or body photo inside the app: this is intended to remove the local file and related local metadata, and may also be marked for cloud deletion if you later sync.
Clear app storage or uninstall the app: this typically removes local on-device content, but it may not automatically remove server-side records, cloud-synced copies, purchase records, or backups.
Use the delete-account flow: this is intended for removal of your account-level records subject to legal and operational exceptions. See Delete Account.
Delete exported or shared copies: once you save to your system gallery, email an image, or send it to a third party, you may need to delete those copies with the relevant device, app, or recipient separately.

We may retain some information even after a deletion request if we must do so for security, fraud prevention, purchase reconciliation, legal compliance, tax and bookkeeping obligations, exercise or defense of claims, or to complete deletion safely and consistently across systems and backups.

20. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights regarding the personal data we hold about you. These may include the right to:

know whether we process your personal data;
request access to the personal data we hold about you;
request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data;
request deletion or anonymization of personal data in certain circumstances;
request restriction of processing in certain cases;
object to processing based on legitimate interests;
withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
request data portability where the law provides it;
opt out of certain advertising or profiling uses where required by law; and
complain to a supervisory authority if you believe your rights have been violated.

To protect users and prevent fraud, we may ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests. We may also refuse or limit a request where an exemption applies, where the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, where we cannot verify identity, or where the data must be retained for lawful reasons.

21. Additional Notes For EEA, UK, Switzerland, And Certain U.S. States

21.1 EEA, UK, and Switzerland

If you are in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you may have the rights listed above under GDPR, UK GDPR, the Swiss FADP, and related national laws. You may also contact the supervisory authority in your country of habitual residence, place of work, or place of the alleged infringement. If our main establishment for your use of the service is in Sweden, the relevant authority may include the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten, IMY).

21.2 Certain U.S. state laws

Residents of certain U.S. states may have rights to know, access, correct, delete, and obtain a portable copy of certain personal information, as well as rights to opt out of targeted advertising, certain profiling, or certain sales or sharing definitions under state law. InkMeld does not intentionally sell personal data for money. However, some analytics or advertising configurations can be treated as "sharing" or targeted advertising under certain laws. If those features are enabled, we will try to provide notices and opt-out mechanisms required by applicable law.

21.3 Non-discrimination

We will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right, although some features may not work without certain data, permissions, authentication, or cloud processing.

22. Children And Age Limits

InkMeld is not directed to young children. Tattoo planning and body-image editing are adult or older-teen oriented activities in most markets. If you are under the age at which you can validly consent to the processing involved in your jurisdiction, you should not use the service except with any parental or guardian permission required by law.

If we learn that we have collected personal data from a child in a way that violates applicable law, we may delete the information and disable associated features or accounts.

23. Automated Processing, Profiling, And What We Do Not Use Images For

InkMeld uses automated image processing to remove backgrounds, isolate motifs, crop or refine output, manage cloud content, and personalize certain product experiences such as ranking, restoring, or syncing content. However, we do not currently describe the service as making solely automated decisions that produce legal effects or similarly significant effects about you in the sense used by GDPR-style laws.

We do not intentionally use your body photos or tattoo previews for:

remote biometric identification;
facial recognition or face matching for identity verification;
emotion recognition;
medical diagnosis;
employment, credit, housing, education, insurance, or law-enforcement scoring; or
any hidden surveillance purpose.

If we ever materially expand into such uses, we would expect to publish a separate or updated notice and implement any additional legal controls required.

24. Model Training, Product Improvement, And De-Identified Data

We may analyze operational, diagnostic, and aggregate service information to improve reliability, security, product quality, cost control, abuse detection, and general business planning. Where feasible and lawful, we may use aggregated, statistical, or otherwise de-identified information for these purposes.

We do not state in this policy that your photos or tattoo uploads are used to train our own general-purpose AI models by default. If we later decide to use user content for model training, benchmarking, or similar secondary purposes in a way that materially changes this expectation, we may provide a separate notice and seek any consent or permission required by law.

25. Security Incidents And Breach Response

If we become aware of a personal-data breach, security incident, or unauthorized disclosure affecting personal data, we may investigate the event, contain it, document it, restore service, cooperate with infrastructure providers, notify regulators, and inform affected users where required by law and where the threshold for notification is met.

Our ability to notify can depend on what contact information we actually have. Anonymous sessions may limit our ability to reach you directly.

26. Changes To This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect new product features, legal requirements, security practices, provider changes, organizational changes, or clarifications in how the service works. When we make changes, we may revise the "Last updated" date above and, where required, provide an in-app notice, website notice, or another form of notification.

Your continued use of InkMeld after an updated policy becomes effective may indicate your acknowledgment of the revised notice to the extent permitted by law, but it does not limit any non-waivable statutory rights.

27. Professional, Studio, And Client-Facing Use

InkMeld is often used by individual consumers for personal tattoo planning, but some users may also use the app in a semi-professional or professional context, such as tattoo artists, apprentices, studios, agencies, designers, or people helping friends or clients evaluate visual ideas. If you use InkMeld in a business, studio, or client-facing workflow, you remain responsible for your own relationship with the people whose data you upload, store, show, or export through the service.

That means, among other things, that you should make sure you have an appropriate legal basis, permission, contractual right, model release, or other lawful authority before uploading body photos, reference images, or personal information relating to someone else. You are also responsible for any notices you need to provide to your own customers, clients, or collaborators under privacy, consumer, marketing, health, professional, or image-rights laws that apply to your activities.

Unless we explicitly agree otherwise in writing, this public-facing Privacy Policy is designed primarily as a controller-facing notice for normal end-user use of the service. It is not a standalone data-processing agreement, professional-services agreement, or processor addendum for studio customers. If you require enterprise, white-label, processor, or custom retention terms, those would normally require a separate written arrangement.

28. Shared Devices, Team Access, And Household Environments

The service may be used on phones, tablets, or computers that are shared with partners, family members, colleagues, or studio staff. If a device is shared, unlocked, mirrored to other screens, or backed up to a shared account, local app data, exported images, screenshots, or account-linked information may become visible to other people with access to that device or backup environment.

You are responsible for using device-level protections such as screen locks, passcodes, biometric locks, account separation, and secure cloud-backup settings where appropriate. You should also sign out of linked accounts, remove old devices from platform accounts where relevant, and avoid storing especially sensitive client or body-image material on devices that multiple people can freely access.

Where a studio, household, or team uses one device for multiple people, we may not be able to determine which person created, viewed, exported, or deleted a specific local file if the surrounding device environment is not properly segregated. In that case, certain privacy or security outcomes may depend on your own internal device and access-management practices.

29. Backups, Temporary Files, Derivative Files, And Audit Trails

To keep the service functional, responsive, and recoverable, some information may exist not only in its primary storage location but also in temporary caches, image derivatives, thumbnails, queue records, sync tombstones, transaction logs, retry queues, hashed identifiers, anti-abuse records, or backup systems. These supporting copies do not necessarily exist for independent business use; many of them exist to make deletion, synchronization, integrity checks, recovery, or abuse prevention technically possible.

When you delete data or request account deletion, we generally aim to remove or de-link active production data first. Supporting copies may then disappear later through scheduled cleanup, storage lifecycle rules, backup rotation, overwrite cycles, or retention-expiry rules. Because of that architecture, deletion is not always instantaneous across every layer at the exact same moment.

We may also retain limited audit-trail information showing that an action occurred, such as a purchase being verified, a deletion request being submitted, or a sync event being processed. Where retained, those records are typically kept to protect the integrity of our systems, support fraud prevention, document compliance activity, or resolve disputes about what happened and when.

30. Government Requests, Legal Process, And Emergency Disclosures

We may receive requests for information from courts, law-enforcement bodies, regulators, tax authorities, consumer authorities, data-protection authorities, or other public bodies. When that happens, we may review the request for facial validity, scope, jurisdiction, and legal basis, and we may respond where we believe we are legally required or legally permitted to do so.

Where we think a request is overly broad, unclear, or unsupported, we may seek clarification, narrow the request, object to it, or require the requesting party to follow the proper legal process. However, we may not always be permitted to challenge, delay, or disclose the existence of a request, especially where secrecy obligations, emergency circumstances, or statutory restrictions apply.

We may also disclose information where we reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death, serious physical harm, acute fraud, major security incidents, or other emergencies, to the extent allowed by law and the facts available to us at the time.

31. Business Transfers, Due Diligence, And Corporate Reorganization

If OakDev & AI AB is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, investment round, asset sale, restructuring, insolvency process, corporate reorganization, or transfer of all or part of the InkMeld business, personal data may be reviewed, disclosed, or transferred as part of due diligence, negotiation, or completion of the transaction, subject to appropriate confidentiality, security, and legal safeguards.

A prospective or successor owner may need to understand the user base, subscriptions, legal risks, technical architecture, and operational records associated with the service. That can require limited access to account, support, transaction, or usage information under controlled conditions. If the transaction completes, personal data may become part of the transferred business assets to the extent permitted by law.

If applicable law requires notice or gives you rights in connection with such a transfer, we will try to honor those requirements. A corporate event does not automatically remove all data-protection obligations; the relevant obligations generally continue to apply to the transferred business operations.

32. Data Accuracy, Updates, And User Responsibilities

Many privacy outcomes depend on the accuracy of the information you provide. You should keep any linked email address, login credential, platform account, and support information reasonably current so that we can authenticate requests, help with support issues, and deliver notices where necessary.

If you provide incorrect, outdated, incomplete, or misleading information, that may affect our ability to verify account ownership, process deletion requests, restore purchases, identify the correct cloud records, or respond to legal rights requests. In some cases we may ask for additional information before acting on a request if the data we hold is insufficient to identify the relevant person or account safely.

You should also avoid uploading labels, notes, filenames, or support messages that unnecessarily include sensitive personal data about yourself or other people unless that information is actually needed for the feature or support case you are using.

33. Privacy Preference Signals, Authorized Agents, And Regional Requests

In some regions, browsers, devices, or extensions may send privacy preference signals, sometimes described as global privacy controls or opt-out preference signals. Whether a signal is recognized can depend on the exact law that applies, the context of the request, the technology being used, and whether our website or providers are technically configured to read and act on the signal for that category of processing.

If a regional law allows you to use an authorized agent to submit a privacy request on your behalf, we may ask the agent for proof of authorization and may also need to verify your identity directly with you before completing the request. This helps reduce the risk of fraudulent access, fraudulent deletion, or disclosure to the wrong person.

Where a regional law uses terms such as "sale," "share," "targeted advertising," or "profiling," those words may have technical legal meanings that are broader than ordinary language. Our operational practices may fall inside or outside those definitions depending on the specific configuration of analytics, advertising, or cross-context tracking tools in use at the time.

34. Supplemental Notices, Product-Specific Terms, And Interpretation

From time to time, a specific feature, form, campaign, purchase screen, beta program, or platform flow may include an additional notice explaining how that particular feature works. Examples could include an in-app consent screen, an App Store purchase disclosure, a support-form instruction, or a prompt shown before cloud upload or AI processing.

If a feature-specific notice conflicts with a general statement in this Privacy Policy, we may interpret the more specific notice as controlling for that exact feature or workflow, unless mandatory law requires a different result. The rest of this Privacy Policy continues to apply to the broader service context.

Section headings and examples are included for readability only. They do not limit the broader meaning of the text where the surrounding language makes clear that additional similar situations may also be covered.

35. Data Minimization, Need-To-Know Access, And Privacy By Design

We aim to follow data-minimization principles by trying not to collect more personal data than is reasonably needed for the function, support task, legal obligation, or security purpose at issue. In practice, that means different features may collect different data sets, and not every field, permission, or upload path is required for every user.

Internally, access to personal data should be limited on a need-to-know basis. Not every employee, contractor, or service provider has the same level of access. Access may depend on role, technical necessity, security responsibility, customer-support assignment, or legal/compliance duties. We may also use role separation, logging, audit review, pseudonymization, or environment controls to reduce unnecessary exposure.

Privacy by design does not mean zero risk or zero data processing. It means we try to design features, workflows, and provider choices with privacy and security in mind from the start and to revisit those choices as the product evolves.

36. Account Recovery, Identity Verification, And Fraud Prevention

When you contact us about account access, deletion, purchase restoration, or suspicious activity, we may need to verify that you are the correct person before taking action. Verification can involve email confirmation, platform account details, purchase references, device context, timestamps, prior support context, or other account-linked data points reasonably necessary to reduce fraud risk.

We may decline or delay a request if we cannot verify identity with sufficient confidence, if we suspect coercion, impersonation, account takeover, refund abuse, or other fraud, or if the request conflicts with a legal retention duty, security investigation, or dispute-resolution need.

Identity verification itself is also a form of personal-data processing. We therefore try to ask only for information proportionate to the sensitivity of the request and the risk involved.

37. Testing, Debugging, And Non-Production Environments

Operating a software service can require testing, debugging, monitoring, staging, and quality-assurance workflows. Where possible, we try to avoid using real production personal data in non-production environments unless there is a justified operational reason and suitable safeguards are in place.

In some cases, limited production-derived information may still appear in logs, tickets, error traces, or troubleshooting records when investigating a bug, sync failure, payment issue, or abuse incident. When that happens, we try to keep access controlled and retention proportionate to the technical need.

Third-party infrastructure providers may also maintain their own operational logs, debugging traces, or support records under their own retention schedules and contractual obligations.

38. Contact, Complaints, And Related Legal Pages

Questions, privacy requests, deletion requests, or complaints about this policy can be sent to [email protected].

If you are contacting us about a specific account, purchase, or deletion request, please include enough information for us to identify the relevant records safely, such as the email linked to your account, the platform you used, a purchase reference, or the Firebase user ID where available. Please do not send unnecessary sensitive data.

Additional related pages: