Effective November 3, 2026
Albumer's Facial Recognition feature is optional and off unless you turn it on. It works like the People view in other photo apps: the Albumer app on your phone finds the faces in your photos and puts the photos of the same person together, so you can see every photo of someone in one place. There is no selfie step. You tell Albumer which group is you by tapping "This is me."
Facial Recognition is not available to people who live in Illinois, Texas, or Washington. When you turn it on, the app asks where you live, and the feature stays off if you live in one of those states.
To group faces, the app measures each face it finds in your photos and turns it into a face template: a short list of numbers that describes a face. A face template is not a photo, and a photo cannot be rebuilt from it. The app compares the templates with each other on your phone and puts close matches in the same group.
The app looks at the photos in your Albumer Gallery, the photos in the albums you belong to (except Secure albums, which Albumer cannot read), and, if you allow it, the photos in your phone's own photo library.
Face templates are made and kept on your phone, in the Albumer app's own storage. They are never sent to Albumer's servers or to anyone else. Albumer never searches for a person by using a photo of them, and never sends a face to a server to be matched.
So that a new phone can show your people without asking you again, your Albumer account keeps:
None of these is a face template or a measurement of a face. Only your account can read them. They are not shown to the people in your photos or to the other members of your albums. On a new phone, the app makes new face templates from your Albumer photos, on that phone.
Your photos may show other people. Their faces are grouped only on your phone and only so that you can find your own photos. Albumer does not tell anyone who is in a photo, and a name you give someone is visible only to you.
Albumer does not sell, lease, trade, or otherwise disclose biometric identifiers or biometric information, and does not profit from them. Albumer uses face templates only to group the photos in your own library for you.
Before any face is measured, the app shows you a summary of this policy and asks you to agree. Albumer keeps a record of your consent: the date and time, the version of the text you agreed to, the app version, your app store country, and the state you said you live in. Your consent belongs to your Albumer account, so signing in on another phone does not ask again.
On your phone, the face templates and groups are permanently deleted when any of these happens, whichever comes first:
In your account, the names, "This is me," and the photo lists are deleted when you turn Facial Recognition off or delete your account, and in any case within 3 years of your last use of Albumer. Signing out keeps them in your account, so when you sign in again the app makes new face templates on that phone and your people come back.
Albumer keeps the consent record, marked as withdrawn when you turn the feature off, for as long as your account exists, and deletes it with your account, in any case within 30 days of account deletion.
Face templates are stored in the Albumer app's private storage on your phone, which other apps cannot read, and are never transmitted. The names and photo lists in your account are sent over encrypted connections and can be read only by your account.
Write to support@albumer.com.