OceanLens · Data & Privacy
Last Updated: March 2026
Welcome to OceanLens. We prioritize data privacy, copyright protection, and transparency. Below is our comprehensive policy on how our AI securely processes and minimizes your data:
OceanLens strictly adheres to data minimization principles. Because using this platform requires your explicit consent, the images you upload are converted into mathematical data (Vector Embeddings) solely for morphological analysis and improving our Machine Learning model's accuracy. We absolutely do not sell, distribute, or use your original images to train Generative AI models (e.g., AI image generators).
You retain the original copyright to your photographic work. However, by uploading your image to OceanLens, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, and irrevocable license to store, process, modify, and use the image and its derived mathematical data (Vector Embeddings) to operate, train, and improve our AI models and services. We guarantee that your raw images will not be sold directly to third parties.
Uploaded images are securely stored to help train our AI. While you may request the removal of your original image file from our active storage, please note that any mathematical data (Vector Embeddings) or AI knowledge already generated and integrated into our models cannot be extracted, reversed, or deleted, and will remain part of the system's learning.
The system is free to use with no login required, meaning we do not collect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as names or emails. We only use basic Local Storage for browser preferences. However, for abuse prevention and rate limiting purposes, we temporarily process your IP address. IP logs are not linked to your uploaded images and are automatically purged on a rolling basis.
For contributing photographers, our system will prominently display your designated name and website link whenever the AI successfully identifies a species based on your reference image.
To deliver AI-powered species identification, your uploaded image is securely transmitted to the following third-party processors: (1) Google Gemini API — for image pre-screening and AI analysis (processed under Google's Cloud Data Processing terms); (2) Supabase — for secure image storage (hosted in Singapore, ap-southeast-1 region). Your original image is never shared with any other third party beyond these processors. No data is sold or used for advertising purposes.
We use Google Analytics to collect anonymized usage statistics such as page views, session duration, and general geographic region. Google Analytics may set cookies on your browser. This data is aggregated and cannot identify you personally. We do not use any advertising cookies or tracking pixels. You may disable cookies in your browser settings at any time.