Privacy Policy for PictaCast

Last Updated: May 31, 2026

At PictaCast ("we," "us," or "our"), we believe that your personal memories should stay personal. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use our website, web application, and related services (collectively, the "Service").

1. The Short Version: Your Photos Stay Yours

PictaCast is fundamentally designed to protect your privacy. We do not upload, store, or transmit your photos, videos, or local audio files to our servers. When you cast media to your TV using PictaCast, the files are processed locally on your device and transmitted directly to your casting receiver (e.g., your Chromecast) over your secure local Wi-Fi network using WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) technology. Your personal media never touches our cloud infrastructure.

2. Information We Actually Collect

While we don't touch your media, we do need to collect a minimal amount of information to provide you with a functioning account and premium services:

  • Account Information (Google OAuth): When you sign in to PictaCast, we use Google as our secure authentication provider. The basic profile information provided by Google (Name, Email Address, and Profile Picture) is stored only in a secure, signed session cookie on your browser. We do not store this raw personal information in our database. We only store an anonymized, irreversible cryptographic hash of your email address and a unique Google ID to manage your subscription status.
  • Payment Information (Stripe): If you choose to upgrade to our premium version, your payment is processed securely by our third-party payment processor, Stripe. We do not collect or store your raw credit card numbers. Stripe provides us with a billing token and subscription status so we can unlock premium features on your account.
  • Technical & Usage Logs: We may collect basic, anonymous diagnostic data (such as browser type, error logs, or feature usage) to help us find bugs and improve the Service. This data is entirely disconnected from your local media files.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the minimal data we collect to:

  • Create and manage your PictaCast account.
  • Enforce daily casting limits for free-tier users.
  • Process premium subscription upgrades and provide customer support.
  • Communicate with you regarding critical updates to the Service or changes to our terms.

4. Third-Party Services We Use

We rely on a few trusted third-party services to keep PictaCast running. These providers have their own privacy policies governing how they handle data:

  • Google (Authentication & Casting): We use Google for authentication (OAuth) and rely on the Google Cast SDK/Presentation API to facilitate the connection between your browser and your TV.
  • Stripe: We use Stripe exclusively for secure payment processing and subscription management.
  • Google Analytics 4: Our marketing website (pictacast.com) uses Google Analytics 4 to help us understand how visitors find and interact with our pages (e.g., pages visited, general geographic region, and referral source). Google Analytics uses cookies (_ga, _ga_*) to collect this data anonymously and in aggregate — it does not identify you personally. This analytics tracking is present only on the marketing website; it is not loaded inside the PictaCast web application. You can opt out at any time using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

5. Data Security

We implement standard industry security measures to protect the basic account data we hold. Furthermore, because your media files are never uploaded to our servers, they are inherently protected from data breaches on our end. The security of your media transmission relies on the security of your own local Wi-Fi network.

6. Your Data Rights

Depending on your location (such as the EU/UK under GDPR, or California under CCPA), you have the right to:

  • Access the personal data we hold about you (your account profile).
  • Request Deletion of your account and associated personal data.
  • Opt-out of non-essential communications.

To exercise any of these rights, or to completely delete your PictaCast account, please contact us at the email address below.

7. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our technology, business practices, or legal requirements. We will notify you of any significant changes by updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page or by sending a notice to the email address associated with your account.

8. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please reach out to us:

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