Your privacy

Your privacy matters. This page explains honestly which privacy controls you as a guest really have — and which ones sit with the event’s host. That way you know exactly what you can control yourself and when you need to contact the host.

The four core topics:

Face recognition & Find me — how automatic people-grouping works and how to delete your selfie.
Deleting or editing your own photos — your uploads belong to you.
Who can see my photos? — how visibility and approval are handled.
Staying anonymous, name & account — browsing without registering, and its limits.

Face recognition — what really happens

If the host has turned face recognition on, the gallery automatically groups photos by person. The filter then shows a Filter by People section, where you tap a face to see all photos of that person.

This is an event feature controlled by the host.

People and face selection in the filter panel — Filter by People only appears when the host has enabled face recognition.

When does the people filter appear at all?

The Filter by People section (and therefore Find me) is only visible when both conditions are met:

The event’s plan includes AI face processing, and
the host has enabled face recognition under Settings → Features.

Otherwise the whole section is missing. When the feature is off, you may see the note No face clusters found. Face recognition may not be enabled…

Important, so you don’t go looking for it: Photogala does not ask you as a guest to consent to face recognition. There is no checkbox and no dialog when you enter the gallery where you agree or object to the processing.

Consent sits with the host: they have to switch the feature on deliberately in their settings and explicitly confirm that they have informed their guests. Photogala gives them a dedicated guide on how to communicate that before and at the event, and how to grant you your rights.

For you that means: if you want to object to face recognition, contact the host (the contact is on the event’s legal pages) — and you can delete your own selfie yourself at any time (see below).

Your rights over your face data

Face data is biometric, especially sensitive data. Under the GDPR you have the right to have it deleted. When a host enables face recognition, they must consent to that and provide a contact for data-subject rights.

What you as a guest can actually do:

Don’t actively search for yourself with a selfie. If you don’t use Find me (below), no “this is you” matches are shown to you.
Delete your uploaded selfie and its face data — any time, via the trash icon next to the Find me card (steps in the next section).
Report a photo you appear in — there is a dedicated report reason for exactly that (see Who can see my photos?).
Ask the host to delete automatically detected face data. You’ll find the contact on the event’s privacy/legal pages (see Event legal pages).

Foot of the event home page with the links Imprint and Privacy — The legal pages of your event sit in the footer of every gallery page.

Find me — find yourself without leaving a trace

Find me uploads a selfie so the gallery can pick out your photos for you. Your selfie stays private and is only used to find your photos in this event.

Open the gallery and tap the Filter button (funnel icon) in the toolbar.
- Phone
- Computer
The filter button opens the filter panel.
Scroll to the Filter by People section and tap the Find me card, with the subtitle Upload a selfie to find your photos.
- Phone
- Computer
Three ways to provide your selfie — camera, file, or your profile picture.
Choose one of three ways to provide your selfie:
- Take Selfie — opens the front camera.
- Choose Photo — file picker (JPEG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC, HEIF).
- Use Profile Image — only appears if you have a profile image set (see Profile).
The app shows the privacy notice: “Your selfie is private and only used to find your photos in this event.” It then searches (Searching…) and, on success, shows “Found in {count} photos”.

Deleting your selfie and face data

You can remove your selfie at any time. Afterwards the “this is you” association for this event is gone.

Open Filter → Filter by People again.
Tap the trash icon next to the Find me card.
Confirm in the Remove selfie dialog: “This will remove your selfie and face data for this event.”

Deleting or editing your own photos

Your uploads belong to you: you may delete and edit your own photos. On other guests’ photos you won’t see these options (unless you’re a moderator or admin).

Find your photo in the gallery.
Right-click (on a computer) or press and hold (on a phone/tablet, long-press) opens the context menu — the same menu on both devices.
Choose Delete to remove it, or Edit to change, for example, the caption or album.

Delete and Edit appear in the context menu for your own photos – on other people’s photos only if you may moderate. ① Select and Open, ② Like, Comments, Share and Download – Share only appears when sharing is switched on for the event, Download only when single downloads are allowed, ③ Edit and Delete – on your own photos, on other people’s only with moderation rights, ④ Unpublish – only with moderation rights; on a photo that is not approved yet the entry reads Publish, ⑤ Customize gallery – for hosts and admins only.

Option B — selection mode (several photos at once)

To delete several of your own photos at once, use selection mode:

Turn on Select mode from the gallery toolbar (or via Select in the context menu).
Mark your photos and run the action from the action bar.

In selection mode you mark several of your own photos at once: 1 the selection counter, 2 the actions, 3 select every photo in the current view. Hide, Delete and Bulk actions are only visible to moderators, hosts and admins.

Details on selection mode: Select & Download.

Option C — from the detail view

When you open a photo in the full-screen/detail view, as the owner you can also edit its caption and album there. Deleting works most reliably via the context menu (Option A).

What happens when you delete

A deleted photo disappears from the gallery and moves to the recycle bin — so it isn’t gone for good right away. You can restore your own deleted photos yourself.

The recycle bin is always available — even if you have never deleted anything:

On a computer: the Deleted button (trash icon) in the gallery toolbar.
On a phone: the Recycle Bin entry in the ⋮ menu.

If it is empty, the dialog simply says Recycle Bin is Empty with a note that deleted items will appear there. More under Recycle bin & restore.

Who can see my photos?

Visibility is controlled by the host, not by you. An uploaded and approved photo is, in principle, visible to everyone in the event. Relevant host settings:

Moderation / approval review — when active, your uploads only appear publicly after a moderator approves them. This explains the “waiting for approval” state. See Moderation.
Invite only / completely private — determines who can enter the event at all and therefore see photos.
Uploads allowed — whether guests may upload at all.
Default role — sets what a new guest may do (view, like, upload). See Roles & permissions.

Gallery grid with many photos — Approved photos are visible to everyone in the event. ① the progress card – it only shows when photo tasks are switched on and tasks exist, ② the toolbar with **Filter**, **Upload**, **Select**, **Photowall**, **Map**, **Deleted** and the column picker – on a phone only **Filter** and the upload button stay, the rest moves into the three-dot menu next to them, ③ the **Sort by** bar with **Upload**, **Capture**, **Likes** and **Comments**; the control on the far right reverses the direction.

What you can influence: what you upload (and deleting your own photos again), and whether you want to be findable via a selfie. Only the host can change the access and approval rules.

Are you unwillingly in someone else’s photo?

Then the way to handle it is reporting — and there is a dedicated reason made exactly for this. The Report content dialog (“What is your concern about this content?”) offers four reasons:

I appear in this image — “Request removal — the event organizer will review and can remove this image.” This is the data-protection route. Use it when it is your own likeness at stake.
Inappropriate content — for offensive or unsuitable material.
Copyright violation — when someone else’s protected material was used.
Other — here you also have to describe what the issue is.

You can optionally add a note under Additional details (optional); with Other it is required. The full walkthrough is in Report content.

While browsing you spot a photo with you in the background — somebody else took it, so you cannot delete it. You open the photo, report it and pick the reason I appear in this image in the Report content dialog; under Additional details (optional) you note where exactly in the frame you are. The report goes to the event’s moderators, not to Photogala — once it has been handled, your bell shows “Your report was reviewed” or “Report dismissed”. Since you’d rather not be findable automatically either, you then open Filter → Filter by People, tap the bin icon next to the Find me card and confirm Remove selfie — that removes your selfie and your face data for this event. Face data that was detected automatically can only be deleted by the organizer; you’ll find the contact for that on the event’s legal pages.

Staying anonymous, name & account

Joining without registering

If the host allows Quick Access, you can enter the event without registering. Whether a name is required or optional is also up to the host.

Guest gate before joining the event — At the guest gate you join the event — provided the host allows quick access.

As an anonymous guest you appear, for example, as “Anonymous User”, and comments as “Anonymous”. That way you stay in the background while browsing.

Setting or changing your name later

Open the profile menu at the top right (your avatar).
- Phone
- Computer
The profile menu gives you My Profile and — depending on your role — Moderation and Admin Portal. ① your points and solved tasks, ② Profile options with My Profile, Language, Theme and Help, ③ Management with Account Settings, Moderation and Admin Portal – this section is missing until you hold a role for it, ④ Account with Sign out.
Choose My Profile.
- Phone
- Computer
On the profile page you edit your nickname. ① your profile picture, ② your name with the pencil that changes the nickname, below it points, published photos and the last visit, ③ Account Settings, ④ your Task Progress.
Tap the pencil icon next to your name and change it in the Edit Nickname dialog.

Why registering is worth it

Without an account, your identity is tied to a device and session. If you lose the session (another device, cleared browser data), you may lose access to “your” uploads and likes — and then can’t delete them anymore. That’s why an account is recommended.

Open the profile menu and choose Sign In — or tap Sign Up in the profile header, with the note “Store your progress and sync across all devices effortlessly.”
Sign in or register with Google or your email address.
- Phone
- Computer
Sign in or register — with Google or by email.

Storage period & data

Photos and videos are only kept for a set period and are deleted automatically afterwards. This period is host- and plan-dependent.

Here’s how you can trigger deletion of your data:

Your own photos — delete them yourself, see Deleting your own photos.
Selfie/face data — delete it yourself, see Find me.
A photo you appear in — report it with the reason I appear in this image; the host reviews it and can remove it.
Automatically detected face data and other personal data — by request to the host via the legal pages.
Your whole account — via account settings, see Deleting your account.

For moderators and admins

If you’re a moderator or admin, you have extra tools: manage or hide face clusters, ban users, remove profile images, approve uploads, and work through incoming reports. You reach these areas via the profile menu at the top right → Moderation or Admin Portal — those entries are only visible with the matching role.