Terms & Conditions

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Please read these Terms carefully. By creating a Host account or by uploading media as a Contributor, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, you must not use the alby platform.

1. About alby and These Terms

These Terms of Use govern your access to and use of the alby platform (the “Platform”), operated by Alby Online Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales (“alby”, “we”, “us”, “our”).

The Platform enables event hosts and group organisers to collect, organise, and share photographs, videos, audio messages, and text contributions from guests and contributors. It is designed to operate as a private, invitation-only media sharing environment.

These Terms apply to two types of users:

  • Hosts — individuals or organisations who create an alby account and set up albums or events;

  • Contributors — individuals who access a Host’s album via a shared link or QR code to upload or interact with media.

By using the Platform in either capacity, you confirm that you are at least 18 years of age, or that you have the consent of a parent or legal guardian if you are under 18 (where the law in your jurisdiction permits access by minors at all). alby’s Platform is not intended for use by children, and Hosts bear responsibility for ensuring appropriate access controls are in place for their events.

2. Host Terms

2.1 Account Registration

To use the Host features of the Platform, you must create an account. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to keep this information up to date. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.

You must notify us immediately at legal@alby.photos if you suspect any unauthorised access to or use of your account.

2.2 Role as Data Controller

When you create an album or event on the Platform, you act as the data controller (as defined under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”) and, where applicable, the EU GDPR) for the personal data contained within that album. This means:

  • You determine the purposes for which media is collected and the people who are permitted to contribute;

  • You are responsible for ensuring that your use of Contributors’ data complies with applicable data protection law in your jurisdiction;

  • You are responsible for ensuring that Contributors are provided with appropriate transparency information before or at the point of upload;

  • You are responsible for responding to requests from individuals (including takedown requests) in connection with content uploaded to your album.

alby acts as your data processor for the content stored and processed within your albums. A separate Data Processing Agreement applies and is incorporated into these Terms by reference. alby retains its own controller status solely for the limited purposes of account administration, billing, platform security, and legal compliance.

2.3 Host Obligations

As a Host, you agree that you will:

  • Use the Platform only for private, invite-based sharing of media within a defined group;

  • Not use the Platform for any purpose that constitutes or facilitates public broadcasting, commercial republication, or social-media-style distribution of third-party images or content;

  • Ensure that Contributors are made aware, at or before the point of upload, of the existence of the album, the identity of the Host controlling it, and how their uploaded media will be used;

  • Implement and honour an effective, low-friction process by which any individual (including a person who appears in an uploaded photograph but did not upload it themselves) may request the removal of content in which they appear;

  • Not upload, encourage the upload of, or knowingly retain any content that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, harmful to children, or otherwise in breach of these Terms;

  • Comply with all applicable laws in your jurisdiction when operating your album, including data protection laws, privacy laws, and any laws applicable to the processing of children’s data;

  • Ensure that AI features — including facial recognition and AI image editing — are disclosed to Contributors as set out in Section 6 of these Terms.

2.4 Children’s Content

You acknowledge that events and family albums frequently involve the upload of media featuring children. As the data controller, you are responsible for ensuring the lawful processing of any content depicting minors. Specifically:

  • Children under the age of 18 (or the applicable age threshold in your jurisdiction) cannot give legally valid consent to data processing;

  • Responsibility for the lawful upload and use of images of children rests with you as Host, and with parents, guardians, and adult Contributors who upload such content;

  • You must ensure that privacy-protective settings are applied where appropriate, and that content featuring children is not shared outside the intended private group;

  • You must action requests from parents or guardians for the removal of content featuring their child promptly and without unreasonable friction.

Note for UK Hosts: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) expects a particularly cautious approach to children’s data under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. alby’s default settings are privacy-protective. It is your responsibility as Host not to override these defaults in ways that may expose children’s data to broader audiences.

2.5 Subscription Plans and Billing

alby offers the following tiers (details of each plan, including pricing, are available at alby.photos/pricing):

  • Free tier: limited media volume and functionality, as specified at sign-up;

  • Paid plans: subject to the applicable fees, media volume allowances, and features described at the point of purchase.

For paid plans, the following terms apply:

  • Auto-renewal: Paid plans automatically renew at the end of each billing period unless you disable auto-renewal in your account settings prior to the renewal date. You will receive a reminder before renewal.

  • Cancellation: You may cancel at any time. Upon cancellation, your plan will remain active until the end of the current billing period. Refunds are issued as required by the local applicable law.

  • Media archiving and deletion: Upon expiry or cancellation of a paid plan, your media will be archived for a period of 90 days, after which it will be permanently and irreversibly deleted. It is your responsibility to download any content you wish to retain before the end of this 90-day period. alby accepts no liability for loss of media following permanent deletion.

  • Failed payments: If a payment fails, we will notify you and may suspend your account until payment is made.

2.6 Fair Use — Premium Storage

On our Max plan, a base storage allowance of 100 GB is included. We operate a fair use policy in relation to storage:

  • If your total stored media exceeds 100 GB, we reserve the right to apply additional storage charges at the rates published at alby.photos/pricing at the time of use;

  • We will provide you with reasonable advance notice before applying any additional charges;

  • Use of the Platform to store content unrelated to events or groups (for example, as a general-purpose cloud backup service) is outside the intended scope and may result in account review.

2.7 Prohibited Uses

You must not use the Platform to:

  • Upload, store, distribute, or transmit any content that is illegal under any applicable law, including content that is obscene, indecent, constitutes child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or glorifies or facilitates violence, terrorism, or discrimination;

  • Impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;

  • Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any other user’s account or album;

  • Use the Platform in a manner that constitutes a public broadcast or publication of third-party images without consent;

  • Engage in any activity that disrupts, damages, or impairs the functioning of the Platform;

  • Use automated tools, scrapers, or bots to extract data from the Platform.

3. Contributor Terms

3.1 Accessing an Album

Contributors access alby albums via a link or QR code shared by the Host. No alby account is required to contribute. By entering your name and agreeing to these Terms at the point of upload, you confirm that you have read and understood these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

Access to a password-protected album requires entry of the access code provided by the Host. You must not share access codes with individuals not intended to have access to the album.

3.2 What You Can Upload

Subject to the permissions set by the Host, you may upload photographs, videos, voice notes, and text-based messages to a Host’s album. By uploading content, you confirm that:

  • You are the author or owner of the content, or you have the right to share it;

  • The content does not infringe the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or any other rights of any third party;

  • The content does not include illegal material or material that would violate these Terms;

  • Where content includes images of other individuals, you have considered their reasonable expectation of privacy and the appropriateness of sharing such content in this context;

  • Where content includes images of children, you are a parent, guardian, or other person with appropriate authority to share such content, and you have done so within the private scope of the album only.

3.3 Your Licence to alby and the Host

By uploading content to an album, you grant:

  • alby: a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, process, transcode, and serve your content solely for the purpose of operating the Platform and delivering the service to you and the Host. alby does not claim ownership of your content.

  • The Host: a non-exclusive licence to view, organise, download, and moderate your content within the album, consistent with the Host’s role as data controller.

alby will not use your content for any commercial purpose, for training AI models, or for any purpose other than platform operation without separate, explicit consent.

3.4 Contributor Acknowledgements

As a Contributor, you acknowledge that:

  • The album you are uploading to is operated and controlled by the Host, not by alby;

  • The Host determines the visibility, retention, and use of the content within their album;

  • alby provides the technical infrastructure and is not responsible for the Host’s decisions regarding your content;

  • You may request removal of content you have uploaded, or content in which you appear, by contacting the Host directly or by submitting a removal request to hello@alby.photos. alby will facilitate this process but the Host is the primary point of contact for content decisions;

  • AI-powered content moderation may be applied by the Host to screen uploads. This operates at approximately 95% accuracy and is not infallible. alby does not guarantee that all inappropriate content will be automatically detected.

3.5 AI Features Applicable to Contributors

If the Host has enabled AI features, the following may apply to your uploaded content:

  • AI image editing: you may use this feature to edit your own uploaded photos. Edited versions are saved as new copies; original files are not overwritten.

  • Facial recognition and face grouping: the Host may enable automatic face detection and grouping across uploaded photos. Your facial data may be processed as part of this feature. This constitutes the processing of biometric data under UK GDPR and similar laws. See Section 6 and our Privacy Policy for further detail.

4. Content and Moderation

4.1 No Liability for User Content

alby is a platform that hosts content uploaded by Hosts and Contributors. We are not the author, publisher, or distributor of user content and, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we accept no liability whatsoever for:

  • The accuracy, legality, or appropriateness of any content uploaded by users;

  • Any loss or damage arising from your reliance on content uploaded by others;

  • Any infringement of intellectual property, privacy, or other rights caused by user-uploaded content.

Nothing in this clause limits alby’s liability for death or personal injury caused by its negligence, or for any liability that cannot be excluded by law.

4.2 alby’s Right to Remove Content

alby reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to remove, restrict access to, or disable any content that:

  • Appears to violate these Terms, applicable law, or any applicable platform policies;

  • Is the subject of a takedown request supported by a legal basis;

  • alby has reasonable grounds to believe is unlawful, harmful, or in breach of any third party’s rights.

Where content constitutes, or is suspected to constitute, child sexual abuse material or other illegal content under any applicable law, alby will:

  • Remove the content immediately upon detection or report;

  • Suspend or permanently terminate the account associated with the upload;

  • Report the content and relevant account information to the appropriate law enforcement authorities without prior notice.

alby is not obligated to proactively monitor all content uploaded to the Platform but will act swiftly upon report or detection.

4.3 AI-Assisted Moderation

Hosts may enable AI-assisted content moderation, which uses automated tools to screen photo-based uploads for prohibited content including nudity, violence, hate symbols, and illicit material. This feature operates at approximately 95% accuracy. alby makes no warranty that AI moderation will detect all prohibited content, and its use does not transfer responsibility from the Host to alby for content that passes moderation checks.

4.4 Reporting Illegal or Harmful Content

If you encounter content on the Platform that you believe to be illegal or harmful, please report it immediately to legal@alby.photos. We will review all reports and take appropriate action.

5. Intellectual Property

The Platform, including its software, design, branding, and underlying technology, is owned by Alby Online Ltd and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws. These Terms do not grant you any rights in or to the Platform beyond the limited licence to use it for its intended purpose.

You retain all intellectual property rights in content that you create and upload. By uploading content, you grant only the licences described in Section 3.3 above.

You must not reproduce, redistribute, reverse engineer, or create derivative works from any part of the Platform without our prior written consent.

6. AI Features — Transparency and Obligations

6.1 AI Image Editing

alby offers an AI image editing feature that enables Contributors to apply enhancements or stylistic edits to photos they have uploaded. This feature processes uploaded images through automated AI models. Edits are saved as new copies; original uploads are preserved. By using this feature, you consent to your uploaded photo being processed by our AI tools for the purpose of generating the edited version.

6.2 Facial Recognition and Biometric Data

alby’s facial recognition feature enables automatic detection and grouping of faces across event photos. This feature:

  • Is available to Hosts only;

  • Is enabled by default, but can be disabled at any time by the Host;

  • Processes biometric data, which constitutes special category personal data under UK GDPR and equivalent legislation in many other jurisdictions;

  • Is used solely for the purpose of in-album organisation and discovery — faces are grouped to help Hosts label and find individuals within the album;

  • Does not involve external sharing, sale, or transfer of biometric data to third parties;

  • Is subject to a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) as required under UK GDPR Article 35.

Hosts who keep facial recognition enabled are responsible for disclosing this to Contributors, and for ensuring that any biometric processing complies with the laws of their jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions (including Illinois under the Biometric Information Privacy Act, and certain US states) impose specific requirements around biometric data including written consent. Where such requirements apply, the Host is responsible for obtaining the necessary consents.

If you are a Contributor and do not consent to facial recognition processing: you may contact the Host to request that any face clusters associated with your image be removed. You may also contact legal@alby.photos and we will facilitate your request.

7. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

7.1 Platform Availability

alby provides the Platform on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not guarantee that the Platform will be available at all times or free from errors, interruptions, or security vulnerabilities. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain platform availability but accept no liability for interruptions beyond our reasonable control.

7.2 Content Disclaimer

alby makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, legality, or appropriateness of content uploaded by users. All content is the sole responsibility of the person who uploaded it.

7.3 Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, alby’s total liability to you in connection with the Platform — whether in contract, tort, negligence, breach of statutory duty, or otherwise — shall not exceed the greater of: (a) the total fees paid by you to alby in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim; or (b) £100.

In no event shall alby be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, data, or goodwill, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits alby’s liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or (c) any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.

7.4 Third-Party Services

The Platform relies on third-party infrastructure including Amazon Web Services (AWS). alby is not liable for any failure, interruption, or data loss arising from third-party infrastructure failures, provided that alby has taken commercially reasonable steps to mitigate such risks.

8. Termination

alby may suspend or terminate your access to the Platform at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, engaged in illegal activity, or pose a risk to the Platform, other users, or third parties.

Upon termination of a Host account:

  • Your access to the Platform will cease immediately;

  • Uploaded media will be retained for 90 days from the date of termination before permanent deletion, unless the termination is due to illegal content, in which case media may be removed immediately;

  • Any outstanding balance will remain payable.

You may close your Host account at any time via your account settings. Closing your account does not affect any obligations accrued prior to closure.

9. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute arising from or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, except where mandatory consumer protection laws in your jurisdiction require otherwise.

If you are a consumer based in the European Union, you may also have the right to refer disputes to the EU Online Dispute Resolution platform at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

10. General

10.1 Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify Hosts by email and by notice on the Platform at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. Contributors will be shown updated Terms at the point of their next upload following any change.

10.2 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unlawful or unenforceable, that provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it lawful and enforceable, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

10.3 Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any applicable Data Processing Agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and alby in relation to the Platform and supersede all prior agreements, representations, and understandings.

10.4 Contact

For questions about these Terms, please contact:

Alby Online Ltd

Email: legal@alby.photos

Website: www.alby.photos