What happens to the photos you scan: storage and deletion
Yes, Patina keeps the photos you scan along with the identification results for them, because that is what makes your scan history work. Here is exactly what is kept, where it sits, who else processes it, and how to have all of it removed.
Patina is not open yet, so anything on this page about what it does is what it is being built to do.
Why collectors ask this first
You are usually standing in someone else's house when you take the photo. A dresser in a bedroom, a mark on the underside of a jug, the corner of a room you were not really invited to photograph. It is reasonable to want to know where that picture goes before you press the shutter.
The short version: Patina keeps the photo and the result it produced, because your last ten scans are part of the product, and it cannot show you a history of finds it has thrown away. Photos sit on Amazon Web Services in the United States, and one outside company, Anthropic, sees a photo in order to read it. Nothing about an object's value is stored, because Patina never produces a value in the first place.
Patina is not open yet, so what follows is the data handling the product is built on rather than a description of a running service with users in it. Where the answers below say what will happen when you scan or ask for a deletion, read them as the design we are committing to, not as a report from a live product. If any of it changes before launch, we will say so here in the same plain terms.
What is stored, and why
| Stored | Why it exists |
|---|---|
| Your name, email address and password hash | To create your account and sign you in |
| The photos you scan and the identification results for them | To identify the object and to show your scan history |
| Your subscription status and a Stripe customer reference | To know whether your plan includes unlimited scans. Card details never touch our servers |
| Clicks on appraiser referral links | To know which referrals are useful. Referral links may be affiliate links |
Questions
Does Patina store the photos I scan?
Yes. The photo you scan and the identification result for it will both be kept while your account exists, because your scan history is built from them. An account shows your last ten scans, and that only works if the pictures and results are still there. If you were hoping for an app that discards the image the moment the result appears, Patina is not built that way, and we would rather tell you plainly than bury it.
Where are my photos stored?
On Amazon Web Services, in the United States, which is where the application and its database are hosted. There is no EU or UK data residency option, so a UK collector's photos will be stored in the US like everyone else's. That is a deliberate simplification for a small product rather than a statement about where we think data belongs. If residency matters to your situation, it is worth knowing before you join the waitlist rather than after.
What happens to a photo during a scan?
The photo is sent to an AI vision model run by Anthropic, which reads it and returns a maker, an era, an origin and a confidence level. Anthropic is the one outside company that processes scan photos, and it does so in order to identify the object. The result comes back to a plain-English screen with a persistent AI-estimate disclaimer and never a dollar value. The photo and the result are then saved to your account so they appear in your history.
Who else touches my data?
Four companies sit behind Patina and each has one job. Amazon Web Services hosts the application and the database. Anthropic processes scan photos with an AI model to identify the object. Stripe handles subscription payments and stores card details, which means your card number never reaches our servers at all. Resend sends password reset emails, so it sees an email address rather than a photo.
How do I delete my photos and my account?
Once accounts exist, you write to the contact address on our website from your account email address and ask us to delete the account. We then remove the account, its photos and its scan history within 30 days. Being honest about the shape of this: there will be no self-serve delete button inside the app, and no self-serve export of your scan history either, so deletion goes through a person reading an email. It is a small product, and that is the state we are launching in.
How long do you keep the photos if I do nothing?
Nothing expires on its own. As above, photos and results stay for as long as the account does, with no automatic clock running them out. Asking is what removes them, and then the account and everything in it goes within 30 days. If you want to know what the account actually shows you in the meantime, the scan history page covers the last ten finds.
Can I scan anonymously, without an account?
No. Scanning will be gated behind an account, and sign-in is by email address and password. Part of the reason is the free quota: three scans a calendar month, enforced on the server, which requires knowing whose scans they are.
Do you have SOC 2, ISO 27001 or a similar certification?
No. There is no SOC 2, ISO 27001 or any other certification or audit behind Patina, and there is no documented uptime commitment either. What exists is the list above: a short set of things stored, four named companies processing them, US hosting, and deletion within 30 days on request. We would rather show you that list than claim a badge we have not earned.