What happens to the photos you scan: storage and deletion
When you scan an object with Patina, the photo will travel to our servers on Amazon Web Services, on to Anthropic to be read by an AI model, and then sit against your account so your scan history works. It will stay there while the account exists, and when you ask us to delete the account, we will remove it, its photos and its scan history within 30 days.
Patina is not open yet, so anything on this page about what it does is what it is being built to do.
The route a scan photo will take
A photo of a maker's mark is a picture of something you own, usually taken in someone else's house, often while you are deciding whether to buy the thing. So here is the whole route, step by step. You will take the shot with your phone's camera in the browser, or choose a photo you already have. It will reach our servers, which run on Amazon Web Services in the United States. From there the photo goes to Anthropic, where an AI model reads it and returns maker, era and origin with a confidence level attached. The photo and that result will then be stored against your account, because your scan history is made out of them.
That is the shape of the hobby, not an edge case. Estate sale guidance tells shoppers that if something catches your eye and you are not sure what you are looking at, "take a photo and research it before making a purchase", which means a camera roll full of other people's furniture bases is a normal thing to own. A tool built for that moment should be able to say where the photo ends up without sending you to a policy page.
What the result will and will not say
Results will never carry a dollar value, and each one will carry a standing note that it is an AI estimate rather than an expert appraisal. That is not legal throat-clearing. The sensible advice in this category is to "treat any app result as a starting point, not a final verdict", and a second opinion is exactly what we are trying to be, which is also why the data we keep is the data a second opinion needs and no more: the photo, the identification, your account, your plan. There is no browsing history, no location, no contacts list, nothing about the house you took the photo in.
What will be stored, why, and where it will live
| What will be stored | Why we will store it | Where it will live |
|---|---|---|
| Your name, email address and password hash | To create your account and sign you in | Our database on Amazon Web Services, United States |
| The photos you scan and the identification results for them | To identify the object and show your scan history | Our database on AWS; each photo is also sent to Anthropic to be read by an AI model |
| Your subscription status and a Stripe customer reference | To know whether your plan includes unlimited scans | Our database on AWS; card details stay with Stripe and never touch our servers |
| The plan you picked at sign-up, the campaign tag you arrived with, and when you completed your first scan | To understand how people find Patina and whether it delivers, and to carry the plan you chose through to checkout | Our database on AWS |
| Clicks on appraiser referral links | To know which referrals are useful | Our database on AWS; the link itself carries a tag naming Patina, never anything about you or your scan |
| A log of the account email we send you, with its subject and whether it was delivered | To see that account email reached you and to honour unsubscribe choices | Our database on AWS; the message is sent through Amazon SES |
Who else will handle a scan, and what for
Amazon Web Services
Hosts the application and the database, so everything in the table above sits on AWS in the United States. A photo you scan in Shropshire will be stored on the American side of the Atlantic.
Anthropic
Reads the scan photo with an AI model and returns maker, era, origin and a confidence level. Every photo you scan will pass through it, because that reading is the product.
Stripe
It has nothing to do with your photos, and the Free plan's three scans a month involve it not at all.
Amazon SES
Sends account email, such as sign-up verification. We log the subject and whether the message was delivered so we can see that account email reached you and honour unsubscribe choices.
Questions
What will happen to a photo the moment I scan it?
You will take the photo with your phone's camera in the browser, or pick one you already shot, and it will travel to our servers on Amazon Web Services in the United States. From there it goes to Anthropic, which reads it with an AI model and returns maker, era and origin along with a confidence level. The photo and that result will then be saved against your account so your scan history works. The result screen carries a persistent note that it is an AI estimate rather than an appraisal, and it will never show a dollar value.
How long will you keep my photos?
Photos and scan results will be kept while your account exists, because your history is made of them. The history screen shows your last 10 scans, which is a display limit rather than a deletion schedule, so please do not read it as older photos being quietly cleared out. When you ask us to delete your account, the account, its photos and its scan history will be removed within 30 days.
Who else will process my photos besides Patina?
Four services will sit behind the app. Amazon Web Services hosts the application and the database. Anthropic processes scan photos with an AI model to identify the object, so every photo you scan passes through it. Stripe handles subscription payments and stores card details, and it touches none of your photos, while Amazon SES sends account email such as sign-up verification. The only two reasons we will hold your photos are the ones in the table above: identifying the object, and showing you your history.
Where in the world will my data be held?
Everything we store will sit on Amazon Web Services in the United States, so if you are a British collector photographing a teapot base in a Yorkshire saleroom, the photo and its identification will be held on the American side. That is worth knowing before you sign up rather than after, which is why it is on this page and in the table above instead of buried in a policy document.
Will I need an account to scan something?
Yes. Scanning will sit behind an account, and you will sign in with an email address and a password. The account is what lets the free quota of three scans a calendar month be counted properly on the server, and what lets your scan history belong to you rather than to a browser. To run it we will store your name, your email address and a hash of your password.
How will I have my photos and my account deleted?
By email, and at the account level. You will write from your account email address to the contact address on our website and ask us to delete the account, and we will remove the account, its photos and its scan history within 30 days. Deletion covers the whole account and everything in it, so it is the right move when you want a clean slate rather than when you want one awkward photo gone. The terms and privacy policy on this site name the company that sells Patina and carry the same commitment in formal language.
What is the campaign tag you store, and is that tracking me?
It is a small record of how you arrived: the plan you picked at sign-up, the campaign tag that came with the link you followed, and the date you completed your first scan. We will keep it to understand how people find Patina and whether the thing actually delivers for them, and to carry the plan you chose through to checkout. It is not a browsing profile, it does not follow you around other websites, and it has nothing to do with the contents of your photos.
Will you send my photos to an appraiser, or use them to price things?
We will never put a dollar value on an object, because identification is our job and valuation belongs to a qualified appraiser. When confidence on a result falls below our threshold, the app raises a triage flag with a referral link to an appraisal service, and you decide whether to follow it. Those services are independent, we have no partnership with them, and the link carries a tag naming Patina rather than anything about you or your scan. We do record that a referral link was clicked, so we learn which referrals are useful. Our page on the triage flag explains when that handoff is worth taking, our guide to what an appraisal costs covers the money side, and our page on identifying inherited antiques walks through working from a box of unlabelled pieces.