Terms of Use, Privacy & Refund Policy
Free beta. While Stella ID Photo is in beta, it is free: no payment is taken and no payment details are collected. The site may show the price we plan to charge later. Sections about payments and refunds apply only once paid ordering opens; we will ask you to accept updated terms before you pay for anything. During the beta, features may change, have errors or be unavailable.
1. Agreement and eligibility
By checking the agreement boxes and choosing “Agree & get my photos” (or “Agree & pay” once paid ordering opens), you agree to these terms. You must be at least 18 or the age of majority where you live, and have permission to use each portrait you add. A parent or legal guardian must act for a child. Do not use the service if you disagree. When these terms change, we ask you to accept the new version before your next order. Changes never reduce rights you have from an earlier order.
2. An independent tool, not government approval
Stella ID Photo is an independent photo-preparation service. It is not a government agency, consulate, passport office, immigration adviser or authorized application center, and no government endorses it. We crop and format photos, offer background cleanup where it is allowed, and run automated checks. We do not submit applications, verify identity, authenticate documents or certify that a photo complies.
Government acceptance is never guaranteed. Automated checks can miss problems with blur, lighting, expression, pose, head size, background, recency and more. Background editing can remove valid details or lead to rejection. Check each photo yourself against the current rules of the office or website that will receive it. Published rules can conflict or change; follow the government’s instructions over our defaults. U.S. passport photos made here are for printed applications, not online renewal. You are responsible for submitting your photo and for printing it at the correct size.
Your responsibilities. You control the photo you add, and the things our tool can’t fix: expression, pose, lighting, focus, clothing, eyewear, head coverings, image resolution and how recently the photo was taken. Before submitting a photo, check that it is a current, unedited likeness of the person and meets the rules for the document. Use the photos only for that person’s own identification and travel documents.
3. Price and delivery
During the beta there is no charge. Once your order is placed, you save each person’s digital photo and 4 × 6 print sheet from the order page, on the device you made them on. Nothing is emailed, and we have no copy to send you, so save your photos before you leave the order page. They stay in this site’s browser storage only until 30 minutes after your last change.
Once paid ordering opens, the price per person is shown on the site and at checkout before you pay, in US dollars, with any sales tax. Prices may change for future orders; your order’s price doesn’t change. You save your photos from the order page once Stripe confirms payment. An email address is optional: if you give one, we email a receipt with your Order ID, printing instructions and refund link. The order page also lets you copy, share or save these details.
What the site needs. Your photos are processed on your own device, so the site needs a current version of a mainstream browser with JavaScript and WebAssembly turned on, and enough memory to analyze a photo. It may not work, or may be slow, on older phones and computers or with some browser extensions. We do not promise that the site is always available, and browser storage can fail.
4. Refunds
Free beta orders are not charged, so there is nothing to refund. For paid orders, you may get a refund for some or all of the people in an order, at the price you paid per photo, within 30 days after you place the order. You don’t need to give a reason or show a rejection letter. After 30 days we can’t refund an order, except where the law requires it. The quickest way is your refund link, from your receipt email or the order details you saved; anyone with that link can request a refund for the order, so keep it private. You can also choose “Refunds” at the bottom of any page, enter your Order ID and email address (the one on your receipt, or the one you entered at Stripe checkout), and then the code we email you. You can refund the rest of an order later within the 30 days. Refunds go back only to the original payment method and never exceed the amount paid. Refunding does not delete files you saved.
Stripe may report a refund as pending or failed, and processing time depends on Stripe and your bank. To prevent fraud, the person asking must show they control the order (with the refund link, or the Order ID and the emailed code) or otherwise prove they made the payment. If the emailed code doesn’t reach you, contact us with your Stripe receipt, the date and the amount, but never a card number or a photo. We do not refund application fees, travel costs or payments to other organizations. Rights you have under law remain available.
5. Permitted use
Use the service only for lawful portraits you have permission to use. Do not impersonate anyone, forge identity documents, interfere with the service, try to access other people’s orders or get around payment. Do not scrape, copy, reverse-engineer or automate access to the site, or use it or its photos to build or train a competing service. You keep all rights in your photos. Because your photos are processed only on your device and never sent to us or our providers, we do not receive, store, own or use them for anything, including training models.
The Stella ID Photo website, software, design, text and name belong to the operator or its licensors. These terms give you a personal, non-transferable permission to use the site for your own photos.
6. Warranty disclaimer
To the fullest extent the law allows, the service and its photos are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, uninterrupted availability or government acceptance. No automated result, sample, source link or support message is a certification or guarantee. This does not remove warranties or rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.
7. Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE OPERATOR’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS WEBSITE, ITS SERVICES OR PHOTOS IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID STELLA ID PHOTO FOR THE ORDER CONCERNED AND (B) US$50.
To the same extent, the operator is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary or punitive damages, lost profits, lost data, missed appointments, application rejection, delays, visa or passport fees, travel expenses or lost opportunities, even if advised of their possibility. Nothing limits liability for fraud, intentional misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury, or any other liability or consumer right that cannot lawfully be limited. The limit does not reduce a refund you are owed. If any limit is unenforceable, it applies to the maximum lawful extent.
We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as outages at our hosting, email or payment providers, internet or power failures, attacks by third parties, or problems with your own device, browser or network. This does not affect a refund you are owed.
8. Your photos stay on your device
Your original photos, the face-position analysis, the photo checks and the finished photos and print sheets are all made in your browser, on your device. No photo, part of a photo or measurement of your face is sent to our server, our email provider or Stripe, before or after an order. To place an order, our server receives only the number of people, each person’s document type, the terms version you accepted, your email address if you give one, and, in the beta, your optional answer to the price question. Feedback you send from the order page is saved with your order.
To survive a refresh, this site keeps a temporary draft of your photos and edits in your browser’s storage (IndexedDB). It is not separately encrypted, so anyone with access to your unlocked browser may be able to see it; avoid shared devices and untrusted browser extensions. “Remove” deletes one photo from the draft, and “Delete all photos from this device” (or “Delete the photos from this device” on the order page) deletes the draft. Drafts also expire 30 minutes after your last change: while the page is open, it removes them itself; if the browser was closed or asleep, they are removed on your next visit. Browser settings may clear storage sooner. We cannot erase files you saved, backups, screenshots or every trace in device storage. Files you save are yours to keep and delete.
9. Other information we keep
Orders. We keep Order IDs, email addresses you give, beta answers, feedback, and payment and refund records for support, accounting, fraud prevention and legal obligations. Please don’t include personal or sensitive details in feedback or refund reasons. You can ask us to delete your feedback or email address using the contact details below.
Payments (once paid ordering opens). Stripe receives payment details directly; we never see your card. Our server sends Stripe your email address if you gave one (otherwise Stripe’s checkout asks for it), the quantity, price and accepted terms version. For an order placed without an email, we look up the email you entered at Stripe checkout only to send a refund code you request, and don’t store it. An optional refund reason is saved with the refund in Stripe. Your browser keeps order references for this tab (sessionStorage) so saving and refunds keep working after a refresh; they are not photos.
Website use. Our hosting provider receives ordinary network information, such as IP addresses and the pages requested, and may keep access logs. We add no advertising trackers or third-party analytics. To understand how the site is used, our own server keeps anonymous daily totals of steps such as page visits, photos added, photos that pass or fail the checks (with the document chosen and the first reason a photo failed), checkout clicks and how photos are saved. A visit is counted with only its device type (phone, tablet or computer) and a broad source (such as search, social media or direct), never the address of the page you came from. These totals contain no photos, cookies, identifiers or IP addresses, and can’t be linked to you. We don’t sell or share personal information, and don’t use it for advertising. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children; a child’s photo is added by a parent or guardian and stays on their device.
10. Contact, governing law and your rights
Contact us about problems, complaints, refunds or privacy questions. Please include your Order ID if you have one, and never send a card number. We aim to reply within 5 business days. These terms impose no mandatory arbitration, class-action waiver or exclusive forum. They are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules; this doesn’t take away protections you have under the mandatory laws of the place where you live. If a provision is invalid, the rest still applies.
California residents: the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs can be reached in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by phone at (800) 952-5210.
11. Suspending or ending access
We may suspend, limit or end access to the service, or decline or cancel an order, if we reasonably believe it is being used for fraud, abuse, unlawful content or in breach of these terms, or if we need to stop offering the service. We may report unlawful content to the authorities where the law requires it. We may end the free beta at any time. Ending access doesn’t affect a refund you are owed or any right the law gives you. Sections 2 and 4 through 10 continue to apply after access ends.