Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026

1. Your images never leave your computer

The Photoshop panel, the Lightroom Classic plugin, and the local engine read your files from your disk, do the processing on your hardware, and write the results back to your disk. We never receive, see, store, or transmit your photographs. There is no cloud pipeline for image work, no reporting that includes image content, and no upload step anywhere in the stacking, finishing, or star-trails workflow.

The Lightroom integration is built the same way. When you send frames from your catalog, staging uses read-only hard links wherever possible: the engine can read your original RAW files but cannot modify them, and nothing is copied off your machine.

2. What little we do collect

Running a business means we handle a small amount of ordinary information, none of it your images:

• Purchase and license details. When you buy the Software, our payment and licensing providers process the information needed to complete the sale and issue your license (for example, your email address, and the payment token handled by the payment processor). We use these to deliver your purchase, validate your license, and provide support.
• Email for support. If you contact us, we keep your message and email address so we can help and follow up.
• Optional, anonymous error and usage reporting. The Software can send anonymous crash and usage reports to help us find and fix problems. This reporting is off by default: you are asked once, and a permanent toggle lives in the panel's Preferences. Reports never include your images, your file names, or your settings.
• Basic website analytics (placeholder). This marketing site may use privacy-respecting analytics to understand aggregate traffic: pages viewed, general region, referrer. This concerns the website only, not the Software, and is described here as a placeholder pending the final implementation.

3. How we use it

• To deliver your purchase and keep your license working.
• To answer support requests and fix problems you report.
• If you opt in to anonymous reporting, to find and fix crashes and understand which tools get used. You can turn it off at any time in Preferences.
• To send occasional, important product notices (for example, a compatibility update). We are not building a marketing spam machine.
• To understand, in aggregate, how the website performs so we can improve it.

4. What we do not do

• We do not sell your data. Ever.
• We do not upload, scan, or analyze your photographs.
• We do not use your images to train models. The AI models used for sky segmentation and star removal are bundled with the Software and run locally.
• We do not collect anything from the Software unless you opt in, and even then, never images, file names, or settings.
• We do not require an account to process images on your machine.

5. Third parties

We rely on a small number of service providers to run the business: for example, a payment processor to handle checkout, a licensing service to validate purchases, and email/analytics providers for the website. These providers process only the limited information described above, on our behalf, and are not given access to your images because your images never leave your computer.

6. Data retention

We keep purchase and support records for as long as needed to provide the product, honor your license, and meet legal or accounting obligations. You can ask us to access or delete the personal information we hold about you, subject to those obligations.

7. Children

NightScape Lab is a tool for photographers and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

8. Changes to this policy

As the product and website evolve, we may update this policy and will revise the "Last updated" date above. The local-processing promise (your images stay on your machine) is fundamental to the product and is not going to change.

9. Contact

Questions about privacy? Reach out through the contact page on this site. NightScape Lab is built by Eric Brown, photographer.