This policy describes how Vaela collects, uses, stores, and deletes information when you use our color and style guidance product. Vaela is operated by Vaela Technologies Inc., a Florida corporation.
What the current App Store version collects: an anonymous profile identifier we create for you, your selfie for color analysis (uploaded to our servers for processing and deleted immediately after analysis, with only derived color values saved), your saved color profile, style recommendations, and optional AI explanations. Vaela asks you before it sends anything about you to an AI service, and if you say no it does not send it, as described under AI features and your consent below. To keep your colors, closet and outfits with you, Vaela asks you to sign in with Apple or Google after you see your first color result. We store the account identifier and email address that provider gives us. We also ask for your name and an email address we can reach you at, and you can add a phone number if you want to. The closet feature, when you choose to use it, also stores the clothing photos you upload, as described under Image retention below. The Market tab shows real products with affiliate links, as described under Affiliate links below. If you allow it, we use an approximate location to add local weather to today's guidance, as described under Location below. The inspiration image feature described below is not active in the current build. It applies only if and when it is enabled in a future version of the app.
Information we collect
- Profile and session data: the first time you open Vaela we create a random profile identifier for you and a session token. The identifier is not built from your name, your email address, or anything about your device, and we do not use it outside Vaela. Everything you save is stored against it. When you sign in with Apple or Google, we also store the account identifier and the email address that provider sends us, so we can reconnect you to the same profile later.
- Contact details: your name and a contact email, which we ask for once, right after you sign in. We fill them in from your Apple or Google account so you only have to check them, and you can change either one. If you signed in with Apple's "Hide My Email", you can keep that private relay address or give us a different one. A phone number is optional; leave it blank and nothing changes.
- Selfie and color analysis data: images you upload for undertone and palette analysis, plus derived color profile values such as undertone, season, and LAB color measurements.
- Quiz preferences: style, fit, color, occasion, and related preference answers you choose to save.
- Closet items: when you use the closet feature, the clothing photos you choose to upload are stored durably on Vaela's cloud storage so that your wardrobe is available to you across sessions and devices. Before a photo is stored, we decode and re-encode it, which removes embedded metadata such as EXIF and GPS location. We also derive metadata such as category, slot, and color values for wardrobe matching. Your photos are stored under storage keys scoped to your profile, are not shared with other users, and remain until you delete the item or your account.
- Approximate location, only if you allow it: when you use the weather part of today's guidance we ask your device where you are. Your device rounds it to about a kilometre before it is sent, and we do not store it. See Location below.
- Inspiration images (future feature): when copy-the-look is enabled, reference photos are processed for color and style direction and only derived style metadata is sent to Vaela. We do not identify people, brands, or specific products.
- Usage analytics: product events such as feature usage, errors, and performance metrics, stored with your profile identifier.
- Market searches: when you search the Market tab, the words you type (up to 120 characters) are stored with your profile identifier as a usage event, along with how many results came back.
- Product taps in the Market: when you tap a product, we store that tap and the product's identifier with your profile identifier as a usage event. Separately, we log that an affiliate link was shown or tapped, with disclosure metadata. In the current app that second record does not carry your profile identifier; in our older web app it does.
- Optional profile answers: eye color and face shape, the words you pick. We never measure your face or eyes for either.
- Your choices about AI and shopping picks: whether you allowed AI features, when you answered, and whether you turned on shopping pick notifications.
How we use information
We use your information to generate color and style guidance, personalize recommendations, improve product quality, prevent abuse, and operate optional features such as saved profiles, closet matching, and affiliate category links.
Asking you for feedback. Your contact details are stored with your profile so you can see and change them in your profile. We only use them to contact you to ask for feedback about Vaela if you tick the box that says "OK for Vaela to text or email me to ask for feedback." The box is unticked unless you tick it. If you do not tick it, we will not text or email you to ask for feedback. We do not use your contact details for advertising, we do not sell them, and we do not share them with the AI services or other providers described below. They are not included in our product analytics.
Vaela does not use your selfie to identify you as a person, perform facial recognition for identity matching, or sell face scans.
Face data and selfies
Before you upload a selfie, Vaela shows consent copy explaining that your photo is used for color analysis only. We process lighting and skin-tone color values to build your color profile. We do not store your raw selfie file after analysis completes. We may store derived color profile data (such as undertone, season, and LAB measurements) until you delete your profile or account.
Location
Today's outfit guidance can include local weather. To get it, Vaela asks your device where you are the first time you use that part of the app. Your phone shows you the standard permission prompt and you can say no.
If you allow it, your device rounds the coordinates to two decimal places, which is roughly a kilometre, before anything leaves your phone. We never receive your exact position. We send those rounded coordinates to Open-Meteo, a weather service, to look up current conditions. We do not send your profile identifier, your email address, or anything else about you with that lookup.
We do not store your location. There is no location field in our database and we keep no location history. The rounded coordinates do appear in our server request logs next to your profile identifier, the same way the rest of a request does. Your own device remembers the last rounded coordinates so it does not have to ask again.
If you decline, everything else keeps working and you simply see guidance without weather. Vaela will not ask you again on that device.
Image retention
- Selfie uploads: uploaded to our server for color analysis and deleted immediately after analysis completes. Only derived color values are saved, never the image itself.
- Color profile: stored until you delete your profile or account.
- Contact details: kept until you change them or delete your account. Deleting your account deletes them.
- Closet items: clothing photos you upload are stored durably by Vaela on cloud storage, with EXIF and location metadata removed, until you delete the item or your account. Deleting a closet item deletes its photo. Deleting your account deletes every closet photo you have uploaded, and that purge runs whether or not you ask for images to be removed separately.
- Inspiration images: when enabled, processed for derived style metadata. Original photos are not retained on our servers.
- Share cards: generated on your device when possible and not stored on our servers unless a future feature explicitly says otherwise.
- One-off photos for instant checks: some features take a picture and answer straight away. Scanning an item in a shop works this way in the current app, and previewing a makeup shade works this way in our older web app. The picture is measured for colour in memory and then dropped. It is never saved to your wardrobe, never written to our storage, and nothing taken from it is sent anywhere outside Vaela.
- The mirror outfit check works differently and you should know how. The photo itself never leaves our servers: it is measured and dropped like the ones above. But the result of that measurement does leave. We send the colours we measured (a hex value and a colour family for each garment we found, plus any accent colour), the occasion you picked, and the harmony scores we calculated to Anthropic, so it can write the styling tip you see, but only if you have allowed AI features. If you have not, you get your score and advice without the written tip, and a note that you can turn AI features on in your profile. No picture, no identifier, and nothing else about you goes with it. This check is available in the current app.
Analytics and cookies
We collect product analytics to understand feature usage and reliability. Analytics are used for aggregate and product improvement purposes. We do not use analytics to make automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.
In the iOS app, analytics events go only to Vaela's own servers. The app does not load any third-party analytics script. On the vaela.ai website we also send the same events to Plausible, a third-party analytics service, including the words of a Market search and the product you tapped, but not your profile identifier. Vaela does not use an advertising identifier, does not share your data with data brokers, and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
Affiliate links
Vaela's Market tab shows real products from affiliate partners, with a visible disclosure on the surface. When you tap through to a merchant, that merchant and the affiliate network receive the standard referral information any web link carries. In the current app we do not add a Vaela identifier to the outbound link. In our older web app, a link to some merchants carries a random click code, so a commission can be matched to the tap we recorded, and that record is stored with your profile identifier. On our own side, in both, the tap and the product you tapped are stored with your profile identifier, as described under Information we collect. Commerce does not change deterministic style ranking.
How we share information
We use service providers to run Vaela: Fly.io for hosting, Cloudflare R2 for storing your wardrobe photos, Anthropic for the AI features described below, Open-Meteo for weather lookups, and Plausible for website analytics. We do not sell personal information. We may disclose information if required by law or to protect users and the service.
AI features and your consent
Some Vaela features use Anthropic, the company behind the AI model Claude, to write text or check outfits. Anthropic receives this data to provide the feature for Vaela. Vaela asks you first. The current app shows a short explanation that names each of these features, what it sends to Anthropic and why, and asks whether you allow it. It appears on your Today screen until you answer or close it. After that it appears only when you choose a feature that uses AI, such as asking for written styling notes or typing a question to Vaela. It is never shown again on a timer. If you choose No thanks, Vaela does not show it again on its own; it is offered again only the next time you choose one of those features. If you close it without answering, Vaela does not show it again on its own on that device, and the same rule applies. If you turn AI features off in your profile, Vaela will not ask again, and only you can turn them back on, in your profile. You can turn AI features on or off at any time in your profile in the current app. Our older web app and older versions of the iOS app do not ask. If you have said yes in the current app, that answer applies there too; otherwise AI features stay off there. Until you say yes, nothing about you is sent to Anthropic by any of these features, and Vaela uses its own built-in guidance instead. Saying no does not stop the app from working.
We store your answer with your profile, along with when you gave it and which version of the explanation you were shown. Each version of the explanation covers the features it describes, and a yes covers only those. If we add a feature that sends something new, a yes you gave earlier keeps working for the features it already covered, and Vaela asks you about the new feature the first time you choose it, before anything is sent for it. It does not interrupt other parts of the app to ask. You can change your answer at any time under AI features in your profile in the current app. Turning it off stops new requests from then on. Your answer is included when you export your data and is deleted when you delete your account.
What each feature sends, when you have allowed AI features and the feature is switched on:
- Written styling notes ("Why these colors work"): the names and details (kind, color, pattern, formality) of the pieces on your board, the outfit's colors, your occasion and how formal it is, the quiz answers that shaped the outfit (the colors you avoid and how adventurous you are with color), and the weather (a rounded temperature and the conditions). Text only, no photo. This is so Claude can explain why the outfit works.
- The mirror outfit check tip: the colors we measured, the occasion you picked, and the harmony scores, as described under Image retention above. No photo. This is so Claude can write the one tip you see.
- Outfit checks on your wardrobe (not running at the moment): details about your wardrobe garments, and, when photo checks are switched on, the photos you uploaded of them (if a photo shows you wearing a piece, you are in it), described in detail below.
- Decision reviews (not switched on in the app yet): the question you type, the occasion you pick or type, any notes you type about your limits (such as "no heels"), the names and colors of the garments you are deciding between, their kinds and styles, the fit and material you entered for them, and the harmony scores we calculated. If you type personal information into the question or the notes, that text is part of what we send.
- Asking Vaela one question in "Help me decide" (not switched on in the app yet): the question you type, the name, kind, slot (top, bottom, shoe and so on), color family and saved fit of the piece you are deciding about, your saved note on it, what you told Vaela about it in that flow (how it feels, how it sits, the size, and the look you want), the answer Vaela already gave you, and the names, kinds, saved fits and color families of your other saved pieces Vaela may suggest. Text only, no photo. Vaela does not store the question or the answer. If you type personal information into the question, that text is part of what we send.
Anything you type, such as a question, a note or a name you give a piece, is sent as you typed it. We never send your selfie, your email address, your phone number, your location, or your profile identifier to Anthropic for any of these features, and we never add your name.
AI review of your outfits, and what leaves Vaela. This feature is not running at the moment: it is switched off for everyone. If we switch it back on, it will run only for people who have allowed AI features. For them, Vaela will sometimes send the details of the garments in an outfit built from your wardrobe to Anthropic, which checks whether the pieces actually work together, and, when photo checks are switched on, photos of those garments too. A photo you took can therefore leave Vaela's servers. Here is exactly what that involves.
- Only wardrobe garment photos are sent. These are the photos you uploaded of your pieces, so if a photo shows you wearing a piece, you are in it. Your selfie is never sent to Anthropic or to any other AI company.
- The photo is shrunk first. Each garment picture is reduced to at most 512 pixels on its longest side and re-saved as a JPEG before it is sent. That re-save also drops any remaining EXIF or location metadata.
- What travels with the photos. For each garment: an internal item id, the label you typed for it, and the details we hold about that piece (subtype, colour family and hex value, formality score, pattern, season tags, and any notes). About you: your gender presentation, your colour season, and your undertone. Plus the occasion you picked. Each picture is also captioned with its slot, its item id, and the label you typed. If you type personal information into a garment label, that text is part of what we send, so it is worth keeping labels about the clothes.
- What we never send. Your email address, your profile identifier, your session token, your location, or your selfie. The item id is the filename of a single photo inside your private folder, but the folder name, which is the part tied to you, is never sent. Nothing we add to the request identifies you.
- It does not happen every time. When it is switched on, it runs at most three times a day per person, in the background after you already have your result, and only for outfits built from two or more real wardrobe items.
- We keep the outcome, not the conversation. What we store is which items the review suggested and a quality score, tied to your profile. Deleting your account deletes those records.
Account and data deletion
You can delete your Vaela profile and associated data at any time.
Option 1: In the Vaela app
- Open Vaela, signed in with the Apple or Google account you use for Vaela. If you have not signed in yet, the sign-in screen has a "Delete my data instead" link.
- Go to account or settings and choose delete account.
- Confirm deletion when prompted.
- We revoke your session, clear saved color profile data, and anonymize profile-linked analytics.
Option 2: Email request
Email privacy@vaela.ai from the address you used with Vaela (if any). Include the word "delete" and we will delete or anonymize your profile-linked data within a reasonable time.
What deletion removes
- Active sessions and saved color profile data linked to your profile.
- Profile-linked analytics where applicable.
- Closet or inspiration images if those features are enabled in your version.
- Your name, contact email, phone number, and your answer to the feedback question.
- The record of when we asked about notifications.
- Your answer about AI features and when you gave it, and your shopping picks setting.
What deletion does not require
Raw selfie files are not stored after analysis, so there is no separate selfie file to delete from our servers.
Export your data
You can request a copy of the data Vaela holds about your profile at any time.
- By email: email privacy@vaela.ai with the word "export" and we will provide your data within a reasonable time.
Your export includes your name, contact email, phone number if you gave one, whether and when you agreed to feedback messages, your answer about AI features and when you gave it, and your shopping picks setting.
The export covers the same records that account deletion removes, so what you can take with you always matches what we hold. Security credentials such as session token hashes are excluded; they protect your account and have no reuse value to you.
Your choices
You can stop uploading images at any time. Some guidance features require the uploads needed to provide that feature.
Changing your mind about feedback messages. You can untick "OK for Vaela to text or email me to ask for feedback" at any time in your profile, and we stop from then on. We record when you ticked the box, and clear that record when you untick it. You can also reply to any feedback message and ask us to stop, or email privacy@vaela.ai.
Daily outfit notifications. In the iOS app, Vaela asks once whether you want one notification a day with that day's outfit. Your iPhone shows its own permission prompt and you can say no; the app works the same either way. If you had already turned notifications off, we show a short note once, with a button to your iPhone's Settings. We remember that we asked, and when, so we do not ask again. The notification is created on your phone; its text comes from Vaela while the app is open.
Shopping picks. Separately from the daily outfit, you can choose to get a notification with one product from the Market that suits your colors, at most once a week. It is off unless you turn it on under Shopping picks in your profile, and you can turn it off there at any time. These picks use affiliate links, so Vaela may earn a commission if you buy.
AI features. You can allow or stop AI features at any time under AI features in your profile in the current app, as described under AI features and your consent above.
Children
Vaela is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
Security
We use technical and organizational measures appropriate to the data we process, including transport encryption, access controls, upload validation, and deletion workflows. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure.
International users
If you use Vaela outside the United States, your information may be processed in the United States or other countries where our providers operate.
Changes
We may update this policy as features evolve. Material changes will be posted here with an updated effective date.
Contact
Privacy questions: privacy@vaela.ai.