Privacy policy
The short version: recovery runs entirely in your browser. We never see your username, your URLs, or your photos — there is nowhere on our side for them to go.
Recovery runs in your browser
This is a fully static site with no server, no database, no accounts, and no API on our side. When you paste a Photobucket URL, a username, or a forum-thread URL, your own browser talks directly to the Internet Archive’s public Wayback Machine. The values you type, the URLs you recover, the result counts, the capture digests — none of it is ever logged by us or transmitted to any server we control. Your recovered photos travel from the Archive to your browser to your disk and nowhere else.
The only thing stored is a short-lived cache of archive index responses in your browser’s own sessionStorage (to avoid re-querying the Archive), and — if you buy the optional Deep Recovery tier — your license key in your browser’s localStorage. Both live only on your device and we cannot read them.
Analytics
If analytics are enabled, we may use Google Analytics 4 to count page views and understand which pages help people. By design, no input-derived value — no username, URL, result count, or digest — ever enters an analytics event. GA4 uses cookies and may process an IP address; you can block it with any standard content blocker without affecting recovery.
Advertising
If advertising is enabled, this site may display ads served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising via Google’s Ads Settings. Ads never appear near the recovery tool or your results, and we never run ad units styled as download buttons.
Affiliate links
Some recovery guides include affiliate links to photo-printing, storage, and backup services in a clearly labeled “After you recover” block. If you buy through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We never link “photo recovery” software, watermark removers, or paid account-recovery services.
Payments
The optional one-time Deep Recovery purchase is handled entirely by a third-party merchant of record (Lemon Squeezy or Gumroad). They process your payment, handle any sales tax or VAT, and issue your license key; their privacy policy governs the checkout. We never see or store your card details. Your license key is validated and stored only in your own browser.
Questions
Privacy questions are welcome via the contact page.