Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what Pickle Mechanic ("we", "us") collects when you use Pickle Mechanic (the "Service"), why we collect it, who we share it with, and what control you have over it. It works alongside our Terms of Service.

1. Information we collect

Account information

You sign in with Google. Google gives us your name, email address, profile picture, and a Google account identifier. We store a copy of your profile picture so it keeps displaying after Google's link to it expires. We do not receive your Google password.

Content you upload

The videos you upload, plus anything derived from them: processed and trimmed video, thumbnails, body-position (skeleton) data extracted from the footage, and the analysis results, statistics, and coaching notes generated from it. Video of a person is inherently sensitive, because it can show their face, their body, and where they were. This applies to anyone else who appears in your footage, which is why our Terms require you to have their consent before uploading.

For "Mechanics" videos, skeleton extraction happens in your browser against your local file, before upload. The video itself is uploaded only when you choose to upload it.

Your messages

What you send to Picklebot, and anything you write to a coach through the Service, along with the responses. Don't put information in these that you would not want stored.

Usage and technical information

Records of your activity (uploads, analyses run, credits spent and earned, and the credit ledger), plus standard technical data our servers and infrastructure log, such as IP address, browser and device type, timestamps, and error diagnostics.

Payment information

If you buy credits, the payment is handled by a third-party payment processor. We do not collect or store your full card number. We keep a record of the transaction, such as the amount and the credits granted.

2. How we use it

• To provide the Service: authenticate you, store your library, process and analyze your video, run Picklebot, and route coach reviews.
• To meter and account for credits, process purchases, and calculate coach earnings.
• To notify you about your uploads, analyses, and coach reviews.
• To secure the Service by detecting and investigating abuse, fraud, multiple-account and credit manipulation, and technical attacks.
• To debug, monitor, and improve the Service, including improving the accuracy of our analysis.
• To respond to your support requests.
• To comply with law and enforce our Terms.

Our legal bases, where the GDPR applies, are: performance of a contract (providing the Service), legitimate interests (security, abuse prevention, improving the Service), consent (where we ask for it, which you may withdraw), and legal obligation.

3. AI processing

Your video and messages are sent to Google Vertex AI (Gemini models) to produce analysis and chat responses. Google processes this data as our service provider, under Google Cloud's terms, in order to return a result to us.

We do not use your video, messages, or analysis results to train publicly available AI models, and we do not permit our AI provider to use them to train its general-purpose models. Analysis is automated, and it is often wrong in small ways, and our Terms explain what it is and is not good for. Automated analysis does not produce legal or similarly significant effects for you, and we do not use it for automated decision-making about you in that sense.

4. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

• Coaches. When you request a review, the coach you request sees the video and analysis relevant to that request, and your name. Coaches also see aggregate activity for students linked to them, to the extent the Service shows it. Coaches are independent third parties and are required to keep your footage confidential and use it only for the review.
• Service providers. Google Cloud (hosting, storage, database, and Vertex AI), our payment processor, and similar vendors that process data on our behalf under contract and only on our instructions.
• Legal and safety. Where required by law, subpoena, or legal process, or where we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to investigate abuse, prevent fraud, protect our rights, or protect someone's safety.
• Business transfer. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may transfer as part of it. We will tell you before it becomes subject to a different policy.
• With your direction. Anyone you deliberately share your content with.

5. How long we keep it

• Videos and derived files: deleted automatically about 90 days after upload.
• Analysis results and chat history: retained for as long as your account is open, and may outlive the underlying video.
• Account and credit records: retained while your account is open. We keep transaction records for as long as tax, accounting, and fraud-prevention obligations require, even after you close your account.
• Technical logs: retained for a short period for security and debugging.

Deleted data may persist briefly in routine backups before those expire.

6. Your choices and rights

You can delete individual videos from your library at any time, and you can close your account at any time.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a portable copy, to restrict or object to certain processing, and to withdraw consent. California residents have rights to know, delete, correct, and to opt out of sale or sharing (we do neither), and we will not discriminate against you for exercising them.

To exercise any of these, email legal@picklemechanic.com from the address on your account. We will respond within the time the applicable law allows. If you are in the EEA or UK, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

Deleting your account does not automatically remove copies a coach may have legitimately retained, or records we are required to keep.

7. Video of other people

If you appear in footage that someone else uploaded and you want it removed, email legal@picklemechanic.com with enough detail to identify it. We will review the request and, where appropriate, remove the footage. We may need to contact the person who uploaded it.

8. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit, access-controlled cloud storage, signed time-limited URLs for video access, and authentication tokens that can be revoked. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant regulators as the law requires.

9. Cookies and local storage

We use cookies and browser storage for things that make the Service work: keeping you signed in, remembering preferences such as your view mode, and Google's sign-in flow. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Blocking storage will break sign-in.

10. International transfers

We operate in the United States and our infrastructure runs on Google Cloud, so your information is processed in the United States and potentially in other countries where our providers operate. Those countries may have different data protection laws than yours. Where we transfer personal information out of the EEA or UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

11. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, email legal@picklemechanic.com and we will delete it. Uploading video of a minor requires a parent or guardian's consent. See our Terms.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We will post the updated version with a new effective date and, if the change is material, notify you in the Service or by email. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date means you accept the updated policy.

13. Contact

Privacy questions, requests, or complaints: legal@picklemechanic.com. We are the data controller for the information described in this policy.