Privacy Policy

1. The Zero-Retention Promise

Welcome to Epiqora ("we," "our," or "us"). We understand that providing a facial photograph for advanced skincare analysis requires immense trust. This Privacy Policy is designed to explain our transparent, privacy-first engineering architecture.

The core philosophy of Epiqora is "Stateless Analysis." When you interact with our platform, your biometric data (your facial image) exists only for the exact duration required to map your skin topography. Once your personalized report is generated, the image buffer is purged from our systems entirely.

2. Data We Strictly Do Not Collect

To completely eliminate the risk of personal data breaches, Epiqora's backend infrastructure is explicitly engineered to ignore Personally Identifiable Information (PII). We do not collect, ask for, or store:

• Names, Emails, or Phone Numbers: The platform operates without mandatory user accounts or logins.
• Biometric Imagery: Photos are not saved in any database or cloud storage bucket.
• IP Addresses: We do not log or track the IP address from which you access the service.
• Precise Geolocation: We do not track your physical location.

3. Pseudonymous Telemetry (Data We Collect)

To improve the core analysis logic of our AI and ensure the platform is functioning correctly, we utilize a secure MongoDB database to collect purely pseudonymous telemetry. This data cannot be traced back to any individual user.

When you begin an analysis, your browser generates a random string of characters (a UUID, e.g., "550e8400-e29b-41d4..."). Associated with this pseudonymous UUID, we collect the following operational metrics:

• Engagement Metrics: Which step of the process you reached (e.g., Upload, Analysis, Report) to help us improve the User Experience (UX).
• AI Skin Insights: The raw, non-identifiable findings of the AI (e.g., "Primary Skin Type: Oily", "Confidence Score: 88%"). This helps us audit the accuracy of our AI model across different demographics.
• Consultation Inputs: The dynamic question-and-answer pairs provided during the consultation step (e.g., "What cleanser do you use?").
• Generated Regimen Text: The final text output (the skincare routine) provided by the AI, which allows us to audit for safe, accurate product recommendations.

4. Third-Party AI Processing

Epiqora is a sophisticated interface and logic pipeline that utilizes external, industry-leading artificial intelligence to process complex topographical data.

We utilize the Google Gemini API as our primary neural network engine. When you submit a photo, the image is securely transmitted via encrypted API protocols to Google's servers strictly for the purpose of analysis. Google is bound by stringent enterprise data processing agreements not to use this transient API data to train public models.

5. Session Storage

Epiqora does not use intrusive tracking cookies or marketing pixels. We rely on your browser's sessionStorage purely as a functional mechanism.

This localized storage is used to temporarily hold your progress as you move between the 5 steps of the platform (from upload to final report). If you close your browser or clear your cache, this session data is wiped from your device.

6. Portfolio & Developer Context

Transparency Note: Epiqora was engineered and designed as a high-fidelity software engineering portfolio product. It was developed to demonstrate advanced capabilities in full-stack architecture, API integration, and user privacy protection.

While the logic, UI/UX, and AI integrations function flawlessly, this platform is maintained as an educational and demonstration environment. No data collected here is monetized or used for commercial business logic.

7. Contact Information

If you have any questions, concerns, or technical inquiries regarding this Privacy Policy or our stateless data architecture, please feel free to reach out to the developer.