GDPR Compliance

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a comprehensive data protection law that came into effect on May 25, 2018. It gives individuals in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) greater control over their personal data and requires organizations to be transparent about how they collect, use, and store personal information.

Our Commitment to GDPR

At MergeImages.net, we are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with GDPR requirements. Most of our tools (merge, collage, resize, filters and similar) process your images in your browser and never upload them. Some do upload the image to our servers: the AI tools (upscaler, background remover, object remover, photo colorizer, AI headshot and passport photo maker), the single-image compressor, and two optional buttons, Remove Background in the merge and profile picture tools and Share in the SVG viewer. Any image we store is deleted automatically within 7 days. We minimize the personal data we collect to only what is necessary.

Data We Collect

We collect minimal data necessary for our service to function. This includes:

Images: Most tools process them in your browser and never upload them. The AI tools, the single-image compressor and the optional Remove Background and Share buttons do upload the image, and any image we store is deleted automatically within 7 days
Analytics data: usage statistics from a third-party analytics service and from our own self-hosted analytics, which also records browsing sessions. The Privacy Policy lists each service
Contact information: Only if you voluntarily contact us

Your Rights Under GDPR

Under GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right to Access

You have the right to request a copy of any personal data we hold about you.

Right to Rectification

You can request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten)

You can request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances.

Right to Restrict Processing

You can request that we limit how we use your personal data.

Right to Data Portability

You can request your data in a commonly used, machine-readable format.

Right to Object

You can object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing.

Rights Related to Automated Decision Making

You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing.

Legal Basis for Processing

Under GDPR, we process personal data based on the following legal grounds:

Consent: When you explicitly agree, such as accepting cookies or subscribing to communications
Legitimate Interests: For analytics and improving our service, balanced against your rights
Contract Performance: When necessary to provide our service to you

Data Retention

Images processed by browser-based tools never reach our servers, so there is nothing to retain. The single-image compressor keeps no copy. Images sent to our AI tools are kept only as long as processing needs, and anything we store is deleted automatically within 7 days. A shared SVG and its record are both deleted after 7 days, and its link stops working. Analytics data is retained according to the analytics providers' standard retention periods. Contact form submissions are retained only as long as necessary to respond to your inquiry.

International Data Transfers

Our website may use services that transfer data outside the EEA (such as Google Analytics). Where this occurs, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.

Data Protection Officer

Given our minimal data processing activities, we have not appointed a formal Data Protection Officer. However, for any data protection inquiries, you can contact us through our Contact Page.

Exercising Your Rights

To exercise any of your GDPR rights, please contact us through our Contact Page. We will respond to your request within one month. If your request is complex or we receive numerous requests, we may extend this period by up to two additional months, but we will inform you of any extension.

Complaints

If you believe your data protection rights have been violated, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. You can contact your local data protection authority or the authority where the alleged infringement occurred.