1. The short version
- Your live video streams directly from your browser to a private cloud GPU over an encrypted connection - it never passes through our application servers.
- Video is transformed in memory and in real time, and is not saved unless you press Record. When your session ends, the GPU studio that served it is shut down.
- For safety, we may automatically check occasional still frames of the transformed output; a frame is kept — briefly and securely — only if it is flagged (see section 4).
- Facial data is processed only to render your character, never to identify you, and is never sold. Details in the Biometric Privacy Notice.
2. What we collect
| Data | Where it lives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account (name, email, sign-in identity) | Clerk (our authentication provider) | Sign-in, account management, billing status |
| Billing | Clerk Billing / Stripe | Subscriptions. We never see your full card details. |
| Session metadata (start/end times, duration, queue state) | Our database | Running sessions, metering your daily plan time |
| Live video (your webcam feed and the transformed output) | A per-session cloud GPU, in memory only | The transformation itself - not stored |
| Moderation-flagged frames (if any) | Restricted secure storage | Human review and enforcement - see section 4 |
| Product analytics - pages and features used, session starts and outcomes, linked to your account ID, email and name | PostHog (United States) | Understanding how the product is actually used so we can improve it - no ad tracking, no cross-site profiles, never sold |
| Aggregate site traffic | Plausible (self-hosted, cookieless) | Page-view counts for the public site - no cookies, no cross-site profiles, and never tied to your account |
3. How live video is processed
When you go live, we provision a private GPU instance for your session with a cloud GPU provider. Your camera feed streams to it directly over an encrypted connection (WebRTC), each frame is transformed in memory, and the result streams back to you. Frames are not written to disk and nothing from your video is used to train AI models without your explicit opt-in consent.
3a. Recording (opt-in)
Recording is off by default and only ever starts when you press Record in Backstage. While a take is running, your microphone audio is sent to the GPU instance as well as your camera, so the sound can be lined up with the transformed video - it is used for the recording only, and it is not streamed back to you or to anyone else. Muting your microphone stops it at the source, so a muted take records silence.
Finished recordings are stored encrypted in our object storage and are visible only to you, in your Recordings tab. You can download or delete them at any time, and deleting one removes the stored file. During the beta, recordings are automatically deleted after 30 days. Ending a session mid-take still saves what was captured up to that point.
4. Safety moderation
To keep the service safe (and to enforce our Acceptable Use Policy), we are rolling out automated safety checks during the beta: occasional still frames from the transformed output of live sessions will be sampled and analysed automatically for prohibited content (for example nudity, sexual content, or content involving minors), using Sightengine, a specialist moderation provider. Frames are analysed and immediately discarded unless flagged.
- Flagged frames are retained in access-restricted storage for up to 90 days (or until an enforcement action concludes) solely for human review and enforcement, then permanently deleted. We do not extract facial geometry from retained frames.
- Suspected child sexual abuse material is reported to NCMEC or the equivalent authority, with preservation handled as the law requires.
5. Who processes data for us
Clerk (authentication and billing), Stripe (payments), our cloud GPU compute providers (per-session video processing; currently RunPod-class datacenter providers, which may be located in the United States), PostHog (product analytics, hosted in the United States), and our self-hosted Plausible site analytics. As the safety checks in section 4 roll out, Sightengine (automated content moderation) will join this list. Providers act on our instructions to run the service; as we open access in the EU/UK, transfers outside your region will be covered by appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses.
6. Cookies
We use an essential cookie for Clerk’s authentication session, and PostHog sets a first-party cookie so we can tell one visit from the next and connect product usage to your account. If you arrive through a creator’s link (such as virtualcam.ai/hx), a first-party cookie remembers which creator sent you for up to 90 days, so their discount applies at checkout and they can be credited for the referral. Our site-traffic analytics (Plausible) is cookieless. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and we do not share analytics data with ad networks.
7. Retention
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Live video frames | Not stored - processed transiently in memory |
| Moderation-flagged frames | Up to 90 days (or until enforcement concludes), then deleted |
| Account and session metadata | While your account is active. When you delete your account, tell us at [email protected] and we purge the associated records within 30 days; an automatic purge on account deletion is being added. |
| Product analytics events | Kept while your account is active, and deleted from PostHog when we action your deletion request (see section 8); an automatic purge is being added alongside the one above. Events from before you signed up are not linked to an account and are kept in aggregate. |
| Billing records | As required by tax and accounting law |
8. Your rights and legal bases
For users in the EU/UK, our legal bases are: your consent for facial processing — given today by choosing to start a live session, with a dedicated recorded consent step rolling out during the beta (see the Biometric Privacy Notice) — performance of our contract with you for account, billing, and session data, our legitimate interests in keeping the service secure and safe (including the moderation described in section 4) and in understanding how the product is used so that we can improve it, and legal obligation where we must keep records.
Depending on where you live (including under the GDPR, UK GDPR, and US state privacy laws such as the CCPA/CPRA), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or export your data, to withdraw consent, and to complain to your supervisory authority. You can delete your account at any time from your account settings, and you can stop facial processing at any time by ending your session or not starting one - facial processing only ever happens during a live session you chose to start. For any request, contact [email protected] and we will action it. We do not sell your personal information.
9. Age
virtualcam.ai is for adults (18+). We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18; if you believe a minor is using the service, contact [email protected].
10. Changes and contact
We will notify you of material changes to this policy. Privacy questions and data-rights requests: [email protected].