Privacy Policy

Last updated 6 August 2026

This page explains what happens to your data. It is written to be read, not to be survived.

Images you upload

Your thumbnail is sent to Anthropic's API, which analyzes it and produces the rating. We do not store your images. They are held in memory only long enough to make that request, and are not written to any database or file storage of ours. Anthropic's own handling of data sent to their API is covered by their privacy policy at anthropic.com/legal/privacy.

The title and description you type are sent along with the image for the same purpose. We do not store those either.

The rating we produce

We do keep the rating itself for 30 days, so that uploading the same thumbnail twice gives you the same answer instead of a different one. It is filed under a fingerprint of your image and text, produced by a one-way hash. That fingerprint cannot be turned back into your image, and the only way to find the saved rating is to upload the exact same file again.

Worth being clear about what this means: the saved rating is written feedback about your thumbnail, so it may describe what is in the picture. It is not linked to you in any way. No email address, no license key, no visitor identifier is stored with it.

Your IP address

To count free ratings without making you create an account, we need to recognize returning visitors. We do this by combining your IP address with a secret value and running it through a one-way hash. The result is a string of characters that cannot be turned back into your IP address, not by us and not by anyone. Only that hash is stored, alongside a number, and it is deleted automatically after 30 days.

We never store raw IP addresses.

Purchases

Payments are processed by Lemon Squeezy as merchant of record. They collect your email address, payment details and billing country. We never see your card details. We receive your email address as the buyer, and we store your license key together with the number of credits remaining on it.

Stored in your browser

Two things are saved in your browser's local storage: your light or dark mode preference, and your license key if you have one. These stay on your device and are not tracking cookies. Clearing your browser data removes them, so keep the key email if you might need it again.

Who processes data for us

• Anthropic — analyzes the thumbnail to generate the rating
• Vercel — hosts the website and provides anonymous, cookieless visitor statistics
• Upstash — stores hashed visitor identifiers, credit balances and saved ratings
• Lemon Squeezy — takes payments and issues license keys
• Google — serves the YouTube thumbnail images shown in the example feed on our homepage, which means your IP address reaches them when the page loads

Some of these process data outside the EU, in the United States. Where that happens it is covered by the safeguards in their respective agreements, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

Why we are allowed to do this

• Processing your image and text to produce a rating: performing the service you asked for.
• Hashing your IP to count free use, and preventing abuse: our legitimate interest in keeping a free tier available without it being drained.
• Keeping purchase records: our legal obligation to retain accounting records.

How long we keep things

• Images and the text you type: not kept at all.
• The rating we generate, filed under a one-way fingerprint: 30 days.
• Hashed visitor identifier: 30 days.
• License key and credit balance: until the credits are spent or you ask us to delete them.
• Purchase records: as long as accounting law requires, held by Lemon Squeezy.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct or delete it, object to processing, or ask for it in a portable format. Email contact@ratethumbnails.com and we will respond within 30 days.

Children

This service is not intended for anyone under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top will change with it.

Questions: contact@ratethumbnails.com