Privacy policy

Effective 3 October 2026. Last updated 4 October 2026.

The short version: your photos never leave your computer, and we do not collect, store or sell any personal data.

This policy describes how Winnow (“the app”), published by Winnow Labs (“we”, “us”), handles information. Winnow is a Windows desktop application that finds every photo of a chosen person inside folders on your own computer.

1. What Winnow does with your photos

Winnow performs face detection and face matching entirely on your own device, using machine-learning models that run locally on your computer's processor.

Your photos are never uploaded to us or to anyone else.
The face-matching data the app computes (numerical “face templates” derived from the reference photos you choose) is processed in memory on your device and is not transmitted anywhere.
Face crops you create with the in-app face picker are stored only in a local folder on your device and are cleared automatically.
In Sort mode, matched photos are copied or moved only to folders on your device that you choose.
In Pro mode, Winnow writes keywords into small .xmp sidecar files next to your RAW photos, and optionally saves proof JPEGs and a CSV list, all on your device. It never modifies the photo files themselves.

We have no servers that receive photos, faces or face templates. We could not view your photos even if we wanted to: the app is built so that this is technically impossible, not merely against policy.

2. Information we do not collect

Winnow contains no analytics, no telemetry, no advertising, no tracking and no user accounts. We do not collect:

Photos, videos or any file contents
Faces, face templates or any biometric information
Names you type into the app (such as a person's name)
Folder paths, file names or information about your files
Usage statistics, crash reports or device identifiers
Location information or contact details

3. The only network connections the app makes

Winnow works offline. It connects to the internet in exactly three situations, none of which transmit personal information or photos:

Face models (normally none). The face-detection, face-recognition and face-landmark models are included in the app. Only if one is ever missing does the app download it once from its public source: the OpenCV project, the AuraFace model published by fal.ai on Hugging Face, or Google's MediaPipe project. These are ordinary file downloads; nothing about you or your photos is sent.
License activation and checks. If you buy a license and enter its key, the app sends only that license key and a random installation label (never your name, your computer's name or anything about your photos) to our payment and licensing provider, Dodo Payments, to confirm it is valid. About once a month, when you are online, the app repeats this check in the background. If you are offline, nothing changes and Winnow keeps working. Removing a computer from your license sends the same two items.
Links you click. Buttons such as Help, Privacy policy or Buy a license open pages in your web browser, which are governed by the privacy practices of the sites they belong to.

4. Purchases and license keys

Purchases are processed by Dodo Payments, acting as the merchant of record. When you buy a license, Dodo Payments, not Winnow Labs, collects the information needed to process your payment (such as your email address and payment details) under its own privacy policy.

We receive from Dodo Payments only what we need to support you: the license key, its activation status and the purchase email address. We use this solely to deliver, verify and support your license, and we do not sell or share it.

The app stores your license key in a small file on your own device so it can run without contacting the internet on every launch.

5. Information stored on your device

The app keeps a small amount of data under your Windows user profile (an AppData folder) so that it can function:

Downloaded model files (see section 3)
Face crops you created with the face picker (cleared on each app start)
App settings, such as the last folders you used
Your license key, if you bought one

This data stays on your device, is under your control, and is removed if you delete the app's data folder or uninstall the app and remove its data.

6. Microsoft Store

If you installed Winnow from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft may collect information related to your download and use of the Store itself. That is governed by the Microsoft Privacy Statement, not by this policy. Winnow adds no collection of its own.

7. Biometric information

Because Winnow's purpose is finding faces, we state this explicitly: the app computes face-geometry data (face templates) only on your device, only for the folders and photos you point it at, and only for as long as needed to perform the match you asked for. This data is not kept as a database of faces, is not transmitted, is not sold, and is never accessible to us. You are responsible for making sure your own use of face matching on photographs of other people complies with the laws that apply to you, particularly if you use the app professionally.

8. Children

Winnow is a general-purpose utility not directed at children. Because it collects no personal information from anyone, it collects none from children.

9. Your rights

Because we do not collect personal data through the app, there is usually nothing for us to access, correct, export or delete. For purchase-related data held by Dodo Payments, you can exercise your rights directly with them, or contact us and we will help. If you are covered by data-protection law (such as the GDPR in the EU or the DPDP Act in India), those rights are respected: in almost all cases, the only thing we hold about you is your license purchase record.

10. Security

Data the app stores locally is protected by your own device's security. License activation is made over HTTPS. Since we run no servers holding your personal data, there is no central database of Winnow users to breach.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, for example because a future feature adds an optional online capability, we will update this page and its “Last updated” date, and note material changes in the app's release notes before they take effect. We will never start collecting data through an update without clearly asking first.

12. This website

findwinnow.com uses no cookies, analytics or advertising. If you use the support form or join the launch list, what you type (your name, email address and message) is delivered to us by email through Web3Forms, a form-delivery service. We use it only to reply to you or, for the launch list, to tell you once when Winnow is available. Reply to any email from us to be removed. The site's fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when the page loads.

13. Contact

Winnow Labs
[Your legal name, as registered with the Microsoft Store]
[City, State, India]
Email: support@findwinnow.com

If you have any question about privacy in Winnow, contact us and we will answer plainly.