This Privacy Policy explains how Robert A. Rivadeneira, an individual operating Comic Vault: Grade & Value (“Comic Vault,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), collects, uses, stores, discloses, and protects personal information in connection with the Comic Vault mobile application and related services.
Data Controller: Robert A. Rivadeneira
Mailing Address: PO Box 26, Clayton, GA 30525
Privacy Contact: support@getcomicvault.app
If the Service is transferred to an LLC or other successor, we will update this Policy to identify the actual controller and provide any legally required notice of the transfer or change in processing.
Comic Vault collects information needed to create and secure accounts, analyze comic-book images, maintain personal collections, administer scan credits and purchases, and protect the Service.
When you request an AI scan, selected images and related information are transmitted to our service infrastructure and AI provider for analysis. We use Google Play for purchases, RevenueCat for purchase entitlements, and Supabase for account and data services, as described below.
We do not currently use personal information for third-party behavioral advertising or sell it for monetary or other valuable consideration, based on the Service's present implementation.
You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information as described in this Policy. Certain records may be retained for legitimate operational or legal reasons. Deleting a Comic Vault account does not cancel a Google Play subscription.
We collect the following categories of information when you use the Service:
| Category | Information | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Account and authentication | Email address, account identifiers, authentication records, and Google profile information supplied through sign-in | Create accounts, authenticate users, and protect access, and send account-confirmation and password-reset emails |
| Submitted photographs | User-selected cover, back-cover, interior, and defect photographs | Identify comics and generate AI estimates |
| Collection information | Comic details, saved grades and values, purchase prices, notes, and thumbnails | Maintain and display your collection |
| Scan usage | Free, subscription, and purchased scan balances and usage history | Enforce scan allocations and administer purchases |
| Purchase and entitlement records | Product identifiers, subscription status, transaction identifiers, purchase dates, and account-linked entitlements | Verify purchases, restore access, provide support, and prevent fraud |
| Technical and security information | IP addresses, timestamps, device or request information, error records, and security logs | Operate, troubleshoot, and protect the Service |
| Support communications | Information you voluntarily provide when contacting us | Respond to inquiries and resolve issues |
We generally receive account, image, collection, and support information directly from you; authentication information may come from Google; and purchase and entitlement information may come from Google Play and RevenueCat.
We do not receive complete payment-card numbers from Google Play transactions.
We do not request access to your contacts or continuous access to your photo library. We access the camera or selected photographs only when you use the relevant functionality. We do not request device GPS location permission, although IP addresses and technical information may reveal an approximate location.
The purposes, applicable lawful bases, and retention criteria for these categories are described in the sections below.
Where the EU GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we process personal information for the following purposes and lawful bases:
| Processing activity | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Creating accounts, authenticating users, providing scans, and storing collections | Performance of a contract |
| Processing purchases, subscription entitlements, and scan balances | Performance of a contract |
| Detecting fraud, securing accounts, investigating abuse, and maintaining service availability | Legitimate interests in protecting users, the Service, and business operations |
| Diagnosing errors and evaluating aggregated or appropriately minimized service-performance information | Legitimate interests in maintaining and improving reliability, subject to appropriate balancing and safeguards |
| Maintaining legally required financial records, responding to lawful requests, and meeting regulatory obligations | Compliance with legal obligations |
| Sending optional marketing communications or conducting optional tracking that requires consent | Consent, obtained separately where required |
We assess legitimate interests against the rights and freedoms of affected individuals and apply appropriate data-minimization and access restrictions.
Where processing is necessary to provide an account, requested scan, or purchased feature, declining to provide the required information may prevent us from supplying that functionality.
We do not intentionally collect special-category personal information or use such information for model training or decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects concerning individuals.
When you request a scan, Comic Vault processes the comic-book photographs you select, which may include front-cover, back-cover, interior, or defect images. These images are transmitted to our server functions and Anthropic's commercial API solely to perform the requested scan. We do not intentionally retain the original scan photographs in our own persistent storage. Images submitted for unsuccessful scans are not retained by us. Anthropic's separate retention practices are described below.
Anthropic analyzes submitted images and associated prompts to generate estimates of comic identity, edition, apparent condition, and potential raw-book market value. The estimates are probabilistic and may be inaccurate. The system cannot reliably detect all hidden defects, restoration, missing pages, counterfeit materials, or market conditions.
If you choose to save a comic book to your collection, we store a reduced-size cover thumbnail and the associated collection information in Supabase. The thumbnail remains stored until you delete the book or your account. Original scan photographs are not retained by Comic Vault for later use.
Please submit only information reasonably necessary for comic identification and grading. Do not intentionally include faces, government identification, financial records, medical information, addresses, or other sensitive personal information. We do not use submitted images to identify individuals or create biometric identification profiles.
Anthropic Processing. Comic Vault uses Anthropic's commercial API to analyze submitted comic-book photographs and associated prompts. Under Anthropic's standard commercial API terms, customer inputs and outputs are not used to train Anthropic's models unless the customer has separately authorized such use.
Anthropic generally deletes API inputs and outputs within 30 days, subject to applicable contractual exceptions. Content flagged for potential usage-policy violations may be retained for up to two years, and associated safety-classification scores may be retained for up to seven years. Different retention arrangements may apply where required by law or under an applicable contractual configuration.
These retention periods concern Anthropic's systems and are separate from Comic Vault's own storage and deletion practices.
Comic Vault uses automated image analysis and generative AI to evaluate visible characteristics of submitted comic-book photographs and related information. The system produces informational estimates concerning comic identity, apparent condition, and potential value. Results may vary between scans and may contain errors.
These estimates are intended to assist users with personal collection management. Comic Vault does not use this process to make decisions concerning an individual's employment, credit, housing, healthcare, education, legal status, or similarly significant personal interests.
If we introduce automated processing that produces legal or similarly significant effects concerning individuals, we will evaluate and provide any additional notices, safeguards, or rights required by applicable law before implementing that processing.
We disclose information to service providers and other recipients as reasonably necessary to operate the Service, administer purchases, respond to users, comply with law, and protect our legitimate interests.
Our principal providers and their functions include:
We may also use appropriately authorized infrastructure, hosting, security, diagnostic, or support providers. These recipients receive information relevant to their functions, subject to applicable contracts and legal requirements.
Providers may act as processors, service providers, or independent controllers depending on their specific activities and contractual roles. We do not characterize every provider as our processor where its actual role is independent.
We may disclose information where reasonably necessary to comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful process, protect users or the Service, investigate fraud, or complete a lawful business transfer.
Sale and Advertising Disclosure. Based on the Service's current implementation, we do not sell personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration and do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not currently use third-party behavioral advertising technology. We will update this disclosure if our actual practices change.
Comic Vault is operated from the United States and is initially offered for distribution in the United States only. Personal information may be processed in the United States or other jurisdictions where our service providers operate.
Our use of service providers may involve processing or transfers of personal information across national borders. Where applicable law imposes requirements on such processing or transfers, we will implement the safeguards and other measures required by that law.
Before expanding the Service to additional countries, we will review applicable privacy and consumer-protection requirements and update this Policy and our operational practices as necessary.
Questions regarding international processing may be directed to support@getcomicvault.app.
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including providing the Service, administering purchases, maintaining security, preventing fraud, resolving disputes, and satisfying applicable legal obligations.
Our retention periods or objective retention criteria are as follows:
| Information category | Retention period or criteria |
|---|---|
| Account and authentication records | Retained while the account exists. Deleted from Comic Vault's active systems when the user deletes the account in the app, or within seven days after a verified email deletion request, subject to lawful exceptions and records maintained independently by providers. |
| Saved collection records and thumbnails | Retained until the associated comic-book record or account is deleted. |
| Original scan photographs and unsuccessful scans | Original scan photographs are transmitted for processing but are not retained in Comic Vault's persistent storage. Unsuccessful scans do not create stored scan photographs. |
| Anthropic API inputs and outputs | Generally deleted by Anthropic within 30 days, subject to its applicable exceptions, including extended retention for flagged content and associated safety records as described above. |
| Purchase, subscription and entitlement records | Comic Vault's account-linked records are deleted with the account. Google Play and RevenueCat independently retain applicable transaction and entitlement records according to their own policies and legal obligations. |
| Technical, security and diagnostic logs | Supabase Free-plan API and database logs are currently retained for approximately one day, subject to provider configuration and exceptions. |
| Support communications | Generally retained for up to two years after the most recent substantive communication, unless a longer period is reasonably necessary for an unresolved matter, fraud prevention, legal compliance, or an actual or reasonably anticipated dispute. |
| Backups | Comic Vault does not currently maintain automatic database backups on its Supabase Free plan. If automated backups are enabled, backup copies may be retained for up to seven days, subject to the actual provider configuration and any legally required preservation. |
When an account or collection item is deleted, we remove or de-identify associated information from active systems according to the applicable deletion process, subject to lawful exceptions. Information may remain temporarily in restricted backups or provider systems until the applicable retention or deletion cycle is completed.
We may preserve information reasonably necessary to investigate fraud or security incidents, comply with legal obligations, enforce rights, or defend claims, subject to applicable law and appropriate access restrictions.
Account deletion does not automatically cancel a Google Play subscription. Users must separately manage or cancel subscriptions through Google Play.
Comic Vault does not provide public user profiles, public collection pages, public sharing links, or an internal user-to-user posting system. Collection information remains private within the Service unless a user affirmatively chooses to share information outside the app.
Users may generate shareable images of individual comic books or collections on their own devices. Available controls allow users to exclude estimated values and recorded purchase prices from the generated image.
When a user selects “Share,” Comic Vault opens the device's native sharing interface. The user selects the receiving application or recipient. Comic Vault does not independently publish the generated image or transmit it to a public Comic Vault page.
Information shared through third-party applications or services may be processed, copied, retained, or redistributed by those third parties or recipients. Deleting the original collection information from Comic Vault does not necessarily remove copies shared outside the Service.
Comic Vault does not currently use third-party behavioral advertising or cross-context behavioral tracking, based on the Service's present configuration.
The Service does not currently alter its processing in response to browser or device “Do Not Track” signals. Where applicable law requires recognition of a particular opt-out preference signal, we will comply with that requirement.
The categories of personal information collected, sources, purposes, recipients, and retention practices are described throughout this Policy. Rights available under comprehensive US state privacy laws depend on whether those laws apply to the Operator and the particular processing activity. We will honor rights and provide notices required by applicable law.
Depending on your location and the law applicable to our processing, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or a portable copy of your personal information. You may also have rights to object to certain processing, request restriction of processing, withdraw consent where consent is the lawful basis, or obtain information concerning certain automated processing.
To submit a privacy request, email support@getcomicvault.app. We may request information reasonably necessary to verify your identity and protect against unauthorized disclosure or deletion.
We will respond within the period required by applicable law. For requests governed by the EU GDPR or UK GDPR, this is generally one month, subject to lawful extensions. For requests governed by applicable California privacy law, the ordinary response period for certain verified requests is generally 45 days, subject to permitted extensions. Other jurisdictions may establish different periods.
If an applicable US state privacy law provides a right to appeal our decision on a privacy request, you may submit an appeal to the same email address with the subject “Privacy Rights Appeal.” We will review the appeal, respond within the applicable statutory period, and provide information about available regulatory complaint procedures where required.
Individuals in the European Economic Area may lodge complaints with an applicable data protection supervisory authority. Individuals in the United Kingdom may lodge complaints with the Information Commissioner's Office.
Where applicable law provides rights to opt out of the sale of personal information, targeted advertising, certain profiling, or to limit specified uses of sensitive personal information, we will provide the legally required means to exercise those rights. We do not currently engage in the sale or targeted-advertising practices described above.
Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing performed before withdrawal. We may decline or limit a request where a lawful exception applies and will explain the decision as required.
We use technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and loss. These safeguards include encrypted transmission and account-based access controls, as applicable to the Service's actual configuration.
No internet-connected system or security measure is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
We investigate suspected security incidents and notify affected individuals or competent authorities when required by applicable law. We may take reasonable steps to secure accounts or restrict access while addressing a suspected incident.
Comic Vault is intended solely for adults who are at least 18 years old. The Service is not directed to minors, and we do not knowingly solicit personal information from individuals under 18.
If we learn that an account belongs to an individual under 18, we may suspend or terminate the account and delete associated personal information, subject to applicable law and necessary retention obligations.
If you believe a minor has provided personal information through Comic Vault, contact support@getcomicvault.app.
We will assess and implement any additional age-assurance, privacy-by-default, or children's-data safeguards required by applicable law in jurisdictions where the Service is offered or likely to be accessed by children.
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our information practices, the Service, applicable law, or our business operations.
When we update this Policy, we will revise the effective date and make the updated version available through the Service and other appropriate locations. We will provide additional notice or obtain consent when required by applicable law, including before introducing processing activities that require a new consent.
Changes to this Policy do not eliminate statutory privacy rights. The Georgia governing-law provision in our Terms of Use does not displace privacy laws that mandatorily apply to our processing.
Data Controller: Robert A. Rivadeneira
Mailing Address: PO Box 26, Clayton, GA 30525
Privacy Email: support@getcomicvault.app
Website: https://getcomicvault.app
Privacy Policy: https://getcomicvault.app/privacy
Account Deletion: https://getcomicvault.app/delete-account
For questions concerning this Privacy Policy, privacy rights, or the handling of personal information, contact us using the information above.