Privacy Policy

Who this policy covers

This policy covers nissiphoto.com: the marketing pages you are reading now, the consultation form, the private client galleries at /g/, the couple’s pages at /my/, and the agreement pages at /sign/. The written photography agreement you sign when you book a session with us has its own terms, separate from this policy; what the signing page records about the act of signing is described below.

What you share when you reach out

When you fill out the consultation form on this site, we ask for your name, email address, phone number, the date and type of event, and whatever you want to tell us in the message field. We also record which page of the site you filled the form out from, so we know what led you to us. Along with your message we also store the IP address and the browser type your device sent, which we use only to spot and stop abuse of the form. That is the whole list. We do not ask for payment information, a birthdate, or anything else through this form.

How we use that information

We use what you send us for one purpose: to read your inquiry, understand what you are looking for, and reply to you personally. Sharon reads every message herself. We do not use your contact details for anything beyond that conversation unless you become a client, in which case the information carries forward into your booking and your gallery.

How your message reaches us

Your inquiry is saved by the studio the moment you submit it, so a technical hiccup on our end never costs you a lost message. We also try to deliver a copy to Sharon’s inbox by email, using a third party service called Resend. Resend delivers the emails this site sends: that copy of your inquiry, and the messages that go to clients and to their wedding guests (agreements, payment receipts and reminders, RSVP confirmations and a couple’s updates to their guests). It sees only the email it is delivering, never your galleries, your photographs, or anything else on this site. The saved copy of your inquiry sits in the same private storage as the galleries themselves, closed to the public.

Client galleries and the access cookie

If you are a client, your finished photographs live in a private gallery at nissiphoto.com/g/ behind a passcode we send you. When you enter that passcode correctly, our server sets a small cookie in your browser named ng_ followed by your gallery’s code. That cookie is signed and locked to your browser (HttpOnly), so other websites cannot read or copy it, and it exists for one reason only: to remember that you already unlocked your gallery, so you are not typing the passcode in again every time you open a photograph. It carries no tracking data and no advertising identifier, nothing beyond “this browser already proved it knows the passcode.” It expires on its own after about two months.

Leaving your name when you download

Looking through your gallery asks nothing of you. Downloading does. The first time you save a photograph, or the whole gallery as a zip, on a given device, we ask for your name and your email address. There is no account to create, no password, and nothing to verify: you type them once and the download you asked for starts on its own. We keep that entry, along with a note of which photographs came down and when, for one reason. Sharon wants to know that her clients actually received their photographs, and if a gallery is never opened she would rather find out from her own records than a year later.

Answering sets a second cookie, named nd_ followed by your gallery’s code. Like the access cookie it is signed and locked to your browser (HttpOnly), it holds nothing but the name and email you typed, it expires on its own after about two months, and it exists so you are asked once rather than on every file. None of it is sold, shared, or used to advertise to you. If you would like your entry removed, say so through the contact form and it goes.

Couples who open a gallery from their own page (see below) skip the question. They have already shown who they are by entering their page’s passcode, so they are recorded as the downloader without being asked again.

Your couple’s page

Couples we photograph get a private page at /my/ followed by their own link name. It is opened with a passcode we send you. Entering it correctly sets a cookie named nc_ followed by that link name, signed, locked to your browser (HttpOnly), and kept for about two months. It exists only to remember that this browser already entered the passcode. It carries no tracking data and no advertising identifier.

A couple’s Wedding Page

Some couples add a Wedding Page for their wedding guests at /w/ followed by a name they choose, opened with a word from their invitation. Typing that word sets a cookie named ngp_ followed by the page’s name, signed, locked to your browser (HttpOnly), and kept for about three months, so you are not asked again.

If you reply to the invitation there, we store what you type: your name, your email, whether you are coming, the names of the people with you, meal choices, and any dietary needs, song or note you add. The couple sees all of it. Sharon sees only the totals. You get an email confirming your reply, and replying to that email reaches the couple, not us. Later the couple may send their guests a few updates (five at most) and one note when the wedding photographs are ready. Every one of those emails has a link to stop them, which works at once; your reply itself stays as it was.

If the couple turned on guest photos, you can add your own photographs with your name. The couple sees each one first and decides which appear on the page. The page remembers the name you typed on your own device only, so you do not type it twice. Guest photos stay on the page for six months after the wedding, and the couple, or Sharon, can remove any of them sooner. If the couple shares their wedding gallery with guests, it opens from the page, and downloading asks for your name and email once, as described above. To have anything you left on a Wedding Page removed, ask the couple or use the contact form.

Paying online

Couples who pay a booking payment online do so through Stripe Checkout, a payment service run by Stripe. Your card details are typed into Stripe’s own secure page and never reach this site or the studio. Stripe tells us only that the payment went through, for which amount, and when, so your page can show it as paid. Stripe’s own privacy policy covers what it keeps.

Signing an agreement

When we send you an agreement, you open it at a private link on this site, /sign/ followed by a long code. The page records when the agreement was viewed and when it was signed, together with the IP address and the browser type your device sent, and it keeps the signature you drew and the portfolio choice you made. When two people sign, each signature is recorded on its own. We keep that record because it is what makes an electronic signature valid: it shows who signed, when, and from where. It is used for that and for nothing else, and it is stored in the same private storage as galleries and inquiries.

Photographs in our portfolio

The wedding and portrait images shown across this site, in the collections at /weddings/ and elsewhere, are photographs Sharon has taken for real clients. We only feature a client’s photographs publicly with that client’s permission, usually agreed to at booking. If you were photographed by Nissi Photo and would rather your images not appear on this site, tell us through the contact form and we will take them down. No explanation required.

Cookies, analytics, and advertising

This site sets five cookies and no others. The gallery passcode cookie keeps a gallery open once you have entered its passcode. The download cookie remembers the name and email you left before a download. The couple’s page cookie keeps a couple’s page open once its passcode is entered. The Wedding Page cookie keeps a couple’s Wedding Page open once you have typed its word. The studio sign-in cookie is how Sharon signs in to the studio’s own admin area; visitors never receive it. All five are functional, all are HttpOnly, none is used for tracking, and none follows you anywhere. Outside of those, this site does not run analytics software, does not run advertising pixels, and does not track you across other websites. We are not measuring visits, clicks, or browsing behavior. The one thing we do count is downloads inside a client gallery, by the name that client gave us, which is described in its own section above. If any of that ever changes, we will update this page before it does, not after.

We do not sell your information

We have never sold, rented, or traded your name, email, phone number, or any other personal information, and we never will. The only people who see your inquiry are Sharon and, briefly, the Resend service that delivers it to her inbox. The two outside services this site uses are Resend, for email, and Stripe, for online payments; each handles only what its job needs. The name and email you leave before a download never go anywhere at all: they stay in the studio’s own storage, where only Sharon reads them. The same goes for the signing record of an agreement and for the IP address and browser type stored with an inquiry.

How long we keep things

We keep consultation inquiries for as long as they stay useful to us, generally to answer follow up questions or to look back at how a booking came together. Client galleries stay online for the period stated in your booking agreement, and are then removed, photographs and all. The download entries and favourites live inside the gallery they belong to, so removing a gallery takes them with it. Guest photos on a couple’s guest page are removed after the period stated on that page. Signed agreements are kept for as long as the booking and its records matter to either of us. If you would like something removed sooner, the contact form is the fastest way to reach us.

Your choices

You can ask us at any time what information we have about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, including removing your photographs from our public portfolio. Send that request through the contact form and we will handle it directly; we do not have a call center or a ticket system, just Sharon reading her inbox.

Changes to this policy

If we change how this site collects or handles information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. We do not expect frequent changes; this is a small studio, not a growing platform collecting new kinds of data every quarter.

Governing law

This policy is governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Any dispute arising from it will be handled under Massachusetts law.