Biometric Data Policy

Effective date: October 20, 2026. Last updated: October 19, 2026.

Jewish Federation of San Diego (“we,” “us” and “our”) takes photos and video at our events, programs and trips. Our staff keep them in an internal photo library. To help staff find photos, the library can recognize faces. This policy explains what face data we keep, why we keep it, who can see it, how long we keep it, and how you can opt out, see it or have it deleted. It adds to our Privacy Policy.

This Policy in Brief

Our staff photo library finds faces so staff can find photos of an event or a person.
We never sell, lease, trade or profit from face data, and we never share it except as described below.
Unnamed faces are kept only while their photo is in our library. Faces with a name are deleted 3 years after the most recent photo of that person.
We never name or match a child on purpose, and we never scan our youth and teen photo folders.
You can opt out, see what we hold, or have it deleted at any time, free of charge. Email info@jewishinsandiego.org.

What This Policy Covers

This policy covers “face data”: the face information our staff photo library creates from photos. It does not cover the photos themselves. Our Privacy Policy and our event photo notices cover those. Our public photo galleries show photos only. They never show face data or the names our staff add.

What We Collect

When a photo is added to our staff photo library, our system looks for faces in it. For each face it finds, we keep:

A face template. This is a list of 128 numbers that describes the shape of a face. It is not a photo, and it is not designed to be turned back into one.
A small cropped copy of the face, so staff can see which face the system found.
Where the face sits in the photo.
A name, only if a staff member adds one. The system can also add a name on its own, but only when a face is nearly identical to at least two faces staff have already named as that person.

We also keep a record of each time staff name, remove or delete a face, and each time the system adds a name. The record shows who did it, when, the person’s name and the photo’s file name. It never contains face data. After 3 years we remove the person’s name from that record.

How We Collect It

Our photographers and staff take photos at our events, programs and trips, and staff add them to our photo library. Event signs and registration pages tell guests that photos are taken there and that our photo library uses face recognition. Once a photo is in the library, a program runs about once an hour and looks for faces. It skips faces that are too small to recognize reliably. It also skips the faces of anyone who has asked us not to recognize them.

We do not collect face data from any other source. We do not buy it, scrape it from the internet, or get it from other organizations.

Why We Use It

We use face data for one purpose: to help our staff find photos. That might mean finding photos of an event, or of a person so we can share the photos with them, thank them, or feature them in our own communications.

We do not use face data for security, surveillance, tracking where people go, advertising, or any decision about you. We do not use it to train artificial intelligence. If we ever want to use face data for a new purpose, we will update this policy and tell you before we start.

What We Never Do

We never sell, lease, trade or rent face data. We never otherwise profit from it, and we never give it to other organizations for their own use.

Who Can See It

Only Jewish Federation of San Diego staff who are signed in to our staff tools can use the photo library’s face features. Volunteers, donors and the public cannot.

We share face data only:

With the service providers who run our systems for us, and only to run the photo library:
- Supabase stores our database and our private file storage.
- GitHub runs the program that finds faces and makes face templates, on servers it operates under our account.
- Vercel hosts our staff tools.
Each may use the data only to provide its service to us, not for its own purposes.
When the law requires it, such as a valid subpoena, warrant or court order.
When you ask us to.

How Long We Keep It

Faces with no name: kept while the photo is in our library, and deleted when the photo is deleted.
Faces with a name: deleted 3 years after the most recent photo of that person in our library, counted from the date the photo was taken. We then also delete the name and any photo links we kept for that person. We delete sooner if you ask.
When you ask us to delete: deleted as soon as we act on your request, as described below.
Faces in photos moved into a youth or teen folder: deleted within about an hour.
A “do not recognize” blocking record: kept until you ask us to remove it (see below).

Deleting face data removes the face template, the cropped face, the face’s location and any name attached to it. Cropped faces are removed from storage right away, or within about an hour at most. Our database backups roll over within 30 days, so a deleted face template is gone from every backup within 30 days.

How We Protect It

We protect face data at least as carefully as the other confidential information we hold. That means:

Face templates and cropped faces are kept in private storage that our public website cannot reach.
Staff see a cropped face only through a link that expires after ten minutes.
Staff tools require a staff sign-in.
We record every naming, removal and deletion.
We can switch off face recognition at once if we ever need to. Deletion keeps working even when it is switched off.
We have a plan for responding to any security problem that could affect face data.

Children and Teens

We never name a child or match a child on purpose. Photos from our youth and teen programs are never scanned for faces. That includes Giborim, Shinshinim and school programs.

A general event photo can include a child, and our system may detect that child’s face before a staff member sees it. When staff see a child’s face, they remove it. That deletes the face data, along with any look-alike faces the system grouped with it, and that spot in the photo is never scanned again.

A parent or legal guardian can ask us to remove a child’s face data at any time. Email us, include a photo of the child if you can, and we will remove it within 30 days and tell you when it’s done.

Your Choices

You can ask for any of these at any time, free of charge:

Delete my face data. We delete every face template, cropped face and name we hold for you. We also look for and delete unnamed faces that look like you.
Do not recognize me. We delete everything above. We also keep one blocking record, made from your face data, so that future photos of you are skipped and your face is never stored again. The blocking record is used for nothing else. Because it works on looks, it may also skip a few people who look very much like you. We delete it whenever you ask.
Tell me what you hold. We tell you whether we hold face data for you, which photos it came from, why we hold it, and which service providers store it for us.
Fix a wrong name. If the system or a staff member put the wrong name on a face, we correct it.

How to Reach Us and How Fast We Respond

Email info@jewishinsandiego.org, call 858-571-3444, or write to:

Jewish Federation of San Diego
4950 Murphy Canyon Road
San Diego, CA 92123

Tell us which choice you would like. If we have not named you in our library, a recent photo of you helps us find the right face. We use that photo only to handle your request and delete it as soon as we are done. To protect your privacy, we may ask a question or two to make sure the request comes from you, or from someone you have authorized, such as a parent or legal guardian.

We will confirm that we received your request within 10 business days and complete it within 30 days. If we need more time, we will tell you why, and we will finish within 30 more days.

No Change in How We Treat You

Opting out, or asking us to see or delete your face data, never changes how we treat you. Your invitations, registrations, gifts, volunteer roles and the programs and services you receive all stay the same.

If Something Goes Wrong

If a security problem exposes face data together with names, we will tell the people affected within 30 days of finding it, as California law requires, and we will notify the California Attorney General when required. For people who live in other states, we follow those states’ notice laws too.

Photos From Illinois, Texas, Washington and Colorado

Illinois, Texas, Washington and Colorado have their own laws on face data. We do not scan for faces in photos taken at events in those states. If we learn that a photo was taken there, we delete any face data from it.

If you live in one of these states and attend our events elsewhere, you can ask us at any time to delete your face data or not to recognize you. We will do it within 30 days.

Colorado residents can also ask what face data we hold, where it came from, why we hold it, and who stores it for us. We will answer free of charge.

Visitors and Trips Outside the United States

Jewish Federation of San Diego is based in San Diego, California, and our face data is stored and processed in the United States. Photos from our trips abroad, such as Israel, India, Mexico and Cuba, are added to the same library and scanned in the same way.

We do not scan for faces in photos taken in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, where the law asks for clear consent first. If we learn that a photo was taken there, we delete any face data from it.

Wherever you live, you can use every choice in this policy, and we will honor it within the same timelines.

Changes to This Policy

If we change how we handle face data, we will update this page and its “last updated” date before the change takes effect. We will never use face data we already hold for a new purpose without updating this policy first.

Contact Us

For questions about this policy, or a request about your face data: info@jewishinsandiego.org, 858-571-3444, or Jewish Federation of San Diego, 4950 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA 92123.