AccessAlt — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 13 August 2026

AccessAlt generates alt text for the images in your Shopify store, so that screen reader users can understand them and your storefront meets WCAG 2.1 AA and the European Accessibility Act. This policy explains exactly what the app stores, what it sends elsewhere, and how long it keeps it.

In short: AccessAlt does not collect any information about your customers. No names, no email addresses, no orders, no browsing behaviour. It works with product images and the alt text written for them, and nothing else.

Who is responsible

AccessAlt is operated by Filipe Oliveira, a sole trader based in Portugal, acting as the data controller for the information described below. You can reach us at develsapps@proton.me.

What AccessAlt stores

When you install the app, it stores:

Your store's domain — for example your-store.myshopify.com.
An access token issued by Shopify, which lets the app read your product images and write alt text back. AccessAlt requests offline access only, so it never receives the name, email address or identity of any staff member who uses it.
Records of the images it captions — the Shopify image and product identifiers, the product title, the image URL, and the alt text written. This is kept deliberately: it is your evidence trail of what was published and when, which is what supports an accessibility conformance claim.
Your settings and usage — the caption language you chose, how many images have been captioned, your plan, and the dates your plan changed.

What AccessAlt does not store

Any customer or shopper data, of any kind.
Orders, carts, checkouts, or payment information.
Names, email addresses, or contact details of any person.
Analytics or tracking of how your storefront is browsed.

Shopify sends every app three mandatory privacy webhooks. Because AccessAlt holds no customer records, requests to export or erase a customer's data are acknowledged with nothing to return or delete.

Who else sees your data

AccessAlt uses the following services to operate. Each receives only what it needs.

Google (Gemini API) — each image is sent to Google to be described, together with its product title for context. Images are sent at reduced resolution. AccessAlt uses the paid Gemini API tier, under which Google does not use your images or the captions written from them to train or improve its models, and retains them only briefly to detect abuse.
Fly.io — hosts the application and its database, in Amsterdam, in the European Union.
Shopify — provides the platform and processes all subscription payments. AccessAlt never sees your payment details.

Your data is stored in the European Union. The services above may process it outside the EU; each does so under the transfer safeguards described in their own terms. AccessAlt does not sell your data, and does not share it with anyone else.

How long it is kept

For as long as the app is installed. When you uninstall, Shopify notifies AccessAlt 48 hours later, and everything it holds about your store — the access token, the captioning history, the usage records — is deleted. Encrypted database backups may retain a copy for up to 30 further days before they expire.

Alt text already written to your products belongs to your store and stays there. Uninstalling AccessAlt does not remove it.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you may request access to, correction of, or erasure of the data described here, and you may object to or restrict its processing. Uninstalling the app triggers erasure automatically. For anything else, write to develsapps@proton.me and we will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, the date at the top changes with it and merchants are notified in the app before the change takes effect.