Privacy Policy

Last Updated: November 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Grid Studio ("we", "our", or "the application"), an independent tool operated by Shivani Shah, collects, uses, and protects your information when you use our visual Instagram planning and scheduling workspace.

We believe your creative work belongs to you. We collect only what is necessary to help you plan and publish your posts, and we keep our data practices simple and transparent.

1. Information We Collect

We only collect information necessary to provide the service:

• Buffer Account & Instagram Profile: When you sign in through Buffer, we receive your Buffer account identifier, name, email address, and connected Instagram profile details (such as your handle, profile picture, and account name). We never see or store your Buffer or Instagram passwords.
• Uploaded Media: The photos and videos you upload to the app, along with their original filenames so you can sort them in your workspace.
• Post Content & Settings: Captions, hashtags, tags, media information and links, and scheduled dates and times. We read drafts for your connected Instagram channel, including drafts created directly in Buffer, and keep local copies to display and plan them in Grid Studio.
• App Preferences: Your workspace settings (such as Light, Dark, or System mode) and on-demand AI alt-text tool quota usage.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information exclusively to run the app and publish your content:

• To authenticate your account securely through Buffer.
• To display your uploaded media in your workspace, build carousels, and preview your upcoming grid.
• To save your drafts, captions, post details, and media links to Buffer when you click "Save as draft" or "Continue in Buffer", and to schedule those existing drafts when you choose to publish through Buffer.
• To display drafts created here or directly in Buffer, including previews loaded from media URLs returned by Buffer.
• To generate descriptive alt text for your photos only when you click the AI button on an image.

We do not sell, rent, or monetize your personal information or creative content.

3. How We Handle Your Media & Temporary Files

Publishing platforms like Buffer need a direct link to fetch your photos and videos when sending them to Instagram. Here is how we protect your files throughout that process:

• Media Links: Buffer requires publicly accessible links to your media in order to publish your posts or save them as drafts. Photos and videos uploaded to the Media Roll, and their preview thumbnails, are stored at publicly accessible links from the time of upload, including before you save a draft or schedule a post. Anyone with the exact link can view the corresponding file without signing in. Grid Studio does not provide a public gallery of your uploads. These links remain accessible until the corresponding files are deleted under the retention and deletion rules below.
• Binned Media & 7-Day Recovery Window: When you move photos or videos to the Bin, their publicly accessible links are revoked immediately and the files are relocated to private storage where they cannot be accessed via the web. Binned files are held for 7 days so you can restore them if needed. If restored, the file is returned to your active Media Roll with a fresh link. After 7 days, binned files and their preview thumbnails are automatically and permanently deleted from our servers. You can also permanently delete items from the Bin immediately at any time.
• Automatic Deletion Within 7 Days of Publishing: Once Buffer confirms that a post has been published to Instagram, the original full-resolution media file is automatically and permanently deleted from our servers within 7 days of publication. When that file is deleted, its public link no longer provides access to the original file. Any retained preview thumbnail has a separate link and follows the thumbnail-retention rule below. This does not remove the published Instagram post or copies previously downloaded or retained by other services.
• Recent Grid Thumbnails: We keep small, compressed previews while their media remains in your Media Roll or is needed by an active draft or scheduled post. For published grid previews, we retain the 12 newest confirmed published Feed posts and, separately, the 12 newest confirmed published Reels, based on publication dates. A Reel thumbnail is eligible for window-based deletion only after it leaves both lists and is no longer needed by an active draft or scheduled post. The retention window is based on confirmed published posts, not on which cards are currently visible in the planning grid. Drafts and scheduled posts may hide older published posts in the preview, but this does not cause their thumbnails to be deleted. Unscheduling or deleting those unpublished posts allows the retained published thumbnails to appear again. Published thumbnails become eligible for window-based deletion only when additional confirmed publications move them outside the applicable published-post retention windows.

4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Alt Text

Grid Studio includes an optional, on-demand AI tool to help you write descriptive accessibility text (alt text) for your photos:

• On-Demand Only: An image is only sent to the AI service at the exact moment you click the AI button on that specific photo. We never send your photos or videos to an AI service for analysis unless you explicitly request it.
• Accessibility Purpose Only: The AI analyzes the photo in real time solely to describe its visual contents for screen readers.
• AI Provider & Retention: Alt text is generated by Google's Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite through Lovable AI. We send a compressed preview of the selected photo and an instruction to describe it, not your Buffer account details or other workspace content. Your content is never used to train AI models; Google holds temporary logs for up to 55 days solely for automated safety and abuse monitoring before removing them.
• Zero Model Training: Your photos, videos, captions, and drafts are never used to train, retrain, or improve artificial intelligence models.

5. Third-Party Services We Use

We work with trusted service providers to run the application, publish your posts, and generate alt text:

• Buffer (Buffer Inc.): Connects your social accounts and publishes your scheduled posts and media to Instagram via Buffer's official API.
• Lovable Cloud: Hosts the web application, manages secure database records, and provides cloud storage for your uploaded photos and videos.
• Lovable AI & Google (Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite): Lovable AI routes your selected photo's compressed preview and the description instruction to Google's Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite model solely to generate accessibility text. Your content is never used to train AI models, and temporary logs are held by Google for up to 55 days solely for automated safety monitoring before being removed.

6. Cookies

We use a minimal set of strictly necessary, first-party cookies and local browser storage to keep your session secure and remember your display preferences. We do not use any third-party tracking or advertising cookies.

• Strictly Necessary Authentication Cookies:
  • Session Tokens (gs_at, gs_rt): Keep you securely signed in to your workspace. These are encrypted, secure cookies that expire after 30 days or when you sign out or disconnect.
  • Sign-in Security Cookies (gs_oauth, gs_conn): Short-lived cookies (about 10 minutes) used only during the sign-in and account-connection process to protect against unauthorized access.
• Local Browser Storage (not a cookie):
  • Display Theme (theme): Stores your selected interface appearance (Light, Dark, or System) directly in your browser so the app loads with your preferred theme.
• Site Analytics: We use first-party, cookie-less website analytics provided by our hosting platform to measure general site traffic, page views, and performance. This does not use tracking cookies, does not store identifiers in your browser, and does not track you across other websites or share data with ad networks.

Because these cookies are strictly essential for core application security and functionality, they do not track you across other websites.

7. Disconnecting & Deleting Your Data

You have full control over your content and can remove it at any time:

• Disconnecting Buffer: You can disconnect your Buffer account in your settings. If you disconnect, we immediately sever the connection. Posts already scheduled in Buffer may continue to publish. Your Grid Studio draft copies, unpublished uploads, and settings are held for a 30-day grace period; reconnect within that time to restore your workspace. If you don't reconnect, your remaining Grid Studio data and media are permanently deleted. Posts scheduled beyond that period may fail to publish if they need the deleted media.
• Immediate Account Deletion: You can permanently delete your account and all associated data at any time from your settings page. This immediately wipes all your uploaded photos, videos, preview thumbnails, local draft copies, and account history from our servers with no recovery period. This includes files needed by pending Buffer posts: those posts may fail to publish once their media files are deleted. We do not retain these files until publication when you choose immediate account deletion. Account deletion overrides the routine thumbnail-retention rules.

8. Service Operator & Contact

Grid Studio is created and operated by Shivani Shah. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, how your information is handled, or wish to request data deletion directly, please contact:

• Operator: Shivani Shah
• Email: wordsbyshivani@gmail.com