Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Last Updated: April 2026

Welcome to Photography Society (photographysociety.net). We value your privacy and your creative rights. This document outlines how we handle your data, the rules for our community contests, and how we protect your intellectual property. By using our website or participating in our Discord community, you agree to these terms

1. Privacy & Data Collection

We aim to be transparent about the data we collect to provide a functional and optimized experience

Analytics & SEO: We use tools like Google Analytics to understand site traffic and improve user experience. This involves the use of cookies to track non-personally identifiable information (IP addresses, browser types, and page visit duration)
Hosting & Security: Our site is hosted by Hostinger and utilizes LiteSpeed Cache and UpdraftPlus for performance and security. These services may log technical data to prevent “bot” attacks and ensure site stability
Discord Integration: If you interact with our Discord bot or community features, we may store your Discord Username and User ID to facilitate contest entries and proper crediting
Data Retention: You may request data deletion at any time via the contact methods in Section 5

2. Photography Society Photography Contest Rules

By participating in our contests, you agree to the following terms:

Submissions

Each contest will have a specific theme. Ensure your submission aligns with the theme
Your submission doesn’t have to be taken after the contest announcement – you can enter photos you’ve captured before the competition started
Keep your photos family friendly and appropriate for all ages. No explicit or offensive content.
Participants are only allowed to submit 1 picture. If you want to edit your submission, upload your new picture to #contest-entry (optionally with text) and follow the bot’s instructions
By submitting your image, you grant us a non-exclusive, world-wide license to feature it for contest-related administration, promotional displays, and galleries on our website and Discord Server. You retain full ownership of your work. To protect your intellectual property, all entries displayed on our website will include a custom watermark of your Discord username. We ensure proper credit is always given, with the sole exception of the #contest-vote channel to maintain our anonymous voting process
By submitting your image, you represent and warrant that you are the sole creator and owner of the work and that the submission does not infringe upon the intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights of any third party

No Plagiarism

The photo must be your own work. No stock photos or images taken from the internet/other photographers
Any form of plagiarism will result in disqualification, and may lead to other forms of punishment on the Discord Server

Voting & Governance

You can not vote for your own entry
The main Server Rules still apply
Disqualification: Violation of any rules results in disqualification. The decision of the moderation team is final

3. Intellectual Property & Watermarking

We respect that you own your art. Here is how we handle your intellectual property:

License Grant: By submitting your image, you grant us a non-exclusive, world-wide license to feature it for contest-related administration, promotional displays, and galleries on our website and Discord Server. You retain full ownership of your work. To protect your intellectual property, all entries displayed on our website will include a custom watermark of your Discord username. We ensure proper credit is always given, with the sole exception of the #contest-vote channel to maintain our anonymous voting process
Automated Watermarking: To prevent unauthorized hotlinking or theft, we automatically apply a custom watermark of your Discord username to all images shared through us outside of the contest process on the Discord Server
User Watermarks: We encourage creators to add their own personal watermarks to their images prior to submission for added protection
Crediting: We are committed to proper attribution. Except in the #contest-vote channel (which uses anonymous voting to ensure fairness), your work will always be credited to your Discord username

You can see how this would look here

While we implement watermarking to deter plagiarism, please be aware that no digital safeguard is foolproof. In the current landscape, advanced AI driven tools can often remove watermarks or alter images quite well. While applying a watermark is the most robust preventative measure we can provide, sharing your work online inherently carries a risk of unauthorized use. Photography Society strives to mitigate these risks, but we cannot guarantee absolute protection against all forms of digital theft. Photography Society is not liable for the unauthorized use, theft, or alteration of your images by third parties

4. Limitations of Liability & Hold Harmless

Photography Society is a community-run project and is not a formal legal entity. “As-Is” Service: Our website and Discord services are provided on an “as-is” and “as-available” basis without warranties of any kind

Limitation of Liability: To the maximum extent permitted by law, Photography Society, its founder (Bram), and its staff team shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from (a) the use or inability to use our services; (b) the unauthorized access to or theft of your images; or (c) any defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of any user
Indemnification: You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Photography Society and its administrators from any claims, damages, or legal fees arising from your violation of these terms or your infringement of any third-party rights

5. Contact & Image Removal

We believe in the “Right to be Forgotten.” If at any point you wish to have your data or your images removed from our website, we will honor that request promptly

Image Removal Requests
If you wish to revoke your license and have an image removed from photographysociety.net, please reach out via the contact methods listed below

Processing Time: We aim to complete all removal requests within 7 business days
Scope of Removal: We are committed to the thorough removal of your content from our active platform. Upon a valid request, we will take all reasonable steps to identify and delete your hosted images, Discord user data, and any other personal information
External Limitations: While we ensure that all data is purged from our own infrastructure, we do not have control over – and cannot be held responsible for – data removal from third parties, such as caching tools, search engine archives, or external scrapers

How to Contact Us:

Discord: Open a Support Ticket or message Bram personally
Email/Web: Go to our Contact Page and fill in the contact form, or email us directly at contact@photographysociety.net
Bug Reports: For technical issues regarding the bot, please use the #server-suggestions channel with the [🤖 Bot] tag. And for issues regarding the website, please create a post in the #server-suggestions channel with the [💻 Website] tag

Disclaimer: Use of this site and the associated Discord server constitutes full acceptance of these terms