Trust

Built for sensitive community stories

Photovoice works because participants stay in control of their own photographs and words. These are the commitments this platform is built around, and what they mean in practice.

You're told how your work is used before you contribute: Each project discloses its intended uses — for example, project analysis, a project gallery, or a stakeholder report — before you contribute anything. Those declared uses are the terms of taking part in that project; if you don't accept them, your contribution isn't collected for that project. Your photograph or story is never used outside the uses disclosed for that project, and a facilitator still has to select and approve anything that reaches a report or exhibit.
You choose how you are named: Anonymous, initials, or your full name. You can change your choice before you submit, and ask your facilitator to change it afterwards.
Your words stay your words: Your narrative is not rewritten. Optional reflection prompts and facilitator notes are labeled as suggestions and kept separate from what you wrote.
No identifiable faces: The Photovoice360/TAP protocol is that participant photographs do not show identifiable faces. It is the default on every project here, and a project sets its own protocol during setup, so read the wording on your own project's upload screen. Meaning can be carried by place, objects, gesture, silhouette, distance, or metaphor — an empty chair, a locked door, hands at work, a light left on.
You can request withdrawal: You can request withdrawal from your story page. Once your facilitator processes the request, the story is removed from any gallery or exhibit and remains visible to you and your project facilitators.
Comments stay private: Notes between you and your facilitator are visible to the two of you and to facilitators of your project. There are no public comments, likes, or follower counts on this platform.
Images are held in private storage: Uploaded photographs are held in private storage rather than on a public URL. They are readable by you and your project facilitators, and — only where a disclosed public use was accepted and a facilitator approved the story — by visitors to your published story.
Your original photograph is kept as you took it: Your upload is stored twice: the original file at full size, and a smaller copy used for on-screen display. Only the display copy is resized, so a photograph selected for print or an exhibit later is prepared from your original rather than from a shrunken version of it.

How AI is used, and where it stops

Built-in guidance can explain a question, organize material, suggest possible patterns across submissions, and help draft facilitator or organizational documents. It does not write a participant's reflection or story, decide what a photograph means, or turn a suggestion into a confirmed community finding. A suggested pattern is labeled as a potential pattern until facilitators and participants review it.

For institutional review

Verified today: photographs are stored privately rather than on public URLs; database row policies, not screen design, restrict reflections and submissions to the participant and their project facilitators; public visibility requires an accepted intended use plus facilitator approval; consent records are versioned per project; the original upload is retained alongside the display copy; later edits are stored as added versions rather than written over the original.

Photograph checks run in the participant's own browser and can point out a likely screen capture, a file too small for its intended use, or a face where the browser supports that detection. They are advisory prompts for the participant and facilitator, not verification of what an image contains.

Not claimed: Photovoice360 does not represent itself as HIPAA, FERPA, IRB, or otherwise certified or compliant, and does not claim to be completely secure. Ethics board or IRB review, where a project requires it, remains the responsibility of the institution running the project. If your organization needs documentation for a review process, ask us for the specific detail you need rather than relying on a general assurance.

Questions or a withdrawal request?

Speak to your project facilitator first — a facilitator can unpublish a story. You can also request withdrawal yourself from your completed story page.