# BGClear developer API: data handling and evaluation policy

Effective: 15 October 2026. Contact: anil@bgclear.ai.

BGClear is operated by TECHMARBLES WEB SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED, Plot F8, Phase 8, Industrial Area, Mohali, Punjab 160055, India.

This notice covers the developer API, not the website editor's saved image history. It describes application controls and their limits; it is not a signed data-processing agreement or an India-only hosting promise.

## Free preview evaluation

Automated commercial application testing is permitted using a preview-only key. No card, subscription or credit purchase is required. Use `POST /api/v1/remove` with `size=preview`, `format=png`, `bg_color=transparent`, `crop=false`, `store=false`, and `Accept: image/png`.

Preview processing costs zero credits. A preview-only key rejects full, auto, async and batch processing; it does not upgrade or fall back to paid processing. The PNG preserves canvas aspect ratio, subject to integer-pixel rounding, with longest side at most 800 pixels and no upscaling. The cap is 10 processing requests per minute per key, with no separate daily quota currently. This is not unlimited capacity or guaranteed throughput. For an initial evaluation, process 5–10 images sequentially. On HTTP 429 or 503, respect Retry-After and use bounded exponential backoff; stop and contact us if repeated attempts fail.

## Image use and access

BGClear does not use developer API inputs or outputs to train, fine-tune, benchmark, evaluate or improve AI models, including third-party models. We do not sell these images, publish them, or include them in a human quality-review programme. Service reliability can be measured using operational metadata without image contents. Images are processed by our self-hosted background-removal model; the API does not send them to an external AI inference service.

Infrastructure providers necessarily handle traffic to deliver the API. Our no-model-use commitment is not a claim that providers cannot technically access infrastructure or that their independent contractual terms have been fully verified. Routine support does not require viewing your API images. If image-level troubleshooting is needed, we will ask for a separate example and your explicit permission first. Restricted administrative access may still be necessary for security, legal obligations and incident response.

## Retention and deletion

- **Synchronous inputs:** parsed and processed in application memory. The bounded multipart parser does not spool developer API uploads to disk. The hardened API and GPU services disable process core dumps and swapping. These controls do not promise forensic erasure of RAM, hardware or provider-controlled infrastructure.
- **`store=false`:** no application output file or result database record is retained. The binary result is returned to the caller. A request in progress may continue briefly after a client disconnect; no replayable output is retained for this mode.
- **Stored results:** accessible only with an API key belonging to the owning account, for at most six hours. They are not publicly accessible and do not enter website image history or admin review galleries. Keys within one account share result access.
- **Immediate deletion:** authenticated `DELETE /api/v1/results/{id}` removes the stored payload and prevents replay of that stored result. It cannot recall already downloaded bytes or a download already in flight.
- **Physical application cleanup:** scheduled every five minutes. Healthy operation normally deletes expired rows within five minutes of expiry. Outages or cleanup failures can delay deletion; downloads still deny expired results. There is no guaranteed maximum physical-deletion delay during an outage.
- **Retry metadata:** contains identifiers, a request fingerprint and response metadata, not image bytes; expires after 24 hours, with the same cleanup scheduling caveat. Unstored, deleted and expired outputs cannot be replayed.
- **Managed account backups:** published backups exclude API image payloads, are retained seven days, and are checked by the five-minute cleanup job. This does not establish the policy for provider snapshots or other infrastructure copies.
- **Operational logs:** API access logging is disabled at the BGClear API worker and the configured BGClear reverse proxies. Dedicated API/GPU service diagnostics use a volatile, size-limited journal with a seven-day retention target and daily rotation. Rotation/cleanup timing can add up to a day in healthy operation; restart may remove logs earlier. These settings do not control a hosting provider's own security or platform logs.

Preview-only keys cannot create asynchronous jobs. Separate full-access async jobs can retain queued inputs for up to six hours plus cleanup delay; completed/failed jobs are scrubbed and terminal job metadata expires after 30 days plus cleanup delay. That path is not needed for this evaluation.

## Infrastructure and international handling

The observed image request path includes Cloudflare (edge/security), Fly.io (frontend/API proxy in US region iad), BGClear's account/API origin on an OVHcloud dedicated server operated by BGClear, and the ASUS GPU in India. The API-to-GPU connection uses encrypted Tailscale transport. Uploading directly with `image_file` avoids asking BGClear to fetch a photograph from a separate URL host.

The GPU's India location and the use of an OVHcloud dedicated server are confirmed by the operator; Fly's running US region was verified from deployment records. The operator reports no OVHcloud backup service enabled; that setting has not been independently checked in OVH Manager and does not mean BGClear's sanitized account backups are disabled. The OVHcloud server's physical data centre/country, provider infrastructure-copy policies and the complete provider-level log-retention register remain under confirmation. The operator's India address is not evidence of the OVHcloud server's location. No claim of exclusive India/EU processing, complete subprocessor-country coverage or a completed cross-border legal assessment is made.

Website registration, support and payment services have separate data flows: service email uses Resend and the support inbox; Stripe is used only when paid checkout is requested; website analytics are described in the general privacy policy. Sending an API image does not authorize a purchase.

Provider references: [Cloudflare DPA](https://www.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-customer-dpa/), [Tailscale DPA](https://tailscale.com/dpa). These are references, not a BGClear customer DPA or proof that every relevant provider arrangement has been completed.

Before production/customer photographs, request the completed subprocessor register and applicable data-processing/transfer terms from anil@bgclear.ai. An own-wardrobe evaluation does not itself resolve those production requirements.

## Changes to the offering

For planned material changes that reduce developer preview access, introduce charges, reduce published processing limits or materially change API image use/retention, BGClear will email affected registered API account holders at least 30 days before the change takes effect and update this notice. Keep your account email current. Emergency security, abuse-prevention or legal changes may take effect sooner; we will communicate them as soon as reasonably possible. Temporary contention, outages and enforcement of existing limits are not a promise of advance notice.

A preview-only key will not silently become a paid key. Paid processing requires the user's separate, explicit choice. This notice does not provide an uptime SLA or a guarantee of indefinite free service.