📜 Terms of Service

1 What Photo20KB Is

Photo20KB is a free, browser-based tool that helps you compress photos to specific file sizes (like 20KB) for:

• Passport Applications: Meeting government photo size requirements
• Aadhaar & PAN Cards: Compressing photos for UIDAI and Income Tax portals
• Job Applications: Resizing photos for SSC, UPSC, Railway, and other government job portals
• Educational Forms: Meeting college and exam registration requirements
• Any Online Form: Wherever a specific photo size is required

2 It's Free (And We Mean It)

Let's be crystal clear about what "free" means at Photo20KB:

• No Registration: Just visit and use — no account needed
• No Payment: We will never ask for payment information
• No Premium Version: There's no paid tier — everyone gets the same tool
• No Usage Limits: Compress as many photos as you want
• No Watermarks: Your compressed photos are clean, unmarked

How Do We Sustain This?

We may display non-intrusive advertisements on the website. These ads help cover our hosting and development costs. The ads are:

• Clearly marked as advertisements
• Separate from the compression tool
• Never blocking or interrupting your work

3 Your Photos, Your Rights

This is important: You own your photos before, during, and after compression.

• Your Ownership: We claim zero rights to your photos or compressed results
• Your Privacy: Photos never leave your device (see our Privacy Policy)
• Your Usage: Use compressed photos anywhere — personal, commercial, government
• Your Responsibility: You're responsible for having rights to photos you compress

4 Our Intellectual Property

While your photos are yours, the Photo20KB tool itself is our creation:

• Website Design: The layout, colors, and graphics are our property
• Compression Code: Our JavaScript compression algorithm is proprietary
• Brand & Logo: The Photo20KB name and branding are ours
• Content: Text, FAQs, and educational content on the site

What You Can't Do:

• Copy our code and create a competing tool
• Claim Photo20KB is your product
• Reverse-engineer our compression algorithm
• Use our branding without permission

5 Acceptable Use

We built Photo20KB to help people with legitimate photo compression needs. Here's what we expect:

• Personal Use: Compress photos for your own applications and forms
• Helping Others: It's fine to help family members compress their photos
• Educational: Teachers can demonstrate the tool in classes
• Professional: Businesses can use it for employee ID photos
• Normal Browsing: Use a regular browser like a normal human

6 What's Absolutely NOT Allowed

These activities are strictly prohibited and may result in legal action:

• Document Fraud: Creating fake IDs, forged documents, or fraudulent applications
• Identity Theft: Using someone else's photos without permission
• Illegal Content: Processing photos that are illegal (CSAM, terrorism, etc.)
• Government Deception: Submitting manipulated photos to deceive authorities
• Automated Scraping: Using bots or scripts to access our website
• DDOS/Attacks: Attempting to overload or hack our servers
• Reselling: Charging others to use our free tool

7 No Guarantees (Being Honest)

We've built Photo20KB to work well, but we can't guarantee perfection. Here's our honest position:

What We CAN'T Promise:

• 100% Uptime: The website may occasionally be unavailable for maintenance
• Portal Acceptance: We can't guarantee every government portal will accept our output
• Perfect Quality: Compression always involves some quality trade-off
• All Browsers: Very old browsers may not work properly
• Specific Results: Exact file sizes depend on original photo characteristics

What We DO Strive For:

• Best possible quality at target file sizes
• Compatibility with common government portal requirements
• Works on all modern browsers and devices
• Regular updates and improvements

8 Limitation of Liability

This is the "legal protection" section. In plain terms:

• Free Tool: Since Photo20KB is free, we can't be held financially liable for issues
• Your Responsibility: You're responsible for verifying photos meet your needs
• No Consequential Damages: We're not liable for rejected applications, missed deadlines, or travel issues
• Maximum Liability: Even if we were liable, it would be limited to ₹0 (the amount you paid)

Practical translation: If a government portal rejects your photo, we're sorry, but we can't compensate you. Please always verify your compressed photos before important submissions.

9 Indian Law & Dispute Resolution

Photo20KB is operated from India, and these terms are governed by Indian law:

• Governing Law: Laws of India, specifically applicable IT and contract laws
• Jurisdiction: Courts of India have exclusive jurisdiction
• Dispute Resolution: We prefer to resolve issues amicably via email first

Applicable Laws Include:

• Indian Contract Act, 1872: Governs our agreement with you
• Information Technology Act, 2000: Regulates digital services
• Consumer Protection Act, 2019: Protects your consumer rights
• Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: Data privacy rules

10 Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms occasionally. Here's how we handle changes:

• Notice: We'll update the "Effective Date" at the top
• No Surprise Changes: Core promises (free, private) won't change
• Continued Use: Using the site after changes means you accept them
• Major Changes: We'll add a notice banner for significant updates

Our Core Commitments (Won't Change):

• ✅ Photo20KB will remain free to use
• ✅ Your photos will never be uploaded to our servers
• ✅ We won't sell or share your data
• ✅ No registration will ever be required