Privacy Policy

This Policy applies to clients, stylists, applicants, and visitors who use Encore. It covers personal information we handle as a business. It does not govern how an independent stylist handles information you share with them directly outside the platform, or the practices of third-party services that have their own policies (Section 5).

The categories of personal information we may collect, depending on how you use Encore:

• Identifiers & contact information - your email address, your name when you provide it, and a phone number (optional - added to your account, or provided at checkout - used for booking text reminders and identity verification). We sign you in with passwordless one-time codes, so we don’t store a password.
• Client request details - the occasion, timeline, the city you choose, an optional comfortable range, and notes describing what you’re looking for.
• Location - city-level only (a city you select, with its coordinates), used to match you with stylists by distance. We do not collect precise GPS/geolocation.
• Stylist application & profile information - for stylists: portfolio links, occasions, aesthetics, specialties, rates, service areas, bio, and (as part of the certification workflow) business-formation and tax information used to confirm independent-contractor status. Identity (KYC) and tax information for stylist payouts is collected and held by Stripe during payout onboarding - not by Encore.
• Photos & other content - work-sample images stylists upload (stored privately; shown only when the stylist publishes them) and content such as reviews.
• Booking & transaction information - the session, date, and amount. Card numbers and payout/bank details are collected and held by Stripe, our payment processor - not by Encore.
• Shipping & contact address - if you rent a piece that is shipped to you, or if you return a rented piece by prepaid mailer, the street address entered for that shipment (the one you enter at checkout, or, for a piece rented in person at your session, the return address your stylist enters at that time). If you are a stylist offering shipping or a prepaid mailer, the return address you set once in your Collection settings. If you tick “save this address” at checkout, we also keep that address on your account to prefill your next rental; it is used for nothing else, you can remove it at any time under Account, and it is deleted with your account. Where automated label generation is active, we share the relevant addresses with our shipping-label vendor to generate the shipping and return labels; we also share them with the stylist so they can ship or accept the piece, and the operator can see them to support the rental.
• At-home session address - if you book a styling session at your home, the full address you enter at checkout, so your stylist can come to you. It is shared only with the stylist for that booking (and the operator, to support it); we do not use it for anything else. Sessions at a stylist’s studio or held virtually never ask for it.
• Toneprint - if you use the Toneprint feature, the answers you select to a short set of prompts about how colors and fabrics look against your skin, plus, only if you choose to answer them, a few optional prompts about your own coloring such as your hair and eyes (every one of which you can skip), an optional short note you may add, and the editorial read we generate from them. These answers are self-reported by you, are kept only as the options you chose, and are used only to produce your read. Toneprint is for entertainment and inspiration only, and your read is never used to match, rank, or recommend stylists or rentals. Your Toneprint answers, including anything you tell us about your own coloring, are never used to infer your race, ethnicity, health, or any other protected characteristic, and are never used to make any decision about you. If you choose to, you can share a summary of your Toneprint (your palette and result name, never a photo or your quiz answers) with a stylist you book, so they can prepare for your session; only a stylist you have booked can see it, and you can turn sharing off at any time. A paid Deep Toneprint is processed by Stripe; the editorial copy is generated by a processor (Anthropic) from your preferences only, under a contract that prohibits training on your data. If a photo module is offered, any photo you add is read entirely on your own device for a general color impression, the image itself is discarded after those few color values are read and is never transmitted to or stored by us, and no facial recognition, faceprint, face-geometry template, or other biometric identifier is ever created. See the Toneprint Terms.
• Communications - messages you send us (contact, support, inquiries) and waitlist sign-ups.
• Platform messages - messages exchanged through Encore’s in-platform messaging channel, including between you and a stylist and between you and Encore support, together with the related conversation details (the participants, an optional appointment link, display names, and read state). These are free text you write, and we keep them as records for safety and dispute resolution (Sections 4 and 8). Before a booking exists, the version of an inquiry message shown to the other party has specific contact details and off-platform-payment solicitations masked for safety and fraud prevention, with the rest delivered; this masking stops once a booking exists. Apart from that pre-booking masking, we do not alter or withhold message content, and we do not screen it to enforce the platform service fee. We do not request or derive precise geolocation or government identifiers from your messages.
• Usage & device information - basic, privacy-respecting information about how the site is used (such as pages viewed and general device/browser data). We do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking technologies (Section 6).
• Agreement & transaction records - when you accept our Terms (at sign-in, a booking, a gift purchase, or a Deep Toneprint purchase), we keep a record of that action: the date and time, the version of the terms you accepted, your IP address, and basic browser/device information. We keep this as proof of your agreement, to resolve disputes and defend payment disputes and chargebacks, and to help detect and prevent fraud and abuse.
• Stylist agreement acceptance records - if you are a stylist, accepting the Stylist Agreement and the Arbitration Procedure is how your account is activated, and we keep a fuller record of that acceptance: your account identity and the email on your account at the time, the exact date and time, your IP address, your browser’s user-agent string, a session identifier, the language shown, the build of the site that presented the page, the exact version and content fingerprint of each document you accepted, the wording of the box you checked, and a copy of the acceptance screen as it was presented to you. We keep it because it is the proof that you agreed, that the arbitration terms were shown to you conspicuously, and that you accepted as an independent business. We do not use it for any other purpose. You can view and download your own acceptance records, and the exact documents you accepted, at any time under Account, Legal.

We do not collect Social Security numbers, government-ID numbers, precise geolocation, or biometric information from clients, and we minimize sensitive information generally (Section 10).

Most information comes directly from you - when you create an account, submit a request, apply as a stylist, build a profile, book a session, or contact us. Some usage and device information is collected automatically when you use the site, and transaction status comes from our payment processor.

We use personal information for the following business purposes:

• To operate the marketplace - show stylist profiles, match clients with stylists by occasion and distance, and enable requests and bookings.
• To process payments and pay out stylists (through Stripe).
• To resolve disputes and to contest payment disputes and chargebacks, including by assembling and submitting records of your bookings, acceptances, completions, and related communications as evidence.
• To review stylist applications and maintain our curation, trust, and safety standards.
• To communicate with you - booking confirmations, sign-in codes, support responses, and, where you’ve opted in or completed a session with us, a capped set of lifecycle or rebooking emails, each with an unsubscribe link.
• To keep Encore secure, prevent fraud and abuse, and comply with legal, tax, and recordkeeping obligations.
• To operate in-platform messaging and keep it safe - we run the messaging channel so you can coordinate a session and reach support, and we provide report and block tools for safety and abuse prevention. We process message content only by automated means, and only to operate the channel, for safety and abuse prevention, and for legal compliance, and we keep messages as records for safety, abuse prevention, and dispute resolution. Before a booking exists, we automatically detect and mask specific contact details and off-platform-payment solicitations in the version of an inquiry message shown to the other party, as a safety and fraud-prevention measure, and deliver the rest; this pre-booking masking stops once a booking exists. Apart from that pre-booking masking, we do not alter or withhold message content, and we do not screen or use message content to enforce the platform service fee; the pre-booking masking is a safety and fraud-prevention measure, not a condition of any booking, and you remain free to share your own contact information and to work off the platform. We do not write, script, template, auto-reply as, relay, or modify a stylist’s messages, and we do not control which clients a stylist works with. Message content is never used to train artificial-intelligence models, is never sent to an artificial-intelligence provider, and is never used to match, route, or rank stylists or rentals.

We use information for the purposes described here and compatible purposes; we won’t use it for a new, incompatible purpose without first providing notice.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not “share” it for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined under California law. We disclose information only to the categories of recipients below, for the purposes described:

• Service providers that operate Encore under contracts limiting them to that purpose - including Stripe (payments, payouts, and stylist identity/tax information), Supabase (database, authentication, private file storage), Resend (transactional and sign-in email, platform-message notifications - masked, never the message body - and, if you are on the consented marketing list, lifecycle or rebooking emails), Vercel (hosting), a shipping-label vendor where automated label generation is active (shipping-label generation for rentals shipped to you or returned by prepaid mailer - the shipping or return address only), and Google (business email and workspace).
• Between client and stylist - information needed to arrange and complete a booking is shared with the stylist (or client) involved, including, for a rental shipped to you or returned by prepaid mailer, your shipping or return address, and, for an at-home session, your home address, plus contact details so the stylist can ship or accept the piece or come to you.
• Legal & safety - when required by law, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our users, the public, or Encore.
• Business transfers - if Encore is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may transfer as part of that transaction, subject to this Policy.

We use only the cookies and storage necessary to run the site (for example, to keep you signed in) and privacy-respecting analytics to understand and improve how Encore is used. We do not use third-party advertising pixels, retargeting, customer-list uploads, lookalike audiences, or session-replay tools. If we ever introduce advertising technologies, we will update this Policy, provide the required notices and opt-outs, and honor opt-out preference signals.

The table below maps our practices to the categories in the California Consumer Privacy Act. It reflects our practices during the 12 months preceding the date of this Policy. We have not sold personal information, and we have not shared personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, in that period or otherwise.

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purpose for which it was collected, then delete it or de-identify it. Our general retention guidelines:

• Account and profile information - while your account is active, plus a reasonable period afterward.
• Booking and payment records - approximately seven years, for tax and accounting.
• Dispute and chargeback evidence (booking and session records, your acceptance and completion confirmations, and related communications) - kept with the related booking and payment records so we can contest payment disputes.
• Client photos - deleted within roughly 12-24 months after a session unless you choose to save them.
• Waitlist and marketing leads - refreshed or deleted after about 24 months of inactivity.
• Stylist business-formation, license, and insurance certifications - retained at least three years, as required for our referral model.
• Rejected stylist applications - kept only for a limited period (about 1-2 years), not indefinitely.
• Support messages and incident records - kept for a limited period appropriate to potential disputes.
• Platform messages - messages between you and a stylist (or support) are kept tied to the related booking’s dispute window; threads with no completed booking are pruned about 24 months after the last message, and we do not hold them on the seven-year horizon unless a related dispute or legal hold is open. They are deletable on request subject to a legal-hold and active-dispute carve-out.
• Agreement and acceptance records (proof you accepted our Terms, with the date, version, and IP/device used) - kept for the life of your account plus the period during which a related legal claim could arise.
• Stylist agreement acceptance records (the fuller acceptance record described in Section 2, with the documents accepted and the screen as presented) - kept for as long as you are a stylist on Encore and for at least four years after that, because they are the record of the contract between us and of your status as an independent business, and a claim about either can be brought for years afterward. If a record is subject to a legal hold or an open dispute, we keep it until that is resolved. These records are not auto-purged and are exempt from deletion on request for that period; you can always obtain a copy of your own.

Where required by law, and otherwise where feasible, we honor the following rights regarding the personal information we hold about you:

• Know / access - request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we’ve collected about you.
• Correct - request that we fix inaccurate personal information.
• Delete - request that we delete personal information, subject to legal exceptions (such as records we must keep).
• Opt out of sale/sharing - we do not sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of; if that ever changes, we’ll provide a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” option.
• Limit sensitive information - we minimize sensitive information and use it only to provide the service you requested (Section 10).
• Non-discrimination - we won’t deny service, charge a different price, or provide a lesser experience because you exercised your rights.
• Appeal - if we decline all or part of a request, we will explain why, and you may appeal by replying to our response or emailing privacy@encorestylist.com with “Appeal” in the subject line; we will respond to an appeal within the timeframe required by law and in any event within 60 days.

To make a request, email privacy@encorestylist.com. We will verify your request (and may ask for information to confirm your identity) and respond within the timeframes required by law. You don’t need to create an account to make a privacy request, and you may use an authorized agent where the law allows.

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code §1798.83) lets California residents ask about disclosures of personal information to third parties for those parties’ direct-marketing purposes: we do not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct-marketing purposes.

Encore is built to minimize sensitive information. We use city-level location, not GPS; work samples are kept in private storage and shown only when a stylist publishes them; and payment details are handled by Stripe, not stored by us. We ask you not to share more sensitive detail than a session requires, and we use what you do share only to provide the service you asked for - not to infer characteristics about you.

If you use Toneprint, the answers you give about how colors look against your skin, and the optional prompts about your own coloring, are self-reported by you and kept only as the options you chose. We keep no photograph and build no profile of your appearance, we do not use these answers to infer your race, ethnicity, health, or any other protected characteristic, and we do not use them to make any decision about you or to decide what you are shown. You can delete a Toneprint read, and the answers behind it, at any time from your account.

We do not use automated decision-making technology to make significant decisions about you without human involvement. Stylist applications and curation decisions are reviewed by a person. If we ever adopt automated decision-making for significant decisions, we will provide the notices, opt-out, and access rights required by law.

At or before the point we collect personal information on a form - such as a stylist application, a session request, a booking, a rental checkout (including the ship-to or return address for a shipped or mailed-back rental, and your home address for an at-home session), the contact form, or the waitlist - we provide a brief notice of what we collect and why, with a link to this Policy.

Encore is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, request, or book a session, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn we have, we will delete it.

We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards, including encrypted storage, least-privilege access with multi-factor authentication on our key accounts, secrets kept out of source code, private photo storage served through short-lived links, and regular backups. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will notify affected users and authorities as required by law if a breach affecting personal information occurs.

We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) and similar opt-out preference signals as a valid request to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. Today we do not sell or “share” personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing for the signal to opt you out of - but if that ever changes, a GPC signal will be treated as your opt-out without any further action by you. Because we do not track you across other websites or serve behavioral advertising, we do not otherwise respond differently to browser “Do Not Track” signals at this time.

We may update this Policy as Encore grows or our practices change. We’ll revise the date above and, for material changes, provide a more prominent notice. Your continued use after an update means you accept the revised Policy.

For privacy questions or requests, email privacy@encorestylist.com or reach us through our contact page. See also our Terms of Service.