Effective October 8, 2026. The Cat House Estate LLC ("Cat House," "we") operates cathousemeow.com. This policy explains how we collect, use, keep and destroy biometric identifiers and biometric information when we check a visitor's age.
When we collect it
Some U.S. states require adult websites to confirm that every visitor is 18 or older. Only visitors located in those states are asked to verify. Everyone else sees a simple age confirmation and no images are collected.
What we collect
- A photo of the front of a government-issued photo identification (ID), such as a driver's license, state ID or passport.
- Two live selfie photos taken a few seconds apart.
- To confirm the ID belongs to the person taking the selfie, the photos are compared by an automated artificial intelligence (AI) service. This comparison of facial features may be considered a scan or record of face geometry, which is a biometric identifier under laws such as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (CUBI).
We do not collect face data from visitors located in Illinois. Where a state requires verification but we do not compare faces, only the ID photo is checked.
Why we collect it
For one purpose only: to verify that the visitor is old enough to access the site, as required by state law. We never use these images or any face data for marketing, advertising, profiling, identifying people, training AI models or any other purpose.
Who processes it
Images are sent over an encrypted connection to Anthropic, PBC (public benefit corporation), which provides the AI check as a service provider on our behalf. If the automated check is inconclusive, an authorized Cat House staff member may view the images to make the decision, except for visitors in states where we may not retain identifying information (currently Texas), whose images are never queued for staff review.
We never sell, lease, trade or otherwise profit from biometric identifiers or biometric information, and we do not disclose them to anyone else unless required by law or a valid warrant or subpoena.
How long we keep it, and how we destroy it
- Images are stored encrypted on our server only while a decision is being made.
- When the automated check approves or denies, the images are permanently deleted right away.
- For visitors in Texas, images are deleted immediately after the automated check whatever the result. We do not keep any identifying information from the verification.
- If an image is waiting for staff review, it is permanently deleted as soon as staff decide, and in any case no later than 72 hours after it was submitted.
- Deletion overwrites the encrypted file and then removes it. We never store the date of birth, name, address or ID number. After a decision we keep only a record that a check happened, the date, the state, the result and the date you gave consent.
In every case, biometric data is destroyed long before the limits set by law: the earlier of when the purpose is satisfied or three years after your last interaction with us under Illinois law, and within a reasonable time and no later than one year after the purpose expires under Texas law.
Your consent
We do not turn on the camera or collect any image until you read a notice describing the above and sign a written release electronically by ticking the consent box and pressing Start. You can decline by leaving the page.
Security
We protect this data with at least the same care we use for other confidential information: encrypted transmission, encrypted storage (Advanced Encryption Standard, AES-256), a private folder not reachable from the web, and access limited to site administrators.
Contact
Questions about this policy: review@cathousemeow.com.
