← Back to the tool◐

Last updated: 21 October 2026

The short version

You upload a photo, we crop it to your country's official passport-photo format and whiten the background, you download the result. Your upload is deleted the moment processing finishes (the one exception is a photo you choose to send us when we could not find a face, see “Photos you choose to send us” below); the generated photos are deleted from the server within 45 minutes (6 hours with a monthly pass, 24 hours with a Pro pass: that longer window is part of what the pass is for). No accounts, no profiles, no sharing, no training.

About face detection (important for a photo tool)

To position your photo correctly we detect the location of your face in the image. This happens on our own server, in memory, to compute the crop (and, only for a photo you choose to send us, to find out why the detection missed the face). We do not build, store or compare biometric templates or face signatures, and we cannot identify you. Once your files are deleted (see above), no image of your face remains, unless you chose to send us a photo (see below). The only thing we keep is one number per photo: the measured head height in millimetres, without the image, so we can check how well our crops fit each country's rules.

What we process

• Your photo, held only as long as needed to produce the result; upload removed immediately after processing, results wiped within 45 minutes (6 hours with a monthly pass, 24 hours with a Pro pass, that longer window is part of what the pass is for).
• Basic technical data, IP address and standard request headers, used for rate-limiting, security and counting visits. For the counts we keep your IP address only as a hash made with a secret key that changes every day and is deleted after 48 hours; after that the hash can no longer be traced back to you. Next to it we note the file size and the measured head height of each photo, never the photo itself.
• Screenshots from “Report a problem”, if you send a report through the Feedback button, a screenshot of the page is attached. That box is ticked by default; untick it to send only your text. Because the screenshot can show your photo, it is deleted after 30 days.

To count returning visitors and understand how the tools are used over time, we set one first-party cookie with a random number. The number is not derived from your IP address or your device, and the cookie lasts 13 months. We store it only in a scrambled form that we cannot link back to the cookie without a secret kept on our own server. It is used for our own statistics only, never shared and never used for advertising or any other purpose. We do not set it if your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. You can stop it at any time by clearing your cookies or with the opt-out button below. Data of individual visitors is deleted after 13 months; aggregated counts without any identifier are kept. Nothing changes in the code made from your IP address that we use for our other usage counts: the code is still deleted after 48 hours and the daily counts after 60 days.

Switch statistics off for this browser

To protect the service, if one address sends many rejected uploads in a short time (20 files over the size or format limit within an hour), we block uploads from that address for 24 hours. For this we keep a scrambled form of the address (a different code from the daily one, because the block must outlast the day) for at most 24 hours, and it is never used for anything else.

Uploads and results are never included in our backups, and neither are photos you choose to send us.

Files you choose to send us

Some of our other tools let you send us the file you uploaded and its result, to help us catch mistakes. PassportNinja asks in one situation only: when we could not find a face in your photo. We never ask you to share a photo in any other situation. Details in the next section.

Photos you choose to send us

Normally we never keep your photo. There is one exception, and it only happens if you choose it: when we could not find a face in your photo, the page asks whether you want to send us that one photo. Nothing is sent unless you tick the box and click “Send this photo”.

What we do with it: a person on our team looks at it, and our own software checks it on our own computers, to find out why our face detection missed the face and to make it better. We never use it to train AI, we never share it with anyone, and we do not link it to your IP address or to any account. We remove the location and camera data from the file and keep only the photo itself, scaled to at most 2400 pixels on the long side.

How long: 30 days, then it is deleted automatically. Want it deleted sooner? After sending, the page shows a code. Email that code to info@shinobitools.com and we delete the photo. The photo is never included in our backups.

Who may send: you, if you are 16 or older, or the parent or guardian of the person in the photo, and only if everyone else in the photo agrees. You never have to: the tool works exactly the same if you do not tick the box.

Email list

You can leave your email address to get a code that takes 10% off a Pro pass. If you also tick the box under it, we email you when there is a pass code or a new tool. Those are the only reasons we ask for it. The tools work without it: nothing here needs an account, and nothing is hidden behind giving us your address.

We store the address, when you signed up, which site you signed up on, the IP address you used, and the exact sentence that was shown next to the box when you ticked it. That last part is the proof that you asked for this, which is what the law expects us to keep. There is no separate confirmation click. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link that deletes the address, so if someone else entered yours, one click removes it. The 10% code sets one cookie (shinobi_korting) for 48 hours, only so the checkout knows the discount applies.

The emails themselves are delivered by Resend (Resend, Inc.), which sees the address in order to deliver the message and nothing else. We keep your address until you unsubscribe.

Every email has an unsubscribe link that works in one click, without logging in. Use it and your address is deleted: all that stays behind is a one-way hash, so we can show that we honoured it. We never sell, rent or share the list, and we don't use it to follow you around the web.

Advertising

When ads are shown here, third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on those visits. You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google’s Ads Settings, and opt out of some other vendors’ advertising cookies at www.aboutads.info.

PassportNinja is free and kept running by advertising (Google AdSense). Google and its partners may use cookies to show and measure ads; where required, consent is requested through Google's certified consent tools first. See how Google uses information from partner sites; manage preferences at adssettings.google.com.

Who we are, why we process data, and for how long

PassportNinja is run by ShinobiTools, registered with the KvK (Dutch Chamber of Commerce) under number 42147182. Contact: info@shinobitools.com.

• Processing your photo as you ask, basis: performing the service you request (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Kept: your upload is only held in memory and is gone as soon as processing finishes; the results are deleted after 45 minutes, after 6 hours with the free monthly e-mail pass, or after 24 hours with a paid Pro pass.
• Photos you choose to send us, basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), given by ticking the box and clicking Send; you can withdraw it at any time by emailing your code. Kept: 30 days, then deleted automatically.
• Limits, security and usage counts, basis: our legitimate interest in keeping the tool working and fair (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Kept: the daily counts for 60 days. The per-photo numbers described above (file size and head height) have no fixed deletion date, but after 48 hours they can no longer be linked to you.
• Contact form, basis: answering your message (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Kept: at most 180 days.
• “Report a problem” with an optional screenshot (ticked by default, you can untick it): basis: seeing the problem you report (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Kept: the screenshot for 30 days. To sort reports, the text you type (not the screenshot) is read by an AI assistant, Claude, from Anthropic.
• Email list and discount code, basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). Kept: until you unsubscribe (see above).
• Advertising cookies, basis: your consent, asked through the cookie banner.
• Google Fonts, the typeface used on this site is loaded from Google's servers (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com) as a page opens, so Google receives your IP address and browser details with that request. We use it to show the pages in the intended typeface. See Google's privacy policy.
• Microsoft Clarity, a script from clarity.ms that records how the pages are used, such as clicks and scrolling, so we can see where a page gets in the way. It is loaded only after you agree to it in the cookie banner. Where the cookie banner reports that consent is not required for your location, it is loaded without that step. See Microsoft's privacy statement.
• YouTube, the demo videos on some pages are played by YouTube (Google). Nothing is loaded from the YouTube player until you press play; then the video is loaded from youtube.com, which receives your IP address and may set its own cookies. On some video pages the preview picture is loaded from YouTube's image server (i.ytimg.com) when the page is shown. See Google's privacy policy.
• Cloudflare, the connection to this site runs through Cloudflare, which passes the traffic on to us and provides security. Cloudflare sees your IP address and the pages you request, and may set a cookie of its own, for example when it checks that a visitor is not a bot. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• Stripe, if you buy a pass, you pay on Stripe's own checkout page, not ours. Your card details go to Stripe under its privacy policy, and we never see them. We receive confirmation that the order was paid, its order number and the e-mail address you entered.

Your photo is processed on computers we operate ourselves. Uploads, results and photos you choose to send us are never included in our backups.

You have the right to access, correct or delete your data, to object to processing and to withdraw your consent at any time; write to info@shinobitools.com. You can also complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl), or to the supervisory authority in your own country.

Contact

info@shinobitools.com