> The rules for using Trace: what credits are, what you may and may not search for, refunds, and the limits of what a face search result proves. **LAST UPDATED 23 AUGUST 2026** # TERMS OF USE Using Trace means agreeing to these terms. They are short on purpose: the two things that matter are what a result actually means, and what you are allowed to search for. ### What Trace is Trace takes one photograph of a face and tells you where a similar face appears on the publicly accessible web, with a similarity score on each result. It is operated by Trace Labs. ### What a result is not A match is a **similarity score, not an identification**. A score of 95 means two images are very likely of the same person; it does not mean they certainly are, and it says nothing about who that person is. Trace is not a background check, not an identity verification service, not a credit or employment screening tool, and its output is not evidence of anything. Every result links to a public page so you can look at it and judge for yourself. Decisions you make about another person on the basis of a Trace result are yours. Trace searches an index of publicly published images. An empty result means nothing was found in that index — not that the person has no online presence. ### What you may search Only photographs you have the right to search: - Photographs of yourself. - Photographs of someone who has given you their consent. - Photographs you have another lawful basis to process under the law that applies to you. ### What you may not do - Identify, locate, monitor, stalk or harass anyone. - Search a face to build a profile of someone, to dox them, or to expose their identity. - Use Trace for employment, tenancy, lending, insurance or any other decision about a person's eligibility for something. - Use it against minors. - Use it for surveillance, law-enforcement or intelligence purposes. - Resell results, scrape the service, or work around rate limits and credit costs. - Upload anything unlawful, or a photograph you have no right to use. Breaking these terms means we can suspend or delete your account. If the breach is serious we will do so without a refund, and we will cooperate with a lawful request about it. ### Your account There is no sign-up form. Trace generates an account ID and a recovery key and shows them to you once. **We store only a hash of the key and cannot recover it for you.** If you lose it and lose your signed-in browser, the account and its credits are gone — the one exception being that a Telegram account linked by a previous payment can still get you back in. Keeping the key safe is your responsibility, and anyone who has it has your account. ### Credits and payment - One credit unlocks one search. Credits are bought in packs and **never expire**. - There is no subscription. Nothing renews, and there is nothing to cancel. - Prices are in US dollars. There are two ways to pay: **Telegram Stars**, made inside Telegram, where Telegram charges the equivalent in Stars and its own terms apply to that payment; or **cryptocurrency**, on a payment page hosted by our payment processor, where their terms apply. We never see a wallet address and we do not handle the transfer ourselves. - A crypto payment must arrive in full. If less than the invoiced amount arrives, it is held for review rather than converted into credits, and we sort it out with you by hand. - A credit is spent when a search runs. If the search fails for a technical reason, the credit is returned to your balance automatically. - Credits have no cash value, cannot be transferred between accounts and cannot be exchanged for money. - **Refunds:** unspent credits can be refunded on request. Credits already spent on completed searches are not refundable — the search was performed and cost us money, and a result you did not like is still a result. A Telegram Stars payment is refunded through Telegram; a crypto payment cannot be reversed automatically, so we send it back by hand and need a wallet address from you. Where consumer law in your country gives you a stronger right than this, that law wins. Prices can change. A change never affects credits you already hold. ### The free preview Before you hold any credits, the panel shows you a **sample result** so you can see what a finished case looks like — the layout, the score bands and a card for each source. It is there to show you the shape of the product, not to tell you anything about the photo you uploaded. Nothing is searched until a credit is spent. The API never returns it: an API request from an account with no credits comes back locked, with no matches. ### The API API keys are personal to your account and spend the same credit balance. Do not publish a key or embed it in a client application; every search made with your key is your responsibility. We can revoke a key that is abusing the service or is being used to break these terms. Everything in "What you may not do" above applies to the API in full — a key used for background checks, hiring, lending, insurance, surveillance or law enforcement gets revoked. See the [API page](https://traceaifacescan.app/ai-face-scan-api/). ### Availability Trace runs its own search engine, on our own servers. That engine in turn queries public image search engines it does not control, so a search depends on services outside our reach as well as on us. We do not promise uninterrupted service, and we do not promise a particular number of results for any search — an empty result means nothing was found on the part of the public web we can reach, not that the person has no online presence. If the service is unavailable, unspent credits keep their value and wait for you. ### Liability Trace is provided as-is. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability is limited to what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited. ### Law These terms are governed by Turkish law, and the courts of Türkiye have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, this does not remove protections you have under the law of your own country. ### Changes We can update these terms. Material changes will be shown in the panel before they take effect. See also the [Privacy Policy](https://traceaifacescan.app/privacy/), which covers what happens to the photographs you upload.