Rights and privacy
This page explains what Reprint Memories can and can’t recreate, how we look after your photos, and how to have them deleted. It applies to Reprint Memories requests. Our site-wide privacy policy covers everything else.
What we can recreate
A design on a shirt or a mug usually belongs to whoever created it. Copying someone else’s design without permission can infringe their rights, even for a single keepsake. So we sort every request into one of three groups.
- Usually fine
Family, personal and generic designs
Things your family made or that anyone could make: a sweater with stars and a soccer ball, a family-reunion shirt, a hand-painted sign, a nickname or a date.
For example
- A knit sweater with stars and a soccer ball
- A family reunion or birthday shirt your family designed
- A hand-painted sign, a child’s drawing, a nickname or a date
- Plain patterns like stripes or plaid
- May need permission
School, league, club and local-business designs
These belong to the organization. We’ll ask you to get permission (often a short email to the school or league), or we’ll make a tribute version instead.
For example
- A school team jersey or a school spirit shirt
- A youth-league, club or rec-team shirt
- A church, charity-walk or workplace event shirt
- A logo from a small local business
- Can’t be copied
Big brands, pro teams, characters and bands
We can’t reproduce these exactly, even for one person. We can often make a tribute version: the same colors and feeling, your own words, without the protected artwork.
For example
- Big brands and their logos
- Professional teams and well-known college teams
- Cartoon, movie and video-game characters
- Band, concert and tour shirts
What is a tribute version? When we can’t copy a design, we can often make something that keeps the memory without the protected artwork: the same colors, the same feel, and your own words, like a name, a number or a date.
If we’re not sure, we’ll tell you before any design work starts, and we may ask you to get permission first. We may decline a request we can’t make responsibly.
When you send a request, you confirm: “I have the right to reproduce what’s in these photos — for example a family, personal or local design. I understand that major-brand, pro-team, character or band merchandise usually can’t be recreated exactly.”
How we look after your photos
Where they are kept
- Your photos are stored exactly as you sent them, in private cloud storage run by our hosting provider, Cloudflare.
- Each photo is saved under a random code, not your name or the file’s name. No photo is ever given a public web address.
- Your contact details and your story are kept in a separate private database, also with Cloudflare.
- Our email service, Resend, sends your receipt. It sees your email address and the receipt, not your photos.
Who can see them
- Only the small team handling your request.
- If a keepsake is made, the company that produces and ships it (Printful) receives the finished design and the recipient’s name and shipping address, not your original photos.
- If you contribute, our payment processor, Stripe, handles your card details. We never see or store your full card number.
- Your story is private unless you tell us otherwise. Even then, we ask again before any specific use, and we never use names unless you ask us to.
What we never do
- We never use your photos for marketing, advertising or social media.
- We never use your photos to train AI, and we only use design tools that don’t train on them either.
- We never sell your photos or details, and we share them only as this page describes.
- We don’t sell the recreated design or make it for anyone else. It is made for your family’s keepsakes.
How long we keep them
- If no design is approved, we delete your photos 180 days after your request.
- After your keepsake is sent, we keep your photos for 90 days in case something needs fixing, then delete them.
- You can ask us to delete them sooner, at any time. We act within 7 days and write back to confirm.
When you send a request, you agree: “I agree that my photos will be used only to handle this request — never for marketing and never to train AI — and that I can ask for them to be deleted at any time.” You can send up to 5 photos (JPG, PNG, WEBP or HEIC, up to 15 MB each).
Deleting your photos and details
- Email help@cancerexplained.org from the address you used for your request. Include your reference (it starts with “RM-”) if you have it.
- We delete your photos, your story and your contact details within 7 days.
- We write back to confirm. We keep only a note that a request with that reference existed and was deleted. If you made a contribution, we also keep its financial record (the amount, the date, the gift and its estimated value, and the payment reference), because tax and accounting law require nonprofits to keep those records. That record does not include your photos, your story or your shipping address.
You don’t need to give a reason, and asking never affects anything else you do with Cancer Explained.
Contributions, gifts and refunds
- Requesting a recreation, the design review and the preview are free, whether or not you ever contribute.
- A contribution goes to National Cancer Information Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. If you choose a keepsake as a thank-you gift, we tell you our good-faith estimate of its fair market value before you pay and on your receipt. Only the part of your contribution above that value can be tax-deductible.
- Changed your mind? Email us before your keepsake goes into production and we’ll refund your contribution in full. Once it has been made we can’t refund it, but if it arrives damaged or misprinted, tell us within 30 days and we’ll replace it. A refunded contribution is no longer tax-deductible.
Who runs Reprint Memories
Reprint Memories on Cancer Explained is a program of National Cancer Information Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this site. If this policy changes, we’ll update this page, and the version you agreed to stays on file with your request. Questions? Email help@cancerexplained.org.