Uploading a photo of your face to a website is a reasonable thing to be cautious about. So let's answer the question directly: when you use WhatZoo, your photo never leaves your device. There's no upload, no server copy, and nothing stored. Here's how that works and why it matters.
The short answer
WhatZoo runs its face analysis entirely in your browser, on your own device. The AI model that finds your facial landmarks is downloaded to your browser and does all of its work there. Your image is processed locally and then discarded when you leave or refresh the page. It is never transmitted to us, never written to a database, and never seen by another person.
How on-device analysis works
Most "AI photo" tools work by sending your image to a server, where a powerful computer processes it and sends back a result. That means your photo leaves your control, even if only briefly.
WhatZoo takes a different approach. It uses Google's MediaPipe face-landmark model, which is small and fast enough to run directly in your browser using your device's own processor. When you pick a photo:
- The image is loaded into the page's memory — like opening a photo in an app, not uploading it.
- The model places 478 landmark points on the face, right there on your device.
- Those points become measurements, the measurements become your animal match, and the result is shown to you.
- When you close or refresh the page, the image in memory is gone.
At no step does the photo travel across the internet to us. If you want the full technical walkthrough, see how animal face analysis works.
What this means for you
- No account needed. You don't sign up, so there's no profile tied to your face.
- No uploads. Your photo isn't sent anywhere, so there's nothing for us to leak or lose.
- No storage. We don't keep your images, so they can't resurface later.
- You're in control. Close the tab and the analysis is over — nothing lingers.
This applies to every tool on the site: single analysis, compatibility, group, and organization. Even the group features, which read several faces from one photo, do all of that work locally.
A note on the rest of the site
Like most websites, WhatZoo uses standard analytics to understand general traffic (which pages are popular, roughly where visitors come from). That's ordinary, aggregate web analytics — it's completely separate from your photo, which, again, never leaves your device. If you ever contact us through the contact form, only the message you type is sent.
The bottom line
WhatZoo is built so that the most sensitive thing — your face — stays with you. The analysis is real AI, but it runs on your device, for your eyes only. So you can try the analysis tool with the same peace of mind as looking in a mirror.
And remember: whatever animal you get is just for fun anyway.