Virtual try-on and privacy: what happens to the shopper’s photo

In a virtual try-on the shopper’s photo has two uses. The first is estimating measurements — height, bust, waist, hips — to recommend a size. The second is generating the image of the shopper wearing the garment. They are two distinct processes, and in Cabina both run on image analysis and generation services, so in both cases the photo leaves the device.

Saying so plainly is the first duty: a vendor promising “the photo never leaves your phone” and then generating a photorealistic image is describing something that cannot be true for a generative try-on.

The photo is not sent until the shopper gives specific consent, with a dedicated checkbox, and unticking it revokes it. It is not a line buried in the terms: it is a choice that appears at the moment it matters, before sending.

Shoppers who do not want to use their own photo are not left out: they pick one of the preset models with a build similar to theirs, and in that case their photo never leaves the device because it does not exist. It is also how the fitting room can be tried on our demo store, with no sign-up.

With consent, the photo is sent to the AI providers that perform the estimation and the generation, and then deleted. The privacy notice says who receives it and how long it stays: not a detail to leave to the imagination, because it is the part the shopper has a right to know.

The generated image — the shopper wearing the garment — is stored in a private space so it need not be regenerated on every opening, reachable only through a temporary link that expires after one hour, and is deleted automatically after 30 days. The merchant has no access to it: if anyone wants to keep the result, it is the shopper, via the “Share” button.

Estimated measurements serve the size recommendation and last for the session: there is no database of body measurements, neither ours nor the store’s. It is a design choice, not a setting: there is nothing to configure to get it.

On the tracking side: no profiling cookies, no pixels on measurements. In the dashboard the merchant sees aggregate figures — how many sessions, how many completed — and never who tried what.

Little, but not nothing. The photo passes through your store, so your privacy notice should mention the virtual try-on and the providers involved — ours is written to be referenced. If you have a cookie banner, the fitting room does not touch it: it sets no profiling cookies.

And it pays to explain to shoppers what happens, in simple words, next to the try-on button: transparency here is also a conversion lever, because a person who knows their photo disappears uploads it more willingly.

• Does the photo leave the device? For which processes, and to whom?
• Is there explicit consent before sending, and can it be revoked?
• Can shoppers who decline still try on, with models?
• Where is the generated image kept, who sees it, and when is it deleted?
• Are body measurements stored anywhere?
• Are there tracking cookies or pixels on shoppers?

They are the same questions we asked ourselves. The other things to check before choosing — costs, languages, what happens after the try-on — are in How to choose a virtual try-on app.