Local face model vs uploading photos to the cloud
People looking at a local face model are usually comparing it with a cloud AI service that asks for an upload. The useful question is not which one sounds more private. It is where the photographs go, who can read them, and what you still send even when training stays on the PC.
What stays on the PC with Likenor
Likenor trains a personal likeness from a folder of photos on this computer. Training photos are not uploaded. There is no account. There is no cloud training service. Work stays on the machine. The GPU work happens on that same Windows or Linux PC.
After install, the app downloads a model of about 60 GB. That is a base model coming in, not a photo set going out. The owner then finishes setup inside the app. Training starts later, from the folder you point at. See Train a personal AI likeness on your PC: photos never leave the machine for that order.
This website serves pages. It does not accept a training folder. Buying in v1 is email to licences@likenor.com. Checkout is not open. Those are website and mail facts. They are not a training upload.
What a cloud service typically receives
A typical cloud likeness or face service asks you to create an account and send photographs to its servers. The service then trains or generates on machines you do not own. The exact contract varies. The common pattern is still the same: the pictures leave your disk and become someone else's processing input.
That does not make every cloud product careless. Many publish a retention period, a deletion control, or a statement about how long images are kept. You would still be trusting that policy, that operator, and whoever they use to run the job. You would also be trusting the path between your browser and their store: an account, a session, and a copy that is no longer only yours.
This article is not a smear of any named service. It is a map of two designs. One keeps the training set on the PC. The other takes a copy in order to work.
What local does not hide
A local trainer does not make the computer disappear. The photographs are still files. Anyone with access to that user account can open the folder. A backup disk, a synced directory, or a remote-desktop session can move a copy without Likenor being the one that uploaded it. Local means the product does not take the set. It does not mean the room has no other doors.
Mail is another door you open on purpose. Emails to support@ and licences@ are read by a person. The Support page says not to attach the training photo folder and not to upload photos to this website. Do not send training photos. There is no form that accepts images. If a log is needed, support will ask for a specific file, not a photo set.
The privacy page is short on purpose. It states the application fact, the website fact, and what is still TBD. It does not invent a full legal policy. Read Privacy for those lines, including the note that v1 default is no tracking pixels, no analytics SDK, and no advertising cookies.
How to choose
Choose a local face model if the photographs should stay on the machine that already holds them, and if you can meet the hardware that is public today: Windows or Linux, NVIDIA GPU required, no AMD or Intel path. VRAM needs are still being confirmed. Disk needs room for the installer and a later model of about 60 GB. Both public installers are unpublished. Download is the honest door. This article does not offer a working file href.
Choose a cloud upload if you want the work done on someone else's GPU, you accept that a copy of the pictures will be sent, and you have read that service's own terms. That can be a rational choice. It is not the choice Likenor is built for.
Price does not settle this on its own. The Likenor download is free when published. A paid licence key unlocks features in the app. The purchase is one-time, not a subscription. Price is TBD. Free and paid feature lists are TBD. Refunds and how many machines a key covers are not published yet. See Pricing. A cloud service may look cheaper until you count the upload as part of the cost.
If you do train locally, the folder still has to be a useful set. What photos make a good likeness (and what to skip) is the photography note. The trained likeness can later be exported and reused in other tools, including ComfyUI, still from files on this computer. For installer and GPU questions, use Support.