What we keep, and why

Who we are

Applaudy is made by Knitted Mice, a small independent studio, and Knitted Mice is the data controller. You can reach us at hello@applaudyboard.com.

What we store

Only what a board needs to exist:

• The board — who it's for, the occasion, the organiser's name, and the date it was made.
• The messages — the name each person signs with, what they wrote, and any photo or GIF they added.
• The organiser's email, if they give one. It's optional. We use it to send the board's links and nothing else.
• The recipient's email, if the organiser sends the board by email, plus the date it was sent and the date it was first opened.

We never see or store card details. Board passwords and the private organiser link are stored only as one-way hashes, so we cannot read them either — which is also why we can't recover a lost organiser link for you.

Please don't put anything sensitive in a message. A board is a greeting card: anyone with the link can read it unless the organiser has set a password.

Cookies

Two, both strictly necessary, neither used for tracking or advertising. One remembers which messages you wrote so you can edit or remove your own. The other remembers that you've entered a board's password so you aren't asked again. We use no analytics or advertising cookies, so there's no cookie banner to click.

Who else processes it

• Cloudflare — hosting, the database, photo storage, and the bot and abuse protection. Your IP address is processed to apply rate limits and block bots.
• Stripe — payments, if someone unlocks a board. They handle the card details; we only learn that a payment succeeded.
• Resend — sending the two emails described above.
• Klipy — GIF and meme search. That search runs in your browser, so if you open the GIF picker Klipy receives your IP address and what you typed, under their own privacy policy.

We do not sell data, and we don't share it with anyone else.

Why we're allowed to

For running the boards and keeping them free of abuse, our lawful basis is legitimate interests: you asked us to host a card and we need to store it to do that. For payments, it's performance of a contract. For the emails, it's the legitimate interest of delivering the thing you asked us to deliver — we send no marketing.

How long we keep it

A board stays until it's deleted. The organiser can delete a board and everything on it at any time, from the bottom of their organiser page — that removes the messages and any uploaded photos for good. If you've lost the link, email us and we'll delete it for you.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Email hello@applaudyboard.com and tell us which board you mean — the link is the quickest way. If you wrote a message on someone else's board and want it taken down, that's fine too; just tell us which one.

If you think we've handled your data badly you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, though we'd rather you told us first so we can put it right.

Children

Applaudy isn't intended for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data.

Changes

If this policy changes we'll update the date at the top. There's no mailing list to notify, because we don't keep one.