Privacy Policy

Things About You lets someone (a sender) write a set of short notes that we deliver, one a day, by email or text to a person they care about (a recipient). This policy explains what information we handle, why, and the choices you have. Things About You is operated by Jason Offet in Ontario, Canada. Questions go to privacy@thingsaboutyou.co.

Information about senders

• Account details. When you sign in with Google, LinkedIn or Microsoft, we receive your name, email address and profile picture from that provider. We don't receive or store a password.
• Sign-in sessions. We keep a session record with your IP address and browser type to keep you signed in and to protect your account.
• Your notes and photos. The text you write and any photos you upload or pick from Google Photos, plus their order and delivery status.
• Recipient details you enter. Each recipient's name, email address and/or mobile number, time zone and preferred delivery window.
• Payments. Payments are handled by Stripe. We keep a record of each purchase (what was booked, the amount and currency, and Stripe's reference numbers). We never see or store your full card number.
• Settings, such as whether you want emails about replies and reactions.

Information about recipients

• Contact details the sender gave us: your name and email address and/or mobile number.
• Your choices: whether you accepted or declined the invitation, and any pauses or a stop you requested. Nothing is delivered unless you accept. You can choose to hide a pause from the sender.
• Your scrapbook: notes you choose to save. The sender can't see your scrapbook.
• Replies to texts. If you reply or react (for example ❤️ or 👍) to a note we texted you, we store that text and show it to the sender next to that note. If the sender turned on reply notifications, it is also emailed to them. We don't collect replies to emailed notes.
• Reports. If you report a note, we keep the report and the note it concerns.

How we use information

• To deliver notes on schedule, and to let senders manage their notes and see how they landed.
• To send service emails and texts: invitations, notes, pause and stop confirmations, and sender updates.
• To keep the service safe (see below), prevent abuse, and meet legal obligations.
• To take payment for bookings.

We don't sell personal information, we don't show ads, and we don't use advertising or analytics trackers.

Safety review

Before a note can be delivered, it is checked against our content rules. The note's text, and any text found in its photo, is checked by an automated classifier (Anthropic's Claude). Photos are checked with Amazon Rekognition. Notes the automated checks aren't sure about are reviewed by a person. Photos may also be compared against databases of known child sexual abuse material. Where the law requires it, we report matches to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children or law enforcement, and keep the related records as the law requires. We may suspend accounts that break our Terms.

Google user data

If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address and profile picture, and use them only to create and identify your account. If you choose to connect Google Photos, we use Google's Photos Picker to receive only the photos you select. We copy those photos into our storage so they can be attached to your notes and checked under our safety review, and we store the access tokens Google issues so the picker stays connected. We never access the rest of your library.

Things About You's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We don't use Google user data for advertising, we don't sell it, and we don't use it to train AI models. People read it only when needed for safety review, security, to comply with law, or with your permission.

Who we share information with

We use these service providers to run Things About You, and they process data only on our behalf:

• Vercel: hosting
• PlanetScale: our database
• Amazon Web Services: photo storage, email delivery and photo moderation
• Twilio: text message delivery and receiving replies
• Stripe: payments
• Anthropic: automated moderation of note text
• Google, LinkedIn and Microsoft: sign-in (and Google Photos, if you connect it)

Apart from these, we share information only when the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or with your consent. Senders see only what's described above about their recipients.

Where information is stored

Our database and photos are stored in Canada. Some of our service providers process information in the United States and other countries, where it may be accessible to authorities under local law.

How long we keep it

We keep sender and recipient information while it's needed to provide the service. Notes a recipient saved stay in their scrapbook after the sender's notes end, unless they remove them. When you ask us to delete your information, we do so except where we must keep it: payment records for tax purposes, and records connected to reports of child sexual abuse material.

Your choices and rights

• Recipients can pause or stop notes at any time from the link in every note.
• Senders can change their reply notifications in their dashboard.
• Anyone can ask to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about them by emailing privacy@thingsaboutyou.co.

If you're not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Cookies

We use one cookie, to keep senders signed in. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies.

Age

You must be 18 or older to create a sender account.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. For significant changes, we'll also email senders.