Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect:

• Email address (for account verification and communication)
• Username (your unique identifier on Viewert)
• Password (stored securely using industry-standard hashing), if you sign up with one
• If you sign in with Google or Apple: your name and email address as they share them with us (Apple lets you hide your real email behind a private relay address), and a private identifier from that service. We never see your Google or Apple password.
• Profile information you choose to provide (display name, bio, location, profile picture)

Content You Create

We store the content you create on Viewert, including:

• Vellums (your notes and documents)
• Images and media you upload
• Your visibility preferences for each piece of content

Your Hearth

Your Hearth is a page of the products you use. It is private until you share it. We store:

• The products you put in it, and the things you add by hand (a name, and a website if you give one), with the short notes you write
• Your own names, colors and pictures for its five areas, and whether you have chosen to share it by link
• Details you choose to share with a product: an email address (your account email, or another one you type), your T-shirt size, and a delivery address (a name, address lines, town, region, postal code and country). We keep these only once you fill them in, and share them only with the products you turn them on for.
• A record of each thing you share: which product, when you agreed, and for an email whether it may be used only to help you or also for news and offers

If you help run a product, we also record each time someone on its team looks at the details people shared with it or downloads them: who looked, when, and how many people were shown. The record holds none of the details themselves.

Usage Information

We automatically collect certain information when you use Viewert:

• Log data (IP address, browser type, pages visited)
• Device information (device type, operating system)
• Cookies and similar technologies for session management

The Viewert Mobile Apps

The Viewert apps for iOS and Android use the same account and collect the same information as the website, plus:

• Camera and microphone, only when you start or join a voice or video call, and only after your device asks your permission. You can turn either off in your device settings at any time.
• Notification token: an identifier from Apple or Google that lets us send you push notifications (messages, calls, mentions). It is removed when you sign out of the app or delete your account.
• Files and photos you choose to upload to your Vellums or conversations.

The apps contain no advertising and no third-party analytics or tracking, and we do not sell your information.

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve Viewert
• Create and manage your account
• Store and sync your content across devices
• Send important notifications about your account
• Respond to your support requests
• Show your Hearth to the people you chose, and count Hearths for the businesses whose products are in them
• Pass a product the details you chose to share with it, and nothing else, and keep a record of what you agreed to
• Protect against fraud and abuse
• Comply with legal obligations

Your Hearth and What You Share With Products

A Hearth connects people with the products they use. The businesses behind those products learn about the people who use them only as far as you decide.

Who can see your Hearth

Only you, until you choose to share it. If you do, anyone with the link can look at it, including your notes, and a small flame appears beside your name on your profile. When you post the link, the preview card shows your name, how many places are lit and which areas are fullest; it never names what is in them or shows your notes. If you make it private again, it looks to everyone else like a page that does not exist. Connected apps cannot read or change your Hearth, and what you share with products can be read or changed only when you are signed in to Viewert, never through a connected app or an API key.

What a business sees by default

Only how many Hearths its product is in, how that has changed week by week, and how they divide between the five areas. A number smaller than three is hidden, so it can never point at one or two people. Areas are shown under their standard names, never the names you gave them. A business is never told whose Hearths they are, what else is in them, or your username.

What you can choose to share

You can share your email, your T-shirt size and your delivery address with a product, each one separately. Nothing is shared until you turn it on.

• You share with one product at a time, and only with a product that is in your Hearth and that has a team on Viewert.
• An email says what it may be used for: support only (help with that product, orders and updates about it) or also news and offers. You can change this whenever you like. A size is for sending the right fit, and an address for delivering to you.
• An address can only be shared with a brand Viewert has verified.
• A product only asks for what it needs. Its team chooses which of your email, T-shirt size and delivery address it asks for; you see only those with that product, and the server refuses to take anything else. If it stops asking for something, what you shared of it is removed from its list at once. A product whose team has not chosen yet is offered everything it can, until they do.
• Only a confirmed email can be shared. That is your account's email (you confirmed it when you signed up) or another address you have confirmed: we email it a six-digit code that works for 15 minutes, for five tries and once, and you type it back. Nobody can share an address that is not theirs. We keep a scrambled copy of the code, never the code itself, and the address you asked us to confirm until you erase what you filled in or delete your account. A single inbox is sent no more than three codes a day, however many people ask.
• What you share stays up to date: if you change your size or address, the products you shared it with see the new one.
• It stops when you turn it off, when you remove the product from your Hearth or give its place to something else, when you clear the detail or erase what you filled in, when you delete your account, and when the product changes hands: a new team starts with nothing and you choose again.
• Taking your information back never needs a paid plan. A paid plan adds switches that work on every product at once; sharing with one product at a time, changing what you filled in, My Data and its download are free.

What a product's team sees of the people who share

The product's owners and administrators can see the details each person shared with that product and the date, and can download them as a spreadsheet. Other members of the team see only the counts. A person is shown by a code that is the same for that product each time and different for every other product, so two products cannot tell that they were told about the same person. We never tell a team a person's name or username.

We ask product teams to use what you share only for what you agreed to, and you can report a product that does not. Please understand the limit of what we can do: once a business has your details, for example in a download, it holds its own copy. Turning sharing off stops us showing it more and removes it from the page, but it cannot take back a copy the business has already made. If you want a business to delete what it holds, ask the business.

Suggestions and Feedback

Anyone can read the suggestions at viewert.com/feedback. A signed-in person can post one of up to 120 characters, vote on others' and report one that should not be there.

• A suggestion is public. It is shown with your username, or as Anonymous if you choose that when you post it.
• Anonymous means anonymous to other people. We still keep who posted it, so that abuse can be dealt with and the daily limit held; the Viewert team can see it, and nobody else can. We never show it on the page or in anything we send out.
• Your votes are not shown to anyone: others see only the totals. Your reports are seen only by the team, and the person you report is never told who reported.
• You can delete your own suggestion while it is still open. When the team has decided one, it stays on the page with the team's answer, because the answer is part of the record.
• When you delete your account, your votes and reports are removed (the totals are counted again) and so are your open suggestions. A suggestion the team already decided stays, with no author.

Data Security

We take the security of your data seriously:

• All data is transmitted using TLS/SSL encryption
• Private vellums are encrypted at rest
• Passwords are hashed using secure algorithms
• We regularly audit our security practices
• Access to user data is strictly limited to essential personnel

Your Privacy Controls

You have control over your data:

• Visibility: Choose whether each vellum is public or private
• Profile: Control what information appears on your public profile
• Hearth: Keep it private or share it by link, and see, change or stop what you share with each product, from the product's page, the "What I share" screen or the private My Data page (viewert.com/your-username/data), where you can also download a copy. You can stop sharing with everyone, or erase what you filled in, at any time.
• Export: Download your data at any time
• Deletion: Delete your account yourself, any time, in the website or the apps (Settings → Security → Delete account). See how account deletion works.

Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account:

• You are signed out everywhere and your profile, Vellums, posts and files are removed at once; they no longer appear on the site or in search
• Messages you sent stay in other people's conversations, shown as from a deleted user. Groups carry on without you; people you chatted with one-to-one can still read the conversation but can no longer reply
• The apps delete everything they kept on your phone for you, and any copy of your chats that another device of yours still held is deleted the next time that device connects
• Your Hearth, and everything you shared with products, disappear from view at once: product teams can no longer see what you shared, and it is permanently purged with the rest within 30 days
• Any paid subscription is cancelled
• What remained of your Vellums, posts and other content in our database, and backup copies, are permanently purged within 30 days
• Some data may be retained as required by law

If you sign up with an email address and never verify it, the account is removed after 30 days and you can sign up again with the same address. We keep a record of that sign-up for security and abuse prevention: the email address, the name and username you chose, when and from where you signed up (IP address, approximate location, browser), and the reminder emails we sent. It holds no password, and it is not an account.

Third-Party Services

We use trusted third-party services to operate Viewert:

• Cloud hosting: For storing and serving your content
• Email services: For sending account-related emails
• Analytics: To understand how Viewert is used (anonymized data only)

We carefully vet all third-party services and ensure they meet our privacy standards.

Children's Privacy

Viewert is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us immediately.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our data practices, please contact us: