Privacy & data

Last updated: 8 July 2026

tidings is operated by Fork Studio Limited (company number 726783), registered at Rathmore, Baltimore, Co Cork, P81 HW84, Ireland. Fork Studio Limited is the data controller for the personal data described below.

What we collect and why

We collect the minimum needed to run the service. tidings is end-to-end encrypted: your letters are encrypted in your browser before they reach us, and your private key stays inside your sealkey on your own device — we never receive it. Here is what tidings stores and the reason for each item:

• Email address (only if you add one) - tidings does not use email to log in; your sealkey is your login. If you choose to associate an email with your sealkey, we store it so friends can send you links to private letters by email, so we can send you a one-time code to verify that address, and so we can send "someone wrote you a letter" notifications. Legal basis: contract performance.
• Account records - your sealkey's public address, any email you associate with it, and session tokens. We never receive or store your sealkey's private key. Legal basis: contract performance.
• Encrypted letters - the ciphertext of your letters and their delivery envelopes, held so you and your recipients can retrieve them. These are encrypted before they reach us; we cannot read their contents. Legal basis: contract performance.
• Delivery metadata - to deliver a letter to someone by email we store the recipient's email address, the sender-to-recipient pairing, and timestamps. We can't read the letters themselves, but this metadata shows that a letter passed between two people. Legal basis: contract performance.
• Published (open) letters - if you publish an open letter, its page and content are generated and served publicly at a link you choose to share. Legal basis: contract performance.
• Billing records - Stripe customer and payment IDs, stamp-purchase status, and billing email. Payment card details are handled by Stripe. We do not store full card numbers. Legal basis: contract performance.
• Operational logs - IP address, browser type, request path, and timestamps may be recorded by the app, the reverse proxy, or object storage for security and debugging. Where an IP address is used for rate-limiting it is stored only as a hash, and country detection is done locally on our own server, so your IP is not sent to a third party for that. Legal basis: legitimate interest.

We do not use analytics or tracking scripts. We do not build advertising profiles. We do not sell your data or share it for marketing.

Cookies

tidings does not use cookies. Your sign-in is kept in your browser's local storage, on your device, and is sent only to authenticate your own requests. We use no analytics cookies and no third-party tracking cookies. Because there is no non-essential cookie, cookie consent is not required under ePrivacy rules, but we document it here.

Who processes your data

We use a small number of service providers to run tidings. Each processes data only as needed to provide their service to us:

Your encrypted letters and account data are hosted on EU infrastructure in Paris (Scaleway). We deliberately keep private data on EU-hosted services and do not route it through a US-based CDN or edge network. The one third-party your browser touches directly is Stripe, a US-based payment processor, and only when you buy stamps — its script is loaded at that point only, never on the letter-writing pages.

Your data belongs to you

Everything you write in tidings belongs to you: your letters, their words, images, and styling. We do not claim ownership or intellectual property rights over your content.

You give us permission to store, process, publish, and transmit your content only as needed to provide the service. For example, tidings needs to store the encrypted ciphertext of a letter so you can keep and re-read it, and to deliver that ciphertext to the recipient you send it to.

Open letters are public

Private letters are encrypted and readable only by you and the person you send them to. When you publish an open letter, its page and content are intended to be accessible to anyone with the link. Do not publish private, confidential, sensitive, or restricted material as an open letter unless you are comfortable making it public.

Keep your own copies — and guard your sealkey

Your sealkey file is your login and holds your private key. If you lose the original sealkey image and the copy stored in this browser, your account and the letters delivered to you cannot be recovered — we cannot reset it, because we never hold your private key. Never share or modify the sealkey file, and keep a safe backup of it. tidings is a live letter service, not your primary backup: keep your own copies of letters that matter to you somewhere you control. We take care with storage and infrastructure, but no online service can guarantee zero data loss.

How long we keep your data

• Account and letter records stay as long as your account or letter is active.
• Published open-letter pages stay online until the letter is unpublished, deleted, or its stamp period ends.
• When you delete a letter or account, we remove the associated encrypted data from active storage where it is under our control.
• Operational logs are kept only as long as needed for security, debugging, and infrastructure operations.
• Billing records are kept as needed for accounting, tax, dispute, and fraud-prevention requirements.

Your rights

Under GDPR you have the right to:

• Access your data - see what we hold about you.
• Correct anything that is wrong.
• Delete your account and associated data.
• Export your data.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interest.
• Complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie) if you believe we have handled your data incorrectly.

Contact

For anything related to your data or this policy, email hello@tidings.app.

Fork Studio Limited, Rathmore, Baltimore, Co Cork, P81 HW84, Ireland.

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