Privacy
Effective 17 July 2026
The short version: the EtchMind desktop app is built so we can't see your collection. There are no app accounts and no app telemetry. Your collection lives in files on your own computer; EtchMind does not automatically upload it. Optional tools send only content you deliberately submit to the named service. The website is separate: it may use privacy-preserving, aggregate analytics and normal hosting/download logs so we can understand whether people can find and use the site.
Who is responsible
The EtchMind operator is a New Zealand sole trader and is responsible for the personal information EtchMind receives for website operation, licensing, and support. Lemon Squeezy is the merchant of record and separately controls the checkout and payment information it collects. Contact details are at the end of this policy; the commercial relationship is explained in the Terms & License.
What the app stores
Your collection — sources, extracts, flashcards, review history, settings — is stored locally on your machine in a database and media folder. It is not automatically uploaded or backed up by EtchMind. Backups go where you put them.
The app's network activity
- License activation and occasional validation: when you activate, the app sends your license key and a device name (e.g. "EtchMind on Win32") directly to Lemon Squeezy's license API to register the seat. A lightweight validation of the same key may run at most every 7 days when online. No study data is included — and if you're offline, the app simply carries on.
- Update check: the app fetches a small static file to learn whether a newer version exists. Like any web request, the host serving that file (Cloudflare) sees an IP address; no other information is sent.
- User-requested web content: if you import an article from a URL, the app fetches that page so it can save a local copy. If you add a YouTube or Vimeo stream, the app contacts that provider to show the video. Those services may receive normal web request information such as your IP address and the URL/video you asked to open.
- Optional OpenRouter AI and OCR: these features run only when you add your own OpenRouter API key and start a request. EtchMind sends the image/page region or card content you selected, the chosen model, and request instructions to OpenRouter. OpenRouter may route the request to the selected model provider; their availability, cost, retention, and privacy terms apply. EtchMind does not send the rest of your collection.
Local support diagnostics: after an unexpected startup, screen, or updater failure, EtchMind may append a privacy-safe structural diagnostic to a local file. It does not include raw collection content and is never uploaded automatically. You decide whether to use the app's copy action and send that text to support.
The trial requires no registration at all.
What we receive and why
- Order and licence details: name, email, product, order, licence, seat, and status information supplied by Lemon Squeezy. We use it to deliver and administer your licence, provide support and refunds, prevent misuse, and keep required business records. Without the required order and licence details, we cannot provide or support a paid licence.
- Support information: your email address, message, and anything you choose to attach. We use it only to answer the request, investigate the issue, keep a support record, or meet legal obligations. Please do not send collection content, licence keys, or other sensitive information unless it is necessary, requested, and appropriately redacted.
- Website and security information: normal request information handled by Cloudflare, plus the aggregate measurements described below. We use it to deliver and secure the site, diagnose errors and abuse, and understand aggregate performance.
Where data-protection law requires a legal basis, we use information as necessary to perform a purchase or support request, comply with legal obligations, and pursue legitimate interests in securing and improving the service without tracking app activity. We rely on consent where the law requires it, and you can withdraw that consent prospectively.
Purchases
Checkout is operated by Lemon Squeezy (a Stripe company) as merchant of record. They — not we — collect and process your payment details, billing address, and email, under their privacy policy. We receive your name and email plus order, product, licence, seat, and status details so we can deliver and administer your licence, provide support, and handle refunds. EtchMind does not receive your full card number.
Service providers and transfers
EtchMind uses a small number of service providers: Lemon Squeezy/Stripe for checkout, licensing, tax and payment records; Cloudflare for hosting this website and update files; Zoho for support email; and, only when you enable and use optional AI/OCR features, OpenRouter and the model provider you select. These providers may process personal information in countries outside New Zealand under their own privacy and security terms.
How long we keep personal information
Business and tax records that we are legally required to keep are retained for at least seven tax years. Licence records are kept while needed to deliver the licence and for a reasonable period afterward to handle support, refunds, fraud, and disputes. Support emails are reviewed and deleted when they are no longer reasonably needed for those purposes. We may retain limited information longer where a law, legal claim, security investigation, or payment dispute requires it. Aggregate counts that no longer identify a person may be kept for longer.
This website
etchmind.com does not use advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, cross-site tracking, or Google Analytics. It may use Cloudflare Web Analytics and Cloudflare hosting logs to measure aggregate site activity and performance: page views, referrers, rough geography, browser/device category, load timing, error/abuse signals, and installer download requests. The download-button counter stores only the date, release channel, platform, an optional short source tag taken from the link you followed (for example a link shared on Hacker News), and the aggregate number of clicks; it does not store an IP address, cookie, device ID, or account. Cloudflare's Web Analytics beacon is designed not to use cookies, localStorage, or cross-site user tracking. These website measurements never include your EtchMind collection, imported files, notes, cards, review history, or license key.
We may also use Google Search Console or similar search-engine tools to understand search impressions, clicks, and indexing issues. Those tools report aggregate search performance for the website, not app usage.
Cookies
The EtchMind website currently does not set marketing or analytics cookies. If that changes in a way that stores non-essential identifiers on your device, we will update this policy and add a consent choice where required. Lemon Squeezy checkout and embedded third-party pages may use their own cookies under their own policies once you leave etchmind.com.
If you email support@etchmind.com, we keep the correspondence so we can help you (our mail is hosted by Zoho). We don't send marketing email. We do not sell personal information or share it for targeted advertising. We disclose it only to the service providers described above, when you ask us to, or where reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights and security, or resolve a transaction.
Security and privacy incidents
We use reasonable access controls, signed application updates, limited service providers, and data minimisation to protect information we hold. No system is perfectly secure. If a privacy breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner and affected people as required by law, and take reasonable steps to contain and remedy it.
Your rights
You can ask for access to and correction of personal information we hold about you. Where applicable law provides them, you may also ask for deletion, restriction, portability, or object to processing. Some information cannot be deleted immediately when it must be kept for tax, licensing, fraud prevention, a legal claim, or another legal obligation. EtchMind does not use personal information for automated decisions or profiling. Email us to make a request; we may need to verify your identity before disclosing or changing a record.
You can also complain to the New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner or, where applicable, your local data-protection authority.
Changes to this policy
If our collection or use of personal information materially changes, we will update this page and its effective date. We will seek consent before a new use where the law requires it.
Contact
EtchMind Privacy Officer: Trent,
support@etchmind.com