Privacy policy

Who we are

kudo.zone is a small independent project run by Aromal Santhosh (aromalsanthosh.com). For anything about your data, email hello@aromalsanthosh.com.

What we collect

• Your account. Organizers sign in with Google, which gives us your name, email address and profile picture. We never see your Google password. If you only write a message, you don't sign up: we create an anonymous guest session in your browser so you can edit your message later.
• Boards you create. The person's name and photo, the board title and intro, dates, theme and settings. Optionally the person's email (kept private, used only to send them their board) and contact details you choose to show under “Where to find them next”.
• Messages you write. The name you sign with, your message, card colour and any GIF you pick.
• The person's reply. If the person a board is for writes a note back to the group, we store that note.
• A visit counter. Each board counts how many times it was opened. It's a single number, not tied to you.

We don't run ads, sell data, or use tracking cookies or behavioural analytics.

Who can see what

• Anyone with a board's link can open it. Boards are hidden from search engines, but treat the link as you would a group chat.
• In surprise mode, messages stay hidden from the person (and other visitors) until the organizer reveals the board.
• Organizers can see, hide and delete every message on their board.
• Your email address is never shown on a board.

Why we use it

Only to run kudo.zone: signing you in, showing boards and messages, letting you edit what you wrote, sending board emails, and keeping the service safe from spam and abuse.

Services that help us run kudo.zone

• Supabase stores accounts, boards, messages and photos.
• Vercel hosts the website, keeps short-lived server logs (such as IP addresses) for security, and measures page speed with Speed Insights, which records anonymous load times without cookies.
• Google handles sign-in.
• GIPHY powers GIF search. Your search words go to GIPHY through our server, and GIFs load from GIPHY, so GIPHY can see your IP address when one is shown.

These services only process data to provide their part of kudo.zone.

Cookies and storage in your browser

We use cookies only to keep you signed in. Your browser also remembers the name you last signed a message with, and whether you've already opened a board this session (so the visit counter isn't inflated). Nothing is used for advertising.

How long we keep it, and deleting it

• We keep boards and messages until they're deleted.
• You can edit or delete your own messages any time from the board.
• Organizers can delete a board, which removes its messages and photo too.
• To delete your account and everything linked to it, or to get a copy of your data, email hello@aromalsanthosh.com from the address you sign in with. We'll do it within 30 days.

If a board mentions you and you'd like something removed, email us too. Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to access, correct, or object to how your data is used, and to complain to your local data protection authority.

Children

kudo.zone isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update it here and change the date at the top. See also our terms of use.