Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information Happy Vibes, Inc. ("Strokes", "we", "us", "our") collects when you use the Strokes desktop application, the strokes.ink website, content published through Strokes, and related services (together, the "Service"), how we use and share it, and the choices you have. Happy Vibes, Inc. is the data controller for that information. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meaning given in our Terms of Service.

Strokes is under active development. Features, the third-party services behind them, and the controls available to you will change over time. This Policy is therefore written around the kinds of data we handle rather than around individual features, so that it stays accurate as the Service evolves. Where a change materially affects how we handle your personal information, we will update this Policy as described in Section 13.

In short

• Your Documents are files on your device. We do not read, upload or store them unless you choose to send part of them to an AI feature or to publish them.
• Content you send to AI features is processed by third-party AI providers under business terms that do not allow them to use it to train their models. We do not use your content to train AI models either.
• Our servers hold only what account-based features need: your account, plan and usage records, your AI conversation history, context the AI keeps for you, and content you choose to publish.
• We do not sell personal information, do not show ads, and do not use advertising trackers.
• You can manage and delete the data the Service keeps for you, including deleting your account, from inside the application.

This Policy does not cover third-party services you use alongside Strokes, such as AI providers' own products, community platforms, or the services you import documents from or export them to. Their privacy policies apply to them.

1. Where Your Data Lives

Strokes is local-first, so the clearest way to understand this Policy is by where each kind of data is held.

2. Information We Collect

Information you give us

• Account. When you create an account we collect your email address, a name if you provide one, and your sign-in credentials. If you sign in with a third-party sign-in provider, we receive the basic profile information that provider shares (typically your name, email address and profile picture).
• Plan and billing. When you buy a paid plan, our payment processor collects your payment details directly. We receive your billing status, plan, invoices and the last four digits and brand of your card, not the full card number.
• AI content. When you use AI features, the Input you send, the Output returned, the model used and the time are saved as conversation history linked to your account, so they are available across sessions and, where the Service supports it, across devices. Deleting a conversation in the application deletes it from our servers. Your Documents, including any Output you accept into them, stay on your device.
• Context. Information the AI keeps about your projects and your standing instructions so it has context, as configured by you. It is stored on our servers so it is available across sessions and is included in a request only when relevant to it.
• Published content. The content of Documents you choose to publish, together with its URL, publish date and visibility settings.
• Communications. What you send us by email, in support requests, in surveys (for example, how you heard about Strokes) and in our community spaces, together with your contact details.
• Promotions and referrals. Referral codes you use or share, and promotion or trial codes you redeem.

Information collected automatically

• Usage records. For each AI request: the model, token counts, cost against your plan's allowance, timestamps and status. These records do not include the Input or Output themselves.
• Application diagnostics. App and operating-system version, device type, feature-usage events (for example, which export format or model was used), performance data, error logs and crash reports. Diagnostics never include the contents of your Documents.
• Website data. When you visit strokes.ink, we collect your IP address, browser type, pages viewed, referring site and approximate location inferred from your IP address, using cookies or similar technologies. See Section 9 for how to control cookies.
• Security data. IP addresses, sign-in times and device identifiers associated with your account, used to keep it secure and to enforce plan limits.

Information from other sources. Sign-in providers (as above), our payment processor (payment status), and, if you join through a referral or a partner, the fact that you did so.

3. What We Do Not Do

• We do not access your local files. The application reads the folders you open on your device in order to show and edit them. Nothing in them leaves your device except the parts you send to an AI feature or choose to publish.
• We do not train AI models on your content. Your Documents, Input, Output and conversation history are not used by us to train or fine-tune AI models, and the AI providers we use process them under terms that do not allow training.
• We do not sell personal information and do not share it for targeted advertising.
• We do not show ads and do not use advertising cookies or trackers in the application or on the website.
• We do not track you across devices for advertising. Your account simply makes your history and context available on each device you sign in from.
• We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information such as health, biometric, genetic or religious data. Documents you write may of course contain anything; that content stays on your device unless you send it to an AI feature or publish it, and we treat it as described in this Policy.

If we ever introduce a feature that stores or processes your Documents on our servers (for example, cloud sync or collaboration), it will be optional, clearly identified in the application, and described in an updated version of this Policy before it applies to you.

4. How We Use Information

We use the information described above to:

• Provide the Service: create and secure your account, run AI features by sending Input to AI providers and returning Output, keep your conversation history and context available, host content you publish, meter your plan's allowance, and process payments.
• Support you: answer questions, investigate problems using diagnostics and crash reports, and honour your requests about your data.
• Improve the Service: understand which features are used, where the application fails, and how performance can be improved, using usage events and diagnostics, never the contents of your Documents. We may create aggregated or de-identified statistics from this data and use them for any purpose.
• Communicate with you: send service messages (receipts, plan changes, security notices, changes to our terms), onboarding tips and product news. You can opt out of non-essential emails at any time; see Section 9.
• Protect the Service and others: detect abuse, enforce plan limits and our Terms of Service, prevent fraud, and keep the Service secure.
• Comply with law: meet tax, accounting and legal obligations, and respond to lawful requests.

We do not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about you using automated processing alone.

5. AI Features and AI Providers

AI features are powered by models from third-party AI providers. The models available, and therefore the providers behind them, are shown in the application and change over time as we add, replace or retire models. Features that handle other kinds of media, such as speech or images, may use additional specialised providers.

What is sent. When you run an AI feature, the application sends only what that request needs. Depending on the feature, this may include the text you selected or the Document you are working on, other files you have chosen to involve, your instruction, relevant context the AI keeps for you, and, for voice or media features, the audio or media you provide. It does not include your whole project folder, files you have not involved, or your account details. Because AI requests are routed through our servers, we process the Input needed to route the request, meter usage against your plan, enforce limits and return the Output to you; we do not read it for any other purpose.

How AI providers handle it. We use AI providers' business or enterprise APIs, whose terms do not allow them to use Input or Output to train their models. Providers may retain Input and Output for limited periods for purposes such as abuse prevention, security and legal compliance, under their own published terms, and then delete it. We will tell you which AI providers we currently use on request (Section 14).

Choosing a model. You choose the model for each request in the application. If you prefer that a particular provider never receives your content, do not use its models.

Offline and on-device processing. Documents can be edited with no AI provider involved at all. If we offer models or features that process content entirely on your device, that content will not leave your device, and the application will say so.

6. How We Share Information

We share personal information only with the following categories of recipients, and only as described here.

• AI providers receive Input and return Output as described in Section 5.
• Service providers process data on our behalf and only on our instructions. They fall into the following categories: cloud hosting and database services for our servers; payment processing; email delivery; crash reporting and analytics; customer-support and community tools; and similar infrastructure needed to run the Service. Each is bound by contract to protect the data and to use it only to provide its service to us. We will provide a current list of these providers on request (Section 14).
• Sign-in providers. If you sign in with a third-party sign-in provider, that provider knows you signed in to Strokes.
• Viewers of your published content. Anything you publish is public to anyone with the link and may be indexed by search engines. Published content shows what you chose to publish; we do not attach your account details to it unless you include them.
• Services you connect or direct us to use. If you connect Strokes to another service, or ask the Service to import from or export to one, we share with that service only what the action you requested needs.
• Legal reasons. We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that it is necessary to comply with law, a subpoena or a lawful request from a public authority; to enforce our Terms of Service; to detect or prevent fraud, abuse or security problems; or to protect the rights, property or safety of Strokes, our users or others. Where the law allows, we will tell you before disclosing your data in response to a legal request.
• Business transfers. If Happy Vibes, Inc. or the Strokes business is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization or sale of assets, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. This Policy will continue to apply to it, and we will notify you of any change in who is responsible for your data.

We do not share personal information with our other business lines except as needed to run Strokes (for example, shared accounting).

7. Retention and Deletion

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes in Section 4.

Backups. Deleted data may persist in encrypted backups for up to 30 days after deletion, after which it is overwritten. Backups are not used to restore deleted user data except to recover from a system failure.

Account deletion. You can delete your account from the application settings or by emailing us (Section 14). Deletion is started immediately, takes your published content offline, and removes your conversation history, context and account data within the periods above. We keep invoices and any records needed to resolve disputes or comply with law.

AI providers delete Input and Output on their own schedules, as described in Section 5.

8. Security

We protect the data we hold with measures appropriate to its sensitivity: encryption in transit for connections between the application, our servers and the third-party services we use; encryption at rest for data on our servers; access to production systems limited to the people who need it, with multi-factor authentication; and monitoring for unauthorized access. Sign-in tokens on your device are stored in your operating system's secure credential store where the operating system provides one.

No system is completely secure. If we learn of a breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and any authority we are required to notify, as applicable law requires. Because your Documents live on your device, their security also depends on your device: keep it updated, use disk encryption where available, and keep backups.

9. Your Rights and Choices

In the application. The application gives you direct control over the data the Service keeps for you, without contacting us. This includes, for example, deleting AI conversations, clearing or limiting the context the AI keeps, unpublishing content, changing or removing your profile details, exporting your Documents in standard formats, and deleting your account. The exact controls are shown in the application's settings and may expand over time.

Your rights. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, receive a copy in a portable format, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to certain processing, and withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. To exercise a right that the application does not cover, email us (Section 14). We will verify that the request comes from the account holder, respond within the time the law allows (30 days in most cases), and will not treat you differently for exercising your rights. If we refuse a request, we will say why, and you may complain to your data-protection authority (Section 11).

Emails. Service emails about your account, payments, security and changes to our terms cannot be switched off while you have an account. Product news and tips can be stopped with the unsubscribe link in any such email or in your account settings.

Cookies on strokes.ink. The website uses strictly necessary cookies and analytics cookies. Where the law requires it, analytics cookies are set only after you accept them in the cookie notice, and you can change your choice there at any time. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser. The application itself does not use cookies.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. We do not sell or share personal information for targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of, and we treat Global Privacy Control signals as an opt-out of any such sharing should that ever change.

10. International Transfers

Our servers and the third-party services we use, including AI providers, are located primarily in the United States and may be located in other countries, so personal information we collect is transferred to and processed there, and our team may access it from other countries where we operate. Data-protection laws in those countries may differ from those where you live.

Where we transfer personal information from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland to a country without an adequacy decision, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK Addendum or International Data Transfer Agreement where relevant) with the recipient, together with supplementary measures where needed. You can ask for a copy of the relevant clauses by email (Section 14).

11. Regional Notices

European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland. We process personal information on the following legal bases:

You have the rights described in Section 9 and the right to lodge a complaint with your national data-protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office; in Switzerland, the FDPIC). We do not have an establishment in the EEA or the UK.

United States. Residents of California and other states with comprehensive privacy laws have the rights to know, access, correct, delete and port personal information, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising, as described in Section 9. In the past 12 months we have collected the categories of personal information described in Section 2 (identifiers, commercial information, internet activity, geolocation inferred from IP address, and the content you choose to send to AI features or publish) for the purposes in Section 4, and disclosed them to the categories of recipients in Section 6. We have not sold or shared personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than providing the Service. You may designate an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf; we will verify the agent's authority and your identity. We do not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

12. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, or the age set by local law), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, email us (Section 14) and we will delete the account and its data.

13. Changes to this Policy

We will update this Policy when our practices change in ways that matter to you, for example when a new feature handles personal information differently from what is described here, or when we add a new category of third party that processes it. Adding, replacing or retiring individual AI models, AI providers or service providers within the categories described in this Policy does not by itself change this Policy. We will post each new version at https://strokes.ink/privacy with a new effective date and, for material changes, notify you by email or in the application before they take effect. Earlier versions are available on request.

14. Contact Us

Questions, requests about your data, requests for our current list of AI providers or service providers, or complaints: hello@strokes.ink.

Happy Vibes, Inc. 1606 Headway Cir STE 9794 Austin, Texas 78754 United States