Privacy Policy

1. Overview

Refern Labs Inc. ("Refern", "we", "us") is responsible for the personal information described in this policy. This policy covers our website, desktop app, browser extension, and optional online account and sharing services. Core library processing stays on your device. Creating an online account does not upload your files or enable library sync. Publishing uploads the content you select and the information needed to provide sharing.

2. Information We Collect

• Waitlist Data: If you join our waitlist, we collect your email address. This is stored securely in our database (Supabase) and used solely to send you development updates.
• Usage Data: We use Google Analytics to measure website and sharing-page visits, interactions, and downloads. Google may process online identifiers and browser or device information; this data is not necessarily anonymous.
• Online Account Data: We process your email address, authentication identifiers, public username, sessions, and account status to sign you in and manage your account. Linking a desktop license also requires purchase and license verification with Lemon Squeezy or, for legacy purchases, Polar. A different purchase email requires an email-code check.
• Published Content: We store the images, canvases, and supported media you publish, previews, selected shared metadata, access settings, and expiry dates. The desktop also registers profile and workspace names, logical identifiers, and root aliases to associate publications with your account. This registration can include other local profiles and workspaces, not just the item you publish. This registration does not send absolute device paths or upload the rest of your library. Private publication-origin records are not included in visitor data.
• Service and Security Data: We and our hosting providers process request information, including IP addresses, browser information, timestamps, and errors, to deliver content, diagnose failures, enforce usage limits, and prevent abuse. We also keep publication and storage counters. Share PINs and guest-session credentials are stored as hashes, rather than readable values.
• Purchase and License Data: Lemon Squeezy processes new purchases as Merchant of Record and provides the order, customer, and license details needed to deliver and support your refern license. Polar retains equivalent records for legacy purchases.
• Affiliate Attribution: If you visit through a refern affiliate link, Lemon Squeezy creates an anonymous referral identifier using a first-party cookie and browser or device signals so a later eligible purchase can be credited to that affiliate.

3. Third-Party Analytics

We use third-party services to help us understand user behavior and improve the app experience. These services use cookies and similar technologies to collect usage data.

Our online services use Supabase for authentication and database storage, Cloudflare for media storage, delivery, and Turnstile bot protection, Vercel for web hosting, and Resend for email delivery. These providers process the information needed for their roles. Lemon Squeezy and Polar process purchase information when we verify license eligibility. Data may be processed outside your country, including in the United States, and may be subject to the laws of those locations. Contact us for information about the providers and transfer safeguards applicable to your data.

4. Data Usage & Protection

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal identification information to others. Your email address is strictly for Refern-related communications.

We use online account and publication data to provide the service you request, verify eligibility, deliver shared content, and send sign-in and service messages. Where EU or UK data protection law applies, our bases are performance of our contract with you for these services, legitimate interests in security and reliable operation, and compliance with legal obligations. We obtain consent where required for optional processing; accepting our Terms does not give blanket consent to unrelated uses. We may disclose information when legally required or necessary to address fraud, abuse, or threats to others’ rights and safety.

5. Your Rights

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails using their unsubscribe link; necessary sign-in and service messages are separate. Depending on applicable law, you may request access, correction, deletion, or portability of your personal data, object to or restrict processing, withdraw consent where we rely on it, and complain to your privacy regulator. To exercise these rights or request account deletion, email us at jackson@refern.app. We may need to verify your identity. Some records may need to be retained for legal obligations or to resolve disputes.

6. Who Can See Shared Content

Public shares can be opened by anyone with the link. Their content, public username, selected metadata, and social previews may be copied, forwarded, or indexed by third parties. A private share with a PIN can be opened by anyone who has both the link and PIN; a private share without a PIN is restricted to its owner. Authorized visitors may download or clone content where offered. Removing a share or changing access cannot recall copies that visitors or third-party services already obtained. Visitor canvas edits remain in browser memory until the visitor requests a desktop clone. That action uploads the edited canvas and any added images to temporary private storage on our servers so the desktop app can retrieve them, even if the app does not open or the transfer is not completed. These drafts do not change the publisher’s shared content.

7. Retention and Deletion

We retain account and publication records while needed to provide the service, maintain security, resolve disputes, and meet legal obligations. Deleted and expired shares stop granting new access. Media from deleted, expired, or replaced publications is normally retained for seven days before automated cleanup; another active or retained publication using the same media can keep it longer. Cleanup failures may delay physical deletion. Backups and required purchase or security records may remain beyond removal from the live service. This retention is not a promise that content can be restored. Keep your own originals and backups.

Temporary visitor drafts and added images use short-lived transfer sessions, separate from the seven-day publication retention period. Active transfers extend their session; inactive transfers expire. Scheduled cleanup removes expired drafts and their media, including abandoned transfers. Cleanup retries or failures can delay physical deletion.

8. Cookies and Browser Storage

Online services use cookies and similar storage for sign-in, PIN-authorized share sessions, bot protection, and preferences such as language and theme. Blocking essential storage can prevent sign-in or protected shares from working. These functions are separate from the website analytics and affiliate technologies described above.

9. Policy Updates

We update the date above when this policy changes. For material changes to how we handle personal data, we will provide an appropriate notice and obtain consent where required before applying the new use.