Privacy Policy
Last updated: May 1st 2019. .
Tinkersynth is a 1-person show: It's created and run by me, Josh Comeau. I like when my privacy is protected and respected, and can assume the same is true for you. This policy describes what data I collect and how it's used, and it does so in plain English, because that's the world I wish we lived in.
Personal Data collected
Tinkersynth no longer features a store, and as such, we don't collect very much personally-identifiable information anymore.
The one area where personal information is still explicitly collected is our . This form collects a name, email address, and message, and is sent directly to my email inbox by my server. This data is not persisted in any database.
Non-Personal Data collected
Tinkersynth uses to track events. The philosophy behind this collection is to understand how the product is used. Note that it is not at all connected to any personally-identifiable information. Upon the first connection from a device, a random UUID is generated and used as an identifier. This information is never connected to your name, email, etc.
Examples of non-personal data collection include:
- Number of visits
- Button clicks
- Initiate checkout
- Errors
Social Trackers
Tinkersynth now uses Google Analytics to grant insights into how people are using the product. Before May 1st, I used , but as Tinkersynth is transforming from a for-profit store to a 100%-free-to-use service, it is no longer financially viable to continue paying for a premium analytics service.
There are valid concerns around privacy when it comes to Google products, but I've attempted to mitigate these concerns by taking a few measures:
- I've disabled automatic information sharing between Google products.
- I've disabled all remarketing and advertising reporting features
- I've reduced the event data retention period to 14 months, the lowest option possible
- I've turned on IP anonymization, so that Google doesn't store your IP address when visiting Tinkersynth
- I've enabled the "Respect Do-Not-Track" setting. I believe this means that if you have "Do-Not-Track" enabled, Google Analytics will not gather any information about your session, nor will it be available to me.
Tinkersynth does not use any Facebook or Twitter SDKs.
Data Usage
When contacting me, either by email or through our , I use that data to respond to your query.
The analytics data collected through Mixpanel and Google Analytics is used to inform product decisions. For example, I may drop the least-used controls from the Slopes machine, and replace it with a more exciting control (I recently did exactly this, removing the "dark mode" and "margins" controls in favor of the color swatch options).
If you are one of the people who purchased a print or digital download prior to April 29th, I may reach out to you via email, in a personal non-automated way, to ask for your feedback once you've received your artwork. This is not a newsletter, or any sort of bulk mail. I'm just keen to hear what folks do with the art they buy. I may request photos of the art, to display on the Tinkersynth homepage. Of course this is entirely voluntary, and if you'd rather never hear from me, please just reply to my email and let me know. I'll disappear like a phantom.
The above usages are exclusive. I have no newsletter, and if I do create one later, existing customers won't be auto-subscribed. I won't sell or share any of the data I've collected. I'm not here for that.
Cookies & Local Storage
Tinkersynth doesn't use cookies at all.
Tinkersynth does use localStorage, an alternative storage mechanism, to track a few things:
- A random UUID which identifies the current device, generated on first visit
- The current settings for the Slopes machine (this is a convenience for the user, so that their work isn't destroyed when navigating away from the page).
- The number of page-loads from this device. This is used to tweak the experience (for example, the loading screen is less elaborate after the 4th visit).
Contact
If anything about this policy is unclear, please reach out. Send an email to me@joshwcomeau.com, or use the handy .