---
title: FreeSewing Privacy Notice
---

**Last update**: 13 August 2023

This privacy notice describes the personal data we store.
It outlines why we need the data, how long we keep it, and whether we share it with any third-parties (we do not).

We are confident it will demonstrate our commitment to privacy.

For clarity, we've broken this up in three different types of roles:

- For **visitors of our website**, we store **[visitor data][v]**
- For **subscribers to our newsletter**, we store **[subscriber data][s]**
- For **users with an account** on our website, we store **[account data][a]**

## How we use your visitor data

:::note

This data is stored for anybody who visits our website and connects to our backend APIs.
:::

##### What personal data do we store?

- Your IP address

##### Why do we need this data?

- To protect ourselves from abuse. 
- We use the IP address only to blacklist malicious or abusive clients or investigate security incidents.

##### How long do we keep this data?

- We keep these logs no longer than 6 months.

##### Do we share this data?

- No, never


## How we use your subscriber data

:::note
 

This data is stored for anybody who subscribes to our newsletter.

For people with an account on the website who enable the newsletter subscription in their account settings, we store no additional personal data as we already have their email on file in their [account data][a].

:::

##### What personal data do we store?

- Your E-mail address

##### Why do we need it?

- To send you our newsletter

##### How long do we keep it?

- As long as you remain subscribed

##### Do we share it?

- No, never


## How we use your account data

:::note

This data is stored for anybody with an account on our website.
:::

##### What personal data do we store?

- Your E-mail address
- Your username and password
- Body measurements and a (freely chosen) name for any measurements set of pattern you store in your account.
- Optional: A profile picture, bio, and your GitHub username. An image and notes for each measurements set or pattern stored in your account.

##### Why do we need it?

- To authenticate you
- To be able to contact you when required
- To be able to generate bespoke sewing patterns for you

##### How long do we keep it?

- Until your remove your account, or until at least 12 months after the last time you connected to our backend.
- We will always contact you prior to removing any inactive data.

##### Do we share it?

- No, never.


## Other info relevant to this privacy notice

### Use by minors under the age of 16

For legal reasons, you need to be at least 16 years old to use FreeSewing.

### Data Controller and Contact information

For questions about this privacy notice, you can contact Joost De Cock at joost@joost.at.

### Changes and Updates to this Policy

This policy may be updated occasionally. We will indicate this in the **Last update** data at the top of this document.

A more comprehensive overview of this document's history is [available on GitHub][1]

### Full disclosure

If we learn of a security systems breach, we will inform both you and the authorities.

If you believe your personal data has been compromised, please contact joost@joost.at.

### Service Providers

Our hosting providers manage various components of our infrastructure us. 
This includes hosting, storage, and backup.

While this means they process your data (in the strict sense of the word), they do not require access to information about you.
Furthermore, as we encrypt profile data at rest, it is non-trivial for them to access it even if they wanted to.

### Warrant canaries

While we have no intention of sharing any of your personal data, we are not above the law.

If we are required to do so by law, or if we feel that doing so would be the lesser evil, we will disclose personal data.

So far:

- FreeSewing has never turned over our encryption or authentication keys or our customers' encryption or authentication keys to anyone.
- FreeSewing has never installed any law enforcement software or equipment anywhere on our infrastructure.
- FreeSewing has never provided any law enforcement organization personal data of any of our users or visitors.
- FreeSewing has never weakened, compromised, or subverted any of its encryption at the request of law enforcement or another third party.

### See also

- [Your rights][2]
- [Your consent][3]

[1]: https://github.com/freesewing/markdown/commits/develop/org/docs/about/privacy

[2]: /docs/about/rights/

[3]: /account/consent/

[v]: #how-we-use-your-visitor-data

[s]: #how-we-use-your-subscriber-data

[a]: #how-we-use-your-account-data
