Privacy policy

What we collect

Your account. Your email address and a password. Passwords are handled by our sign-in provider; we never see or store yours.

What you put in a box. Your kid’s name, the names on each envelope, your letters, photos, videos, links, gift card codes and PINs, the box’s PIN and design, and the photos on the outside. If you email or schedule a box, or ask us to tell your kid when new envelopes arrive, we keep their email address (and the day a scheduled box goes out).

From people you invite. The name you give them, and what they write and upload to their envelope. They don’t need an account.

From the person who opens the box. When each envelope was opened (we show you this), and any videos they choose to send back, which we email you about. In the phone app, they can start a video with the envelope opening and, if they choose, the letter inside it; that’s put together on their phone before it’s sent, and anyone they share that video with can read the letter. If they turn on notifications in the Whenvelope phone app, we keep an address for notifications to their phone (from Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging) with each box they open there. It’s deleted when they remove the box from the phone or the app stops working on it, and whenever you change the box’s PIN or link.

How you found us. When you make an account, we keep a note of how you got here: the site you came from (only its name, like pinterest.com), the first page you saw, and any tags on the link you followed, like a campaign’s name or the code an ad adds to its links, and the name of the browser you signed up in. We use it to count which posts, links and ads bring people, in totals, and to tell an ad’s company about a purchase that came from its ad (see “Who can see it”).

Payments. When you buy envelopes, Stripe collects your card or other payment details. We get a record of the purchase (what you bought, the amount, the date and your email), never your full card number.

Technical details. Like any website, our servers receive your IP address and browser details with each request. We don’t keep logs of visits or IP addresses. Our error logs, kept for three months, are only for fixing problems.

How we use it

Only to run Whenvelope: to store your boxes and show them to the people you share them with, send the emails you ask for (sign-in codes, a box’s arrival, news of new envelopes, a video sent back to you, receipts) and the notifications the app was allowed to show (new envelopes, a box arriving), take payments, keep the service secure and answer your questions.

We also count totals, like how many boxes were made or envelopes opened this week, or how many new parents came from a given site or ad, to see how Whenvelope is doing. Those never single anyone out.

We don’t sell your information. The only thing advertisers get from us is the purchase report described under “Who can see it”.

Who can see it

People with your links. Anyone with a box’s link (and its PIN, if you set one) can open the box. An invitation link reaches only its own envelope, never the rest of the box. Sealed envelopes stay sealed: what’s inside isn’t sent to their device until the envelope opens.

Companies that run parts of Whenvelope for us, only to do that job:

• Amazon Web Services: hosting, file storage, sign-in and email
• Neon: our database
• Stripe: payments
• Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) and Apple (push notifications): notifications in the phone apps. A notification shows only what’s on the outside of an envelope, never what’s inside.
• Google Workspace: our support email

Google and Meta, about purchases from their ads. If you came to Whenvelope from a Google ad, or a link on Facebook or Instagram, and later buy envelopes, we tell that company about the purchase so it can count which ads work: what it cost, when, our reference number for it, and the code its link added (for Meta, also your browser’s name, like “Safari on iPhone”). We don’t send them your email, your name or anything from your boxes.

When the law requires it. We’ll share information if we’re legally required to, or to protect people from harm.

Everything is stored in the United States.

Cookies and browser storage

We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies, or anyone else’s analytics. Before you make an account, your browser keeps a note of how you came to the site (see “How you found us”). It stays on your device, and is sent to us only if you sign up there, then deleted. Your browser keeps you signed in. On the device that opens a box, it remembers that the PIN was entered and which notes have been read, so they don’t have to do it again. The phone app keeps the same on the phone, plus the boxes opened there, and sets its own reminders for when the next envelope can be opened.

Keeping it safe

Everything travels over secure connections. Gift card codes, PINs and redeem links, and box PINs, are encrypted before they’re stored. Photos and videos are stored privately and shown only through links that expire. No system is perfectly secure, though, so we can’t promise that information will never be lost or exposed.

How long we keep it

Until you delete it. Deleting an envelope deletes its photos and videos; deleting a box deletes everything in it, including what invited relatives added. Purchase records are kept as long as the law requires for taxes and accounting.

Your choices

You can download your photos and videos, and change or delete any envelope or box, at any time. Sharing a video (from the box page or the phone app) hands the file to your own device’s share sheet; what happens to it after that is up to you and the app you share it with. To get a copy of your information, correct it, or delete your account and everything in it, email hello@whenvelope.com.

Children

Whenvelope is for adults: parents write it for their grown kids, for college, moving out, a deployment, a wedding or a first baby. It isn’t meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect information from them. If you think a child under 13 has given us information, email us and we’ll delete it.

Changes and contact

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. Questions? Email hello@whenvelope.com.