Privacy Policy

Your photos and patterns

Your photo never leaves your browser while you use the tool. Turning it into a pattern, cleaning it up, editing it and making the PDF all happen on your device; the photo is not uploaded, stored on a server or shared. The one exception is a Pro setting you switch on yourself, described under “Cloud sync (Pro)”.

Patterns are saved in this browser’s own storage so you can come back to them. Clearing your browser data deletes them, and some browsers (Safari in particular) may delete data of sites you have not opened for a while. Download the project file to keep a copy of your own.

Background removal

Background removal (Project Pass and Pro) also runs on your device. The first time you use it, your browser downloads the background tool, a file of about 30 MB, from our server and keeps it in its cache. Only that file travels; your photo stays in the browser.

Cloud sync (Pro)

With Pro, your patterns are copied to our storage on Cloudflare so they appear on your other devices. What is stored: the pattern itself (the grid of stitches, its colours, backstitch, the name you gave it and its settings) and a small preview picture drawn from the pattern. Your original photo is not stored unless you switch on “Also keep the original photo in the cloud”, which is off until you choose it. With it on, a JPEG copy of the photo (at most 2,048 pixels on the long side) is stored next to the pattern so you can convert it again later; switching it off deletes every stored photo.

Who can see it: only browsers activated with your license key. The storage is private, not reachable by a web address, and our own admin tools have no way to open your patterns.

How long it is kept: while Pro is active. When Pro ends without a refund, your cloud projects become read-only for 30 days so you can download them; we email you 7 days before they are deleted, and then they are deleted. After a refund or a chargeback they are deleted at once. Copies in your browser are never touched.

How to delete: delete a project, or all of them, in the tool at any time; it is removed from our storage straight away.

What our server records

Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, serves the pages. Our server counts page visits by page, country and referring site, and anonymous events in the tool such as a pattern being made, a PDF being downloaded or the upgrade box being opened (the event name, the spot on the page and the page address, nothing about you or your photo). It does not store your IP address or your browser’s user-agent text, and the site sets no cookies of its own. We do not record your screen or your clicks.

Payments and license checks

Payments are handled by Waffo, our merchant of record; when PayPal is offered at checkout, PayPal handles that payment. We never see your card details. To send your license key we receive the email address and country you entered at checkout and the amount paid; we keep them with the order, together with the order number and the license key, to answer support and refund requests. Entering a license key sends the key and an ID for this browser to our server, which checks whether the key is valid. Nothing from your photos or patterns is sent with it.

Where buyers come from

The first time you open a page of this site, the page writes one small note into your browser’s local storage: the website you came from (host name only, such as “google.com”, or “direct” if there is none), the utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign values if the link had them, the path of the page you landed on (without anything after a “?”), and the date. Nothing is sent when the note is written. It leaves your browser only if you press a buy button: it then goes with that order to our server and is kept with the order, so we can see which websites bring buyers. It never holds your photos, anything you typed, your IP address or the full address you came from, and values that look like an email address or a long number are left out. After 90 days a new visit replaces it. Clearing your browser data deletes it.

Your data rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or the CCPA), you can ask us what personal data we hold about you, get a copy of it in a machine-readable file, have it corrected or deleted, ask us to stop or limit using it, and withdraw any consent you gave. Email support@crossstitchpatternmaker.org from the address you used at checkout, or include your order number, so we can find your order. We reply within 30 days. Deleting an order also deactivates its license key and deletes its cloud projects. Where the law requires us to keep a payment record we keep only that, and Waffo, as the seller, keeps its own records under its privacy policy. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

How long we keep data

Order records (email, country, amount, how you first arrived, and the encrypted license key) are kept while the license can be used and for as long as we need them to resend keys, handle refunds and meet legal requirements; you can ask us to delete them sooner. Orders that were never paid are deleted about 90 days after they expire, and records of payment notifications after 400 days. Cloud projects are kept as described under “Cloud sync (Pro)” above. Visit counts contain no personal data and are kept for up to three months. Support emails are kept for as long as the matter needs.

Where data is processed

Our server, database and cloud storage run on Cloudflare’s global network, so data may be processed in a country other than yours. Payments are processed by Waffo.

Children

Cross Stitch Pattern Maker is not directed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you think a child has given us data, email support@crossstitchpatternmaker.org and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes we update it here and change the date at the top of the page.

Contact

Questions about privacy: support@crossstitchpatternmaker.org.