Create and secure your account
Email address, password hash or linked social sign-in details, profile fields, and session records so you can sign in and keep control of your account. Lawful basis: Contract.
Privacy policy
This page explains what personal data etch.it uses, why it uses it, how long it keeps it, and how to ask for privacy help.
Who controls your data
etch.it is the controller for the personal data you give us directly through the app. That means etch.it decides how account, deck, study, billing, and security data are used for this product.
Contact etch.it about privacy requests at bence.olah@gmail.com. If you live in the EEA or UK, you can also complain to your local supervisory authority.
What data etch.it uses and why
Run decks, memberships, and study history
Deck roles, review history, statistics inputs, goals, assessment attempts, and uploaded card content so etch.it can deliver the learning features you asked for. Lawful basis: Contract.
Review suggestions, mnemonics, and shared contributions
Proposal records, media uploads, and mnemonic requests/outputs when those features are enabled, so tutors and learners can collaborate on card improvements. Lawful basis: Contract.
Improve reliability, prevent abuse, and defend the service
Rate-limit hits, product events, and security or fraud-prevention records so etch.it can diagnose failures, stop abuse, and protect other members. Lawful basis: Legitimate interests.
Meet legal obligations
Records we must keep for tax, fraud, chargeback, or lawful request handling when the law requires us to keep them. Lawful basis: Legal obligation.
What etch.it stores in your browser
Session cookie
A first-party cookie set by etch.it. Purpose: Keeps you signed in to your account. Lifetime: 30 days.
Student session cookie
A first-party cookie set by etch.it. Purpose: Remembers which deck you are studying. Lifetime: 30 days.
Theme preference
A first-party local storage entry on this site. Purpose: Remembers your light, dark, or system theme choice. Lifetime: Until you clear it in your browser.
Last workspace
A first-party local storage entry on this site. Purpose: Returns you to Create or Study next time. Lifetime: Until you clear it in your browser.
Last study deck
A first-party local storage entry on this site. Purpose: Reopens the deck you most recently studied. Lifetime: Until you clear it in your browser.
Cookie notice dismissal
A first-party local storage entry on this site. Purpose: Remembers that you dismissed the cookie notice so it stays out of the way. Lifetime: Until you clear it in your browser.
Retention and deletion
- Rate-limit hit records — 24 hours.
- Expired OAuth state rows — about 10 minutes.
- Unreferenced or orphaned media — 30 days, then deletion.
- Product analytics events — 12 months.
- Soft-deleted records, including accounts waiting for irreversible deletion — 30 days, then hard deletion.
You can already correct profile details in Account. For access, export, or deletion requests that are not yet self-service, contact etch.it and the request will be handled manually until those controls ship.
International transfers and subprocessors
- AWS hosts the app, database, and static site in eu-west-1.
- Google and Facebook receive sign-in data only when you choose those providers.
- Openverse receives the search terms needed to look up openly licensed images.
- Anthropic receives only the card front, optional back, your target/source language pair, and the selected mnemonic technique hint when you ask etch.it to generate a mnemonic. Anthropic says paid API prompts and responses are not used for training without permission, and Anthropic's first-party inference geo is currently global or US, not EU-only.
If a provider processes EU personal data outside the EEA, etch.it relies on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or Standard Contractual Clauses, depending on what the provider offers for that transfer.
No ads, no tracking
- No advertising.
- No analytics cookies.
- No third-party trackers.
- No cross-site tracking.
Managing saved preferences
You can clear those saved preferences in your browser by removing this site's local storage. That removes the saved theme, last workspace, last study deck, and the dismissed cookie notice so it can appear again.
Last updated:
Change note: First published public privacy policy and terms.