Privacy policy

The privacy of your face — and it is your face, not ours — is the entire point of FaceReady. We built the app so that your video is processed on your own computer and never leaves it. This policy explains exactly what that means, in plain English. There's less here than you might expect, because we genuinely collect almost nothing.

FaceReady is made by Trucode Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15426557), registered office 7 Bell Yard, London, England, WC2A 2JR. Trucode Limited is the data controller, and you can reach a human at our contact form.

What we collect, and why

Your video and your face: nothing. Reading your camera, finding your face, applying the effects, presenting the result as a virtual camera — all of it runs on-device, on your own computer, whether you're on a Mac or a Windows PC. Your video is never uploaded, never stored by us, and never seen by us or anyone else. We run no servers that process video. We've built it this way on purpose, and we audit the app's network activity to keep it honest.

A device id, so your trial and licence stick to your machine. The first time you open FaceReady, it sends us a device identifier. That's a one-way scramble of your computer's hardware id, so we can't turn it back into anything that names you or your machine. It's what starts your 7-day trial, stops a reinstall from restarting it, and later confirms your subscription is active and keeps you within your device limit.

A few readings on whether the app is working. The same check, sent when you open the app and now and then while it runs, tells us your platform (Mac or Windows), the app version, whether the virtual camera set up properly, whether a picture is reaching it, whether the de-aging runs on your graphics chip or your processor, and how long the app has been open. Our server also notes a rough city and country from your internet address. We use this to find broken installs. Before we had it, a camera that failed to set up looked exactly like someone who'd lost interest. It never includes video, images, what you're doing on a call, or which apps you use.

Your email, if you give it to us. You can verify an email address in the app. We send you a code to prove it's yours, and from then on your subscription follows that email rather than one machine. We also use it to write to you about your trial: once when your camera's set up (or if it didn't work), once two days before the trial ends, and once when it's ended. Each of those emails has a link that stops them. If you subscribe, we'll email you about your account. That's all we send. No newsletters, and we don't pass your address to anyone to market to you.

A billing email, from your payment. When you pay, Stripe passes us a billing email and whether your subscription is active, so we can run your account. More on payments below.

An update check. The app checks our public release feed, which lives on GitHub, now and then so it can tell you when there's a new version. That request carries no account details.

That's everything the app sends. There's no analytics SDK, no advertising and no cookies inside the app.

On our website. The website isn't the app, and it does a little more. We use Microsoft Clarity, which records how visitors move through our pages: where they click, how far they scroll and where they give up. It shows us which parts of the site confuse people. We also run Awin's tag. If a partner site sent you, Awin and a 60-day cookie of ours remember that, so we can pay them if you subscribe. And when you download the installer, we log your browser type and rough location, which is how we tell real downloads from bots.

Payments

When you subscribe, you're buying from Trucode Limited, and the card payment is handled by Stripe. You type your card details into Stripe's own checkout page, not into ours, and Stripe works out any sales tax due where you live. We never see or store your full card number. Stripe passes us only what we need to run your subscription: a billing email and whether it's active. Stripe's privacy policy covers the payment itself.

We plan to offer FaceReady through the Mac App Store and the Microsoft Store later on. If you buy through a store, that store handles the payment and tax entirely under its own terms and privacy policy, and tells us only that a valid subscription exists. We'll keep this page accurate as those channels open.

When we'd access or share your information

We can't see your camera, so there's nothing there to hand over. For the little we do hold (your device id and its trial and app readings, your email if you verified one, and your billing email if you subscribe), here's the whole picture:

• The companies who help us run the service. Stripe takes payments and works out tax. Resend delivers our emails. Vercel hosts our servers, and Upstash holds our database. Microsoft Clarity and Awin run on the website, as described above. When the store channels open, Apple and Microsoft will handle store purchases. Each of them handles your data for us and only for that job.
• Support, only if you ask. If you email us with a problem, we use what you tell us to help you, and nothing else.
• The law, reluctantly. If we were ever compelled by a valid legal request, we'd comply — but we'd have very little to give (no video, no content), and unless we were legally barred, we'd tell you first.

We will never sell your personal information, full stop.

Your rights over your information

Under UK data protection law you can ask us what personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or ask for a copy to take elsewhere. In practice, for almost everyone the honest answer is that we hold nothing beyond your device record, your email if you verified one, and any messages you've sent us — but ask any time at our contact form and we'll sort it properly. If you're ever unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

How we keep your data safe

The strongest thing we do for your privacy is architectural: your face never leaves your device, so it can't be leaked from a server that doesn't have it. The small amount we do hold (your device record and email) is protected, and the licence check between the app and our server is sent over an encrypted connection.

Where your data is processed

Everything that matters — your video — is processed on your own computer, wherever in the world that is. The only servers involved are our licence check, the update feed, and the companies listed above. Several of them are based in the United States, so the limited account data above may be handled in the UK, the US or other countries, under appropriate safeguards.

Changes & questions

If we ever change how FaceReady handles data, we'll update this page and change the date at the top before the change takes effect. Given how the product is built, we don't expect this page to get much longer. Questions? Email our contact form — a person will reply.

This policy is adapted from Basecamp's open-source policies, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.