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.

Your licence, so the app knows it's paid for. When you buy a subscription and activate the app, it sends us your licence key and a device identifier — enough to confirm your subscription is active and to keep you within your device limit. That's it. It identifies your purchase, not your face and not your video.

A billing email, from your payment. When you pay, our payment provider passes us a billing email and the fact that your subscription is active, so we can run your account and email you about it. More on payments below.

An anonymous update check. The app periodically asks our server for the latest version number so it can tell you when an update is available. That request carries no personal information.

That's the lot. There's no analytics SDK, no advertising, no tracking, and no cookies inside the app.

Payments

When you subscribe directly from this site, your payment is handled by Paddle, who act as our Merchant of Record. In plain terms, Paddle is the seller on record: you enter your card details with Paddle, not with us, and Paddle handles the payment and all the sales tax. We never see or store your full card number — Paddle passes us only what we need to run your subscription (a billing email and whether it's active). Paddle's own 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 licence, device id and billing email), here's the whole picture:

• The people who help us run the service. Paddle (payments and tax) and, when those channels open, Apple and Microsoft (store purchases). When you buy through them, they're handling your payment data, not us.
• 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 licence record, billing email, and any emails 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 (licence and billing details) 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 the licence-check and update endpoints, plus our payment provider. If you're outside the UK, the limited account data above may be handled in the UK 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.