Privacy Policy — Storage Studio

This Privacy Policy explains how personal data is handled when you use Storage Studio (the "Software"), Storage Studio Bridge ("Bridge"), the Delta storage services, our website at storagestudio.us and the other services described in our Terms of Service (together, the "Services").

Who is responsible. Techtonic Systems Media and Research LLC, a limited liability company organised under the laws of the State of Wyoming, United States ("Techtonic", "we", "us", "our"), sells Storage Studio and decides how and why your personal data is used. Techtonic is the controller under EU and UK data-protection law and the Data Fiduciary under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

Who works on it for us. DNS Stack Private Limited, a private limited company incorporated in India ("DNS Stack"), develops Storage Studio and provides development, support and operations to Techtonic from India, under an agreement between the two companies. DNS Stack processes personal data only on Techtonic's instructions, as our processor (a "Data Processor" under India's law). Both companies are owned by the same founder.

Our principle. Storage Studio runs on your Mac, and your files are processed on your Mac. The Software does not send your files, file contents or file paths to us, except where you choose a feature that does — diagnostic logs you choose to share (§3.2(e)), and Delta Drive or My Drive, which keep files you put there (§3.5). This policy lists everything that is sent, as the code does it today.

What changed in this version

Version 2.1.0 (5 November 2026):

App check-in. From app version 4.20.46 the app checks in with us every few minutes while it is open, so updates, changed settings and messages reach you within minutes. What it sends, what we keep and for how long (§3.2(a), §7).

Version 2.0.1 (29 October 2026):

Who we are. Names Techtonic as the controller and Data Fiduciary, DNS Stack in India as our processor, and a Grievance Officer for India (§2).
A switch for usage and crash reports (Settings → Privacy), asked on first run in the EU and UK (§3.2(f)).
A complete list of what the app sends. Adds what earlier versions left out: the install identifier and Mac details sent with licence checks, crash reports, performance and usage events, a summary of how you use storage, how your download is linked to the page you came from, and partner links (§3.2).
Where we record your city — every place, why, and who sees it (§3.12).
New sections on Delta Trust, Delta Drive, My Drive and sharing (§3.5); Storage Studio Bridge (§3.6); our website, cookies and advertising tools (§3.7); emails we send (§3.8); support and sign-in (§3.9); and partners (§3.10).
Who we share data with is now a complete list of our service providers, including the company that stores Delta data (§5).
How long we keep data now matches what our systems actually do (§7).
Your rights by region, including the EU and UK, India, the United Arab Emirates and US states, and the correct age limits for children (§11 and §12).
Privacy requests now go to <privacy@storagestudio.us>.

1. Quick-read summary

Your files (Documents, Downloads, app data, etc.) — stay on your Mac, unless you put them in Delta Drive, My Drive, Delta Trust (encrypted on your Mac first), a cloud account you connect, a share link, or send them to a paired device with Bridge.
File paths, folder names, sizes — recorded in local manifests on your Mac. Not transmitted, except diagnostics you choose to share (§3.2(e)), and the names and folders of files you keep in Delta Drive or My Drive (§3.5).
Cloud account credentials — held by the transfer engine on your Mac. We never see them.
Licence checks — send your email (at activation), a one-way install identifier, and basic details of your Mac (model, chip, macOS version, region setting, time zone, app version) (§3.2(b)).
Usage heartbeat — two running totals (bytes freed, bytes moved), plus the country and region we work out from your connection. Never your IP address (§3.2(c)).
Crash reports, performance and usage events, and a storage summary — sent by the app to help us fix and improve it, unless you turn off Send usage and crash reports in Settings → Privacy (in the EU and UK, only if you agree). They contain no file names or contents (§3.2(f)–(g)).
Camera / microphone — never captured. We only detect whether another app is using them, to pause heavy work during calls.
Apple Intelligence — Tuhi in the app uses the model that runs on your Mac. Your questions are not sent to us or to Apple's servers by Storage Studio.
Delta Trust — encrypted on your Mac. We can't read your backups.
Bridge — what you send between your devices is end-to-end encrypted. Our servers see device names and network addresses so your devices can find each other (§3.6).
Website — essential cookies always; analytics and advertising cookies only if you accept them (§3.7).
Website chat assistant — an AI assistant, not a person. Questions are stored for 30 days with personal details removed (§3.4).
Diagnostic logs — only if you switch them on. Off by default (§3.2(e)).
We do not sell your personal data.

2. Who we are and how to reach us

Controller / Data Fiduciary: Techtonic Systems Media and Research LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company. Wyoming Secretary of State Original ID 2024-001396411 (Articles of Organization filed 22 January 2024). Registered agent: FBRA LLC, 1603 Capitol Ave Ste 413A No 2932, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001, United States. Principal office: 701 Tillery Street Unit 12, 2368, Austin, Texas 78702, United States.
Processor: DNS Stack Private Limited, India (CIN U62099UP2025PTC223463). Registered office: 117/N/270 C, Tulsi Nagar, Naveen Nagar, Kanpur Nagar 208025, Uttar Pradesh, India. Operations office: 2nd Floor, Kalkat Bhawan, Punjab Innovation Mission, GMADA Aerocity, SAS Nagar, Mohali 140306, Punjab, India.
Privacy contact, all regions: <privacy@storagestudio.us>.
Grievance Officer (India): Rajneesh Maurya, DNS Stack Private Limited, 2nd Floor, Kalkat Bhawan, Punjab Innovation Mission, GMADA Aerocity, SAS Nagar, Mohali 140306, Punjab, India. Email: <privacy@storagestudio.us> with "Grievance" in the subject.
Representative in the EU and the UK (GDPR Article 27): being appointed. Until then, please contact <privacy@storagestudio.us>.

This policy applies to everyone who uses the Services, anywhere in the world, and to visitors to our website.

3. Personal data we process

3.1 Data processed entirely on your Mac (never transmitted to us)

The Software reads, writes and stores the following on your Mac. We do not have access to it, and it does not leave your Mac through Storage Studio except as described in §3.2–§3.6.

File and folder metadata — paths, sizes, modification times, code signatures, file modes — for files you ask the Software to move, relocate, hash, index, back up or search.
Move manifests and transfer history — records of moves and cloud transfers, kept for crash recovery and history.
Configuration — your rules, schedules and preferences.
Daily storage snapshots — for the Storage Charts window, kept for 365 days.
Indexes for search and Tuhi — built on your Mac with Apple's on-device language tools.
Tuhi in the app — powered by Apple Intelligence, which runs on your Mac. Storage Studio does not send your questions to us or to any cloud AI service. Your chat history and what Tuhi learns about your preferences stay on your Mac.
The Junk Yard — clipboard history and notes you keep, stored on your Mac and deleted when they expire.
Licence file — stored with owner-only file permissions, and mirrored to a hidden folder on your external drive.
Cloud account credentials and paired-storage details — held by the transfer engine and in encrypted files on your Mac. We never see them.
Your acceptance of these documents — the date, the versions you accepted, your Mac user name and the Mac's hardware identifier, kept on your Mac.
Camera and microphone activity flag — a single yes/no reflecting whether any app is using your camera or microphone, used to pause automatic work during calls. No video or audio is ever captured.

Retention. This data stays on your Mac while the Software is installed, within the limits the Software sets (for example the 365-day history). Uninstalling the Software does not delete it by default — see §10.

3.2 Data the app sends to us

The Software connects to our servers at storagestudio.us. Every request carries a User-Agent and a version header naming the app version, and a one-way install identifier: a hash made from your Mac's hardware identifier and macOS install date. The identifier cannot be turned back into either of them, but it is the same every time, so it lets us recognise the same installation.

(a) Manifest / update check

Frequency: on app launch and about once every 24 hours.

Data sent: the request headers above (app version, install identifier) and, as with any internet request, your IP address. We use them to decide which update and settings to offer your Mac. We do not keep a record of these requests in our database.

Data received: the latest version available, licence settings, the trial length, and any in-app messages.

App check-in (from app version 4.20.46). While the app is open it checks in about every 15 minutes (we set the interval), when your Mac wakes, and when you bring the app to the front, so that a new version, changed settings and messages reach you within minutes instead of a day.

Data sent, always: the install identifier, the app version and build, your Send usage and crash reports choice, how long the app has been open, and a one-time security token that changes on every check-in (it stops anyone else pretending to be your Mac; we keep only a one-way hash of it). The first time, a licensed Mac also sends its licence token, to prove it is the Mac the licence belongs to.

Data sent only while Send usage and crash reports is on (§3.2(f)): your macOS version, your Mac's processor type, whether you are on a trial or a licence, whether Bridge is in use, the two running totals of the usage heartbeat (§3.2(c)), and whether a move or transfer is running. Our server adds the country your connection comes from; it does not store your IP address.

Data received: when to check in next, whether a newer version is available for your Mac, whether settings or in-app messages changed, and any message we addressed to your Mac or to all users (shown in the app's notification bell; closing it tells us you closed it).

Kept: the latest check-in for each Mac (replaced by the next one), hourly totals that carry no install identifier for 14 days, and which messages your Mac received and whether you opened or closed them for 90 days (§7). Turning Send usage and crash reports off stops the optional details from your next check-in.

(b) Licence activation, trial and licence checks

Frequency: once at activation or trial start, then a periodic licence check (every day for Monthly/Annual, every 7 days for Lifetime).

Data sent:

Activation: your purchaser email address and name, your Stripe transaction identifier or activation link, the install identifier, and details of your Mac: model, chip and processor type, macOS version, your Mac's region setting and time zone, and the app version.
Starting a trial: your email address and the one-time code we sent it, your name, your country, the install identifier and the same Mac details.
Licence checks: your licence token, the install identifier and the same Mac details.

Data received: a signed licence token confirming your licence status.

(c) Usage heartbeat (lifetime totals + where you use the app)

Frequency: about every 12 hours while there is something to report. Skipped when offline, and not sent at all while Send usage and crash reports is off (see (f) below).

The payload, exhaustively. Two numbers, the version, a start time, and the licence token (or, during a trial, the install identifier) that owns them:

{
  "token":                          "<your license JWT>",
  "app_version":                    "4.20.58",
  "period_storage_saved_bytes":     12345678901,
  "period_data_transferred_bytes":  98765432101,
  "period_started_at":              "2026-05-26T12:34:56Z"
}

The heartbeat carries no file contents, file or folder names, paths, accounts, rules, schedules, device names or per-operation detail. The two numbers are running totals and cannot be turned back into a list of what you did.

Location. Our hosting provider tells our server which country and region (for example "Maharashtra" or "California") your connection comes from. We store the country and region against your licence or trial, together with a short history of the places your installation has checked in from (up to 20), so the app can show your totals and we can see where Storage Studio is used. We do not store your IP address with it. We have a setting that would also record the city, postcode and an approximate position (to about 1 km); it is switched off, and we will update this policy before switching it on (§3.12 lists every place we record a city).

Paths, names or device details reach us only through choices you make yourself: diagnostic logs you switch on (§3.2(e)), or a log bundle you send our support team when they ask for one (§3.9). The heartbeat never carries them.

Data received: your updated lifetime totals, which the app shows.

(d) Webhook-driven status (no client call)

When Stripe tells us a subscription changed (cancelled, payment failed, refunded, etc.), our server updates your licence record. Your Mac picks this up at its next licence check. No additional data is collected from you.

(e) Diagnostic logs you choose to send

Consent text version 1.1 (effective 2026-09-17). The app shows this same version, and the same words, on the consent screen, and we email you a copy when you agree.

Off unless you turn it on. In Preferences → Notifications you can switch on "Share diagnostic logs with Storage Studio support". Nothing below happens until you read the consent screen, tick "I've read this and agree to send diagnostic logs", and press Turn on. Storage Studio works exactly the same if you never turn it on.

What is sent. While sharing is on, the app sends the new lines written to its own logs about every 2 minutes, plus a short snapshot when you turn it on:

Storage Studio's own logs (the background service, the app, and the Bridge connection helper). While sharing is on, these logs are more detailed than usual.
Your Storage Studio settings file (rules, schedules and preferences — no passwords).
Records of moves, transfers, background jobs and storage history, including the names and paths of the files and folders involved.
This Mac's computer name, and Bridge details: the names and Bridge ids of your paired devices and the network addresses used to connect them.
Your Storage Studio version, macOS version, Mac model and processor type, and your Mac's time zone offset (so logs from two devices can be lined up).
This install's Application ID, a one-way machine identifier, and whether you are on a trial or a licence.

What is not sent: the contents of any of your files; passwords, keys or tokens; the encrypted credential stores the app keeps; your clipboard or anything in the Junk Yard; and email addresses (they are removed from the logs before sending).

Why. So our support staff can see what is going wrong while it happens — including, when two of your devices cannot connect, the logs from both ends. We do not use these logs for marketing, profiling or training.

Who can see it. Storage Studio support staff, and the support tools they use, including AI tools operated for us under contract (they process the logs only to help answer your support question, not to train models). Every time your logs are read, it is recorded. The logs are stored on our servers (storagestudio.us, hosted on Cloudflare) and may be stored and processed in the United States; see §6 for international transfers.

How long. Sharing switches itself off 24 hours after you turn it on. Everything sent is deleted automatically after a short period we set — 48 hours unless we change it, and never more than 7 days. The consent screen shows the exact number of hours in force before you agree, and your agreement records that number.

Emails. We email you (at the licence or trial address we already hold for that Mac) when sharing turns on — with a copy of the consent you agreed to — and again when it turns off.

Stopping and deleting. Turn the switch off at any time — the app stops sending immediately, returns logging to normal, and tells our server you withdrew consent. To delete what was already sent straight away, press Delete uploaded logs in the same place in the app, or email <privacy@storagestudio.us>.

We record that you agreed: when, which consent text version, the retention shown to you, whether the consent screen was shown, and your app version, plus this install's Application ID, a one-way machine identifier, your licence ID, and the country (not the IP address) you connected from. That record is kept for 24 months as proof of your consent, then deleted automatically. Rate limiting uses a keyed one-way hash of your network address, never the address itself.

Backups. Our database provider keeps point-in-time recovery copies of the database for about 30 days. A deleted consent record can therefore exist in those recovery copies for up to about 30 days before it is gone everywhere. Log text itself is not kept in the database.

(f) Crash reports, performance and usage events

To find and fix problems, the app sends, with the install identifier:

Crash reports — when the app crashes: the time, the processor type, the macOS version, the error message and the technical trace of where in the app it failed. A trace can include the location of the app on your Mac.
Performance samples — the app's own memory and processor use, the disk space in use, and how many moves are in progress.
Usage events — for example that the app was launched (with its version), or that a feature was blocked by your licence (with the reason).

They contain no file names, paths or file contents.

Your choice. In Settings → Privacy, the switch Send usage and crash reports turns off these reports, the usage heartbeat in §3.2(c) and the storage summary in §3.2(g). In the European Economic Area (the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), the United Kingdom and Switzerland — judged from the country you registered with or your Mac's region setting — the app asks you the first time it runs, and sends nothing of this kind unless you agree; elsewhere the switch is on until you turn it off. Turning it off also deletes the crash, performance, usage-event and storage-summary records we already hold for that Mac, at its next licence or trial check (and, if we already deleted them in the previous 24 hours, within a day). We keep your answer and when you gave it, so the choice is respected; deleting your data (§10) deletes that too. Licence checks (§3.2(b)) and update checks (§3.2(a)) continue whatever you choose, because the Services need them. We can also stop accepting crash, performance and usage-event reports from our side.

(g) Storage summary

From time to time the app sends a short summary of how this Mac uses storage, so we can understand our users and improve the product: a profile label, rough percentages (for example how much is on the internal disk, external drives and cloud), the mix of file categories, which features are in use (external drives, cloud, iCloud, backup, duplicates), the app's own memory, processor and disk use, and, for each cloud account you connected, its name as shown in the app, its provider, the space used and available, and file counts by type. Email addresses are removed from account names, on your Mac and again on our server. The Send usage and crash reports switch (§3.2(f)) turns this off too. Our server adds the country your connection comes from. The summary contains no file names, paths or contents. One summary is kept per installation and replaced by the next.

(h) Where your download came from

When the app first opens, it reads the web address your copy was downloaded from. macOS records that address on the downloaded file; the app looks for it on the app itself, on a Storage Studio disk image in your Downloads folder, or in macOS's own record of that download — and reads nothing about any other download. It sends us once: the campaign tags in that address (for example utm_source), any advertising click identifier in it (gclid, fbclid), the visitor identifier our website set if you accepted analytics cookies (§3.7), and the download page. We use it to link this installation to the website visit and campaign that led to it, to measure our marketing. This report is sent only while Send usage and crash reports (§3.2(f)) is on; until then the app does not read the download record at all.

(i) Partner links

If you downloaded Storage Studio through a partner's link, the download carries a partner token. On first launch the app sends it with the install identifier, so that the partner is credited and, where the partner offers them, the app can show the partner's branding, messages and help content (including answers Tuhi gives from the partner's knowledge base). The partner sees you as their customer only if you buy; partners see your email, plan and licence status, never your files or your Mac's details. Sending the partner token at first launch is needed to give you the partner's trial and offer, so it is not affected by the Send usage and crash reports switch; reports of how you use the partner's card in the app are usage events and stop when that switch is off (§3.2(f)).

3.3 Data Stripe processes

Stripe processes your billing details, payment card information, billing address and tax data directly, as the payment processor for Techtonic. We receive receipts and payment records — your email, name, the plan, amounts and Stripe's identifiers — not your card number. Stripe's privacy notice: stripe.com/privacy.

For checkout we also record each checkout attempt — the plan, amount, campaign tags, the country, region and city your connection comes from, the type of device and browser, a hint of your email address, a one-way hash of your install identifier, and any decline code — so we can find and fix checkout failures.

3.4 Website chat assistant and updates

The assistant on our website is an AI assistant. It answers questions about Storage Studio only, from our published help pages (the FAQ, the user manual, the wiki and the Learning Center). It is not a person, and it is not part of the Software.

When you ask a question. Before your question is stored or processed, we remove email addresses, phone numbers, card-like and licence-key-like numbers and anything that looks like a password. If one of our help pages already answers the question, the assistant replies with that page and no AI model is involved. Otherwise, the cleaned question and the most relevant passages from our help pages are sent to an AI model run for us by our infrastructure provider (Cloudflare, Workers AI), which processes them only to produce the answer. A bot check (Cloudflare Turnstile) runs when you start a conversation. Please don't type passwords or personal details into the assistant. If you ask about your own account, the assistant first asks you to confirm you're a customer by entering a one-time code we email to the address on your account; your account details are then read from our records only for that conversation (never sent to the AI model, and never kept in the conversation record our team reviews), and the confirmation ends after 15 minutes without a message, after 2 hours at most, or when you sign out. The confirmation works only in the browser tab where you entered the code.

Your name and a confirmed email. After a short preview (a couple of answers — we may set it to none), the assistant asks for your name and an email address before answering more, and confirms the address by emailing it a one-time code; temporary and undeliverable addresses are refused, which includes a look-up of the address's mail domain. We ask so that we know who we are helping, can follow up on your questions, and can keep the assistant from being used anonymously at scale. We keep your name, the confirmed address, the page you were on and any campaign tags as a lead record (as described below, up to 24 months after your last activity), and your browser keeps a token for 30 days after you last use the assistant so you aren't asked again; "Clear conversation" removes it. If you tick "I'm already a Storage Studio customer", the same code also confirms you as a customer. The "Email me product updates" box is unticked unless you tick it; if you do, entering the code confirms that choice too, and nothing else about marketing changes.

What we keep, and for how long.

The conversation — your cleaned questions and the answers, the page you started on, and the topics you asked about: 30 days, for quality review, then deleted automatically.
A list of the questions people ask (cleaned) and how often, so we can improve the FAQ: 30 days.
A keyed one-way hash of your network address, used only to apply rate limits — never the address itself: deleted with the conversation.
Answers to repeated questions are kept for 24 hours so the same question is not processed twice. They contain no personal data.
Your conversation history. So that a conversation is there when you come back, this browser keeps it (with email addresses and long numbers masked) for 30 days after you last use the assistant; nothing of it is sent to us. If you confirm you're a customer, the questions and answers from then on — including your account details — are also kept on our servers, encrypted, for 90 days, and shown again only after you confirm again (on any device). "Clear conversation" in the assistant removes the history from this browser at once and, while you're confirmed, deletes the copy on our servers too; clearing this website's data in your browser also removes the browser copy.

If you leave your details ("Want updates or a follow-up?"). Leaving them is optional. We store your email address, the name you give (if any), the page you were on and any campaign tags in that page's address, the topics of your conversation, and when you did it. If you tick "Attach this conversation", we also keep the cleaned conversation itself with your details. Your browser then keeps a signed token in its local storage so that later conversations on that browser are added to your record; clearing this website's data in your browser stops that.

Product updates by email only with your consent. The "Email me product updates" box is unticked unless you tick it, and even then we send nothing until you click the confirmation link we email you (double opt-in). We record the wording you agreed to and when. Every update email has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing stops marketing email at once.
To keep follow-ups relevant, we note on your record if the same email address later starts a Storage Studio trial or buys a licence, and if our email provider reports that an email to it bounced, was marked as spam or was unsubscribed — the last three stop marketing email to the address.
Who sees it: our marketing team and administrators.
How long: until you ask us to delete it, or 24 months after your last activity, whichever comes first. When we erase your details we delete your record, its history and your conversations, and keep only a one-way fingerprint of your email address so you are not added again automatically.

To delete your details or ask what we hold, email <privacy@storagestudio.us>. A conversation where you did not leave your details is not linked to your name or email address, and is deleted after 30 days.

Delta Trust (backups). Your backups are encrypted on your Mac before they are uploaded, with a key that comes from your 24-word recovery kit. We store the encrypted backups, an encrypted copy of the key material the app needs, a one-way identifier for your vault, your plan and its Stripe identifiers. We cannot read your backups. If you lose your recovery kit, your backups can never be recovered — not even by Storage Studio.

Delta Drive (working files). Delta Drive is not end-to-end encrypted, so that it can show your files on the web, in Finder and through share links. Your files are encrypted in transit and stored encrypted at rest by our storage provider. To run the drive our servers keep an index of your files — their names, folders, kinds and sizes — and any notes and comments you add, and we record the Macs connected to your drive (the computer name and install identifier). When you sign in to Delta Drive on the web we record your email, what you did (for example which file you opened or downloaded), the country and city your connection comes from (see §3.12), a one-way hash of your IP address and your browser type.

Recovery-kit certificate. When you save a Delta Trust recovery kit, the city and network operator of your connection are recorded, encrypted, in the kit's certificate on your Mac (see §3.12).

Locked folders. A folder you lock opens only with your PIN or the recovery kit you chose to make for it. If you forget the PIN and have no recovery kit, the folder can never be opened again; Storage Studio can't recover it.

My Drive (storage you own). Your files are stored in your own storage account (for example an S3-compatible bucket), which is your own supplier, not ours. We keep the same kind of index as for Delta Drive, and the access keys you give us so that the drive can reach your bucket; we forget those keys after your trial or licence has been paused for a period (by default 180 days), with an email before we do.

Sharing. When you share a file or folder, we record the share and, each time it is used, what was done with it, the recipient's email if they signed in, the country and region their connection comes from (and city only if the precise-location setting is on — see §3.12), a one-way hash of their IP address and their browser type. We also record who has viewed a shared file, so you can see it.

Where Delta data is stored. Delta Trust and Delta Drive data is stored by our storage provider, named in §5, in the United States by default; data of customers in the European Union and the United Kingdom is stored in the European Union, and of customers in Canada in Canada.

3.6 Storage Studio Bridge

Bridge links your other devices to Storage Studio on your Mac. It does not need an account, a licence or your email address, and it contains no analytics.

What stays between your devices. Clipboard items, files, folders and anything else you send between paired devices travel end-to-end encrypted between the two devices. Neither our servers nor the relay can read them. Bridge's own logs and its Junk Yard (items you copied, kept for 24 hours by default) stay on the device; Bridge does not upload them.

What each device has. Each installation creates its own key pair (the private key never leaves the device), a Bridge ID derived from it, and a random installation identifier. The device's name is its computer name.

How devices find each other.

On your local network, Bridge announces its Bridge ID and local network addresses (not its name) so your devices can find each other.
Our connection service (at storagestudio.us), when automatic detection is on (it is by default): every 45 seconds while Bridge runs, the device sends its Bridge ID, its network addresses (which include its public IP address), its installation identifier, its name, its operating system and the Bridge version. We keep this as a register of devices for 7 days after the device was last seen, and our staff can see it, to help your devices reconnect and to support you. While a pairing is open we also keep, for 5 minutes, an entry under a one-way hash of the connecting code. The code itself is never sent.
The public peer-to-peer network. To find devices over the internet, Bridge also uses a public network of computers run by other people (the open-source libp2p / IPFS network). While a pairing is open, and when reconnecting, it publishes or looks up its Bridge ID and network addresses there, under a one-way hash of the connecting code. These computers are not run by us or for us.
Our relay. When two devices can't connect directly, their encrypted traffic passes through our relay at relay.storagestudio.us, which runs on Cloudflare. The relay sees the two Bridge IDs, the IP addresses, and when and how much data passes, but not the content. It keeps no record of connections beyond the time they are open (at most one hour for a reservation). Our hosting provider keeps its own request logs.
Local-network-only mode switches off our connection service, the public network and the relay.

Updates. Bridge asks storagestudio.us whether a newer version exists and downloads it from us. This sends your IP address and the request, like any download.

Paired with Storage Studio. If you switch on diagnostic logs in Storage Studio on your Mac (§3.2(e)), they include the names, Bridge IDs and addresses of your paired devices.

3.7 Our website, cookies and similar technologies

Every visit. Like any website, ours receives your IP address and browser details with each request. Our hosting provider (Cloudflare) protects the site and keeps its own logs. When a form needs it, a bot check (Cloudflare Turnstile) runs and receives your IP address.

Essential cookies — needed for the site to work, set without asking:

ss_consent — remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics and advertising cookies (180 days).
ss_ref and ss_plink — remember the partner whose link you followed, so the partner is credited and any partner price applies (60 days).
ss_customer_session and ss_in — keep you signed in to your account (7 days).
ss_drive, ss_share, ss_pub, ss_pub_np, ssf_…, dd_view, dd_newlink and dd_shares_tab — keep you signed in to Delta Drive or to a share or file you unlocked, and remember view settings (from the end of your browser session up to one year for view settings; sign-ins between 8 hours and 7 days).
ss_partner_session — the partner portal sign-in (7 days).
ss_ea_session — early-access sign-in (about 1 day).
Cookies used only by our staff consoles.

Analytics and advertising cookies — only if you press Accept in the cookie banner:

ss_attr and ss_attr_last — the campaign tags, advertising click identifiers, referring site and landing page of your first and latest visit (90 days).
ss_vid — a random visitor identifier (365 days). With it we record your visits (pages, campaign tags, click identifiers, referring site and country) and, if you download the app, link the download to your visits (§3.2(h)).
Google Analytics (_ga) and, where we have switched them on, the advertising tags of Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft (Bing), TikTok and LinkedIn. These companies receive information about your visit and may use it under their own policies. Where switched on, we may also tell Google and Meta when a visit led to a purchase, using their click identifiers and a one-way hash of an identifier (and of your email address only if we have chosen to send it).

Your choice. Declining keeps all of the above off. To change your mind, clear this website's cookies in your browser and choose again when the banner reappears.

Local storage — the website chat assistant (§3.4), Delta Drive and the file viewer keep your preferences and, for the assistant, your conversation, in your browser's local storage. Nothing is sent to us from there except as described in §3.4.

Content from other companies. Some pages load videos from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) or Vimeo (with "do not track"), and our wiki and editor pages load code from the jsDelivr network. Those companies receive your IP address when that content loads; videos load only when you press play in pop-ups.

Files & Videos links. When we send you a file or video through a tracked link, we record when it was viewed, downloaded or played and how much was watched, with the country and region, the referring site, the browser and device type, campaign tags, and a visitor code that changes every day (made from a keyed hash of your IP address and browser). If you give your email at an email gate, we keep it with the link.

3.8 Emails we send

We send email through Cloudflare Email Sending, with Brevo as a backup service (two Brevo accounts); which one carries a given email depends on which is available. For every email we keep a record — the recipient, sender, subject, which service sent it and the message itself — and the services tell us whether it was delivered, deferred or bounced, rejected or marked as spam; Brevo also reports opens and link clicks. To count opens whichever service sends the email, most emails also contain a tiny invisible image unique to that email: when your mail app loads it, we record that the email was opened and when. It carries nothing else, and if your mail app blocks images nothing is recorded. The image is never added to the copy we keep. One-time codes, sign-in links and licence keys are never kept in readable form in these records, and those emails are never copied to anyone else.

Other emails are also copied to an internal mailbox so we can see what was sent and answer replies. Our mailboxes are hosted by Google (Google Workspace).

3.9 Support, feedback and signing in

Support tickets and feedback: your name, email address, your message, the app and macOS version, the Mac details listed in §3.2(b) (feedback), an optional phone number, diagnostic details if you include them, and the IP address and browser the request came from. Our staff may use an AI model run for us by Cloudflare (Workers AI) to help draft a reply; it receives the subject and messages of the ticket.
Log bundles you send when support asks: a compressed copy of Storage Studio's logs and state, with your IP address and browser details, kept for 180 days.
Signing in to your account, Delta Drive, the partner portal or early access: your email address, the one-time code or link we send (kept in hashed form and only until it expires), and the IP address and browser used.
Erasure requests made from the app ("Reset Storage Studio") send the install identifier and the request to us so we can act on it.

3.10 Partners

If you join the Storage Studio Partner Program, our Partner Privacy Notice explains what we process about you. If you bought through a partner, the partner sees your email address, plan and licence status, and any messages you choose to send them through the app.

3.11 Our staff tools

Our staff use an administration console to run the Services. Every change made in it is recorded in an audit log. Our staff can also connect AI assistants of their choosing to the console through a secured, keyed interface; when they do, that assistant processes the records it is asked to read for that task. When our staff open a customer's approximate location on a map, the region (or, if recorded, the approximate position) is sent to Google Maps without identifying the customer.

3.12 Where we record your city

We never store your IP address for these. The city (and, where stated, more) is worked out by our hosting provider, Cloudflare, from the connection, and is approximate. These are all the places we record it:

Delta Drive activity. Each time you sign in to Delta Drive on the web, or open or download a file there, we record the country and city your connection comes from, with what you did, the time, a one-way hash of your IP address and your browser type. This is always recorded. Why: so you can see where your drive was used and spot a sign-in you don't recognise, and so we can protect your account and help you. Legal basis: contract, and our legitimate interest in keeping accounts secure. Who sees it: you (in Delta Drive's activity view and your account page) and our support staff. Kept: 12 months.
Share activity. Each time a file or folder you shared is opened or downloaded, we record the country and region of the person's connection. The city is recorded as well only while our precise-location setting (described below) is switched on; it is currently off. Why: so you can see how your shares are used and spot misuse of a link. Legal basis: contract with the person who shared, and legitimate interests (security of shared links). Who sees it: the person who shared, and our support staff. Kept: 12 months.
Recovery-kit certificate. When you save a Delta Trust recovery kit, our server looks up the city and the network operator (for example your internet provider) of your connection and sends them back to your Mac, which stores them encrypted inside the kit's certificate. Our server keeps only the encrypted certificate, which it cannot read. Why: so that, later, you can recognise where and on which network a kit was made. Legal basis: contract. Who sees it: only you. Kept: as long as you keep the certificate.
Check-in location (§3.2(c)). Normally we record only the country and region. We have a precise-location setting which, when switched on, also records the city, postcode and an approximate position (to about 1 km) of each check-in, and the city in your installation's check-in history; our staff can then show that approximate position on a map (provided by Google Maps). The setting is currently switched off, and we will update this policy before switching it on. Why: to see where Storage Studio is used and to support customers. Legal basis: legitimate interests. Who sees it: our staff. Kept: while your licence or trial record exists; only the latest position is kept, and the check-in history keeps the 20 most recent places.
Checkout attempts (§3.3). Each checkout attempt records the country, region and city of the connection. Why: to find and fix checkout failures and fraud. Legal basis: legitimate interests. Who sees it: our staff. Kept: 12 months.

4. Why we use your data, and our legal bases

These are the purposes, with the legal basis under the EU and UK GDPR. Under India's DPDP Act we process for the same purposes, relying on your consent or on the legitimate uses the Act allows (for example, data you provide voluntarily for a specified purpose).

Providing the Services you asked for — licences, trials, Delta services, sharing, Bridge pairing and connection, support. Basis: contract (Art. 6(1)(b)).
Payments, invoices, tax and accounting. Basis: contract and legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)).
Detecting licence sharing, fraud and abuse; security; rate limits; bot checks. Basis: legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) in protecting the Services and our customers.
Offering updates and the right settings for your Mac. Basis: legitimate interests.
Lifetime totals and where Storage Studio is used (§3.2(c)). Basis: legitimate interests — minimal data, no IP address kept.
Crash reports, performance and usage events, storage summary (§3.2(f)–(g)). Basis: in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, consent, which the app asks for on first run and you can withdraw with the Send usage and crash reports switch; elsewhere, legitimate interests in fixing and improving the product, and you can object at any time with the same switch.
Linking a download to the visit and campaign that led to it (§3.2(h)), analytics and advertising cookies (§3.7). Basis: consent, which you give in the cookie banner and may withdraw.
Crediting partners and showing partner content (§3.2(i)). Basis: legitimate interests of us and our partners, and contract where you bought through a partner.
Recording the city of a connection (§3.12) — Delta Drive activity and recovery-kit certificates: contract and legitimate interests (account security); share activity, check-ins and checkout attempts: legitimate interests.
Answering questions in the website chat assistant (§3.4). Basis: legitimate interests.
Keeping a confirmed customer's chat history (§3.4). Basis: legitimate interests — kept 90 days, deletable from the assistant.
Product updates and follow-ups by email (§3.4). Basis: consent — double opt-in, withdraw at any time.
Diagnosing a problem with logs you chose to send (§3.2(e)). Basis: consent — optional, time-limited, withdraw at any time.
Email delivery records and open tracking (§3.8). Basis: legitimate interests in knowing our emails arrive.
Defending legal claims and complying with the law. Basis: legal obligation and legitimate interests.

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

We do not sell or rent personal data. We share it only with the service providers below, who process it for us under contract, and as described at the end of this section.

Our processor

DNS Stack Private Limited (India) — development, support and operations for Storage Studio, under our instructions.

Service providers (sub-processors)

Cloudflare, Inc. (United States, global network) — hosts our website, servers, database, file storage and the Bridge connection service and relay (Workers, D1, R2, KV, Containers); runs the bot check (Turnstile), the AI models behind the website chat assistant and staff reply drafts (Workers AI), sends our emails (Email Sending) and tells us whether they were delivered, and receives email sent to our support address (Email Routing). Privacy notice.
Stripe, Inc. (United States) — payments, subscriptions, invoices, refunds, tax and the billing portal. Privacy notice.
Brevo (France) — the backup service for our emails; tells us whether they were delivered, opened or clicked. Privacy notice.
Backblaze, Inc. (United States) — stores Delta Trust backups (encrypted on your Mac) and Delta Drive files. Privacy notice.
Google LLC (United States) — hosts our mailboxes (Google Workspace); and, only if you accept analytics and advertising cookies, Google Analytics and Google Ads (§3.7); and Google Maps when our staff view a customer's approximate location (§3.11). Privacy notice.

Only if you accept advertising cookies and we have switched them on (§3.7): Meta Platforms, Microsoft (Bing), TikTok and LinkedIn, under their own privacy policies.

Content providers on some pages (§3.7): YouTube (Google), Vimeo and jsDelivr.

AppSumo — if you bought Storage Studio through AppSumo, AppSumo shares your email address and purchase with us to issue your licence.

Apple — signs and checks ("notarises") the Software when we publish it, which involves no personal data about you. Apple Intelligence runs on your Mac; Storage Studio does not send your data to Apple.

Not our providers. Cloud accounts you connect, and storage you own for My Drive (for example Amazon S3, Wasabi or DigitalOcean), are services you choose; the app reaches them directly from your Mac or on your instructions, and their own terms and privacy policies apply. The public peer-to-peer network Bridge uses to find devices (§3.6) is run by independent people, not for us.

Others.

Partners, as described in §3.2(i) and §3.10.
Professional advisers (lawyers, accountants, auditors) under a duty of confidentiality.
Authorities, when the law requires it, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our customers, the public or us.
A buyer or successor, if the business or its assets are sold or reorganised, under the same protections as this policy.

6. International transfers

We are a US company working with a processor in India, and our service providers operate in the United States, the European Union and globally. Your data may therefore be stored or accessed in the United States, India and other countries whose law may protect personal data differently from yours.

From the EU/EEA: we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or on an adequacy decision (such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, where a provider is certified under it).
From the UK: we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the Standard Contractual Clauses, or on UK adequacy regulations.
To India (DNS Stack): under Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK equivalent between Techtonic and DNS Stack.
From India: transfers are allowed except to countries the Government of India restricts.
From the UAE: in line with the PDPL's rules for cross-border transfers.

You can ask us for a copy of the relevant safeguards at <privacy@storagestudio.us>.

7. How long we keep data

Licence and purchase records (email, name, transaction and Stripe identifiers, install identifier, Mac details, plan, amounts): while your licence exists, then for as long as tax and accounting law requires — 8 years after the licence ends. After that we remove what identifies you (email, name, install identifier, Mac details and Stripe identifiers); the amount, currency, plan and dates stay as an anonymous accounting record.
Trial records (email, name, country, install identifier, Mac details): 24 months after the trial ends. The install identifier may be kept longer to stop a trial being started twice on the same Mac.
Usage totals, country and region, and check-in history: while your licence or trial record exists; the history keeps only the 20 most recent places.
Crash reports, performance and usage events, storage summaries, download and campaign links: 12 months (deleted sooner if you turn reports off). The storage summary is replaced each time a new one is sent.
App check-ins (§3.2(a)): the latest check-in for each Mac, until 12 months after the last one; hourly totals without an install identifier, 14 days; messages sent to your Mac and what you did with them, 90 days.
Manifest / update checks: not recorded.
Checkout attempts: 12 months.
Diagnostic logs you chose to send: deleted automatically after a short period (48 hours unless we change it, never more than 7 days; the app shows the number before you agree) — or at once when you press Delete uploaded logs or ask us. The record of your consent (dates, version, retention shown, Application ID, machine identifier, licence ID, country) is kept for 24 months as proof of consent, then deleted.
Log bundles sent to support when asked: 180 days.
Website chat assistant conversations (cleaned of personal details): 30 days, then deleted automatically. A confirmed customer's saved history: 90 days. Rate-limit counters: 2 days. Cached answers: 24 hours. Daily counts (numbers only): about 13 months.
Details you leave in the website chat assistant (and an attached conversation): until you ask us to delete them, or 24 months after your last activity. After erasure, only a one-way fingerprint of the email address remains, so it is not added again.
Support tickets, feedback and their messages: 3 years after the ticket is closed.
Records of emails we sent, and delivery and open events: 24 months. One-time codes and sign-in links are never stored in readable form.
One-time codes and sign-in links: valid for minutes; expired code records are deleted within 30 days.
Delta Trust and Delta Drive: while your subscription is active, and after a failed payment as set out in §5.11 of the Terms. Earlier versions of changed or deleted files are kept for 30 days after they are replaced (and cannot be deleted for at least 14 days, to protect against ransomware). Files you move to the Delta Drive trash stay there until you empty it. If you cancel a Delta plan, it keeps working until the end of the period you have paid for; then your vault becomes read-only (you can still open, download and restore everything). When a Delta service ends — your cancelled plan reaches the end of its paid period, or your vault is closed (including after unpaid invoices, as set out in §5.11 of the Terms) — the data stored in it is deleted 30 days later. We email you about 7 days and again about 1 day before, with the date and how to keep your data; if a reminder goes out late, the date moves so that you always get that notice. Renewing before the date cancels the deletion. Deletion waits while a payment or legal matter about your account is open, while your plan is active again, while we cannot confirm that the service has really ended, and until the ransomware protection on the last files stored has run out. For a service that ended before this rule took effect, the 30 days count from the day it took effect. Files on your own storage that you use through My Drive are never deleted by us. When the stored data is deleted, we also remove the list of your files that we kept to run the drive.
My Drive storage keys: forgotten after your trial or licence has been paused for 180 days (by default).
Delta Drive sign-in and share activity, and file views: 12 months.
Bridge connection service: device register entries 7 days after the device was last seen; pairing entries 5 minutes. Relay: nothing kept after a connection closes.
Website visits and partner-link visits: 24 months.
Campaign records (which advertisement or link brought you to us): the personal details in them — your email address and any advertising-click or browser identifiers — are removed after 24 months; the anonymous record of which campaign led to a purchase is kept with that purchase.
Files & Videos link activity: 180 days in detail, then only daily totals without any visitor information.
Audit log of staff actions: kept as a permanent security record; it records what staff did, not your files.
Backups of our database: about 30 days (point-in-time recovery).

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy;
correct it;
delete it;
restrict or object to our use of it, including use based on legitimate interests;
portability — receive it in a machine-readable form or have it sent to another company;
withdraw consent at any time, without affecting earlier processing;
nominate someone to exercise your rights if you die or become unable to (India);
complain to a data-protection authority (§11).

To use any of these rights, email <privacy@storagestudio.us> from the email address on your account, with "Privacy request" in the subject. We may need to confirm your identity first. We reply within 30 days; if a request is complex we may extend this where the law allows, and we will tell you why. We do not charge for a request unless the law allows it for a request that is clearly unfounded or excessive. We will not treat you differently for using your rights.

9. Security

Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and encrypted at rest by our hosting and storage providers. Licence tokens and update information are signed with Ed25519 keys. Staff access to customer records is limited and recorded. Delta Trust backups and Bridge transfers are end-to-end encrypted. On your Mac, the licence file is stored with owner-only permissions, and account details are kept in encrypted files. More in our Security Policy. If a breach affects your personal data, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

10. Deleting your data

On your Mac: use the in-app Uninstall wizard (Storage Studio → Uninstall…), or delete the Software's private data folder in your home folder and the hidden state folder in its working folder on your external drive. The User Manual has step-by-step instructions. Reset Storage Studio in the app also sends us a request to erase what we hold about this Mac.
Bridge: uninstall Bridge and remove its data folder on that device. Its entry in our device register disappears 7 days after it was last seen.
On our servers: email <privacy@storagestudio.us> from your purchaser address with "Delete my data". We confirm your identity before deleting. When we erase your data, we delete it or replace your identifiers with an irreversible code. We keep what the law requires us to keep (for example invoices and payment records) and our security audit log. If you ask us to delete a Delta account, your backups and locked folders can no longer be opened.

11. Region-specific information

European Union, EEA and United Kingdom. The controller is Techtonic Systems Media and Research LLC. Our representative under Article 27 of the GDPR and UK GDPR is being appointed; until then, contact <privacy@storagestudio.us>. Our legal bases are listed in §4 and your rights in §8. You may complain to the data-protection authority where you live or work, or, in the UK, to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). We would appreciate the chance to resolve your concern first.

India — Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Techtonic is the Data Fiduciary and DNS Stack is its Data Processor. Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time as easily as you gave it, and we will stop the processing that depends on it. You have the rights in §8, including correction, completion, updating and erasure, a summary of the data we hold and who we shared it with, grievance redressal, and nomination. Grievance Officer: Rajneesh Maurya, DNS Stack Private Limited, 2nd Floor, Kalkat Bhawan, Punjab Innovation Mission, GMADA Aerocity, SAS Nagar, Mohali 140306, Punjab, India; <privacy@storagestudio.us> with "Grievance" in the subject. We will respond to a grievance as soon as possible and in any case within 30 days, which is within the period the Act and its Rules allow. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

United Arab Emirates — Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data (PDPL). You have the rights the PDPL gives you: to information about how we process your data, to access and receive it, to have it transferred, corrected or erased, to restrict processing, to stop processing (including for direct marketing), and to object to decisions based solely on automated processing. Contact <privacy@storagestudio.us>. You may complain to the UAE Data Office.

United States — California (CCPA/CPRA) and other states. We collect the categories of personal information described in §3: identifiers (name, email, install identifier, IP address), commercial information (purchases), internet activity (website visits, if you accept cookies; product usage), approximate location (country, region), and inferences limited to the storage profile in §3.2(g). We collect them from you, your devices and our service providers, for the purposes in §4, and disclose them to the service providers in §5 for business purposes.

We do not sell personal information for money, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.
Sharing for advertising. If you accept advertising cookies on our website and we have switched on an advertising tag (§3.7), the advertising company receives identifiers and information about your visit, which California and some other states may treat as "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising. Do Not Sell or Share: you can opt out at any time by declining advertising cookies in our cookie banner (or clearing our cookies and declining when it reappears), or by emailing <privacy@storagestudio.us> with "Do Not Sell or Share". The app itself does not sell or share your personal information.
We do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you.
You have the rights to know, access, correct and delete, to opt out of sale or sharing, and not to be discriminated against for using them. You may use an authorised agent; we may ask the agent for proof of authority and you to confirm your identity. If we refuse a request, you may appeal by replying to our answer; residents of states with an appeal right may contact their Attorney General if the appeal is refused.
Residents of other US states with privacy laws (for example Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon) have similar rights, which you can use in the same way.

Canada (PIPEDA and Quebec Law 25). Our privacy officer can be reached at <privacy@storagestudio.us>. You may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, in Quebec, the Commission d'accès à l'information.

Other regions. Wherever you live, you can use the rights in §8, and we will honour any further right your local law gives you. If you are unhappy with our answer, you may complain to your local data-protection authority.

12. Children

The Services are meant for adults; you must be 18 to buy them. They are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from: anyone under 18 in India (where the DPDP Act treats anyone under 18 as a child); anyone under 16 in the EU/EEA, or the lower age set by their country (not below 13); anyone under 13 in the United Kingdom and the United States; or a minor under the law of the United Arab Emirates. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact <privacy@storagestudio.us> and we will delete it.

13. Changes

We may update this Policy. The version and effective date are shown at the top of this page, and every version lists what changed. Material changes are shown in the app — which asks you to accept the new version — and on this page before they take effect. Where the law requires your consent to a change, we will ask for it.

14. Contact

Privacy questions, requests and complaints: <privacy@storagestudio.us>. Grievance Officer (India): see §11.