Privacy guide for teens

The short version

• Your lists can't be public. But anyone with a list's link can open it, so share links with care.
• Your account never gets marketing messages.
• We don't use your own lists, activity or interests to pick gifts for you. There's no setting to change that right now.
• While you're signed in, your data is left out of other people's gift ideas.
• Some shop links earn us money.
• Secret Santa is for adults only, so you can't start or join one until you're 18.
• You can download your data or delete your account at any time.

What we collect

• Sign-up details. Your name, email address and date of birth. We don't show your date of birth to other GiftEasy users. On a birthday list, a date that has passed shows without its year, so it doesn't give away your age.
• Your age. We use your date of birth to set up your account. We don't check ID. We take your word for it.
• Google details. If you sign in with Google, we also get your profile picture.
• What you add. Your lists, their gifts and your notes on them. We hold your occasions and their dates, and what you tell us about the people you buy for. We also hold your own interests, teams and sizes if you add them.
• What you do. The lists you open, the gifts you reserve and the shop links you click.
• Sign-in records. When you signed in, your browser and your IP address. An IP address can show roughly where you are.
• Your phone's push code. Our app isn't in the app stores yet. We only get this if you allow notifications in the app. We use it to send them.

What we don't collect

• Your exact location. We don't use GPS. We do work out your country from your connection, so we can show the right shops and cookie choices.
• Your phone contacts. The app doesn't ask for them.
• Your card details. You pay shops on their own sites.
• Photos, once we've used them. In our app you can add a gift from a photo. We read the file to add your gift. Then we don't keep it. Adding a gift from a voice note isn't open yet.

Who can see your lists

• Anyone with the link. They don't need to sign in. They can see your name, the list's title, its gifts, their prices and your notes. If the list is for an occasion, they can also see the occasion, its date and a countdown to it. If the date has passed, a yearly occasion like a birthday shows without its year, and any other occasion isn't shown. A date still to come keeps its year.
• Anyone they pass it to. A link can be forwarded, and there's no button to stop a link right now. You can remove gifts from the list. You can also delete your account, which deletes your lists and stops their links. Or email privacy@gifteasy.ai from the email address on your account. A person will read it and tell you what we can do. We aim to reply within one month.
• Not search engines. You can't make a list public, and we ask search engines not to show your lists.
• Chat apps. If you paste your link into a chat, the preview can show your name and the list's title. It can also show the occasion date. It doesn't show pictures of your gifts.
• People buying for you. People buying for you can see which gifts are taken, so nobody doubles up. We keep this hidden from you.
• Parents and carers. GiftEasy has no way for a parent to see your account. They can open a list if they have its link. We don't tell them you've signed up. It's still a good idea to tell a parent or carer you use GiftEasy.
• Our staff. They have no screen for browsing your lists. Someone may still need to look at your data to fix a problem or check a report.
• Companies that run GiftEasy for us. They handle data for jobs like hosting and sending email. Our privacy policy lists them.

Reminders and marketing

• No marketing to your account. We don't send it price drops, gift ideas or card nudges.
• Reminders. We can remind you before an occasion comes round. A reminder only has the occasion, the date and a link.
• Sign-in emails. On our website we email you a link to sign in. In our app we email you a 6-digit code.
• Turning reminders off. Turn them off in notification settings on the website, or in our app under Me, then Notifications.
• The waitlist. We don't ask your age when you join it. So we may email you about our launch, even if you're under 18. Email us to come off it.

Shop links and how we make money

• How we earn. GiftEasy is free. When someone buys through some of our links, the shop pays us a commission. We don't add anything to the price.
• What we record. When you're signed in, we save which shop link you clicked and when. Your name stays with us. A shop or its network gets a reference number for the click. Amazon gets no reference number. On the way to the shop, the link can pass through the shop's network. The network can set its own cookies on your device. Some links pass through a company called Skimlinks on the way. Skimlinks gets the shop link and the reference number, and sets its own cookie so we get paid for the sale. How GiftEasy makes money has more.
• Gift ideas. What a shop pays us doesn't change which ideas we show or their order.
• Shop websites. Once you leave GiftEasy, the shop's own privacy rules apply. Some shops sell things that are for adults only. We don't filter shops by age.
• Partners. Partners are adults who tell people about GiftEasy. If you signed up through a partner's link, we record that. What you buy doesn't count towards their earnings. You can't be a partner until you're 18.

AI

• Adding gifts. In our app you can add a gift from a photo or a screenshot. We send the file to an AI company to work out what the gift is. Adding a gift from a voice note isn't open yet. Our privacy policy names these companies.
• Pictures for gifts. When we can't show a shop's photo of a gift on your list, we send its title to an AI company to pick one of our own drawings. Nothing else about you or your list is sent.
• What those companies do. We're still confirming what each company does with what we send. AI can also get things wrong, so check the details on the shop's site.
• Gift ideas for you. We don't use your own lists, activity or interests to pick them. There's no setting to change this right now.
• Other people's gift ideas. While you're signed in, your data is left out of them. It's also left out of anything we share with shops or other companies about what people want. When you're signed out, we can't tell you're a teen. So what you do then can count towards other people's ideas. Your own lists stay left out either way.
• ChatGPT and Claude. You can't link GiftEasy to them while you're under 18.
• Gift finder. You tell it who the gift is for and what they like, in your own words. We send what you type to an AI company to suggest gifts.

Cookies and analytics

Google Analytics is off whenever you're signed in. When you're signed out, it depends on where you are. In the UK we ask you first. In the US it's on unless you turn it off, but we ask first on shared lists. We never use it for ads.

Download or delete your data

Go to Your data while you're signed in.

• Download. You get one file. It has your profile, sign-in records, lists, occasions and the people you buy for. It also has your reservations, shop clicks and activity, your notification and marketing choices, the phones you get pushes on, and the reports you've made. It shows only the last 4 characters of each push code.
• Delete. If you signed in more than 10 minutes ago, we email you a link first. Open it, then type "delete my account". Your account goes straight away, and you can't undo it.

Some things stay after you delete your account:

• Shop clicks. We keep these for our accounts, with your name removed.
• Activity records. We keep these with your name and your answers removed.
• Gifts you described. We delete the description, unless someone else's list has the same one.
• Backups. A backup can hold a copy for a while.

Our privacy policy says up to 27 months for activity records and 6 years for shop clicks. Automatic clean-up of activity records isn't switched on yet. Nothing cleans up shop clicks yet. So we can't promise either limit today.

Getting help

• Questions. Email privacy@gifteasy.ai. We aim to reply within one month.
• A wrong date of birth. Email privacy@gifteasy.ai from the email address on your account. Tell us and we'll look at it.
• A list that worries you. Use the "Report this list" button on the list, on our website or in our app. Or email hello@gifteasy.ai. You'll find every address on our contact page.
• If you feel frightened or unsafe. Please don't wait for an email from us. Email isn't the way to get urgent help. In the UK, you can talk to Childline for free on 0800 1111 or at childline.org.uk. If you're in danger right now, call 999 in the UK or 911 in the US.
• Someone with you. You can ask a parent, carer or teacher to help you with any of this.
• If you're unhappy with us. Please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.