Privacy
A plain-language summary of how this service handles your information.
What we collect
For organizers: your name, your email address, and the rules you set for the exchange. For guests: your name, your email address, and optional gift ideas. We don't ask for passwords, payment details or anything else.
How we use it
Only to run the exchange: showing the sign-up page, drawing names, and emailing each person their match, plus the occasional message you ask for, like a re-sent match or an organizer link. We don't sell your information, show ads, or send marketing email.
Who can see what
Guests see the exchange rules and the name and gift ideas of the one person they are matched with. The organizer sees who has signed up and whether each email was delivered, but never who drew whom. Match results are stored so we can re-send them when someone asks. When you sign up, we email you a one-time verification code to confirm your address, then an email asking whether you want to take part, with links to say yes or opt out. Unfinished sign-ups, including the details you typed, are deleted automatically once the code expires. A copy of each email we send is kept for 30 days so the site's administrator can help if one doesn't arrive.
Deleting your data
Organizers can delete an exchange at any time from their organizer page, which permanently removes every name, email address and match in it. Guests can leave an exchange from their personal page before names are drawn. Old exchanges are also removed automatically after the event. We also keep anonymous running totals, such as how many exchanges were created each day. They contain no names or email addresses and remain after an exchange is deleted.
Cookies and third parties
We use one session cookie to protect forms from forgery. It isn't used for tracking. Page fonts are served from our own server, so your browser doesn't contact Google for them. The gift ideas pages show product pictures that are loaded from the shops' or photographers' own websites, so those sites can see that your browser asked for a picture (but not which page, since we send no referrer). When you press a gift's "View" link we note the time and which gift it was, so we can see which ideas are useful, and then send you on to the shop. That note has no name, address or browser details, and is deleted after a year. Emails are delivered through our mail provider. We don't show advertising.
Analytics
On our public information pages (the home page, the guides, About, Contact, Terms and this page) we use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are useful. It's switched on only if you press Accept on the notice, and you can change your mind at any time with "Analytics choices" in the footer. When it runs, Google sets cookies in your browser and receives information about your visit, such as the page, your device and browser, your approximate location and how you arrived. Google explains how it uses that information.
We never load Google Analytics, or any other third-party script, on pages where names, email addresses, links or matches appear: the sign-up, personal, organizer, verification and admin pages, apart from Google reCAPTCHA on the forms described below.
Bot protection
To stop automated abuse we use Google reCAPTCHA on these forms: start an exchange, join an exchange (the sign-up page), get my match again / find my organizer link, contact form. Its script is loaded only when you start filling one in. Google receives information about your visit to check that you're a person, such as your browser, device and network address, and may set a cookie; Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. It is never used on the admin pages.
Questions and the contact form
If you use the contact form, we receive your name, email address and message by email and use them only to reply. The form doesn't store them on the site.