How we handle your information

Your account. Your email address and a random account number. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we also keep their number for you and the email they confirm; we do not receive your name or photo. We use this to sign you in and to keep your account safe, and we cannot give you the service without it.

Sign-in codes and sessions. We email you a six-digit code. It works for 5 minutes and 3 tries. We keep only scrambled versions of your email and the code, and we use them for nothing else. After you sign in, your session lasts up to 7 days. For sensitive actions such as deleting your account, we ask you to sign in again if it has been more than 10 minutes. To stop scripts from flooding people with sign-in emails, our server also counts how many sign-in requests come from each network address, for up to an hour. It keeps that count only in its memory, under a code made with a secret key, and never saves or logs the address; a restart wipes it.

Your age confirmation. A tick that you are 18 or older, with the time and the version of the rules it was made under.

Your videos and what you enter. The video you choose, which we copy to private temporary storage. We also keep the part you choose, the spot you tap, the words of your question, the cover colour, your answer if you type one (stored encrypted), and your yes/no answers about rights and consent. We keep technical details of the file too: its length, size and type, and a fingerprint we use to check that it arrived complete. We never receive the file’s name. We use all this to make your result.

Names you give your videos. If you give a video a name, we keep that name with the video. We do not use it for anything else, and it is deleted when the video is deleted or when you delete your account.

Your results. The preview and finished videos we make for you, and the working copies our computers make along the way.

Plans and payments. Your plan, its status and dates, the amounts, how many videos you have left, and the customer and payment numbers our payment processor gives us. We send the processor your random account number so it can tell us whose payment it is. On the website, the processor’s own page collects your card and billing details. We never receive your full card number; in the processor’s dashboard we can see your email, name, card brand and the last four digits. The processor also uses your details for its own fraud and legal checks, and may send you receipts and reminders. To prevent repeated free trials, we keep one-way codes derived from the processor’s card identifier and the trial identifier, plus the date the trial was used. These codes contain no full card number or email address and remain after account deletion so creating another account does not restore a used trial.

Messages you send us. If you write through the contact form, we keep your email, the topic, your message and your name if you gave one, so we can reply. To stop spam, we also keep two codes made from your IP address and your email address with a secret key. We do not keep your IP address itself. If you send feedback from inside the app, we keep your message, its category, the page you were on, your screen size and the app version, and, only if you tick the box, a reference to your latest video (not the video).

Reports about a video. If you send a report through the report form, we keep what you wrote, your name if you gave one, and your email, for 12 months like any other message. If the report is about a video we hold, we may look at that video, and we may tell the person who made it, or an authority, what the law asks us to. We do not publish a report.

Where you came from. If you arrive from one of our ads, your browser remembers the name of the ad campaign for up to 30 days. When you sign up, we keep that name with your account to see which ads work. Nothing else about the ad is collected. If your browser sends “Global Privacy Control” or “Do Not Track”, or you switch usage counts off in the app, we do not remember the campaign name; one we already kept stays with your account until you delete it.

Counts of how the service is used. We send a short list of events to our product-analytics provider (hosted in the EU) to see how the service is doing: that you signed in, started an upload, when processing started and finished and whether it worked, that a plan changed, and that you opened a preview or saved a video. Each one carries only a random account number, the time and the result, and never your email, name or video. You can switch these counts off in the app (Account, then Privacy, then Usage analytics), and we honor the “do not track me” setting in your browser (Global Privacy Control, and Do Not Track too). The provider sees the IP address of whoever sends an event: here, that is our server, not your device.

Error reports. If the app or our server breaks, it can send a technical error report to our error-reporting provider (the kind of error, where in our code it happened and which version was running, with no videos and nothing personal); it sends none from your use of the app if you switched usage counts off in the app or your browser sends “Global Privacy Control” or “Do Not Track”.

Our private dashboard. To see which ads work and how the service is doing, we copy a small record of each sign-up, plan change, payment, refund and deleted account to a private dashboard we run ourselves. It holds your random account number, the dates, the ad campaign name, and the plan, amount and payment-processor number of a payment. It does not hold your name, email or videos. When you delete your account, your sign-up record is deleted there; payment records stay, with the amount, the date and the payment-processor number, no longer linked to you. This website and the app never connect to it.

App updates. Phone app versions with automatic updates check for compatible fixes when they start. Our update-delivery provider receives your network address, phone platform, app compatibility version, and technical installation and update codes to deliver the right files. We send no videos, answers, email or account details with these requests. These checks also run when usage analytics is off. Downloaded updates apply on a later app launch, without restarting your work while you are using the app.

Confirmation of a withdrawal. If you use the withdrawal form, we send one automatic email to the address you typed, to confirm that we received your withdrawal and when. It holds the time we received it (in UTC), the reference of your message and, if you chose one, what you said you were withdrawing from (your plan, extra videos or not sure). It does not repeat your name or your note. It is plain text with no tracking, and its only links are to our Terms and this page. It is sent through the same email provider and sending service as our sign-in emails (section 4), and the provider keeps its own record of it, with your address, for its own period. So that the form cannot be used to send email to someone else, we send at most one a day to the same address, and a limited number an hour in all. We count them from the messages we already keep (using the secret-key code of your address described under “Messages you send us”) and in the server’s memory. We keep no other record of the email, only a line in our server log that says whether one was sent, with no address or name. If the email cannot be sent, your withdrawal is still received and kept, and we answer it by email as usual.

Records on our servers. Our servers keep short records of what happened: the time, an account number and a video number, and whether it worked. They do not hold your email, your IP address or your videos.

Safety and cost records. If we restrict an account, we keep its number, the date, a reason code and a log of the changes made in our admin area. For each processing run we keep what it cost, tied to run and upload numbers, not to your email. These stay after you delete your account, to deal with abuse and to keep our books.

What our providers see. The companies that deliver our website and host our servers see the technical details every website sees, such as your IP address and the time you visited. They keep those in their own logs, for security and to run their networks, for as long as their terms say.

We do not sell your information.

We do not show ads in Vanish Play, and there are no advertising trackers on our website or in the app.

We do not use your videos to train models, or for advertising.

We do not recognise faces or work out who is in your video.

Hosting provider. Runs our servers and our database, in Singapore.

Web delivery and storage provider. Delivers and protects our website, keeps your videos in private storage (we ask for the Asia-Pacific region), and runs the small service that sends our emails.

Video-processing provider. Runs the computers that process your video. The provider chooses where they run.

Email provider. Sends our sign-in emails and, if you use the withdrawal form, the email that confirms your withdrawal.

Payment processor. Takes payments on the website and manages plans.

Product-analytics provider. Receives the counts described above (hosted in the EU).

Error-reporting provider. Receives the technical error reports described above, and sees the network address they are sent from.

App-update provider. Delivers compatible fixes to phone apps and receives the technical update information described above. Its own terms govern how long it keeps delivery logs.

Dashboard hosting provider. Hosts our private dashboard and its nightly backup copies, in the United States.

Apple and Google. If you sign in with them, and for the app stores.

Subscription provider. Records purchases made through the App Store or Google Play, once those are switched on.

Your original videos and working files. We aim to delete them soon after you finish downloading, and no later than 24 hours after an upload starts. That includes the working copies and the answer you typed. Work that failed or was cancelled is queued for deletion at once.

Your finished videos. We keep a finished video, private to you, for 30 days after it is ready, so you can download it again. Then we delete it. You can delete it sooner at any time with Delete now, and deleting your account deletes all of them at once. Only you, signed in, can get a link to it, and each link works for only a few minutes. We look at a video only if a complaint, a safety check or the law requires it. Our storage provider may keep backup copies a little longer, and we cannot promise they are erased sooner.

Pictures of your finished videos. For each finished video we keep one small picture so Your videos can show it: a still of the masked video at its first moment, which never shows the hidden part or the answer. We keep it with the finished video, private to you in the same storage, for the same 30 days. It is deleted with the video, and when you delete your account.

Names you give your videos. If you give a video a name, we keep that name with the video. We do not use it for anything else, and it is deleted when the video is deleted or when you delete your account.

Records about each upload. What you chose, the technical details and fingerprint of the file, and your yes/no answers stay until you delete your account. We keep them to show what you confirmed about rights and consent, to handle complaints, and to count your videos.

Your account. Until you delete it.

Plans and payments. While your account exists. When you delete it, our records linked to you go, but our payment processor keeps the invoices and payment records it has to keep by law, and we keep a short record that your customer record was closed. Our spend records do not hold your email, and they stay. One-way payment-method and trial-use codes, with the date of use, also stay to prevent another free trial after account deletion; they contain no full card number or email address. We keep accounting records for as long as Japanese tax law requires.

Messages you send us. 12 months from the day you sent them, even if you delete your account. They still hold your email and name, if you gave one, but are no longer connected to your account. A request to delete your data is kept for the same 12 months, as proof that we answered it. Feedback from inside the app is deleted with your account.

Counts. Our product-analytics provider keeps them under the settings of our account there; we have not asked for a shorter limit. They carry a random account number, not your email, but we can match the number to you while your account exists. Switching counts off stops new ones; the ones already sent stay. We do not ask the provider to delete them when you delete your account.

Records on our servers. Our hosting providers decide how long they keep their logs. Ours show only account and video numbers, times and results.

Sign-in records. The scrambled record of an unused sign-in code stays until it is used or replaced by a newer one. Our email provider, which sends the email, keeps its own record of each sign-in email, with your address, for its own period.

Backups. Our database provider keeps backups so it can restore the database: at the moment, any point in the last 3 days, and export copies for at least 7 days. Before some updates we also make our own copy of the database, and we aim to delete it within 30 days. Our private dashboard keeps nightly backup copies of its database. Deleted records can stay in backups for as long as the backups last.

Delete your account. In the app, open Account and choose Delete account. We delete your uploads, sign you out everywhere and then delete your account. It usually takes a few minutes. The account deletion page has the steps.

Delete one upload. While a video is being made, tap Stop processing in the app and its files are queued for deletion at once. A finished video can be deleted at any time with Delete now in Your videos; if you do nothing, we delete it 30 days after it is ready. The upload deletion page has the steps.

See, correct or take a copy. Ask us through the contact form. We will send you a copy of what we hold about you by email. We may ask you to confirm it is you by replying from your account email. There is no button for this yet. We do not charge for these requests.

Object or ask us to limit. You can object to how we use your information, or ask us to restrict it. Tell us through the contact form and we will say what we can do. You can switch the usage counts off yourself in the app, and deleting your account ends them.

What you must give us. Your email address and your age tick are needed to run your account. Everything else is optional or comes from using the service.

California. We do not sell or share your personal information, and we do not treat you differently for using your rights. You can ask to know, correct or delete through the contact form.

How quickly. We aim to answer within 2 working days and to finish a request within 30 days.

Our reasons (EU and UK). We use your information to carry out our agreement with you (your account, your videos, your plan), for our legitimate interests (keeping the service secure, preventing abuse, counting how it is used and learning which ads work), and to follow the law (accounting records). If we ever need your consent, we will ask for it, and you can take it back.

Complaints. You can complain to the data protection authority where you live. In Japan this is the Personal Information Protection Commission.