Design Canvas is a product of Speech Bubble Marketing Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, trading as Design Canvas. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and how you can exercise your rights. Questions or requests: charlie@ellington.design.
We are the data controller for the data described below. We aim to collect as little as we need. If what we collect changes, we’ll update this page and the “Last updated” date above.
1. Scope
This policy covers the Design Canvas website at designcanvas.app and the Design Canvas Mac app that you download from it, including the separately operated hosted sharing service. Publishing the native source under MIT does not make hosted sharing part of that repository or change the telemetry in an existing Mac download. Source builds and downloaded versions may behave differently; check the version you use.
2. What we collect, and why
Legacy email-link requests: the main website no longer asks for an email to view source or download. If you use an older email-link flow, we collect your email address, your browser’s user-agent, a one-way hash of your IP address, and your approximate country and city (derived from the IP). We use this to email you a link via our email provider (Resend) and to notify Charlie. The record is stored in Vercel Blob.
When you click Download for Mac: we may record a one-way hash of your IP address, approximate country and city, your user-agent, a PostHog anonymous ID (if present), and a timestamp. This is stored in Vercel Blob when an analytics ID and the required configuration are present. We use it to match the web session to first app launch and understand download attribution. Campaign parameters and a Google click ID, if supplied, may be included. Operational download notifications to Charlie can include the request IP, location, device, referrer and campaign details.
Product analytics: we use PostHog (hosted on the EU cloud) to count named events like page views, source-link clicks, downloads and legacy form interactions. Source-link clicks record the page path and link placement; they do not run download conversion or install matching. We do not use autocapture and we do not record session replays. PostHog sets an anonymous identifier in your browser. These identifiers are pseudonymous, rather than a guarantee of anonymity. We also capture client-side exception traces to help us fix bugs.
Website advertising measurement: when configured, we use Google Analytics and Google Ads tags to measure visits and download conversions. These services may receive browser identifiers, page URLs and campaign information. Our PostHog reject control does not disable Google tags. View on GitHub is an ordinary link without campaign or personal tracking parameters, and suppresses the referrer. GitHub processes visits under its own privacy policy.
The Mac app: when the app is running, it checks for updates by fetching /appcast.xml from this site (Sparkle’s standard mechanism). This request carries your app version and a generic user-agent. The app also sends the same kinds of named events to PostHog in versions that include analytics. A privacy default or capability in newer source should not be assumed to exist in the current downloaded binary. Consult that version’s settings and source for its available controls.
Hosted sharing: when you choose to share a canvas, screenshots and metadata such as page URLs, frame titles, positions and styling are uploaded. Share records are stored in our database and images in Vercel Blob. People with the share link can access its contents until it expires or is deleted. Treat the link as public, and avoid sharing secrets or private page contents. We count share views and use hashed request IPs to limit repeated view counts.
Server logs: our host (Vercel) keeps short-term request logs that may include IP addresses and user-agents. We use these only for security and debugging.
3. Legal bases (UK/EU GDPR)
- Legitimate interests — understanding usage, keeping the service secure, and understanding how people use Design Canvas. You can object at any time; see section 5.
- Performance of a contract — fulfilling your download and hosted-sharing requests.
- Consent — if we ever add a marketing email list, we’ll ask for opt-in first. We don’t run one today.
4. Who we share data with
We use a small set of processors:
- Vercel — hosting, edge logs, and Vercel Blob (storage for email and download records).
- Resend — sending the download-link email and our own operational notifications.
- PostHog (EU) — product analytics; data stays within the EU.
- Google — website analytics and advertising conversion measurement, when configured.
- Supabase — database records for the hosted sharing service.
We don’t sell data. Google tags are used for advertising measurement as described above. If a third party (for example, a solicitor or law enforcement) compels us to disclose something, we’ll do the legal minimum.
5. Your rights
Under UK and EU GDPR you can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, or stop processing it. Email charlie@ellington.design with the email address you used and we’ll respond within 30 days.
If you’re unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) or your local EU data-protection authority.
6. Retention
Email and download records currently have no automated expiry. Expiry of a share link controls access; it is not a promise that all stored records and backups are immediately erased. You can request deletion at any time (see section 5).
7. Cookies
PostHog uses browser storage for its identifier. Google measurement tags, when configured, may also use cookies. Visitors from the UK, EU, EEA, and Switzerland see a short banner that lets you reject this cookie; rejecting it stops PostHog from capturing anything about you. Your choice is remembered in a small cookie called dc_cookie_opt.
8. International transfers
Our processors are set up so your data stays inside the UK/EU wherever possible. Any transfers are covered by standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards.
9. Children
Design Canvas is a developer tool. It isn’t directed at anyone under 16 and we don’t knowingly collect data from children.
10. Changes to this policy
We’ll update this page and the “Last updated” date when anything material changes. For significant changes, we may also post a notice on the home page.
11. Contact
Speech Bubble Marketing Limited (trading as Design Canvas), registered in England and Wales. For any privacy question or request, email charlie@ellington.design.