Seal & RevealPrivacy policy
In short: Seal & Reveal has no account, no advertising and no analytics. A seal that is not part of an online round never leaves your phone. Online rounds use our server, which holds only what a round needs: the question, each nickname and sealed answer, the times, and each answer once the reveal of that round has started. Rounds are deleted from the server on a fixed schedule. The person who runs the server can access what is stored on it.
1. Who is responsible
Stefan Verster ("the developer", "we") makes Seal & Reveal and runs its server. The developer is the responsible party under the South African Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and the controller under the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the information described here.
2. Two ways of using the app
- A seal of your own. You seal a text and share the seal, and later the reveal, yourself. Nothing is sent to us. Section 3 covers this.
- An online round. A host asks a question and everyone seals an answer through our server. Sections 4 to 7 cover this. The app asks you to accept a short notice before you use rounds for the first time.
3. What stays on your phone
The app keeps the following in its private storage on your phone:
- the texts you seal, your nicknames and labels, and the seal codes and reveal codes the app makes;
- seals that other people sent you, with the date and time your phone first saw each one;
- the rounds you created or joined, including the answers the app has loaded, so that you can read them without a connection;
- for rounds: a random install number, and the secret keys and tokens that let your phone act as the host or as the owner of your answer;
- your settings, and whether Seal & Reveal Pro is unlocked.
The developer cannot see any of this. System cloud backup and device to device transfer are switched off for the app. A seal that is not part of an online round never leaves your phone unless you share it or export it yourself.
4. What an online round sends to our server
| When | What is sent |
|---|---|
| You create a round | The question, the times you chose, the largest number of answers, and a round code and a key check value that the app makes from them. Not sent: the reveal key, which stays on your phone until you tap Reveal. |
| You seal an answer | Your nickname and the seal code of your answer. A seal code is made with a one-way calculation and a random value, and shows nothing about what you wrote. Not sent: the answer itself. |
| The reveal of the round has started | Your reveal code, which contains your answer and your nickname. Your phone sends it by itself the next time you open the app, after checking that the reveal is genuine. From then on everyone who has the round's link can read your answer. |
| You report a round | The fact that you reported it, and the note if you wrote one. |
| With every request | Your internet address, as with any connection, and for creating, answering and reporting a random install number that stands for this copy of the app. It is made on your phone, is not linked to your name, your phone number or any advertising number, and the server keeps only a one-way scrambled form of it. |
The app never sends your contacts, your location, your name, your email address or your phone number, and a round never includes your own single seals.
5. What we use it for
- To run the round: to show the question, who has sealed and when, and after the reveal the answers, to everyone who opens the round's link.
- To keep the service usable and safe: the install number and your internet address are used to limit how many rounds, answers and reports one phone or one connection can send and how often a round can be read, to allow one answer per phone in a round, to block an address that probes the server for weaknesses, and to block an install that breaks the rules.
- To deal with reports: see section 6.
We do not use any of it for advertising, we do not build profiles, and we do not sell or pass it on. Under the GDPR the legal grounds are that the processing is needed to provide the round you asked to take part in, and our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe.
6. Who can see what
- Anyone who has the round's link can see the question, the nicknames, the time each answer was sealed and, after the reveal, the answers. The link is the key to the round. There is no list of rounds and a link cannot be guessed, so share it only with the people who should take part.
- The developer can access what is stored on the server. Before the reveal that is the question, the nicknames and the seal codes, but not the answers, because the server does not have them. After the reveal it includes the answers that were released.
- Reports. A round reported from three different phones is hidden until the developer has looked at it. The developer reviews reported rounds on a protected page, and can keep a round, remove it, or block the install that created it.
- The hosting company. The server is a rented virtual server. The company that provides it supplies the machine and the network and does not use the information for its own purposes.
We may disclose information when the law requires it.
7. How long things are kept
| What | Deleted |
|---|---|
| A round with its answers and reports | 30 days after its reveal started; 90 days after it was created if it was never revealed; at once when the host deletes it or the developer removes it |
| A marker that a round was deleted (its number, the date and the reason), so that phones can be told | After one year |
| The scrambled install number of a blocked install | When the block is lifted |
| Backups of the database | After 60 days. A deleted round can therefore remain in a backup for up to 60 days. |
| The web server's log of requests: time, internet address, the kind of address requested and the result. The number of a round, your install number and your tokens are left out of it. | After 14 days |
| The request counts used for the limits in section 5 | Kept in memory only, for at most a day |
| The address of a connection that asked the server for files it does not have, which is how break-in attempts look. Such an address is blocked for an hour, and the program that blocks it keeps a note of the address and the time. | With the server's security records, which can be kept longer than 14 days |
| A request that broke off half way. The web server can note that one request among its error messages, with the number of the round and the install number. | With the server's system records, for a limited time |
Your phone keeps the rounds it has loaded until you remove them. If a host deletes a round or the developer removes it, your phone deletes other people's content of that round the next time it asks the server, and keeps only your own answer.
8. This website
The website uses no cookies, no analytics and no scripts, and loads nothing from other companies. The video is served from this site. Like any web server, ours sees the internet address of a visitor and keeps the log described in section 7.
When a seal or reveal link is opened in a browser, the code is in the part of the address after the # sign, which a browser never sends to a server. A round link carries the round's number in the address itself; the page it shows is the same for every round, and the number is not written to the log.
9. Permissions
| Permission | What it is used for |
|---|---|
| Internet | Online rounds, over an encrypted connection to our own server, and purchases through the store. Single seals do not use it. |
| Camera | Only while you scan a QR code. You are asked at that moment and can refuse; pasting the code works instead. The picture is processed in memory on the phone. It is not saved and not sent anywhere. |
| Billing | To let you buy Seal & Reveal Pro through Google Play. |
The app does not ask for your location, contacts, files, microphone or notifications, and it does no work in the background.
10. Purchases
Seal & Reveal Pro is an optional one-time purchase made through Google Play. Google processes the payment under its own privacy policy (policies.google.com/privacy). The app learns only whether the purchase exists, and does not tell our server. As a seller on Google Play, the developer can see order records in the store's console, such as an order number, the product, the price, the date and the country, but never your card details.
11. Sharing, backup files and email
- Sharing. When you share a link, a code or an image card, it is handed to the app you pick in the share sheet, for example a messaging app. From then on the privacy terms of that app apply. A reveal contains your text in a form that anyone with Seal & Reveal can read.
- Backup files. When you export a backup, the file is saved to the place you choose. It contains your sealed texts in readable form and the keys of your rounds, so keep it private.
- Email. If you write to the developer, the developer receives your email address and what you write, and uses it only to answer you.
12. Adults only
Seal & Reveal is for adults aged 18 and over. It is not directed at children, and the developer does not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has used an online round, write to the developer (section 17) with the round's link and the round will be removed.
13. Security
The app talks to the server only over an encrypted connection. The server keeps tokens and install numbers only in a one-way scrambled form, and holds answers only once they have been released. On your phone, everything is kept in the app's private storage, which other apps cannot read on a phone that has not been modified. No system is perfectly secure, and the protection of your phone itself, such as a screen lock, is in your hands.
14. Your choices and your rights
- While a round is open you can replace or withdraw your answer in the app. After entries close an answer can no longer be withdrawn; that is what makes a round fair.
- The host can remove an answer and can delete the whole round at any time.
- Anyone in a round can report it from the round's screen.
- You can ask the developer to remove a round or an answer by writing to the developer (section 17). Because there are no accounts, the developer can find information only through the round's link, so please include it.
- You can remove everything the app has stored on your phone with Delete all data in Settings, or by uninstalling the app. That does not delete rounds from the server; the app tells you so before you confirm.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask for access to, correction of, deletion of or a copy of your personal information, to object to its use, and to complain to a regulator. This applies under POPIA in South Africa, the GDPR in the EU and the UK, and state privacy laws in the United States. The developer does not sell personal information and does not use it for advertising.
Regulators you can contact:
- South Africa: the Information Regulator, inforegulator.org.za
- EU: the data protection authority of your country
- UK: the Information Commissioner's Office, ico.org.uk
15. Transfers to other countries
The server may be in a different country from yours, and people in any country who have a round's link can read that round. By taking part in a round you ask for your nickname and, after the reveal, your answer to be shown to the people who have the link, wherever they are.
16. Changes to this policy
If the app or the server changes in a way that affects privacy, this page is updated and the effective date changed before the change takes effect.
17. Contact
Stefan Verster
In the Seal & Reveal app, open Settings and tap Contact. That starts an email to the developer in your own mail app.