What we keep

Folded is operated by Luke Woodfield, in Queensland, Australia. Write to lukewoodfield1993@gmail.com for a question about your information, or to ask for it to be deleted.

An account is optional. Recipients never need one. If you sign in, you do it with Google, and Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with Folded.

Those details are used to recognise you, show your name on your account, and attach the letters you send to you. Your picture is loaded from Google when you are signed in. Folded does not keep a separate copy of it, and does not use your Google account for advertising or sell it.

A session cookie remembers the sign-in for up to 90 days. You can sign out from your account page.

When a letter is sent, Folded stores the envelope names, the paper and seal you chose, and the letter itself. That can include:

• typed words
• a scan or other image of a handwritten page
• a signature you draw
• a short voice note, if you record one
• the time it was sent, and the time someone first opened it

The letter record is kept in Neon Postgres. Scans, signatures, voice notes and other images are kept in Vercel Blob when that store is connected, and in the database when it is not. They are stored so the person with the link can open the letter.

You can also send without an account. This browser then keeps a secret sender key, and Folded stores only a hash of that key, so a receipt can be shown on the same browser.

There is no public directory of letters. A letter can be opened only through its share link, which is a long random address. Anyone you give that link to can read the letter, the way they could if you handed them the envelope.

When the link is pasted into a chat, the preview shows the sealed envelope, the stamp and the wax seal. It does not include the writing, the scan or the voice note.

If you are signed in and open a letter, Folded can remember that you received it, so the thread can appear in your correspondence.

Plus is an optional subscription, A$5 a month or A$48 a year. Stripe processes the payment. Folded does not receive or store your card number.

Folded keeps the Stripe customer id, whether the subscription is active, which plan you chose, and when the current period ends. That is how the desk knows a Plus account may send more letters in a day.

Besides the sign-in cookie, this browser keeps a list of letters sent from it and their sender keys, so receipts still work if you are not signed in. Clearing the site's data in the browser removes that list from the device. The letters themselves remain until you ask for them to be deleted.

Folded uses a few companies to run the desk:

• Google, if you sign in
• Stripe, if you pay for Plus
• Neon, for the database
• Vercel, for hosting, file storage, and anonymous visit counts

Vercel Web Analytics counts visits and a few events, such as a letter being sealed, sent, or opened. Those events never include the letter, a name, or an email address. Speed Insights measures how fast pages load, without identifying you.

Each of them handles data under its own policy. Folded does not sell personal information.

Email lukewoodfield1993@gmail.com from the address on the account, or include the letter links you want removed. Folded will delete the letters, the files that belong to them, and the subscription record tied to the account.

Google and Stripe keep their own records of the sign-in and the payment, under their policies.

Folded is not directed at children, and it does not knowingly collect an account from a child.

If this practice changes, this page will be updated, and the date at the top will change. The way letters are sent is also described in the terms.