Privacy policy

Information stored in the app

GiftStash stores the occasions, people, gift ideas, notes, prices, budgets, shopping links, photos and hiding places you enter. Personal stashes are stored locally in the app’s protected storage. A limited local catalogue and capture queue are shared with the GiftStash Share Extension so you can save an idea from another app.

Private stash records, people’s preferences, budgets and hiding places are not sent to the wishlist web service. Unpublished wishlists also stay on your iPhone. GiftStash does not include advertising or analytics SDKs, and does not track activity across other apps or websites.

Stashes you choose to share

Sharing is optional. When you invite someone to a stash, that stash’s contents, including people, notes, prices, budgets, photos and hiding places, are uploaded to Apple’s private and shared iCloud databases. Everyone invited can see and edit the entire shared stash. Your other stashes remain personal.

Apple manages iCloud accounts and invitations. GiftStash does not ask for or receive your Apple Account password. Sharing requires iCloud and an internet connection to exchange changes; downloaded data remains available offline. Do not add secrets to a stash shared with the person they concern.

Apple’s services are subject to Apple’s privacy policy. GiftStash’s publisher does not have access to your private iCloud gift records through the app’s service.

Wishlists you choose to publish

Publishing a wishlist sends its name, your chosen first name or nickname and note, and each wish’s name, details, smaller photo, price, currency and product link to GiftStash’s Cloudflare Workers and D1 service. Anyone with the unlisted link can view those details. There is no public directory, and pages request that search engines do not index them. Forwarded links can still be viewed by anyone who receives them.

Guests can reserve gifts without an account. Essential secure cookies let a guest cancel their own reservations and let browser creators edit their lists. These cookies last up to one year; clearing them can lose reservation or editing access. The database stores hashes of the random editing and guest keys. The native app keeps editing keys in your iPhone Keychain, excluded from JSON exports. Its normal owner view never downloads reservations. A guest link opened without the matching browser editing cookie shows gift availability to anyone, including the owner.

Cloudflare processes normal connection and security information, including IP addresses. The service stores short-lived hashed identifiers for request limits and removes expired limits during daily cleanup. Custom application request logging is disabled. Cloudflare may retain its own security records and recovery backups under its service settings and privacy policy. Published data is processed to provide the sharing feature you request; it is not used for advertising or sold.

Stop sharing in the app to remove the online list and its reservations while keeping the local wishlist. Browser creators can choose “Stop sharing & delete online list”. Offline app removals finish when GiftStash reconnects, so keep the app installed until cleanup completes. Recovery backups and copies already saved by guests may retain earlier content. Contact support with the public wishlist URL if you lose editing access and need verified removal; never send editing keys.

Secret Santa exchanges

Secret Santa runs in your browser using the same Cloudflare service. The service stores the exchange name, spending limit, date, participant names, optional gift hints, published wishlist links and private draw assignments. Invitation holders can see group rules and join before the draw. Members see the roster. Each participant can reveal only their own recipient and that recipient’s hints; organiser APIs do not return the complete draw or other people’s hints. The service processes and stores the draw.

Essential cookies retain organiser and participant access for up to one year. Recent invitation links are saved in browser storage; recipients are not. Use the same browser and keep its data to retain access. After drawing, matches and membership are locked. Participants can update their own hints. An organiser can cancel the exchange to remove its invitation, members, hints and matches for everyone. Provider recovery backups may retain earlier copies. Local app deletion or reset does not cancel browser exchanges, and app backups do not contain browser access or assignments. No automatic messages or emails are sent.

Photos and shopping links

The photo picker gives GiftStash only the photos you select. The app stores resized copies and does not request access to your entire photo library, contacts, location, microphone or camera.

When you share a public shopping link, Apple Link Presentation may contact the website to obtain a title or product image. The website and its hosting providers may receive ordinary request information, such as your IP address. Photo previews are optional and best effort. GiftStash does not scrape retailers for prices or send browsing history to its publisher.

App Lock and reminders

Optional App Lock uses Apple’s device authentication. GiftStash receives an authentication result, not your Face ID or Touch ID data or device passcode. The sensitive app preview is hidden when App Lock is enabled.

Optional reminders are scheduled locally on your iPhone. Their text does not include gift names, recipients or hiding places. There is no developer notification server.

Keeping and deleting information

Your saved app data remains until you delete it. Device backups may retain an earlier copy. Deleting GiftStash data does not erase existing device backups.

Settings → Data → Delete all GiftStash data clears local records, including wishlists, saved photos, pending captures and reminders. Published wishlist removals are queued for reconnection; until then, links may remain visible. Keep the app installed until removal finishes. If you own a shared stash, deletion also queues removal of its shared cloud records; if you joined one, the app queues leaving it. Cloud cleanup can require reconnecting with the same iCloud account. Until then, minimal account and zone identifiers are retained locally so cleanup can finish. Copies already saved separately by another person cannot be removed from their device by GiftStash.

Contacting support

If you email support, we receive your email address and the information you choose to send. We use this to respond, resolve your request and maintain the app, based on our legitimate interests in providing support. Do not send passwords, private gift details or other people’s personal information unless necessary.

Support email is handled through Google’s Gmail service and may be processed outside your country under Google’s privacy policy. We keep correspondence only as needed to handle the enquiry, related issues and any applicable legal obligations. It is not used for advertising or sold.

This website

giftstash.co is hosted through Cloudflare. The static support and full privacy pages use no custom analytics, advertising scripts, contact forms or browser storage. The wishlist and Secret Santa features use the essential access cookies and browser storage described above. Cloudflare may process normal connection information, including IP addresses and security records, to deliver and protect the website under Cloudflare’s privacy policy. The earlier support website at giftstash-support.nlangerdev.chatgpt.site is hosted through OpenAI Sites under OpenAI’s privacy policy.

Your choices and questions

You control the information entered into GiftStash, the photos you select, who you invite, which wishlists you publish, and whether App Lock, backups or reminders are enabled. You can contact us about support information we hold to ask for access, correction, deletion or restriction, or object to its use where applicable. We cannot retrieve personal stashes stored only on your iPhone.

Email nlangerdev@gmail.com with privacy questions or requests. You can also raise a concern with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office or your local data protection authority.

Changes to this policy

If GiftStash’s data handling changes, we will update this page and its effective date.