We don't collect what we don't need.

cloudHWS is built around a simple principle: your photos and personal data live on hardware you own — not on our servers. This policy explains what little data we do collect, where it goes, and what your rights are.

What we collect

Through this website (cloudhws.com):

• Email address — only if you join the waitlist. Stored by our form provider (Formspree).
• Standard server logs from our hosting provider (Vercel): IP address, browser type, pages visited. Used for security and basic traffic analysis.

When you purchase cloudHWS:

• Name, email, and billing country — collected by Stripe at checkout and shared with us. Used to issue your license, send the receipt, and comply with tax obligations.
• Card details are handled entirely by Stripe. We never see your card number.
• Order & license records — your purchase, license key, and refund status. Retained for 7 years to meet tax and accounting requirements.

When you activate cloudHWS on your hardware:

• License key + Pi serial number — sent to our server once, the first time you activate, so we can bind the license to your specific device. After that initial check, your Pi runs fully offline. We do not phone home for ongoing validation.

Through the cloudHWS app:

• Crash logs, stored locally on your device. We do not transmit them to any server.
• Authentication credentials for your home server, stored locally on your device.

What we don't collect

• Your photos. They never touch our infrastructure. The cloudHWS app sends photos directly from your phone to your own home server over your local network.
• Your photo metadata. Same.
• Usage analytics from the app. We don't track how you use the app.
• Face recognition data, AI training data, or any biometric information. We never run face recognition or any AI inference on your photos. Period.

Where your data lives

The cloudHWS server software, when installed on your hardware (Raspberry Pi or other Linux device), stores all photos, metadata, and account information on the storage drive(s) connected to that device. We have no remote access to that data.

Remote access via VPN

The cloudHWS app can establish a secure VPN connection from your phone directly back to your own cloudHWS server when you're away from home WiFi. This lets you view and back up photos remotely without exposing your home network to the public internet.

How it works:

• The VPN tunnel runs directly between your phone and your own Pi at home. There is no intermediary server operated by cloudHWS in the path.
• We do not operate a VPN service. You own both ends of the connection — the app on your phone and the server in your home.
• No traffic logging. No data carried over the VPN passes through any infrastructure we control. We cannot see, log, or inspect it.
• VPN configuration is local. Encryption keys and connection settings are generated and stored on your devices only.
• You control it. You can disconnect or remove the VPN profile at any time from your phone's system settings.

The app uses Apple's Network Extension framework (iOS) and the equivalent VPN APIs on Android solely for this purpose: tunneling traffic between your phone and your own home server. It is not used to route any other traffic, inject ads, intercept other apps' data, or any commercial VPN-like function.

Third parties

This website and our purchase flow use:

• Formspree for waitlist signups (handles your email)
• Vercel for hosting (handles standard web traffic data)
• Stripe for payment processing (handles card data, name, email, billing country)
• Resend for transactional emails — your receipt and license key delivery
• Outbound links to amazon.com for hardware suggestions. Once you click through, Amazon's privacy policy applies.

Each of these processors has their own privacy policy. The cloudHWS app itself does not use any third-party SDKs for analytics, advertising, or data collection.

Data retention

• Waitlist emails — kept until you ask us to remove yours, or until the waitlist is retired post-launch.
• Order & license records — kept for 7 years for tax and accounting compliance.
• Activation records (license key + Pi serial number binding) — kept for the lifetime of the license, so you can re-activate if you reinstall.

Your rights

• Email us to delete your waitlist signup
• Request access to or deletion of your purchase data (subject to legal retention requirements above)
• Delete your photos at any time by removing them from your home server
• Stop using the app at any time

Children

cloudHWS is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

We'll post any updates here with a new "Last updated" date. Significant changes will be communicated through the app or by email if you've signed up.

Contact

Questions about this policy? contact@cloudhws.com