Privacy, in plain English

Without an account

To remember where you are, the site saves a few things in your browser's storage, on your device only:

• which lessons you started and finished, and how far you got (this lights up your map)
• your “your business” picks, like the kind of restaurant and the size of your city
• the numbers saved in your owner's notebook, like a menu price or a labor budget
• whether you picked the light or dark theme
• the last few lessons you opened, for the home page's “Recently opened” list, and how many big ideas you'd met the last time you saw “Your journey” (neither is sent to your account)
• where you first came to Ownopolis from, like a TikTok or Hacker News link or a search engine (never which post or page), until you make an account (see “What an account stores”). If you buy a gift, it goes to Stripe with that checkout too.

When you're not signed in, none of it is sent to us and we can't see it. To erase it, clear this site's data in your browser's settings. A private window forgets it when you close it.

A plain “Sign out” doesn't erase what's saved in that browser: it stays on the device until you clear it. On a shared computer, choose “Sign out and clear this device” in the account menu instead: it signs you out and erases your progress, business picks, notebooks and recently opened lessons from that browser. Your account keeps all of it.

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What an account stores

An account is free and optional. When you have one, our database keeps:

• Who you are: your email address. If you sign in with Google, also the name and profile picture on your Google account, Google's id for you, and the sign-in keys Google gives us. We only ask Google for your name, email address and picture: we can't read your email, contacts or files. An account made with the emailed link starts with only your email address, and no name.
• Where you're signed in: for each browser you sign in on, when it signed in, its IP address, and the browser and device name it reports (like “Chrome on Android”). This keeps your account safe and lets you sign out of your other browsers at once.
• Your progress: the same things listed above under “Without an account” (lessons started and finished, how far you got, your business picks and your notebook), plus any notebooks you put aside when you switched business. Your theme stays on your device.
• Your “Did you like that?” answers: after a “Try the job” ticket, which task it was, the answer you tapped and when, so “Your major match” shows them on every device. They're also kept on your device, deleted with your account, and only the answer and the major (never who you are) go to our visit counts.
• Your membership, if you subscribe: the plan, monthly or yearly, its status (for example active or cancelled), the dates of the period you've paid for and of any free trial, whether and when it's set to end or was cancelled, and Stripe's reference numbers for you as a customer and for your subscription. Never your card number.
• A gift you redeemed, if you redeem one: its code, when you redeemed it and when its membership ends (and, if it moved your plan's next payment, which subscription).
• Where you heard about us, if you tell us: we ask “Where did you hear about Ownopolis?” once, after you finish a lesson, and keep the answer you tap (or that you skipped it), anything you type under “Other”, and when.
• Where you first came from, if we know it: when you make an account, we keep the first place this browser came to Ownopolis from, like “tiktok” or “google” (a word, never the post, page or search), and pass it to Stripe with your checkout if you subscribe. It tells us which places bring members.
• when your account was made and last changed

We use this only to run Ownopolis for you: to sign you in, show your progress on every device, and open members-only lessons. Where you heard about us only tells us which places bring people to Ownopolis. We don't sell it, share it for advertising, or send you marketing emails.

It's stored in the United States, where our database and hosting are. If you live somewhere else, your data travels there when you use the site.

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Signing in by email

When you ask for a sign-in link, we send your email address and the link to Resend, which delivers the email for us. The link works once and expires after 15 minutes. Our database keeps only a scrambled (hashed) form of the link, so it never holds one that works. The request, with your email address, is deleted once the link is used, or within a day after it expires.

So nobody can flood someone's inbox, we limit how many sign-in emails can be asked for from each IP address and to each email address. The count for an email address is kept against a scrambled form of it, not the address itself.

Apart from sign-in links, we only email you about your account or membership: a gift code you bought, a note a few days before your free trial ends, a note before a gift year ends, or a change to prices or to our terms. No marketing. Receipts and the reminder before a yearly plan renews come from Stripe.

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Paying for a membership

Memberships are paid through Stripe. When you subscribe, you pay on Stripe's own checkout page, and Stripe collects your card details, billing address (used to work out sales tax) and email address. Stripe sends your receipts, and its customer portal is where you change your card or cancel. We never see or store your card number.

Stripe keeps records of your payments for as long as the law requires, even after you delete your Ownopolis account. See Stripe's privacy policy.

Gifts: when you buy a gift, you don't need an account. Stripe collects your payment details and email address as above, and we keep your email address with the gift's code, so we can send you the code and handle a refund. We email you the code through Resend. If the person you gave it to redeems it, their account shows the gift; we don't tell them who bought it. The gift's record stays as a record of a payment, even after the account that redeemed it is deleted (it then forgets whose account that was).

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Cookies

We don't use tracking or advertising cookies. From Ownopolis itself, there are only these:

• Not signed in: none. (Your light or dark choice is saved in the browser's storage, not in a cookie.)
• Signed in: two cookies. The sign-in cookie holds a random code that tells our server this browser is signed in to your account; pages can't read it. A second cookie, tryowning.signed-in, holds only “1”: it lets the page know to save your progress to your account, without asking our server on every page. It holds nothing secret and proves nothing on its own. Both last a month, are renewed while you keep visiting, and are removed when you sign out.
• While you sign in with Google: a short-lived cookie that lasts a few minutes, to check that the trip to Google and back is really yours.
• Staff browsers only: tryowning.internal, set on purpose from a staff page or when someone on our team signs in with their own account, leaves that browser out of visit counts.

Google's sign-in page and Stripe's checkout page are on their own websites and use their own cookies there, under their own privacy policies.

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Who helps run Ownopolis

A few companies handle data for us, each only for its own job:

• Vercel hosts the site and runs our privacy-friendly analytics. Like every host, it handles your IP address to send you pages and may keep short-lived server logs to keep the site running and secure. Vercel's privacy policy
• Neon runs our database: accounts, progress, memberships and feedback notes. Neon's privacy policy
• Google signs you in, only if you choose “Continue with Google.” Google's privacy policy
• Resend delivers sign-in emails. Resend's privacy policy
• Stripe takes payments, works out sales tax and sends receipts. Stripe's privacy policy

We'd share data with anyone else only if the law made us, and we'd tell you unless the law said we couldn't.

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How long we keep things

• Your account, progress and notebooks: until you delete your account.
• A signed-in browser: until you sign out there (or use “Sign out everywhere else” from another one), or after a month without a visit.
• A sign-in request: until its link is used, or within a day after it expires (links expire after 15 minutes).
• Payment records: at Stripe, as long as the law requires.
• Feedback notes: while they help us fix and improve lessons.

Our database host keeps a short history so mistakes can be undone. Deleted data drops out of it when that window passes.

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Download or delete your data

Signed in, go to your account:

• Download my data gives you a file with everything listed under “What an account stores.”
• Delete my account deletes your account, every signed-in browser, your progress, your business picks, your notebooks and your membership record, all at once. If you have a membership, it ends right away and you won't be charged again. Stripe keeps its own records of past payments, as the law requires. This can't be undone. It also clears what's saved in the browser you delete from. Other browsers or devices keep what's on them until you clear them or sign in again (“Sign out and clear this device” does it in one step).

You can also email hello@ownopolis.com from the address on your account to ask what we have, to fix something that's wrong, or to delete it.

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What a feedback note stores

When you send a “Spot something wrong?” note, we store:

• what you typed, and the kind of problem you picked
• the page you were on (its address without anything after a “?” or “#”), and the lesson and ticket if you were in one
• when it was sent

That's all. Even when you're signed in, a note isn't linked to your account, and we don't store your name, email or IP address with it. Notes are kept in our database so we can fix what's wrong. Please don't type personal details into a note. Because notes aren't linked to you, deleting your account doesn't delete them; to have one removed, email us roughly what it said and when.

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What our analytics counts

We use Vercel Web Analytics, which doesn't use cookies, to learn which lessons work and where people get stuck. It counts:

• page views, with the page you came from, your rough location (country, region and city), and your browser, operating system and type of device
• when a lesson is started, each ticket reached, and when a lesson is finished, with the lesson and the ticket number
• the answer tapped for “Where did you hear about Ownopolis?”, never what's typed under “Other”
• which learning path you pick on the home page (New grad, Starting something or Curious)
• where each visit came from (a word like “tiktok”, “google” or “direct”) and the kind of page it started on; when a “How X makes money” guide is read past its opening; and when a calculator is first used

Vercel records these anonymously: a visit is told apart by a code made from the request, which is thrown away after 24 hours, and no IP address is kept with the counts. It isn't linked to your account, even when you're signed in, and it never gets what you type into a lesson, your business picks or your notebook. It doesn't follow you to other websites. See Vercel's page on it.

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Nothing personal in web addresses

We never put personal information in a page's address. Links you share from Ownopolis only say which page or lesson it is, and an emailed sign-in link carries a one-time code, not your email address.

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Age

Free lessons are for anyone, at any age, with no account. To make an account you need to be at least 13, and to pay for a membership you need to be an adult or have a parent's or guardian's OK. If you think a child under 13 has made an account, email us and we'll delete it.

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When this page changes

The date at the top shows when this page last changed. If a change affects what we do with your account's data, we'll email you before it takes effect.

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Questions

Have a question about privacy? Email us at hello@ownopolis.com, or send us a note. Post reaches us at Zihao Ye, 411 E Huntington Dr, Ste 107 #1432, Arcadia, CA 91006, United States.

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