Privacy

Gratistack is run by Amboyance Inc., a Canadian company, and handles personal information under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Last updated October 8, 2026.

When you browse

• No analytics, no advertising trackers, and no tracking cookies. Pages are the same for everyone.
• The “people browsing now” number comes from a heartbeat: while a tab is visible it requests an empty file once a minute. The request carries no cookie and no identifier; we only count requests.
• Our hosting (Amazon Web Services) sees your IP address to deliver pages and to rate-limit abuse. Application logs are kept for 14 days.
• Searches run in your browser. A search with no results is recorded as text only, with no link to you, so we know what to add.

If you create an account

An account lets you vote, watch tools and write reviews. We store:

• Your email address, and the date you signed up. Sign-in uses a one-time code sent by email (or Google, if you choose it), handled by Amazon Cognito. There are no passwords.
• Your “I switched” votes.
• The tools you watch and how you want to hear about changes (instant or weekly).
• Reviews you write: what you used the tool for, for how long, your rating, pros and cons. Published reviews do not show your email.
• For tool makers: ownership claims and the verification method used.

Cookies set when you sign in are needed for the account to work: a session, a sign-in code session, a security token against forged requests, and a flag that tells pages you are signed in. None are used for tracking.

Forms you can send without an account

• Suggestions and reports: if you add an email, we use it only to tell you the outcome.
• The weekly digest: we keep your email, whether you confirmed it, and the dates you subscribed or unsubscribed. We send the digest only after you confirm, and stop when you unsubscribe.
• The sponsor waitlist for a page whose slots are taken: we keep your email until we tell you a slot is free, at most 180 days, and use it for nothing else.
• Sending any of these forms, or starting a support payment, sets one cookie: a random security token against forged requests. It says nothing about you and is not used for tracking.

Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details go to Stripe and never reach our servers. We keep the email Stripe gives us, the amount, what it was for, and its status. A supporter’s name is shown on the supporters page only if they opt in.

Email

We send sign-in codes, alerts for tools you watch, receipts, and the weekly digest if you confirm a subscription. Every alert and digest has a one-click unsubscribe link. Messages that bounce or are marked as spam stop automatically.

Where it is stored

Data is stored with Amazon Web Services in the United States (us-east-1). Stripe processes payments in its own systems. Data stored outside Canada may be accessible to authorities under the laws of that country.

How long we keep it, and deleting it

• Account data stays until you delete your account. Deleting it removes your sign-in, votes and watches; your reviews stay, without your name or email.
• Payment records are kept as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Repository checks for tools are summarized weekly after 90 days. They contain no personal information.

Your rights

You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, withdraw consent, or delete your account. Write to hello@gratistack.com; we answer within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.