Last updated 30 September 2026
The short version: what you write in Etch is yours. We don’t sell it, we don’t share it, and we don’t use it to train anything, not our own models and not anyone else’s. That includes your health notes.
This page explains what we collect and why, in plain language. If something here is unclear, that’s ours to fix. Get in touch and we will.
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Email address | To sign you in with a one-time email link or your Google account, and nothing else. |
| What you write in Etch | Diary and gratitude entries, health notes (how you're feeling, symptoms, medications, conditions, appointments), things you're looking forward to, life events, chapters, the line you write for a day, your birth year if you choose to add it, and any older to-do or achievement entries. Stored so the app works and you can reach your journal from any device. |
| Cookies | Two kinds, both needed for the app to work: sign-in cookies set by Clerk that keep you signed in, and one holding your time zone's name (like Australia/Sydney) so “today” in Etch matches today where you are. |
| Request counts, briefly | To notice an unusual flood of requests and slow it down: a count per account or IP address, kept for a couple of minutes, never what the requests contained. |
| Server logs | Our host keeps short-lived request logs (IP address, browser type, the page asked for) to run and protect the service. |
| That's it | No analytics, no tracking, no advertising cookies. If that ever changes, this page will say so first. |
Choosing “Continue with Google” shares your name, email address and profile picture with Etch, through our sign-in provider Clerk. We use them only to create your account and sign you in. We don’t ask for access to your Gmail, Drive, contacts, calendar or anything else in your Google account, and we never share or sell what Google provides.
Etch’s use of information received from Google follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.
Everything you write is stored on servers in Sydney, Australia (Supabase, ap-southeast-2), and the app runs in the same region. Your sign-in details (email address, and name and picture if you use Google) are held by our sign-in provider, Clerk, in the United States. Everything is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Only you. That’s enforced by the database itself, not just the app, so a bug in our code can’t show your journal to anyone else.
Running Etch means trusting a few infrastructure providers to do their part. None of them get access to what you write beyond what’s needed to do their job.
| Provider | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Clerk (United States) | Signing you in (email link or Google). Holds your email address, your name and picture if you use Google, and sign-in session details such as IP address and browser. |
| Supabase (Sydney) | Storing your journal. |
| Vercel (Sydney) | Hosting the app, including short-lived request logs. |
| Upstash | Counting requests to slow down floods. Sees an account id or IP address and a count, never content. |
If anything here doesn’t match what you’d expect, or you’d like to ask something directly: hello@tracema.com