Privacy policy

Who is responsible

Viaalink, Houtveldweg 664, 1507 ES Zaandam, the Netherlands (KvK 96724587) is the controller for the personal data described here. Questions and requests: info@viaalink.com. More about us in the imprint.

This policy covers viaalink.com, your Viaalink account, purchases, and what a Viaalink Relay or the Viaalink CLI sends to viaalink.com. A Relay you run yourself is yours: what passes through it, its visitors and its logs stay on your machine and never reach us.

Visiting the site

• Server logs. Our hosting provider’s web servers see your IP address, the page you ask for and your browser’s user agent, like any web server. The site itself does not write visits to its database.
• Visit statistics. If we count visits, we use Umami, which we run on our own server. It sets no cookies, keeps no IP addresses and ignores the parts of addresses after ? and #.
• Cookies. We set no tracking or advertising cookies. We use:
  • __Host-vl_session: only after you sign in, to keep you signed in. It ends after 30 days without a visit and at the latest 90 days after you signed in.
  • vl_entrances: while we test two versions of the home page, it remembers which one you saw (the value b or cards, nothing else) for up to 180 days, so the page does not change between visits.
• Theme. Your light or dark choice is stored in your own browser only.

Your account and signing in

You sign in with your email address. We keep:

• your email address, when the account was created and when you last signed in;
• for each sign-in mail: a hash of the link and of the code (never the link or code itself), when it was sent and used, and a keyed hash of the IP address it was asked from. A sign-in mail works for 15 minutes;
• for each signed-in browser: a hash of the session id, your browser’s user agent, and when the session started and was last used, so you can see and end your sessions on your account page;
• an audit trail of account actions (for example sign-in, sign-out, account deletion) with a keyed hash of the IP address;
• short-lived counters per address hash and per email address that stop abuse such as mass sign-in requests.

When you delete your account, your sign-in links and sessions are deleted and your email address is replaced by a meaningless code everywhere it identifies you. What we must keep for tax reasons stays (see Purchases).

Purchases

When you buy a license we keep your order: the email address of your account, name, the country you choose on the order form, and optionally company, VAT number and invoice address, the plan, the price, the order status, which version of the terms of sale you accepted and when you agreed that delivery starts right away (so that you lose the right of withdrawal, see the terms). Mollie B.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) handles the payment. We send Mollie your name, email address and the amount; you pay on Mollie’s own page. From Mollie we receive and keep the payment status, the payment method and at most the last four characters of the account or card. We never see your full card or bank details. Mollie is responsible for its own processing as described in Mollie’s privacy statement.

Each paid payment gets a numbered invoice with a copy of your order details at that moment.

We keep orders, payments and invoices for 7 years after the end of the year they belong to, because Dutch tax law requires it (article 52 of the General State Taxes Act), also after you delete your account.

Licenses and what a Relay sends

A Relay checks its license on your own machine. It sends us nothing until you activate a license or sign in to it with a Viaalink account, and it never activates by itself. It contacts viaalink.com, always over HTTPS, only:

• to activate a license with an activation code, or in your browser without one;
• to add an instance to an installation with a join code;
• to check in: once a license is activated, Free or paid, from the day it is issued, about once a day (every 24 hours plus a random delay of up to 2 hours; the first check up to 10 minutes after the Relay starts; after a failed attempt it tries again after 1 hour, then 2, 4 and so on, up to once a day). When a new license file is due we send it back; if the license was deactivated or has ended, we say so;
• when someone signs in to its setup page with a Viaalink account; and
• to send the list of accounts signed in to it, each by its Viaalink account identifier with its role (owner, operator or viewer), whenever that list changes and again about once a day, so that they see the Relay in their account.

What we receive and keep from these requests:

• the activation code or join code (we keep only a hash of the activation code);
• the public key the Relay made for itself: we keep the key itself, to recognise the Relay and check its later requests, and a hash of it, which is the Relay’s identifier at viaalink.com;
• a hash of the machine’s identifier, never the identifier itself;
• your Relay’s domain name, if you set one: with the license we keep only a hash of it; when you activate in your browser or sign in to the setup page we keep the name itself with that request, and these requests are removed by our scheduled cleanup (see the table below) about a day after they end. When domain checks are turned on (they are not yet), we also keep the domain itself for a Relay with sign-in with viaalink.com on, but only after checking that the Relay’s own key named this domain and that the domain publishes the Relay’s identifier. That check does not prove that the Relay itself answers there;
• the platform (Linux, Docker, macOS or Windows), the Relay’s version and the number of connected devices at that moment;
• the machine’s host name, when you activate in your browser or sign in to the setup page, so that you can recognise the Relay on viaalink.com (kept with the request; a setup-page sign-in keeps it as its label);
• when it was activated and when it last checked in, and the name you give the installation on your account page;
• for a sign-in to the setup page: the Viaalink account, the Relay, what the sign-in was for and when; for the list of signed-in accounts: each account’s role on the Relay, and when the Relay last sent that list.

Like any web server, ours sees the IP address of the request; we use a keyed hash of it to limit requests per address and do not store the address with your license.

A Relay never sends us the addresses of the services it publishes, its visitors, its traffic or its logs; only its own domain, as above. When domain checks are turned on, viaalink.com asks that domain for the Relay’s public identifier and key once in a while; that request sends nothing about you. The Relay’s setup page shows what activating and the daily check-in send, and section 8 of the Relay license agreement lists every case.

We use these data to issue, bind, renew and protect licenses, to see which installations run and on which version, to stop abuse of the Free plan, to show a Relay to the people who operate it, and to help you when you ask for support. When you delete your account, a paid license keeps working until its end date without being linked to your email address; a Free license is ended.

Viaalink CLI and Relay operators

• via login. When you sign the Viaalink CLI in to your account, the CLI sends us your computer’s name (its hostname, for example kelvin-laptop) and the CLI’s version number. We keep those two, plus hashes of its access and refresh tokens (never the tokens themselves) and when the sign-in was created and last used. We do not receive or keep anything else from your computer: no logs, no commands, no files and no output. You see these sign-ins on your account page and can end them there.
• Relay operators. When you sign in to a Relay’s admin pages with your Viaalink account, we keep the Relay’s identifier, the role you have on it and when you signed in. When removing a Relay from your account is turned on (it is not yet) and you remove one there, we keep that choice (the Relay’s identifier and when you removed it) until you sign in on that Relay again.
• Viaalink apps. When app access to your Relay list is turned on (it is not yet), an app you approve for it on viaalink.com (Viaalink Social (Relay list) on Android, the Viaalink desktop app or Viaalink Notetaker) can read the list of Relays you operate (identifier, checked domain, your role, last seen). Each such approval is its own sign-in; your ordinary Viaalink Social sign-in cannot read the list. We keep which app, the device name it sends, and when it last read the list. You see these sign-ins on your account page and can end them there.
• Operator invites. When the owner of a Relay invites someone by email, we keep the invited address, the role, the language and when the invite was sent, and we send one invite mail. That mail has a link to stop all further invites to that address; we then keep the address on a do-not-mail list.

Contact form and testers

• Contact form: your name, email address, topic, optional company and your message. We mail it to our own mailbox, send you a copy, and keep it to answer you and follow up, for 2 years.
• Testers: your name, email address, the devices and products you want to test and your optional note, so we can invite you to tests, for 2 years after your last change.

You can ask us to delete these at any time.

Email

We send mail from info@viaalink.com through Hostinger. For each mail we keep the recipient, its purpose, when it was sent and whether it was delivered to Hostinger, never the sign-in link or code; how long depends on the kind of mail (see below). Hostinger’s copy of a sent mail is moved to the trash right away and Hostinger empties the trash after 30 days.

Who processes data for us

• Hostinger hosts viaalink.com, its database and our mailbox, in the European Union.
• Mollie B.V. handles payments (see Purchases).

We do not sell personal data and do not share it for advertising. We store the data described here in the European Union.

Why we may use these data

• To deliver what you asked for (your account, a purchase, a license, an answer): the contract with you (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).
• To keep tax records: a legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR).
• To secure the site and licenses, stop abuse and see how the Relay is used: our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). You may object to this.

How long we keep data

Data	How long
Orders, payments and invoices (incl. the waiver and terms version on the order)	7 years after the end of the year they belong to (tax law)
Your account (email address, sign-in dates)	until you delete it; after that only a meaningless code remains, linked to the records we must keep
Sign-in mails (hashes of link and code)	deleted once they have expired, at the latest when the next sign-in mail is requested
Signed-in browser sessions	at most 90 days (30 days without a visit); removed by our scheduled cleanup. Until that cleanup runs, they may be kept longer
Request counters against abuse	a short period, removed by our scheduled cleanup. Until that cleanup runs, they may be kept longer
Account audit trail (with a keyed IP hash)	2 years
License and installation data from a Relay	while the license exists, and with the purchase records of a paid license
Relay browser-activation and setup-page sign-in requests (incl. the host name and the domain name), and CLI sign-in codes (the short-lived code you confirm in the browser, with your computer’s name)	short-lived; removed by our scheduled cleanup. Until that cleanup runs, they may be kept longer
CLI sessions (via login)	until you delete your account (an ended session stays listed until then); then ended and cut loose from your email address
Relay sign-ins and the list of a Relay’s accounts	while the Relay keeps the account on its list; when you delete your account you are taken off every list and your sign-ins are cut loose from your email address
When a Relay last sent its list of accounts, and its checked domain (once domain checks are turned on)	while sign-in with viaalink.com is on for the Relay; once its removal is turned on, removed by our scheduled cleanup 45 days after the Relay last sent its list (the domain also after 30 days without a passing check). Until that cleanup runs, it may be kept longer
Relays you removed from your account (once that is turned on)	until you sign in on that Relay again, the Relay is removed, or you delete your account
App sign-ins for your Relay list (once that is turned on)	as CLI sessions
Operator invites (the invited address)	1 year
Addresses that asked for no more invites	until that person asks us to remove the block
Mail records: sign-in mails	90 days
Mail records: purchase and renewal mails	7 years, as proof that the confirmation was sent
Mail records: other mails	2 years
Contact form messages	2 years, or sooner when you ask
Tester sign-ups	2 years after your last change, or sooner when you ask or unsubscribe

We keep data longer only where the law requires it, or to settle a dispute that has arisen.

If something goes wrong with your data

If personal data we hold leaks or is lost, we report it to the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens and tell the people affected where the law (Articles 33 and 34 GDPR) requires it, and we fix the cause.

Your rights

You may ask us for a copy of your data, to correct or delete it, to limit its use, to object to its use, and to receive it in a format you can take elsewhere. Mail info@viaalink.com; we answer within one month. You can delete your account yourself on your account page. If you think we handle your data wrongly, you may complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

Changes

When we change this policy we publish a new version with a new date. Earlier versions stay readable at their own address.