Legal
Privacy policy
What Shelfes knows about you, why, where it's kept, and how you get it back or have it deleted.
This policy covers our website, web and mobile apps, and support. A household means a shared inventory, including one used by a business.
Who we are
Shelfes is made and run by Structyne Inc., in London, Ontario, Canada. The founder is the person responsible for protecting personal information. Write to [email protected] about anything on this page.
What we collect
- Your account: name, email address, language, and either a password, which we store only as a hash, or the identifier, name and email address Google or Apple gives us when you sign in with them.
- Your inventory: items, locations, photos, receipts, purchase dates and prices, tags and notes.
- Your household: who belongs to it, and the email addresses of people you invite.
- Billing: your plan, payment status, and subscription and transaction identifiers. Stripe processes web payments; Apple or Google processes purchases in its app store, where offered. A household identifier links a store purchase to the right inventory. We do not receive or store your full card number.
- Messages you send us through the contact form or by email.
- Technical records: IP address, browser or device type, and the time of each request, in server logs and in the security history of your account. Error reports have names and email addresses removed.
What we use it for
To run Shelfes for you, to send the emails the service needs (sign-in, invitations, billing, deletion notices), to keep accounts secure and stop abuse, and to find and fix errors. We use the information needed to provide the features you request and meet our legal obligations. Where consent is required, you can withdraw it by contacting us; this may prevent us from providing the affected feature. Withdrawal does not undo earlier lawful processing or required retention. We do not sell your information, show ads, or build a profile of you. We do not send marketing email unless you ask for it.
Sharing a household
Members of your household can see shared inventory and activity, including who made changes, according to their role. Owners and admins manage access. Only add information you have permission to share. Leaving a household or deleting your account does not remove its shared items or copies another member has already exported.
Where it's stored
Your inventory, photos and receipts are stored with Amazon Web Services in Montréal, encrypted, and weekly database backups are copied to Calgary. The servers that answer the app's requests are run by Shelfes in Ontario. They handle your data in passing and keep server logs, but your inventory and photos are not kept on them.
Who else handles it
A small number of companies help us run Shelfes, and each only receives what it needs. Some are outside Canada: Stripe and Sentry are in the United States, and Cloudflare runs a worldwide network that app traffic passes through. Microsoft 365 handles support email. Apple and Google also handle sign-in or store purchases when you choose those services, under their own privacy policies. Information processed outside Canada may be accessible to authorities under local law. We also disclose information with your permission or when required by law.
Cloudflare delivers photos, receipts and export archives and may cache copies for up to 30 days at worldwide network locations. The original files remain in Canada. Access requires a valid signed link. After a file is deleted, a previously validated link can work until it expires; cached copies then age out.
If Shelfes is ever sold or merged, your information would move to the new owner under this same policy, and we would tell you beforehand.
See every service provider, what it does and where
Who at Shelfes can see it
Shelfes staff can read a household's data only to give support or to investigate a problem. They sign in with multi-factor authentication, they can never sign in as you, and every change they make is recorded with the reason for it.
Photo suggestions
Photo suggestions are on for every household, and an owner or admin can turn them off in the household settings. When they are on, item photos that are added or that someone asks about, and the household's category and tag names, are analysed by an open-source model on servers Shelfes runs. They are not sent to another company or used to train a model. Suggestions are only saved to an item when you choose to use them.
Product barcodes
When you scan or type a product barcode to add an item, Shelfes asks Open Food Facts what the product is. Only the barcode is sent, never your name, account or household. Its database is licensed under the Open Database License; product photos use a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence. Loading a product photo preview also connects your device to the image provider, which receives technical information such as your IP address.
Cookies and visit counts
This website sets no cookies. It counts visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not follow you across sites. The app sets one cookie, which keeps you signed in and does nothing else. Forms that strangers can fill in are protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that a browser is not a bot and is not used for advertising.
The apps also store sign-in state, preferences and cached inventory on your device, including data used offline. Camera and photo access lets you scan barcodes or attach images you choose. You can manage device permissions in your system settings; denying them limits those features. Copies you download or export remain under your control.
How long we keep it
We keep your information while your account and your household exist. When an owner deletes a household, everyone in it is emailed and the owner has 30 days to change their mind. After that the household, its items, photos and receipts are permanently deleted, and we keep only a count of what was removed as proof. Deleting your account removes your memberships in shared households; their items stay with them. If you are a shared household's only owner, transfer ownership or schedule its deletion first. A household only you use is deleted after the same 30 days, and your account details remain until that deletion finishes. Otherwise, your name, email and sign-in details are deleted when account closure completes. We keep a note that the account was deleted, with dates and counts but not your name or email address, for two years. Backups that still contain your information age out within 35 days. Server logs are overwritten as they fill up. Three things outlast a deletion: payment records, which we and Stripe must keep for tax law, normally six years; messages you sent us through the contact form or by email, for two years after the conversation ends; and the record of actions our staff took, for two years.
Your choices
On every plan, you can edit your profile and delete your account. Every member of a household can download its spreadsheets and printable inventory; every member except a viewer can request a full archive with photos; only an owner can delete the household. Contact us to change your email address. You can also ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete your account if you cannot sign in, or withdraw your consent, by writing to [email protected]. We verify your identity before releasing or deleting information and protect other people's information when answering. We answer within 30 days; if the law permits an extension, we explain why and give you the new deadline within that period.
If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, in Québec, to the Commission d'accès à l'information.
Children
Shelfes is for adults looking after a household or a business. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
If something goes wrong
If a security incident puts your information at real risk, we will tell you and the privacy regulators as the law requires, without delay.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use your information, we email account holders before it takes effect. We ask for fresh consent where the law requires it.