privacy policy

Effective September 11, 2026.

Wisp is the project operating wisp.you and any Wisp-hosted services expressly provided by us. This policy explains the information we handle, why we handle it, and your choices. It covers this website, our signup lists, support communications, and our own beta and hosting services when available. It does not make an independently operated Wisp server part of our service.

The Wisp privacy contact is responsible for privacy inquiries and requests. Contact: support@wisp.you. Do not send passwords, private encryption keys, recovery files, or full payment-card details with a request.

1. our privacy commitments

We collect information needed to provide the services you request, administer contributions, keep services secure, and meet legal obligations. We do not sell personal information, use private conversations for advertising, or use your private conversations to train AI models. We do not deploy advertising trackers or third-party behavioural analytics on this website.

End-to-end encrypted message and file content is encrypted on your device before reaching the hosting server. We do not receive your private decryption keys through normal service operation and cannot read that encrypted content merely by operating the server. This is not a claim that no data passes through or is stored by the server: encrypted content and the technical metadata needed to deliver it may be processed there.

2. information you provide

Website signups. We store the email address you submit, the signup time, and a record of the purpose you consented to. Development-news, beta-interest, and donation-opening notification signups are stored in separate lists. Joining one does not silently join the others. New beta signups cover beta-access information. The unified signup form registers beta interest by default; development news and donation-opening notifications are separate, optional choices. Earlier beta signups may retain the combined beta-access and development-updates consent shown at the time. The donation-opening list is for the single requested availability notification.

Accounts and profiles. If you use a Wisp-operated beta or hosted server, we process the account identifiers, display name, public identity keys, selected profile information, memberships, and administrative settings required for that service. Profile information you choose to share, such as a display name or avatar, may be visible to the people and server operators with whom you interact. It is not necessarily protected in the same way as encrypted message content.

Support and reports. We receive what you deliberately send to us, such as correspondence, a description of a problem, screenshots, diagnostic information, or an abuse report. If you or a recipient intentionally provide readable messages to support, those supplied copies can be read by the people handling the request. Send only what is necessary and obtain permission before sharing another person's information where required.

Contributions and orders, when available. To reconcile a payment and deliver the stated benefit, we may receive your checkout name and email, transaction identifier, amount and currency, payment status, limited payment-method details, and refund, dispute, tax, billing, or fraud-related information. Shipping information would be needed for a physical merchandise order if merchandise becomes available. A payment or order does not automatically subscribe you to marketing.

3. technical data and encrypted communications

Visiting a website or connecting to a service necessarily exposes connection information, including your IP address and information in the request, to the systems handling it. Hosting, network, and payment providers may process technical and security records to operate their services. Our systems may handle account/device identifiers, timestamps, routing and delivery information, room membership, connection state, and security events where required to provide and protect a hosted service.

The current website signup application stores no raw IP address or browser user-agent in its subscriber databases. It temporarily hashes the connection IP in memory to limit abusive signup attempts; the counters expire after approximately an hour of inactivity and are cleared when that process restarts. Hashing is a protection measure, not a claim that the underlying IP ceases to be personal information. This description does not imply that an infrastructure provider has no independent security records.

A hosted server may store encrypted message/file payloads and process delivery metadata. Encryption protects content, not every fact about a connection. Recipients can read, save, forward, or capture content delivered to them. Device compromise, recipient conduct, shared access, and information you make public are outside encryption's protection. Wisp remains under development and has not received an independent security audit; chat encryption currently does not provide forward secrecy. Voice and video have a separate client-held shared-key arrangement. We do not promise anonymity or perfect security.

4. the website demo, cookies, and local storage

The interactive website demo uses fictional people and conversations. Its chat messages and simulated controls run in the browser; they are not sent to a Wisp chat server. Demo voice, microphone, camera, and sharing controls do not access your real microphone, camera, or screen. Locally served join and leave sounds may play when you choose those actions.

The current main website does not set advertising or analytics cookies. Demo choices and messages are kept for the current page session rather than used for cross-site tracking. Older versions of the site may have left appearance or intro preferences in browser storage; clearing site data removes those. The separate unlisted design preview may also retain local presentation preferences. These local preferences are not signup information.

Aggregate website traffic. We use a small, first-party counter to understand which public pages are viewed and which broad referral sources or named public campaigns bring people to Wisp. It sends only a recognized page path, a source category, and a campaign label from a fixed list of Wisp’s public campaigns to our own server. We keep daily aggregate counts for up to 365 days, without storing individual events, IP addresses, browser user-agent strings, full referral URLs, visitor identifiers, or signup-email links in the analytics data. This counter uses no cookies, browser storage, fingerprinting, or third-party analytics services. It does not count your visit when your browser signals Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. Counts represent page views, not unique people; blocked reporting and missing referral information can affect them. The connection information necessarily processed to receive a web request is described above.

Clicking an external payment or other third-party link takes you to that provider's service. Its cookies, account features, and independent privacy practices are governed by its own notices.

5. purposes and consent

We use information to respond to the request you made, maintain the list you joined, provide account and hosting functions, deliver any purchased or promised benefit, answer support inquiries, prevent abuse, reconcile transactions, and comply with applicable law. We do not treat submitting an email as permission for unrelated marketing or as consent to collect readable private chats.

We rely on consent where required and on other grounds permitted by applicable law for necessary service delivery, security, accounting, and legal compliance. If a new use requires fresh consent, we will ask before using the information for that purpose. You may decline optional information or withdraw consent, although we may then be unable to provide the particular service that requires it.

6. service providers and disclosures

Only people and providers who need information for an authorized purpose should have access. We use OVH-hosted infrastructure for the website. Where we use hosting, communications, payment, or other operational providers, we remain responsible for personal information under our control and take appropriate steps to protect it through the arrangements and safeguards required by law.

Payment processing is planned through external providers such as Stripe and PayPal; this site currently has no active checkout links. When enabled, the provider shown at checkout processes payment details directly. Wisp does not need or receive the complete card number or card security code through the planned hosted-checkout integration. Providers may collect additional information for their own verification, fraud prevention, and legal obligations. Review the selected provider's notice, including Stripe's privacy policy or PayPal's privacy statement, before paying.

We may disclose information where you direct us to do so, to necessary service providers, or where law requires or permits disclosure to address a valid legal process, fraud, or a serious safety or security issue. We assess requests and disclose only information we hold and are legally required or permitted to provide; we cannot supply private decryption keys we do not possess. Any transfer following a change in the operation of the project remains subject to applicable privacy protections and any required notice or consent.

7. storage location and retention

Information may be processed in Canada and in other countries where our infrastructure or providers operate. The current website infrastructure is hosted in the United States. Foreign authorities may have lawful access under the laws of the country where information is processed. Using a provider outside Canada does not remove our responsibilities for information under our control.

We retain signup records while needed for their stated purpose, unless you request removal or withdraw consent. The donation-opening list is for the requested notification, not a continuing mailing list. We retain account, support, security, and contribution records only for as long as reasonably needed for the service, unresolved issues, fraud prevention, accounting, or legal requirements. We remove or de-identify information when those purposes no longer justify keeping it. Limited consent, suppression, or transaction records may remain where needed to honour an opt-out, resolve a dispute, or comply with law.

Backups may retain removed information until they are rotated or deleted. Retained backup copies remain protected and are not a reason to resume a cancelled subscription. There is no fixed automatic deletion period for all data categories in the current system. Deleting information from our systems cannot delete copies retained by other recipients or independently operated servers.

8. access, correction, deletion, and complaints

Contact the Wisp privacy contact to request access to information we hold about you, correct it, withdraw consent, unsubscribe, request deletion, or raise a privacy concern. Identify the relevant email address or account and the list or service concerned; do not include encryption secrets. We may ask for proportionate verification to avoid giving information to the wrong person. We will explain lawful limits on a request, such as another person's privacy, a legal retention duty, or data we cannot decrypt or do not control, and respond within applicable legal time limits.

You can unsubscribe from optional updates through the method provided in the message or by contacting us. You may also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the provincial or other regulator with jurisdiction. This policy does not restrict statutory privacy rights.

9. independent servers, children, and changes

An independently operated or self-hosted Wisp server has its own operator, policies, retention decisions, and responsibilities. Check who operates a server before joining it. We do not receive its signup records or private content simply because its operator uses Wisp software. We may still handle a direct support request you send us.

Our current signup and contribution services are not directed at children under 13. Where a young person cannot validly consent or enter an agreement, an appropriately authorized parent or guardian must be involved and any additional legal requirements must be met. Contact us if a child has submitted personal information without the required authorization.

We will date material policy updates and provide additional notice or obtain renewed consent when required. New payment, merchandise, email-delivery, or hosting arrangements will be reflected in the policy when they are enabled. A revision does not retroactively authorize a materially different use of previously collected information.