Your data, in plain words.

Sidechain Studio (sidechain.studio), also called Sidechain by VocalEssential, is run by VocalEssential. “We”, “us” and “Sidechain” mean us. This policy covers the Sidechain site, every store on it (handle.sidechain.studio), the emails we send and the Sidechain Player.

It goes with our Terms. If you use Sidechain, this is how we handle your information.

Your account

• Your email address and, if you use one, your password. Supabase handles sign-in and stores the password scrambled (hashed). We never see it.
• If you continue with Apple, Google or Discord, they send us your email address and the basic profile you agree to share (usually your name and profile picture). We never get your password for those accounts.
• Your plan, its billing status and how it's billed, from Stripe. If we change your plan by hand, we keep a note of it.
• Where you first came from, when you sign up: the site that sent you (like instagram.com), the page you landed on, and any campaign (UTM) tags in the link. We save it once, when you confirm your account.

Your store and plugins

• Your handle, store name, bio, tagline, social links, theme and layout. These are public.
• What you type to make a plugin (the description and the changes you ask for), and what Sidechain makes from it: the sound settings, faceplate images, names, prices and saved versions.
• Images you upload, like your own knob.
• If you use voice typing in the builder, your recording goes to fal.ai to be turned into text. We don't keep the recording.
• Usage counts: each new plugin, edit and repaint, with the time, so plan limits work.
• Product steps: which steps of making and selling you've reached (signed up, started a plugin, published, upgraded, first sale and so on), with small labels like which plan. No IP addresses or browser details.

Selling

• Payouts are set up on Stripe (Stripe Connect). Stripe collects your legal name, date of birth and bank details. We get your Stripe account ID and whether payouts are ready, not your bank details.
• Each order: the plugin, the price, our fee, your share and where its payout stands.
• Store stats: views, plays, vocal tries, buy clicks and shares on your plugin pages, each with the time. We don't store the visitor's IP address or browser with them.

Buying

• Your email address, what you bought, the price, your license key and the order's status.
• Payment happens on Stripe. We never see or store card numbers.
• When you buy or grab a free plugin, the creator gets your email address.

Fans and the waitlist

• Joining the waitlist: your email address, where on the site you joined, where you first came from (as above), and the plugin idea you typed, if you typed one.
• Signing up on a plugin's coming-soon page: your email address and the plugin, and when you confirmed, got the launch email or unsubscribed. The creator only sees how many fans are waiting, never the addresses.

Emails we send

• A log of every email we send: the address, which email it was, the subject and the time, and whether it was delivered, opened, clicked, bounced or marked as spam (Resend tells us).
• Your email preferences: whether you unsubscribed, and whether mail to your address bounces.

Reports

• When you report a store or plugin: what you reported, the reason, the details you write, and your email address if you choose to give it. We don't pass your email to the creator.

The Sidechain Player

• When you sign in on the desktop Player: the device name, platform and app version, the IP address the sign-in started from (to stop abuse), and a sign-in token, which we only store as a hash.

Everyone who visits

• Questions you ask the homepage assistant go to Anthropic to be answered. We don't save them. To cap use, we count questions per day under a salted hash of your IP address, never the address itself.
• To stop spam and abuse, our servers look at your IP address for a few minutes at a time (rate limits). Those checks aren't saved.
• Our host keeps standard server logs (IP address, browser, pages asked for) for a short time. If a page crashes in your browser, it sends us an error report with the page address and your browser type.

• To run your account, build and host your plugins, run your store, sell and deliver plugins, and pay creators.
• To send email. Receipts, sales and account notices always go out. Other emails (tips, reminders, weekly store stats, launch emails for fans) stop when you unsubscribe, and we send at most one of those a day.
• To keep Sidechain safe: plan limits, rate limits, spam checks, reports and takedowns.
• To understand what's working: where sign-ups come from and which steps people reach, so we can make Sidechain better.
• To follow the law: tax and accounting records, and legal requests.

If you're in the EU, UK or a place with similar laws: we use your information to provide the service you asked for, for our legitimate interests (keeping Sidechain safe and improving it), with your consent (like joining the waitlist, which you can withdraw anytime), and where the law requires it.

• Everyone: your store, handle, store name, bio and links, and your published plugins. Until you publish, a plugin's link shows a coming-soon page with its faceplate and name, unless you switch that off in the builder's Sell tab. Faceplate images are stored at public web addresses.
• Creators: the email address of everyone who buys or grabs their plugins.
• The services in the next section, only to do their part of the work.
• Others, only if the law requires it, or to protect people, our users or Sidechain from fraud or harm.
• If Sidechain or VocalEssential is ever sold or merged, your information would move to the new owner under this policy.

We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for targeted advertising. There are no ad trackers or third-party analytics on Sidechain.

These companies handle information for us, under their own privacy and security terms.

Supabase

Accounts, sign-in, our database and file storage. Your password is stored there, scrambled (hashed); we never see it.

Vercel

Hosts the site and runs our servers. Keeps standard server logs for a short time.

Stripe

Checkout, subscriptions, and creator payouts through Stripe Connect. Card numbers and payout details go straight to Stripe. We never see or store card numbers.

Resend

Sends our emails and tells us whether each one was delivered, opened or clicked, or bounced.

Anthropic

Processes the text you type (plugin descriptions, chat changes, questions to the homepage assistant) and faceplate images, to design your plugin and answer questions.

fal.ai

Runs the image models that paint faceplates and cut out knob images, and turns voice typing into text. Some of those models are made by other companies (OpenAI, for example), and fal.ai passes the request on to them to do the work.

Apple, Google, Discord

Sign-in, only if you choose “Continue with” one of them.

Google Fonts

Store pages and faceplates load some typefaces from Google Fonts, so your browser asks Google for them. Like any web request, that shows Google your IP address. We don't send Google anything else.

Sidechain is run from the United States, and these services may process information in the United States and other countries.

We only use our own cookies, to make the site work. No advertising or tracking cookies.

The builder also saves a few display choices in your browser's own storage. They stay on your device.

• Your account, store and plugins: while your account is open.
• A plugin you delete: gone for good if nobody bought it. If someone did, it's archived instead: off your store, still in their Purchases.
• Orders and payout records: as long as tax and accounting law needs, even after an account closes.
• The homepage assistant's daily counts: two weeks. Player sign-in codes that were never used: a day.
• Waitlist and fan sign-ups: until you ask us to delete them. If you unsubscribe, we keep your address marked so we don't email you again.
• Server logs: a short time, set by our host.

To close your account, write to create@sidechain.studio from the email you sign in with. We delete your account, store, plugins nobody bought, usage counts and product steps. We keep what we have to: orders and payout records, plugins people bought (so they keep them), and a record of any unsubscribe.

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• Show you the information we have about you, or send you a copy you can take elsewhere.
• Correct it.
• Delete it.
• Stop or limit a use of it, or withdraw consent you gave.

Write to create@sidechain.studio from the email you use with Sidechain. We may ask you to confirm it's you. We answer within 30 days. Someone you authorize can ask for you.

California: you have the right to know what we collect and why, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of its sale or sharing for targeted ads. We don't sell or share it that way. We won't treat you differently for using any of these rights.

EU and UK: you also have the right to object to how we use your information, and to complain to your local data protection authority.

A lot of it you can do yourself:

• Change your store details and plugins in your dashboard.
• Unsubscribe with the link at the bottom of any email that isn't a receipt or account notice.
• Switch off a plugin's coming-soon page in the builder's Sell tab.
• Sign the Sidechain Player out of a computer from your dashboard.

You must be at least 13 to use Sidechain, and 18 to sell. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you think a child under 13 has given us information, write to create@sidechain.studio and we'll delete it.

Everything travels encrypted (HTTPS). Database rules keep each account's private data to itself, Player sign-in tokens are stored only as hashes, and card and bank details stay with Stripe. No system is perfect. If something goes wrong that affects your information, we'll tell you as the law requires.

We'll update this policy as Sidechain changes. When a change matters, we'll tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect. The date at the top shows the latest version.

Questions about your information, or a request: create@sidechain.studio. A person reads every email.