Makers Toolbox Privacy Policy
Last updated: 6 November 2026 (version 2026-11-06)
This policy explains what Makers Toolbox collects about you, why, and what you can do about it. We have written it in plain English. If anything is unclear, email hello@makerstoolbox.app.
1. Who looks after your data
- The data controller is Ruth McCarthy, trading as Makers Toolbox, Ireland.
- Email: hello@makerstoolbox.app
- Web: https://makerstoolbox.app/support
2. What we collect
Your account
- Your email address, and your name or display name if you give one.
- If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive the email and name they share with us. Apple may give us a private relay address instead of your real one.
Your content
- The patterns, PDFs, screenshots, photos, links, videos, notes, steps, measurements, inventory and projects you add to the app.
- Your username, interests and profile photo if you add them.
Device and crash data
- When the app crashes, Firebase Crashlytics sends us a report with the device model, operating system version, app version and what the app was doing. It does not include your content.
- We do not run advertising or analytics trackers. There are no ads in Makers Toolbox.
Purchase status
- Whether you have an active subscription or trial, and your Smart tools credit balance. This comes to us from Apple, Google and RevenueCat. We never see your card details.
Smart tools usage
- A count of each time Smart tools read something for you, with the date and the type of source (pages, photos, link or video), so we can apply your monthly credits.
- Saved reads: the steps we read from a pattern, kept in your account so reading the same thing again is free. Clear them any time in Settings.
Website waitlist and email updates
If you join the waitlist on makerstoolbox.app:
- What we keep: your email address, the date you signed up, and whether you ticked the box for news, tips and offers.
- Why: to email you when the app launches. If you ticked the box, we also send occasional news, tips and offers.
- Legal basis: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any email, or by emailing hello@makerstoolbox.app.
- Where it is kept: in a database run by Cloudflare, our website host, and in a private spreadsheet only we can see.
- How long: launch-only addresses are deleted within 3 months of launch. Addresses on the news list are kept until you unsubscribe.
- We never sell or share your email with anyone else.
3. Why we use it, and the legal basis
Under the GDPR we need a legal reason for each use. Ours are:
- To run the app for you (contract). Storing your content, signing you in, syncing between your devices, applying your subscription and credits.
- To keep the app working and safe (legitimate interests). Fixing crashes, preventing abuse, and answering your support emails. We have checked that these interests do not override your rights.
- Smart tools (consent). Sending your pattern pages, photos, links or video to Google's Vertex AI to be read into steps, and your notes, steps and supplies, for recaps and summaries, happens only when you choose to use Smart tools, and you can switch them off in Settings at any time.
- To meet legal duties (legal obligation). For example keeping purchase records for tax.
We never sell your data and we never use it for advertising.
4. Who helps us (our processors)
We use a small number of trusted services to run the app. Each is bound by a contract to handle your data only on our instructions.
- Google Firebase and Google Cloud. Sign-in, database (Firestore), file storage and Cloud Functions. Your content is stored in the European Union (region europe-west1, Belgium).
- Google Vertex AI (Gemini), through Firebase. Reads the pattern pages, photos, links or video you send to Smart tools and returns steps. It also reads your notes, steps and supplies, for recaps and summaries. Requests may be processed on Google servers outside the EU. Google does not use your content to train its models. See Google's commitment at https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/data-governance
- Firebase Crashlytics (Google). Crash reports.
- RevenueCat. Keeps track of subscription and credit status across your devices.
- Apple App Store and Google Play. Take your payment and handle refunds under their own privacy policies.
- YouTube. When you paste a YouTube link, Google's Gemini service fetches the public video from YouTube itself. We never download or store the video. We show its thumbnail and a link back to the channel.
Where data leaves the EU, the transfer is covered by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision.
Videos and photos you upload may show other people. Only upload what you have the right to, and keep them private. If you appear in someone else's upload without your consent, email hello@makerstoolbox.app and we will remove it.
5. No training on your content
- Your patterns, photos and projects are never used to train artificial intelligence models, by us or by our processors.
- Smart tools read your content to produce your steps, recaps and summaries, and nothing else.
6. How long we keep things
- While your account is active: we keep your content so the app can work.
- If your subscription lapses: your account becomes read-only. Nothing is deleted. You can still open the app and see everything.
- If you stop opening the app: after five years without opening the app we delete your uploaded files. We will email you warnings before this happens, so you can sign in and keep them.
- If you delete your account: everything is removed from our systems straight away. Backups are cleared within 30 days.
- Crash reports: kept for 90 days.
- Purchase records: kept for as long as tax law requires.
7. Your rights
You have the right to:
- See your data. Ask us for a copy of what we hold about you. A data export inside the app is planned.
- Correct it. Edit your profile in the app, or ask us to fix anything else.
- Delete it. Delete your account in Settings. This removes everything. You can also ask us by email.
- Take it with you (portability). Ask for your data in a common format.
- Object or restrict. Object to a use based on legitimate interests, or ask us to pause processing while we look into a concern.
- Withdraw consent. Switch Smart tools off in Settings at any time.
- Complain. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data you can complain to the Data Protection Commission in Ireland at https://www.dataprotection.ie or to your local data protection authority.
To use any of these rights, email hello@makerstoolbox.app. We will reply within one month.
8. Children
- Makers Toolbox is for people aged 16 and over, which is the digital age of consent in Ireland.
- We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will delete it.
9. Security
- Your data travels over encrypted connections and is stored encrypted at rest on Google Cloud.
- Your content is private to your account. Other people using the app cannot see it, and our database rules allow each account to read and write only its own data.
- As the people who run the service we can reach your content through our hosting, but we only do so to fix a problem, to answer a support request you have sent us, or where the law requires it. We never browse your projects out of curiosity, and we never share them.
- We use Firebase App Check so only genuine copies of the app can reach our services.
- No system is perfectly secure. If we ever discover a breach affecting you, we will tell you and the Data Protection Commission as the law requires.
10. Changes to this policy
- We may update this policy when the app or the law changes.
- The date at the top tells you the current version. For meaningful changes we will ask you to accept again inside the app.