Privacy Policy

1. Scope and Roles

This Privacy Policy applies when you visit dearly.co, start or pay for a Film, participate in a Film room, record or upload a contribution, view a finished Film, redeem an included contributor Tree gift, contact Care, or otherwise interact with the Film service, regardless of the occasion the Film honors.

It also applies when we retain or process information to support a former Dearly Art or standalone Dearly Tree order, a legacy account, contact or household record, a saved address, a receipt, refund, delivery confirmation, linked gift, data export, manual privacy review, request cancellation, support request, or related legal and business record.

In some contexts, Dearly decides why and how information is used. In others, we process information to carry out an organizer, contributor, payer, customer, or recipient's request, such as collecting recordings, producing a Film, sending an invitation, reconciling a former order, or delivering a linked experience.

This Policy does not apply to third-party websites, payment services, or other services that we do not control, even when the Film service links to them.

2. Information We Collect

Category	Examples	Typical source
Identifiers and participant details	Names, email addresses, phone numbers, organizer, contributor, payer, and recipient roles, verification and authentication identifiers, Film tokens, and service-provider references.	You, other Film participants, service providers
Film and event details	The honored person's name, event type and date, prompts, organizer instructions, production and reveal timing, viewing preferences, contributor status, and Film status history.	Organizers, contributors, payers, Dearly systems
Content and media	Recorded or uploaded video and audio, written responses, transcripts, captions, thumbnails, media-analysis results, edit decisions, rendered Films, playback identifiers, and related metadata.	Contributors, organizers, media and processing providers
Transaction and fulfillment data	Billing name, payer contact details, price, currency, payment status, payment-intent and order references, receipts, refunds, disputes, production authorization, and Tree-gift entitlement and redemption status. We do not store full card numbers or CVVs.	You, Stripe, Dearly systems, Tree-gift providers
Supported legacy-service and account data	Legacy profile and authentication identifiers, saved or imported contacts and household relationships, contact events, recipient and return mailing addresses, former Dearly Art and standalone Dearly Tree order and message data, credits, receipts, refunds, delivery-confirmation records, push tokens, and account export, manual privacy-review, or request-cancellation records.	Existing customers, senders, recipients, prior account activity, service providers, Dearly systems
Device, network, analytics, and advertising data	IP address, user agent, cookies, local-storage values, device and browser characteristics, page views, interaction and session events, referral and UTM parameters, advertising click identifiers, and anti-abuse signals.	Your browser or device, platform logs, analytics providers
Communications and support data	Invitations, verification and lifecycle messages, emails, support messages, attachments, message headers, thread and case metadata, and support outcomes.	You, Film participants, messaging and support systems
Safety, operations, and audit data	Fraud and abuse indicators, moderation signals, delivery and provider events, system errors, staff actions, audit events, disputes, and legal-hold metadata.	Dearly systems, staff, service providers, legal process

3. Sources of Information

We collect information:

directly from you when you submit a form, verify your contact method, record or upload a contribution, pay for a Film, choose a viewing setting, redeem a Tree gift, or contact Care;
from organizers, contributors, payers, and recipients who provide information about themselves, the honored person, or other Film participants;
from existing account, contact, household, address, transaction, fulfillment, linked-confirmation, and support records associated with former Dearly Art and standalone Dearly Tree offerings;
automatically from your browser or device when you visit the website or use the Film service; and
from service providers that support payments, authentication, messaging, media hosting, transcription, Film processing, analytics, advertising measurement, security, and Tree-gift redemption.

4. How We Use Information

We use information to:

create and operate Film rooms, verify participants, manage access, and preserve organizer, contributor, payer, and recipient roles;
collect, store, transcribe, analyze, encode, edit, render, review, deliver, and support Film media;
process and reconcile payments, refunds, receipts, production authorization, and included contributor Tree gifts;
support and export legacy accounts and their profile, contact, household, address, Art, Tree, order, receipt, credit, delivery-confirmation, and audit records; receive and review requests to access, correct, delete, anonymize, suppress, or retain associated information;
send invitations, verification codes, Film status and delivery messages, support replies, and Tree-gift notifications;
prevent fraud, detect abuse, enforce our terms, investigate suspicious activity, secure the service, and protect users and third parties;
analyze product performance, understand acquisition and use, measure advertising and conversions, maintain permitted marketing or retargeting audiences, troubleshoot problems, and improve the Film experience;
operate Care and studio workflows, document decisions, and maintain service and audit records; and
respond to legal process, resolve disputes, exercise legal rights, and maintain records for business and legal purposes.

5. How We Disclose Information

We may disclose information in the following circumstances:

Service providers and infrastructure. We provide information to vendors that help us host data, authenticate and verify participants, process payments, send email or SMS, host and process media, provide analytics or advertising measurement, monitor errors, support customers, fulfill Tree gifts, or support receipts and existing orders from former offerings.
Film participants and link holders.We make information and media available as needed to operate the Film room and the organizer's selected viewing experience. Anyone who receives a valid bearer-style link may be able to use the access that link provides. The same principle applies to supported legacy Tree-gift and delivery-confirmation links.
Studio staff and contractors. Authorized people may access Film content and related records to review, edit, finish, deliver, troubleshoot, and support the Film.
Corporate transactions. We may disclose information in connection with financing, diligence, merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, reorganization, or a sale of assets, subject to applicable confidentiality and legal constraints.
Legal, safety, and professional purposes. We may disclose information to respond to legal process, protect rights, property, or safety, prevent fraud, enforce our terms, or work with lawyers, auditors, insurers, accountants, and similar advisors.

We do not sell personal information for money. Our use of Google advertising measurement and similar technologies may be classified as a sale, sharing, or targeted advertising under some laws even though no money is paid to us for the information. You may contact us at care@dearly.co about an applicable opt-out request.

6. Vendor and Partner Categories

Providers that may process information for the Film service and supported legacy workflows include:

hosting, database, storage, and authentication providers such as Supabase and cloud-hosting platforms;
payment and billing providers such as Stripe;
email and verification-messaging providers such as Resend and Twilio;
media hosting, encoding, and playback providers such as Mux;
transcription and automated media-processing providers such as Deepgram and Google;
product analytics, advertising, attribution, and performance providers such as PostHog, Google, Awin, and Vercel;
error, security, and operational-monitoring providers such as Sentry; and
environmental fulfillment providers used for the included contributor Tree gift and supported existing Tree records.

Provider rosters change over time. This list describes the current provider categories and examples rather than guaranteeing that each provider participates in every Film.

7. Film and Supported Link-Based Data Flows

7.1 Film rooms and contributions

An organizer creates a Film room and shares its link. Contributors use the room to verify a contact method and record or upload a memory. The room may display the honored person's name, prompts, contribution status, and organizer-provided context. A room link is a bearer capability: a person who obtains it may be able to open the room and begin the verification or contribution flow.

7.2 Production and delivery

We and our providers store and process recordings to create the Film. Processing may include transcription, media analysis, encoding, editorial planning, human review and editing, captioning, rendering, quality review, playback, and download. Authorized studio staff may review raw contributions and derived materials as needed to finish and support the Film.

7.3 Payment and communications

A payer may be different from the organizer. We associate payment, receipt, refund, and conversion records with the Film and the payer, and we use participant contact details to send verification, invitation, status, reveal, delivery, support, and service messages.

7.4 Viewing controls and bearer links

Organizers can choose among the viewing settings offered by the Film service. Film-room, management, watch, and Tree-gift links may grant access without asking the link holder to identify themselves again. We use separate tokens and purpose-limited access where the service provides them, but forwarding a link may forward its access.

A personal video-note link may show the recipient's name, note subject and message, sender's name, and private video to a person who holds the valid link. Please share these links only with people you trust.

7.5 Included contributor Tree gift

Eligible contributors receive a redeemable Tree gift after Film delivery. We process entitlement, notification, token, redemption, provider-response, and support data to offer and reconcile that gift. A tree is not treated as planted until the contributor redeems the gift and the fulfillment provider confirms it.

7.6 Supported legacy workflows

Former Dearly Art and standalone Dearly Tree offerings are not currently marketed for new purchase. Limited workflows remain reachable or continue in the background for existing customers, recipients, accounts, and records. Those workflows may authenticate or link an existing order holder, create or update an authentication record, provide account export, accept a manual Care privacy-review request, or cancel that exact request. The current account path does not automatically delete or anonymize data, disable account access, or later reactivate an account. Other limited workflows process previously saved contacts, households, recipient and return mailing addresses, reconcile Art and Tree orders, credits, receipts and refunds, send service or delivery-confirmation notices, confirm an Art delivery through a QR or bearer link, and present or reconcile a companion Tree gift. We may retain or anonymize transaction records as described in Section 12.

8. Information About People Named by Others

A Film often involves people who did not provide their information to us first. For example, an organizer may name the honored person, invite a contributor, identify a recipient, or provide context that mentions another person. A payer may also provide organizer or recipient details needed to associate payment with the Film.

We process this information to provide the requested Film service, communicate with participants, maintain the integrity of Film roles and links, prevent abuse, and handle support. We may also use participant details for the measurement and limited marketing or retargeting practices described in Sections 4 and 10, but we do not sell a standalone participant list for money.

Supported legacy records may likewise identify recipients, saved or imported contacts, household members, address respondents, and other people who did not create the record themselves. We use those records for the legacy fulfillment, support, rights, security, transaction, and recordkeeping purposes described in this Policy. A retained legacy account session that remains signed in on an eligible non-private page may also cause browser analytics to associate activity with the account identifier, email, and acquisition properties described in Section 10.

If another person provided your information and you would like to ask about access, correction, deletion, or suppression, contact us at care@dearly.co. We may need to preserve some records for security, transactions, disputes, or other business and legal purposes.

9. Media and Automated Processing

Film contributions may contain a person's face, voice, likeness, surroundings, and statements about themselves or others. Depending on the jurisdiction and context, some media may be considered sensitive information.

Dearly does not use Film recordings to identify people through voiceprints or facial-recognition templates. We use media and derived information to provide the requested Film, including storage, transcription, analysis, moderation, editorial planning, human review, rendering, delivery, support, and troubleshooting. Third-party providers assist with some of this processing.

If you submit media involving another person, you are responsible for having the permissions required to do so. Do not submit a synthetic impersonation, deceptive manipulated media, or content you are not authorized to provide.

10. Cookies, Local Storage, Analytics, and Advertising Measurement

We use cookies, local storage, SDKs, and similar technologies to maintain verification and Film access, preserve checkout and return context, remember preferences, support security and anti-abuse controls, and understand how the service is used. Browser-side attribution data, including referral, campaign, and advertising click identifiers, is stored in local storage with a rolling 90-day expiration that resets when the stored record is updated.

On eligible public pages, we use Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for page views, acquisition attribution, and purchase or conversion measurement. Our Google tag is configured to permit advertising and analytics storage, ad user data, and ad personalization, and it enables enhanced conversions. On an eligible non-private checkout page, our browser code may provide a normalized email to the Google tag; the Google tag is configured to normalize and SHA-256 hash that email before sending it to Google. Current tokenized Film checkout is within the private browser suppression described below, so our browser code does not hand its payer email to the Google tag. For an attributed Film purchase, our server instead normalizes and SHA-256 hashes the payer email before an offline conversion upload. Google may also receive a Google click identifier (gclid, gbraid, or wbraid), client and session identifiers, campaign parameters, conversion time, order reference, and Film purchase value and currency.

We use PostHog product analytics for page views, page exits, automatically captured interaction events, attribution, product events, and selected session replay. Session replay may operate on selected public marketing, pricing, checkout, and non-tokenized Film setup pages. All input fields are masked in PostHog replay. The PostHog browser SDK may use an anonymous identifier and, on eligible non-private pages, may associate events with participant, staff, or retained legacy account identity information when the service identifies that person. For a retained signed-in account, that may include the account identifier, email, and available acquisition or source properties.

Server-side PostHog processing is separate from the browser SDK and can occur after an action taken within a private Film route. When an organizer verifies an email address to claim a Film, our server may alias an earlier anonymous acquisition identifier and associate the normalized email, organizer role, and Film project identifier with a PostHog person. An authenticated internal Film operations path may also associate a participant email with the participant's role, Film project identifier, and honored person's name for product and retargeting-audience operations.

We use Sentry for error and performance monitoring and selected browser Session Replay. The application's production defaults sample 5% of sessions and 100% of sessions associated with captured errors for Sentry Replay; deployment configuration may change those rates. Sentry Replay masks all text and input fields and blocks all media. Sentry may receive device, network, route, interaction, performance, and error information according to the context in which it operates.

The private-route suppression described here is a browser-side boundary. Our browser code does not initialize or continue Google tags, PostHog, Vercel browser analytics, Sentry browser monitoring, or either session-replay implementation on tokenized Film room, management, watch, personal video-note, Tree-gift, and supported legacy gift or delivery-confirmation pages. Browser telemetry events containing bearer tokens are dropped, and capability-shaped route values are redacted before supported operational telemetry is sent. This browser suppression does not prevent the service from keeping or sending the server-side security, transaction, provider, analytics, and operational records described in this Policy.

We may also use affiliate-measurement tools on eligible public pages. Those tools may receive device, network, route, referral, and event information according to the context in which they operate.

You can use browser controls to block or delete cookies and local storage, but doing so may disrupt verification, attribution, checkout, or Film access. Unless we expressly state otherwise, we do not promise that every browser-level preference signal or universal opt-out mechanism is automatically recognized in every context. You may contact care@dearly.co to make a privacy or advertising-related request that applies to you.

11. Legal Bases and International Transfers

If you are in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, the legal bases that may apply to our processing include performance of a contract, consent, legitimate interests in operating and securing the Film service and supported legacy workflows, and legal obligations.

Dearly is based in the United States, and our providers may process information in the United States and other countries. Those jurisdictions may not provide the same legal protections as your home jurisdiction. We may use contractual and other transfer mechanisms where required.

12. Retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including to provide and secure the Film service, support legacy workflows, complete transactions, resolve disputes, enforce our terms, prevent fraud, and maintain business and legal records.

Data class	Typical retention approach
Participant and verification data	Retained while needed to operate the Film and for a limited period afterward, with longer retention where needed for security, audit, disputes, or legal reasons.
Order, payment, refund, and tax records	Retained for accounting, tax, fraud, dispute, and recordkeeping periods, which may extend for several years after a transaction.
Supported legacy account, contact, and address records	Retained while needed to support existing customers, linked recipients, fulfillment, receipts, rights requests, fraud, disputes, and legal records. An account deletion request opens manual Care review; the current account path does not itself delete or anonymize records or change account access. Any further action requires an approved inventory, retention, legal-hold, and provider procedure that accounts for the records' purpose, dependencies, and legal requirements.
Film media and derived materials	Retained while needed to collect, produce, deliver, support, and preserve the Film, subject to Care review of deletion requests, legal needs, and provider behavior. Abandoned drafts and temporary production data may be removed sooner.
Analytics and attribution data	Browser attribution storage uses a rolling 90-day expiration. Analytics providers and our server records may retain events for different periods based on configuration and business, security, or legal needs.
Support, safety, and audit records	Retained as needed to resolve issues, document decisions, maintain service integrity, and prevent repeated abuse.

13. Security

We use a combination of technical, administrative, and organizational measures intended to protect information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, and alteration. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, uninterrupted confidentiality, or that unauthorized parties will never defeat our safeguards or those of our providers.

You are responsible for protecting your devices, email, phone number, verification codes, and tokenized or bearer-style links. If you suspect misuse or a security incident, contact us immediately at care@dearly.co.

Any dispute related to security incidents, privacy claims, or data breaches is subject to the limitations of liability and dispute resolution provisions in our Terms of Service to the maximum extent permitted by law.

14. Your Choices and Controls

Depending on your relationship to a Film or supported legacy record, you may be able to:

choose among the Film viewing settings presented to the organizer;
manage browser permissions for the camera, microphone, cookies, and local storage;
stop optional communications using the method included in the message, where one is provided; and
contact us to request access, export, correction, deletion, suppression, or another privacy-related review.

Some information may remain in backups, logs, Film and participant records, legacy order records, transaction systems, provider systems, suppression lists, or legal files after Care finishes reviewing a request.

15. U.S. State Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or portability of certain personal information; to limit certain processing of sensitive information; or to opt out of activities classified as sales, targeted advertising, or profiling under applicable state law.

To submit a request, contact us at care@dearly.co. We may need to verify your identity or authority before acting. You may use an authorized agent where permitted, subject to verification.

If we deny a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision or by writing to care@dearly.cowith "Privacy Appeal" in the subject line. We will review the appeal as applicable to the request.

16. EEA, UK, Swiss, Canadian, and Other International Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, or portability, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

To make a request, contact us at care@dearly.co. You may also have a right to complain to a supervisory authority or privacy regulator in your jurisdiction.

17. Children's Privacy

The Film service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly seek personal information directly from children under 13. An adult should not invite or allow a child under 13 to submit a contribution without first contacting us and obtaining any permission or consent that applies.

If you believe a child provided personal information directly to us without appropriate authorization, contact us at care@dearly.co. We will review the matter and take steps appropriate to the circumstances.

18. Changes to This Policy and Contact Information

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the Film service, supported legacy workflows, our practices, our providers, or legal requirements. When we make changes, we will update the date shown on this page and may provide additional notice where appropriate.

If you have questions about this Policy or our privacy practices, contact us at care@dearly.co. You may also write to Dearly Inc., Privacy Team, 2261 Market Street STE 87409, San Francisco, California 94114.