Privacy Policy

Effective as of October 3, 2026.

To view previous versions of this Privacy Policy, see its history on GitHub.

California Notice at Collection/State Privacy Rights Notice: See the State privacy rights notice section below for important information about your rights under applicable state privacy laws.

Kaiyu Hsu ("Yours Sincerely," "we," "us" or "our") provides Yours Sincerely, a free, open-source space where anyone can publish short letters, anonymously or under a name they choose, that leave the public feed after 21 days. This Privacy Policy describes how Yours Sincerely processes personal information that we collect through our digital or online properties or services that link to this Privacy Policy (including, as applicable, our website at yourssincerely.org, our iOS and Android apps, and the earlier version of those apps, which shows the website inside the app) and the other activities described in this Privacy Policy (collectively, the "Service"). The Service is open source: the code that collects and processes the information described here is public at github.com/kyh/yours-sincerely.

Notice to European users: Please see the Notice to European users section below for additional information for individuals located in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom (which we refer to as "Europe", and "European" should be understood accordingly).

Index

Personal information we collect

Information you provide to us. Personal information you may provide to us through the Service or otherwise includes:

We never ask for your phone number, real name, postal address or payment details to let you use the Service.

Third-party sources. We may combine personal information we receive from you with personal information falling within one of the categories identified above that we obtain from other sources, such as:

Automatic data collection. We and our service providers may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile device, and your interaction over time with the Service, our communications and other online services, such as:

For more information concerning our automatic collection of data, please see the Tracking & Other Technologies section below.

Data about others. Letters and comments may mention other people. Please do not share another person's personal information in a letter or comment unless you have their permission to do so.

Tracking & Other Technologies

Cookies and other technologies. Some of our automatic data collection is facilitated by cookies and other technologies. Cookies are small data files that a website stores on your device; browser web storage (local storage) works the same way but holds more data. The Service uses only its own (first-party) cookies and storage, in these categories:

We do not use advertising or social media cookies, or any technology that tracks you across other websites.

For information concerning your choices with respect to the use of tracking technologies, see the Your choices section below.

How we use your personal information

We may use your personal information for the following purposes or as otherwise described at the time of collection:

Service delivery and operations. We may use your personal information to:

Service personalization, which may include using your personal information to remember your selections and preferences as you navigate webpages, such as the feed layout you chose.

Service improvement and analytics. We may use your personal information to analyze your usage of the Service, improve the Service, help us understand user activity on the Service, including which pages are most and least visited and how visitors move around the Service, and to develop new products and services. For example, we use Vercel Web Analytics for this purpose.

Compliance and protection. We may use your personal information to:

Data sharing in the context of corporate events. We may share certain personal information in the context of actual or prospective corporate events โ€“ for more information, see How we share your personal information, below.

To create aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data. We may create aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data from your personal information and other individuals whose personal information we collect. We make personal information into de-identified and/or anonymized data by removing information that makes the data identifiable to you, and we will not attempt to reidentify any such data. We may use this aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes, including analyzing and improving the Service and promoting our business.

Further uses. In some cases, we may use your personal information for further uses, in which case we will ask for your consent to use your personal information for those further purposes if they are not compatible with the initial purpose for which information was collected.

Retention

We generally retain personal information to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, establishing or defending legal claims, or for fraud prevention purposes. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we may consider factors such as the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

When we no longer require the personal information we have collected about you, we may either delete it, anonymize it, or isolate it from further processing.

Specifically:

How we share your personal information

We may share your personal information with the following parties (or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, in other applicable notices, or at the time of collection). We do not sell your personal information or share it with advertisers.

Service providers. Third parties that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Service or our business (such as hosting, database hosting, email delivery, push-notification delivery and website analytics). They are:

Third parties designated by you. We may share your personal information with third parties where you have instructed us or provided your consent to do so.

Professional advisors. Professional advisors, such as lawyers, auditors, bankers and insurers, in the course of the professional services that they render to us.

Authorities and others. Law enforcement and government authorities, only when the law requires it, and private parties, as we believe in good faith to be necessary or appropriate for the Compliance and protection purposes described above.

Business transferees. We may disclose personal information in the context of actual or prospective business transactions (e.g., investments in Yours Sincerely, financing of Yours Sincerely, or the sale, transfer or merger of all or part of Yours Sincerely or its assets). For example, we may need to share certain personal information with prospective counterparties and their advisers. We may also disclose your personal information to an acquirer, successor, or assignee of Yours Sincerely as part of any merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, and/or in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which personal information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets.

Other users and the public. Your letters and comments, the name you sign them with, and your profile, which shows your display name, your avatar and statistics about your letters (such as how many you have written, on which days, and how many likes they have received), are visible to other users of the Service and the public, including after your letters leave the feed. Every letter links to its author's profile, even when it is signed "Anonymous", so letters published from the same account can be connected to each other. Only write what you are comfortable sharing with strangers. Your email address, and who liked, reported or blocked what, are not shown to others. This information can be seen, collected and used by others, including being cached, copied, screen captured or stored elsewhere by others (e.g., search engines), and we are not responsible for any such use of this information.

Your choices

In this section, we describe the rights and choices available to all users. Users who are located in certain U.S. states and Europe can find additional information about their rights below.

Access or update your information. You can review and update your display name on your profile page, and add or change your email address in Settings, whether or not you have registered. An anonymous account can be managed only from a device that holds its session.

Push notifications. If you allow notifications in our mobile apps, you can turn them off at any time in your device's settings.

Cookies and other technologies. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies, and clear local storage, in their settings. If you block or delete the session cookie, you will be signed out, and an anonymous account that has no email address cannot be recovered. If you clear local storage, your theme resets and any draft you have not published is lost. Blocking Vercel Web Analytics, for example with a content blocker, does not change how the Service works.

Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send "Do Not Track" signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to "Do Not Track" signals because the Service does not track you across other websites.

Declining to provide information. We need to collect personal information to provide certain services. If you do not provide the information we identify as required or mandatory, we may not be able to provide those services.

Delete your content or close your account. You can delete any letter or comment you wrote at any time from its menu. You can close your account at any time by deleting it in Settings; the Retention section above describes what that deletes. To ask for a copy of your data, or for help deleting anything you cannot delete yourself, email us at kai@kyh.io.

Other sites and services

The Service may contain links to websites, mobile applications, and other online services operated by third parties. In addition, our content may be integrated into web pages or other online services that are not associated with us. These links and integrations are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. We do not control websites, mobile applications or online services operated by third parties, and we are not responsible for their actions. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of the other websites, mobile applications and online services you use.

Security

We employ technical, organizational and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we collect. For example, we store passwords only as salted hashes, and session cookies are signed and sent only over encrypted connections. However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies and we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.

International data transfer

We are based in the United States and may use service providers that operate in other countries. Your personal information may be transferred to the United States or other locations where privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your state, province, or country.

Users in Europe should read the important information provided below about transfer of personal information outside of Europe.

Children

The Service is not intended for use by anyone under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian of a child from whom you believe we have collected personal information in a manner prohibited by law, please contact us. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Service from a child without the consent of the child's parent or guardian as required by law, we will comply with applicable legal requirements to delete the information.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the Service or other appropriate means. Any modifications to this Privacy Policy will be effective upon our posting the modified version (or as otherwise indicated at the time of posting). In all cases, your use of the Service after the effective date of any modified Privacy Policy indicates your acknowledging that the modified Privacy Policy applies to your interactions with the Service and our business.

How to contact us

If you have questions about our practices or if you would like to exercise any privacy related right that may be available to you, please contact us via one of the methods listed below.

State privacy rights notice

Except as otherwise provided, this section applies to residents of U.S. states to the extent they have privacy laws applicable to us that grant their residents the rights described below (collectively the "State Privacy Laws").

This section describes how we collect, use, and share Personal Information of residents of these states and the rights these users may have with respect to their Personal Information. Please note that not all rights listed below may be afforded to all users and that if you are not a resident of one of these states listed above, you may not be able to exercise these rights. In addition, we may not be able to process your request if you do not provide us with sufficient detail to allow us to confirm your identity or understand and respond to it. To confirm your identity, we will ask you to send your request from, or confirm it from, the email address associated with your account. If your account has no email address, you can add one in Settings and then send your request from it.

For purposes of this section, the term "Personal Information" has the meaning given to "personal data", "personal information" or other similar terms and "Sensitive Personal Information" has the meaning given to "sensitive personal information," "sensitive data", or other similar terms in the State Privacy Laws, except that in neither case does such term include information exempted from the scope of the State Privacy Laws.

Your privacy rights. The State Privacy Laws may provide residents with some or all of the rights listed below. However, these rights are not absolute and some State Privacy Laws do not provide these rights to their residents. Therefore, we may decline your request in certain cases as permitted by law.

Information. You can request the following information about how we have collected and used your Personal Information:

Access. You can request a copy of the Personal Information that we have collected about you.

Appeal. You can appeal our denial of any request validly submitted.

Correction. You can ask us to correct inaccurate Personal Information that we have collected about you.

Deletion. You can ask us to delete the Personal Information that we have collected from you.

Opt-out.

Consumers under 16. We do not sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

Sensitive Personal Information. While we process certain categories of Sensitive Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy, such as the login credentials for your account, we do not process Sensitive Personal Information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about consumers under the CCPA.

Nondiscrimination. You are entitled to exercise the rights described above free from discrimination as prohibited by the State Privacy Laws.

Exercising your right to opt-out of the "sale" or "sharing" of your Personal Information. We do not sell your Personal Information or "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as the State Privacy Laws define those terms, so there is nothing to opt out of. If that ever changes, we will update this Privacy Policy first, offer a way to opt out, and honor Global Privacy Control ("GPC") signals as valid opt-out requests, as required by applicable law.

Exercising other state privacy rights. You may submit requests to exercise any of the other state privacy rights listed above via email to kai@kyh.io.

Verification of Identity; Authorized agents. We may need to verify your identity in order to process your information, access, appeal, correction, or deletion requests and reserve the right to confirm your residency. To verify your identity, we may require government identification, a declaration under penalty of perjury, or other information, where permitted by law.

Under some State Privacy Laws, you may enable an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. However, we may need to verify your authorized agent's identity and authority to act on your behalf. We may require a copy of a valid power of attorney given to your authorized agent pursuant to applicable law. If you have not provided your agent with such a power of attorney, we may ask you to take additional steps permitted by law to verify that your request is authorized, such as by providing your agent with written and signed permission to exercise your State Privacy Laws rights on your behalf, the information we request to verify your identity, and confirmation that you have given the authorized agent permission to submit the request.

Information practices. The following describes our practices currently and during the past 12 months:

Personal information that we collect, use and disclose. We have summarized the Personal Information we collect, the purposes for which we collect it and the third parties to whom we may disclose it by reference below to both the categories defined in the "Personal information we collect" section of this Privacy Policy above and the categories of Personal Information specified in the CCPA (Cal. Civ. Code ยง1798.140). This chart describes our practices currently and during the 12 months preceding the effective date of this Privacy Policy. Information you voluntarily provide to us, such as in the letters, comments and emails you write, may contain other categories of personal information not described below.

Personal Information ("PI") we collectCCPA statutory categoryPurposesCategories of third parties to whom we "disclose" PI for a business purposeCategories of third parties to whom we "sell" or "share" PI
Contact dataIdentifiers; California Customer RecordsService delivery and operations; Compliance and protection; Data sharing in the context of corporate eventsService providers; Professional advisors; Authorities and others; Business transfereesNone
Profile dataIdentifiers; Sensitive personal information (account log-in credentials)Service delivery and operations; Compliance and protection; Data sharing in the context of corporate eventsService providers; Other users and the public (your display name and avatar); Professional advisors; Authorities and others; Business transfereesNone
Communications dataIdentifiers; California Customer RecordsService delivery and operations; Compliance and protectionService providers; Professional advisors; Authorities and others; Business transfereesNone
User-generated content and input dataIdentifiers; Internet or other electronic network activity information; Audio, electronic, visual or similar informationService delivery and operations; Compliance and protection; To create aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized dataService providers; Other users and the public (your letters, comments and the names you sign them with); Professional advisors; Authorities and others; Business transfereesNone
Device dataIdentifiers; Internet or other electronic network activity informationService delivery and operations; Service personalization; Service improvement and analytics; Compliance and protectionService providers; Professional advisors; Authorities and others; Business transfereesNone
Online activity dataInternet or other electronic network activity informationService improvement and analytics; Compliance and protectionService providers; Professional advisors; Authorities and others; Business transfereesNone

Additional information for California residents.

Shine the light law. Under California's Shine the Light law (California Civil Code Section 1798.83), California residents may ask companies with whom they have formed a business relationship primarily for personal, family or household purposes to provide the names of third parties to which they have disclosed certain personal information (as defined under the Shine the Light law) during the preceding calendar year for their own direct marketing purposes, and the categories of personal information disclosed. We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. You may send us requests for this information to kai@kyh.io. In your request, you must include the statement "Shine the Light Request," and provide your first and last name and mailing address and certify that you are a California resident. We reserve the right to require additional information to confirm your identity and California residency. Please note that we will not accept requests via telephone, mail, or facsimile, and we are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.

Additional information for Nevada residents. Nevada residents have the right to opt-out of the sale of certain personal information for monetary consideration. While we do not currently engage in such sales, if you are a Nevada resident and would like to make a request to opt out of any potential future sales, please email kai@kyh.io.

Contact Us. If you have questions or concerns about our privacy policies or information practices, please contact us using the contact details set forth in the How to contact us section above.

Notice to European users

General

Where this Notice to European users applies. The information provided in this "Notice to European users" section applies only to individuals in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (i.e., "Europe" as defined at the top of this Privacy Policy).

Personal information. References to "personal information" in this Privacy Policy should be understood to include a reference to "personal data" (as defined in the GDPR) โ€“ i.e., information about individuals from which they are either directly identified or can be identified.

Controller. Kaiyu Hsu, who provides Yours Sincerely, is the controller in respect of the processing of your personal information covered by this Privacy Policy for purposes of European data protection legislation (i.e., the EU GDPR and the so-called 'UK GDPR' (as and where applicable, the "GDPR")). See the 'How to contact us' section above for our contact details.

Our legal bases for processing

In respect of each of the purposes for which we use your personal information, the GDPR requires us to ensure that we have a "legal basis" for that use.

Our legal bases for processing your personal information described in this Privacy Policy are listed below.

We have set out below, in a table format, the legal bases we rely on in respect of the relevant Purposes for which we use your personal information โ€“ for more information on these Purposes and the data types involved, see 'How we use your personal information'.

PurposeCategories of personal information involvedLegal basis
Service delivery and operationsContact data; Profile data; Communications data; User-generated content and input data; Device dataContractual Necessity.
Service personalizationDevice dataLegitimate Interests. We have a legitimate interest in providing you with a good service, which is personalised to you and that remembers your selections and preferences.
Service improvement and analyticsDevice data; Online activity dataLegitimate Interests. We have a legitimate interest in providing you with a good service, and in understanding how the Service is used so that we can improve it.
Compliance and protectionContact data; Profile data; Communications data; User-generated content and input data; Device data; Online activity dataCompliance with Law. Legitimate Interests. Where Compliance with Law is not applicable, we and any relevant third parties have a legitimate interest in participating in, supporting, and following legal process and requests. We and any relevant third parties may also have a legitimate interest of ensuring the protection, maintenance, and enforcement of our and their rights, property, and/or safety.
Data sharing in the context of corporate eventsAny and all data types relevant in the circumstancesLegitimate Interests. We and any relevant third parties have a legitimate interest in providing information to relevant third parties who are involved in an actual or prospective corporate event (including to enable them to investigate โ€“ and, where relevant, to continue to operate โ€“ all or relevant part(s) of our operations). However, we would always look to take steps to minimize the amount and sensitivity of any personal information shared in these contexts where possible and appropriate.
To create aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized dataAny and all data types relevant in the circumstancesLegitimate Interests. We have legitimate interest, and believe it is also in your interests, that we are able to take steps to ensure that the Service operates as intended.
Further usesAny and all data types relevant in the circumstancesThe original legal basis relied upon, if the relevant further use is compatible with the initial purpose for which the Personal Information was collected. Consent, if the relevant further use is not compatible with the initial purpose for which the personal information was collected.

Retention

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, establishing or defending legal claims, or for Compliance and protection purposes.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

When we no longer require the personal information we have collected about you, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. If we anonymize your personal information (so that it can no longer be associated with you), we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Other info

No sensitive personal information. The Service does not ask you for any sensitive personal information (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership). If you choose to include sensitive personal information in a letter or comment you write, you consent to our processing it in accordance with this Privacy Policy solely to provide the Service to you, including publishing it as part of your letter or comment. If you do not consent, do not include it.

No Automated Decision-Making and Profiling. As part of the Service, we do not engage in automated decision-making and/or profiling, which produces legal or similarly significant effects.

Your rights

General. European data protection laws give you certain rights regarding your personal information. If you are located in Europe, you may ask us to take the following actions in relation to your personal information that we hold:

Exercising These Rights. You may submit these requests by email to kai@kyh.io. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and process your request. Whether or not we are required to fulfill any request you make will depend on a number of factors (e.g., why and how we are processing your personal information), if we reject any request you may make (whether in whole or in part) we will let you know our grounds for doing so at the time, subject to any legal restrictions.

Your Right to Lodge a Complaint with your Supervisory Authority. In addition to your rights outlined above, if you are not satisfied with our response to a request you make, or how we process your personal information, you can make a complaint to the data protection regulator in your habitual place of residence.

For users in the European Economic Area โ€“ the contact information for the data protection regulator in your place of residence can be found here: https://www.edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/our-members_en

For users in the UK โ€“ the contact information for the UK data protection regulator is below:

The Information Commissioner's Office, Water Lane, Wycliffe House, Wilmslow โ€“ Cheshire SK9 5AF, Tel. +44 303 123 1113, Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

Data Processing outside Europe

We are based in the U.S. and many of our service providers, advisers or other recipients of data are also based in the U.S. This means that, if you use the Service, your personal information will necessarily be accessed and processed in the U.S. It may also be provided to recipients in other countries outside Europe.

It is important to note that the U.S. is not the subject of a general 'adequacy decision' under the GDPR โ€“ the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension cover only organizations certified under them, and we are not certified. Basically, this means that the U.S. legal regime is not considered by relevant European bodies to provide an adequate level of protection for personal information transferred to us, which is equivalent to that provided by relevant European laws.

Where we share your personal information with third parties who are based outside Europe, we try to ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by making sure one of the following mechanisms is implemented:

You may contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal information out of Europe. You may have the right to receive a copy of the appropriate safeguards under which your personal information is transferred by contacting us at kai@kyh.io.


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