Privacy policy

GIF Launcher is a Windows app that plays a GIF, video or sound on your friends' screens at the same moment as yours. To do that it runs a small server, and that server keeps a few things about you. This page lists all of them. The short version: a profile you can delete, no record of the links you send, no ads, no analytics, nothing sold.

Who is responsible

GIF Launcher is made by Harun Emre Doğan, who publishes as Hedaron, in Türkiye. He is the data controller for the data described here. Questions, requests and complaints go to hedaron23@gmail.com.

Your profile

The first time the app connects, the server creates a profile. It holds:

• a random user code (like GL-ABCD-1234) and the display name you type;
• your @handle, if you claim one, and when you last changed it;
• your look, if you make one: aura colours and shape, a short bio, and links to the GIFs on your card (avatar, background, signatures);
• who may send you friend requests;
• your friends, the requests you sent or received, and the people you blocked;
• a one-way hash of a key stored on your PC, which proves a connection is really you, and a one-way hash of your recovery code. Neither the key nor the code itself is stored on the server;
• when the profile was created and when it was last online.

Friends see your display name, handle, look, whether you are online and, unless your channel is private, which channel you are in. People in the same channel see your display name, handle, user code, look and the month you joined.

While you are in a channel, the app tells the others where things it shows sit on your screen (a position and size, never a picture of your screen), so they can see a small live preview. The server passes this on and does not store it. You can turn it off in Settings.

Favourites

The links you save as favourites and your folder names are synced to your profile so they follow you to another PC. Removed items are remembered for 30 days so another device does not bring them back.

Channels and what you send

A channel exists only in the server's memory. While it is open, the server keeps the last 200 links played in it, with the display name, handle and user code of whoever sent each one, and shows up to 100 of them to people who join. When everyone has left, the channel and its history are gone. They are never written to disk, and the server does not log the links you send.

When a link plays, your PC loads the media straight from the site it is on (for example a GIF host or a video site), the same way a browser would. That site sees your IP address and handles it under its own privacy policy.

Chat and voice

Chat messages in a channel are passed on by the server to the others in it. The server keeps the last 50 messages of each channel in memory, so someone who joins sees what was just said, and they are gone when the channel closes. They are never written to disk or logged.

Voice goes directly between the people in a voice room, encrypted, and is never recorded. Because it is direct, the others in the room can see your IP address. When a direct connection is not possible, or when you turn on "Hide my IP address in voice" in Settings, it passes through our relay server instead. It stays encrypted between you and the others, so the relay cannot listen to it, and the relay keeps no record of who talked to whom. Your microphone is only used while you are in a voice room.

The shared library

Search shows links that people actually play. When you play a link from a well-known public media site, the server adds to a count for that link, along with its title, thumbnail and the words that found it in search. Who played it is not stored: distinct players are counted through a salted one-way code that cannot be turned back into your profile. A link only appears in search after several different people have played it, and links from private storage or adult sites are never counted. You can turn this off in Settings, App, "Help build the library".

Reports

If you report a person or a link, the report stores your user code, what you reported, an optional reason, the time, and what that person sent and wrote in the channel lately (taken from the server's memory, not from you), so it can be reviewed. Links reported by several people are hidden from search.

Pro licences and payments

Payments are handled by Stripe. Your card details go to Stripe and never reach us. When you buy Pro the server stores your email address (to send the licence key), the key, your plan and its end date, the Stripe customer, subscription and checkout IDs, and a hashed ID of the PC the key is activated on (it allows one device per key). The checkout ID lets the page you reach after paying show your key, for one week. Stripe's own privacy policy covers what Stripe keeps. Purchase records may have to be kept for the period tax law requires.

Logs and security

The server uses your IP address in memory to limit abuse, such as too many messages or connections at once. Its logs record events like a channel opening or a licence being activated, without whole licence keys, email addresses, device IDs or IP addresses (IP addresses appear only as a short one-way code). Logs are deleted after 14 days.

Counts

To see how the app is used, the server keeps daily totals: plays, channels opened, joins through an invite, the most people online at once. For active-user counts it notes which profile codes were online on which day, and deletes that after 35 days.

hedaron.com counts visits without cookies and without storing anything in your browser. Each page view goes to our server, which turns your IP address and browser name into a one-way code mixed with a random value that changes every day. The code and that day's value are deleted the next day, so a visit cannot be traced to you or linked to another day. What is kept are totals: views, visitors, pages, the site that sent you, and clicks on download and payment links. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control turn the counter off.

On your PC

Your settings, recent list, favourites, the device key and recovery code, your licence key and a cache of media you replay often are stored in the app's folder on your PC. Uninstalling the app and deleting its folder in AppData removes them.

Other services involved

• Oracle Cloud hosts the server.
• Stripe processes payments.
• Resend delivers the licence email from license@hedaron.com.
• Search runs on your PC. Your search words go from your PC straight to the public GIF, video and sound sites being searched (Tenor, GIPHY, Tumblr, YouTube, SoundCloud, Audius, MyInstants and Freesound), and while you type, the letters so far go to Google's search suggestion service to complete the word. These sites see your IP address and what you searched, as they would if you searched them in a browser; no cookie is sent and none is kept after the app closes. Results and thumbnails then load from those sites directly. Our server only answers the library part of search: it receives your search words for that, keeps them in memory for at most a minute to answer repeats, and does not log them.
• yt-dlp, an open source tool on your PC, opens video and sound links when you play them, contacting the site the link points to directly.
• GitHub serves app updates, which your PC downloads from there.

Some of these companies process data outside Türkiye, including in the European Union and the United States, because that is where they run the services GIF Launcher uses.

Why this data is used

• To provide the service you asked for: profiles, friends, channels, favourites, Pro. Legal basis: performing our contract with you (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b); KVKK Art. 5/2-c).
• To keep it safe and usable: rate limits, blocking, reports and moderation. Legal basis: legitimate interests, in a service that cannot be abused (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f); KVKK Art. 5/2-f).
• To make search useful: the anonymous counts behind the library, which you can switch off. Legal basis: legitimate interests (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f); KVKK Art. 5/2-f).
• To meet legal obligations, such as keeping purchase records. Legal basis: legal obligation (GDPR Art. 6(1)(c); KVKK Art. 5/2-ç).

There is no advertising, no analytics or tracking, and nothing is sold or shared for marketing.

How long it is kept

• Profile, friends, blocks and favourites: until you delete your profile.
• Channels and chat messages: only while the channel is open.
• Library counts: as long as the library runs. They are not linked to you.
• Reports: until they have been dealt with, then up to one year.
• Licence and purchase records: while the licence is valid, then as long as tax law requires.
• Server logs: 14 days.
• Which profiles were online on a day: 35 days. Site visit codes: until the next day.

Your rights

You can delete your profile at any time in the app (Profile, Danger zone, Delete my profile). That removes your profile, handle, friends, blocks and synced favourites from the server straight away. You can also ask, by email, to see the data held about you, to correct it, to receive a copy, to object to a use of it, or to have licence data deleted once the law no longer requires it. Under Türkiye's Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK, Article 11) and the GDPR where it applies, you can complain to the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) or to the data protection authority where you live.

Children

GIF Launcher is not for children under 13, or under the age your country sets for using online services without a parent's consent. If you believe a child has made a profile, write to the address above and it will be deleted.

Changes

A new version of this policy will be published here with a new effective date. A change to what is collected will be shown in the app, which asks you to accept the updated terms before you carry on.