Privacy

What we store

• Your email address, so we can send your sign-in link and tell you when a listing is reviewed.
• Your builder profile: the name, city, what you build, X handle and ring colour you give us, and if you add them, your story, what you're working on, your website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Facebook and Threads links, other links with your own labels, a featured link, your stack, what you can help with, what you're open to collaborate on, the order you show them in, and the builders you rate. These are public. If another builder rates you, your name and ring show on their page, and you can remove yourself from your profile.
• Get in touch messages: if you message a builder who is open to collaborate, your name, email and message go straight to them by email. We don't keep a copy.
• Your photo, if you add one. It's optional. We check it before it shows in your ring, and until then your initials show. Once approved it's public, including on share cards. We remove location and camera details from the file, and we don't use it for face recognition. Remove it any time from your profile.
• Whether you're 18 or older, as you tell us. We don't ask for your date of birth or ID.
• Your supporter profile, if you joined to try things and help: your name, city, a few words about you and X handle. These show only once a builder confirms you as one of their first users.
• Invites: who invited whom, so we can see how Version One grows. You see who joined with your own invites; only the reviewer sees the whole list. Between sending a sign-in link and your first sign-in, we keep your email against the invite link you used.
• Invite requests: if you request an invite, your name, email and, if you add it, what you're building. Only the reviewer sees these, and we use them only to send your invite. The owner can also add someone they know here, with their agreement, and may use their own AI assistant to manage invites, so your name, email and note can pass through that assistant's provider.
• Community listings: if you ask us to list a community, its name, where it meets, a line about it and its link, which are public once listed, and your name and email, which only the reviewer sees. We use your name and email only to write to you about the listing, and keep a copy of what we sent so the next reviewer can see it.
• Your listings: project details, versions, screenshots, demo video links and help asks. These are public once approved.
• Help offers: if you offer to help a builder, your name, email and message go privately to that builder, by email and on their own Updates page for 7 days. They're never shown publicly.
• Who you follow: if you follow a builder, we keep that so we can email you when they ship. It's private: the builder sees a count, not who. Every email has a link to stop.
• Waiting lists: if you ask to hear when a project's next version is out, we keep that and the wording you agreed to. We email you once, then delete it. The builder sees how many people are waiting, not who.
• Thursday emails: if you tick the box on your page, we keep a record of the wording, when you ticked it, and when you stop. Every email has a link to stop.
• Updates summaries: if you choose a daily or weekly summary on your Updates page, we keep the same kind of record. It's off unless you choose it, and every summary has a link to stop. Emails about something that needs you (a first-user claim, a help offer, a listing sent back) can be turned off on the same page.
• Listing counts: how many times a listing was viewed and its "Try it" button tapped, per day. We don't keep anything about who looked: no IP address, cookie or account. Only the builder sees the numbers.
• First-user claims: if you say you tried a project early, the builder sees your name and decides whether to confirm it. Once confirmed, your ring shows on their project and theirs shows as a dot on yours. They can remove it, and so can deleting your account.
• Story photos: if we write a story about you, it carries a photo you've agreed to. It's public with the story and deleted with it.
• Reports: if you report a listing, your reason and, if you add it, your email. Only the reviewer sees these.
• Feedback and profile reports: if you send feedback or report a profile, what kind it is, your message or reason, the page it's about and, if you add it, your email. If you tick "Email me if this gets built", we keep that too and email you once. Only Lee and admin helpers see these, and we never tell a person who reported them. If we reply, it comes from hello@versionone.co.za.
• Founders' Room: if you joined while Version One was invite-only, your roadmap votes, your answers to the question of the week and to short prompts on your page, and the ideas you suggest, linked to your account so Lee can ask you more. We use them only to decide what to build. They're never shown publicly.
• AI assistants you connect: if you connect an assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT, we keep its name, the address it sends you back to, what you allowed it to do and when, when it last used Version One (shown on your page), and short-lived access tokens. It can read what's public on the site and, if you allow it, your own profile and listings, and post for you. What it reads goes to the company that runs it, under their terms; you choose that company, so it acts for you, not for us. Disconnect it any time from your page.
• Technical logs: Cloudflare keeps short-lived request logs (such as IP address and browser) to keep the site running and stop abuse.
• Visit counts: Cloudflare Web Analytics counts page views and load times across the site, from the page address, referring site, browser type and country. It sets no cookies, doesn't fingerprint your device and doesn't keep your IP address, so we can't tell who visited.
• Form limits: to stop the sign-in, Get in touch and I can help forms being used to flood someone's inbox, we count how often they're used, keyed by a secret one-way code made from the email address, IP address, builder or ask, never the address itself. Every count is deleted after a day.

We don't sell your information, we don't run ads, and we don't use tracking cookies. One cookie keeps you signed in, and another remembers an invite link you opened, for a week.

If you're under 18

You're welcome here. The law (POPIA, section 35) asks a parent or guardian to agree before we show a young person's information, so when you set up your profile we ask for their email and send them a link. It shows what would be public and has an "I agree" button.

• You can set up your profile and share projects straight away. Nothing of yours is public, not your projects, photo or ring, until your parent or guardian agrees and we've checked each one.
• Your story, links, stack, featured link, build log, the builders you rate and Get in touch stay off your page while you're under 18, and other builders can't rate you, even after your parent or guardian agrees. Nobody can message you through Version One.
• We keep their email address, the wording they agreed to and when, as the record of their consent. It's never shown on the site, and we only use it for this.
• If nobody agrees within 30 days, we delete their email address. The link stops working after 14 days, and you can send a new one from your profile.
• Your parent or guardian can withdraw at any time from the same link, or by emailing privacy@versionone.co.za. Your projects and photo come off the site straight away.
• Deleting your account deletes their email address and the consent record too.

Who handles it

Two services process it for us, under their own privacy and security terms:

• Cloudflare hosts the site, the database and screenshots, checks forms for spam with Turnstile, checks the web addresses of links people add against its malware and phishing lists, counts visits with Web Analytics, and protects the review page.
• Maileroo sends our emails.
• YouTube and Loom play a builder's demo video. Nothing loads from them until you press play, and then their own privacy terms apply.

Their servers may be outside South Africa, so your information may be stored or processed abroad.

How long we keep it

Your profile, photo and listings stay until you delete your account or ask us to remove them. A photo you replace or remove, or one we don't approve, is deleted from our storage straight away. Copies cached by browsers and by sites where it was shared (such as a preview on X) can take a little longer to go. Sign-in links expire after 15 minutes, and expired links and sessions are deleted every night. Help offers are deleted 90 days after they're sent, and reports 90 days after they're resolved, including reports about a profile. Feedback, ideas and answers are deleted 12 months after they're closed, or after two years if they're never closed; Founders' Room votes stay until you take them back or delete your account. A waiting-list entry is deleted once its email has gone, or after a year if the next version never comes. Listing counts are deleted after 13 months. An invite request is deleted when you join, 90 days after we send you an invite, or after a year otherwise. The email held against an unused invite link is cleared after 30 days. The name and email on a community listing request, and the emails we sent about it, are deleted 90 days after we list or decline it, or after a year if it never gets that far; deleting your account clears them too. A parent's or guardian's email that nobody agreed from is deleted after 30 days; one that did agree stays as the record until the account is deleted. A connected assistant's access tokens last 15 minutes and its refresh tokens 30 days; expired ones are deleted every night, and disconnecting deletes them at once. If you haven't used an assistant for a year, its permission lapses and you connect it again. An assistant that registered but nobody allowed is deleted after a day. Launches shared in Friday's thread on X stay on X; you can delete your own posts there.

Your rights

You can see, correct or delete what we hold about you, and object to how we use it. Download a copy, or edit your listings from your page, or delete everything in one step:

Want a break without deleting anything? Use Hide my profile on your page. Your page, projects, ring, stories and the dots you've earned come off the site, out of the Friday digest and out of what AI assistants can find, and your followers get no release emails. Nobody is told. Your account and everything in it stay, and you can show it again any time. Share previews already posted elsewhere can take up to a day to clear.

If someone listed you from Friday's thread and you never signed up, or you'd rather ask for a copy by email, write to privacy@versionone.co.za and we'll sort it out within 30 days.

To ask for other records, see our PAIA manual. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Regulator.