Last updated: 15 August 2026
This policy describes how the Secret Santa app ("the App," also shown in-app as "Santa's Secret Service") handles information. The App is developed by David Hsieh.
When you create a gift-exchange Group, you enter: the group name, date, location, an optional budget range, optional notes, and your own name and email as the organiser. For each participant you add, you enter their name and email address.
You may optionally import participants from your device's Contacts. If you do, only the name and email address of the contacts you select are used. Nothing else from your address book — phone numbers, addresses, or any other field — is stored, transmitted, or retained, and the App never uploads your contacts anywhere. The OS permission prompt covers contacts generally, because that is the only form iOS offers.
All of the above is stored locally on your device only. The App does not have user accounts, does not sync your data to a server or cloud database it operates, and does not maintain any database of your groups or participants outside your device.
To send each participant their gift-assignment email, the App sends the relevant participant's name and email address, their assigned recipient's name, and the event details (date, location, budget, notes, organiser name/email) to our email delivery infrastructure, which uses Resend as the underlying email provider, for the sole purpose of delivering that one email. This data is not used by us or by Resend for any other purpose, and is not sold or shared with advertisers.
Each time you send briefings, the App also reports the total number of gift exchanges and participants you've created on this device to that same infrastructure. This is a count only — never your name, email, or the content of any exchange — and exists solely to help us understand how the App is used at an aggregate level. It is not used for advertising and is not shared with third parties.
If you purchase a Premium subscription, your purchase is processed entirely by Apple through StoreKit. The App verifies your purchase using Apple's on-device cryptographic verification; we do not receive or store your payment details, and no receipt is transmitted to us.
Other than the usage counts described above, the App does not use any analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs, and does not share data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Because your groups and participants are stored only on your device, deleting a group in the App, or deleting the App itself, removes that data. We do not retain a copy.
The App is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this URL with a new "Last updated" date.
Questions about this policy: support@santassecretservice.app