Privacy Policy

When you apply: your name, email address, mobile number, home city, social media handles (Instagram, TikTok), an optional portfolio link, your password (stored hashed by our authentication provider, never readable by us), the terms version you agreed to and when, which advert or link brought you to us (UTM parameters), and which of our sites your application came through. Alongside your consent record we keep a hashed (anonymised) form of your IP address and your browser's user agent.

If you ask us to notify you when applications open (our updates form), we collect your email address and your consent to contact you.

Automatically: technical data needed to run and protect the site, including the bot-protection signals described in section 3, and, if you accept cookies, the advertising and measurement data described in section 8.

To assess your application and run your membership (performance of a contract, or steps prior to a contract); to contact you about your application by email and WhatsApp (same basis); to send you the updates you asked for (consent); to protect the site from bots and abuse (legitimate interest); to understand which adverts work, where you have consented (consent); to meet legal obligations. We may also create and use anonymised, aggregated data that does not identify you, to understand how the platform is used and to improve it.

We use Cloudflare Turnstile to verify that applications come from real people. Turnstile runs invisibly when you submit the form and evaluates technical signals from your browser. Cloudflare processes this data as described in the Cloudflare Turnstile Privacy Addendum.

We use these providers to run Gratis, each under a data processing agreement: Vercel (site hosting), Supabase (database and authentication, hosted in London), Cloudflare (bot protection, per section 3), Twilio (WhatsApp messages), Resend (email), Google (only if you choose "Continue with Google" to sign in), and, only where you accept cookies, Meta, Google, and TikTok (advertising measurement, per section 8).

If you sign in with Google. When you choose "Continue with Google", Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with us, and nothing else: we do not ask for access to your Gmail, contacts, files or any other Google data. We use this only to create and secure your Gratis account and to contact you about your application. We do not sell it, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone except the providers that run Gratis (listed above). You can remove the connection at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions, and ask us to delete your account at hello@joingratis.co. Our use of information received from Google follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

Some providers process data outside the UK/EEA, including in the United States, and by us as the controller in the UAE. Where they do, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards, including standard contractual clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

Applications that do not become memberships: 12 months, then deleted. Member data: for the life of the membership plus 12 months, then deleted. Communication logs: 24 months. Consent records: kept as long as legally required.

You can ask for a copy of your data, correction, deletion, restriction, or portability, and you can object to processing based on legitimate interest. Contact hello@joingratis.co. You can complain to the ICO (UK) or your local supervisory authority.

The site sets the cookies needed to run it, including Cloudflare's bot-protection cookie and the cookies that keep you signed in. These are always on because the site cannot work without them.

With your consent, we also use advertising and measurement tools from Meta (the Meta Pixel and Conversions API), Google, and TikTok, so we can understand which adverts bring people to us and measure sign-ups. These load only if you accept cookies through our consent banner. If you decline, none of them run. You can change your choice at any time.

We will post updates here with a new version number and date.