Legal
Privacy
In short
- The WindCanvas app collects nothing about you. Your shapes, files and results stay on your computer.
- This website uses Google Analytics and Google Ads to count visits and see which ads work. In the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland they wait for your consent; everywhere you can turn them off under .
- Polar sells our licences as merchant of record and shares your name, email address, country and order with us so we can support you.
The app
WindCanvas runs its simulations entirely on your computer, in the Windows app or in your browser. It has no accounts and no usage tracking. Projects are saved where you choose; autosave and settings stay in your Windows profile or your browser’s own storage on that computer.
The one exception is your licence. When you activate a key, the app sends the key and a device name (such as “WindCanvas · Windows desktop · 3f9a2c”) to Polar to check it, and about once a week afterwards, when you are online, it checks the key again. Nothing else is sent.
This website
Hosting. The site is served by Cloudflare, which processes your IP address and the details of each request to deliver the pages and protect them from attacks. Cloudflare Web Analytics also counts page views and load times for us; it uses no cookies, stores nothing on your device and doesn’t follow you to other sites. Fonts and images come from our own site, not from third parties.
Analytics and advertising. With your consent where it is required, the site loads Google Analytics, to count visits, pages read and how people found us, and Google Ads tags, to learn whether an ad click led to a download or purchase and to show personalised WindCanvas ads to people who visited before. Google receives your IP address, the pages you visit, your browser and device type, the page that sent you here and, if you came from an ad, the ad click identifier, and uses your IP address to measure and personalise ads. How Google uses this information.
Where consent is required (the UK, the EEA and Switzerland) no Google tag loads until you accept, and nothing is sent to Google if you don’t. Elsewhere the tags start switched on, and you can turn them off at any time.
Ad attribution. If you allowed advertising cookies, when you click a buy button we pass the campaign tags and any ad click identifier from your visit to Polar’s checkout, so the order records which ad or link brought you. We use this only to measure our marketing.
Cookies and local storage
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics | Tells visits apart and counts pages | Up to 2 years |
| _gcl_au, _gcl_aw, _gcl_gb | Google Ads | Links an ad click to a later download or purchase | 90 days |
| wc.consent (local storage) | This site | Remembers your privacy choices | 12 months |
| wc.attribution (local storage) | This site, only with advertising consent | Campaign tags and ad click identifier passed to checkout | 90 days |
| wc.reported (local storage) | This site | Stops a purchase being counted twice | Until cleared |
Polar’s checkout sets its own cookies to process your payment; see Polar’s privacy policy.
When you buy
Polar Software Inc. sells WindCanvas licences as merchant of record: it takes the payment, charges any sales tax, VAT or GST, and emails your licence key. Polar shares your name, email address, country, order details and licence activations with us so we can support you and manage your licence. We never see your card details. Polar’s privacy policy covers the payment.
If you write to us, we use your email address and message to reply and keep the conversation so we can help you later.
Why we may use your information
If you are in the UK or the EEA, our legal bases are: your consent, for analytics and advertising cookies; performing our contract with you, for licences, updates and support; legal obligations, for tax records; and our legitimate interests in keeping the site secure and answering questions. You can withdraw consent at any time under Privacy choices; it does not affect what happened before.
Who else handles it
Polar (payments and licences), Google (analytics and advertising) and Cloudflare (hosting and email routing) process information for us and may do so outside your country, including in the United States, under safeguards such as standard contractual clauses. We do not sell your personal information.
How long we keep it
Order records: five years, as Australian tax law requires. Support emails: two years after the last message. Google Analytics data: 14 months. Advertising cookies: 90 days.
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you by emailing support@windcanvas.com. We reply within 30 days. If you live in the UK or EU you also have the rights the GDPR gives you, including to object, to restrict processing and to data portability. If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au), the UK Information Commissioner (ico.org.uk) or your local data protection authority.
Children
Schools use WindCanvas with students. The app collects no personal information from anyone, and our ads are not aimed at children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will appear here with a new effective date.