🔒 Transparency & Data Protection

Privacy Policy

Stickies is built on an uncompromising principle: your notes belong exclusively to you on your machine. No accounts, no cloud database, no tracking cookies, and zero background analytics.

Last updated: September 15, 2026 · Effective immediately

1 Overview & Fundamental Principle

I am Sachin Sharma, the solo developer behind Stickies. I designed Stickies from day one to operate strictly offline on your physical Windows device. I do not run servers that store or process your note contents, I do not track your typing or app usage, and I have zero commercial interest in harvesting user data.

This policy explains what data exists, where it lives, and how payments and updates are handled.

2 Note Data & Local Encryption

All notes, formatting, tags, colors, and timestamps you create inside Stickies remain strictly on your local PC:

  • Storage Location: Stored locally in an embedded SQLite database (stickies.db) within your local Windows user profile (typically %APPDATA%\com.stickies.lol\).
  • Windows DPAPI Encryption: Note bodies are encrypted at rest using the Windows Data Protection API (CryptProtectData). The keys are tied to your Windows user account, so other accounts on the same PC cannot read your notes, and a copy of the database file on its own cannot be opened on another computer.
  • Zero Cloud Sync: Stickies does not sync your notes to any cloud server, third-party database, or remote relay.

3 Telemetry & Analytics

There is zero telemetry or usage analytics in Stickies.

  • No tracking frameworks (no Google Analytics, no PostHog, no Mixpanel, no Firebase).
  • No crash-reporting SDKs that inspect memory dumps or report crash traces without your consent.
  • No keystroke monitoring, clipboard harvesting, or active window scraping. Hotkeys are handled strictly via standard Windows RegisterHotKey APIs.

4 Network Communications

The Stickies desktop application is offline-first. It only makes outbound network requests in two specific, transparent situations:

  • 1. Release Version Check (Optional): If enabled in your settings (or when you manually click "Check for Updates" in Settings), the app sends an HTTP GET request to https://stickies.lol/latest.json to compare the installed version number against the latest available release. This request transmits no user identifiers, no license keys, and no telemetry data.
  • 2. License Key Activation: When you purchase a lifetime license and enter your key in Settings, the app connects directly to Polar's API (api.polar.sh) over HTTPS to validate that the license key is authentic and register your device slot (up to 3 personal PCs).

5 Purchases, Payments & Merchant of Record

When you purchase a license for Stickies on stickies.lol, all order processing, billing, and invoicing are conducted by our Merchant of Record:

Polar Software Inc. (Polar.sh)
Polar acts as the Merchant of Record for all customer orders. Polar calculates, collects, and remits all applicable statutory sales taxes and EU VAT directly to the appropriate regional tax authorities, and issues your official purchase receipt.

During checkout, Polar collects information necessary to complete the transaction (such as your email address, country, postal code, and payment method details).

I never see, store, or have access to your credit card or banking details. I only receive confirmation that an order succeeded, your provided email address (for sending license keys and providing direct support), and the license key itself. Polar's handling of billing information is governed by the Polar Privacy Policy.

6 Website Browsing (stickies.lol)

The marketing website (stickies.lol) is hosted statically on Cloudflare Pages and Workers:

  • No Tracking Cookies: The website sets no marketing, profiling, or cross-site tracking cookies.
  • Server Logs: Like virtually all websites, Cloudflare's edge network temporarily processes standard technical request metadata (such as IP address and user-agent) strictly for DNS routing, caching, and DDoS mitigation.

7 Your Rights & Data Deletion

Under applicable data protection laws (including the EU General Data Protection Regulation / GDPR):

  • Local Data: You have complete, direct control over your notes. You can export them at any time to Markdown or plain text from the All Notes Hub (Win+Alt+A), or permanently delete them by deleting the local SQLite file.
  • Purchase Information: If you ever wish to look up, update, or request the deletion of your purchase email record from Polar, you can do so through the Polar Customer Purchases Portal or by emailing me directly.

8 Contact

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your data, please contact me directly:

Sachin Sharma
Solo Developer & Creator of Stickies
Email: support@stickies.lol
Legal Notice: Imprint / Legal Notice