Privacy Policy

Draft · last updated October 31, 2026

This is a working draft, not legal advice — it must be reviewed before launch.

Text to Chip is run from Milano, Italy. This page explains what data the app handles and why. The short version: you can use it without an account and your work stays in your browser; if you sign up, we store only what's needed to save your missions and keep you signed in.

1. Accounts are optional

You can use almost everything — the editor, the simulator, the AI assistant and connecting a board — without signing up. Without an account, your programs, files and settings live only in your browser (localStorage) on your device; we don't have them on our servers and can't read them.

2. If you create an account

To save your missions to a profile you can sign up with an email and a password. We store your email address, a display name, and your password in hashed form — we never see or keep the plaintext password. When you sign in we keep you logged in with a session cookie.

3. Missions you save

When you're signed in, the missions you explicitly choose to save are stored in our database, linked to your account, so you can find them on any device. You can delete a saved mission, or your whole account, at any time from the profile menu — deleting the account erases it and all of its saved missions. Each saved mission keeps its conversation with the assistant in the same way, so you find it on any device: it goes when the mission or the account goes, and only you can read it. The same goes for your lab, if you fill it in: the parts you own, where you keep them, and any shop, date, price or link you note for a purchase. Without an account all of that stays in your browser.

4. Emails we send

We only send transactional emails: confirming your address and resetting your password. They go out through Cloudflare Email Service. We don't send marketing email and don't share your address.

5. The AI assistant

When you ask the assistant to generate or edit code, your prompt, the current BASIC program and your chosen language are sent to our server, which forwards them to our LLM provider (OpenAI) to produce a reply. They are used to answer you, never to train models. To find where the assistant goes wrong and improve it, we keep each exchange on our EU servers for 90 days: your message and the assistant's reply (with email addresses and phone numbers masked), the program before and after, the check the program went through and its outcome, the board, the language and how long it took. An exchange is joined to the others of the same visit by the random page-session code (see Technical diagnostics), never to your account, and an exchange never holds your IP address. After 90 days it is deleted. Our server applies a per-IP rate limit to prevent abuse. Without an account, to count your requests of the day we keep a fingerprint of your IP address made with a secret key (not the address, which cannot be read back from it) and how many requests you made, and we delete it the day after.

6. Connecting a real board (Web Serial)

When you connect an ESP32/board over Web Serial, the communication happens locally between your browser and the board. That data does not pass through our servers. Beside a running board the IDE may ask whether the board does what the simulator shows; if you answer, we keep the answer anonymously for two years to make the simulator truer to real boards: the board, its firmware version, the program, the part types it uses and the parts you ticked (email addresses and phone numbers in its comments masked), never your account, your visit's code or your IP address. During the wiring check we also keep, anonymously and for two years, what a sensor did: the board, the part's type, its level and whether it moved, nothing else. A board connected to the Wi-Fi with firmware 0.26.0 or later also signs, about once an hour, what its program did: the program's digest, how many minutes it ran and, for each value it sends, the minutes it had one, its least and its greatest. We keep that anonymously for two years, with the board's public key and its signature, never your account or the device's name, and anyone can read the runs of a program to check them.

7. Explorer Kit waitlist

If you join the hardware waitlist, we store the email address you give us so we can contact you about the kit — nothing more.

8. Analytics & cookies

To understand how the app is used and fix rough edges, we use Microsoft Clarity (session replay + heatmaps): it records anonymized interactions (clicks, scrolls, navigation) and masks text and inputs by default, so it does not capture what you type. That data is processed by Microsoft; you are not identified personally. When something breaks, an error report (the message, where in the code it happened, your browser version and the page URL) is sent to GlitchTip, our own error tracker running on our servers in the EU. When installing the firmware, connecting a board or running a program on it fails, the report also carries the board model, the error category and the random page-session code described under Technical diagnostics, never your program or what the board printed. No third party, no session recording, and it is not used to profile you. As for cookies: a functional cookie remembers your language (NEXT_LOCALE); when you sign in, a session cookie keeps you logged in; Clarity sets first-party analytics cookies (_clck, _clsk). No advertising cookies.

Counting visits

To know how many people find Text to Chip, from where and how far they get, our own servers in the EU count every page view and a few steps of the journey (the editor opened, a request sent, a program built or run, a part added, a board connected, a program saved on the board, an account created). Each count keeps the page's path, the kind of site you came from (for example an answer engine such as ChatGPT, a search engine, a social network, or another site's domain; never the full address you came from), your country as our network provider tells it, the page's language, phone or computer, and the random page-session code described under Technical diagnostics. To count one person once a day, we also keep a fingerprint made from your IP address and browser with a random key that changes every day and is deleted the day after, so the fingerprint cannot be traced back to you or linked across days; your IP address itself is never written. Nothing is stored on or read from your device for this. Automated visitors (search engines and AI assistants reading our pages) are counted apart, by name and day only. These counts are kept for 400 days and are not linked to your account. The same country chooses which Amazon store a part's link opens; for that it is read and not kept.

9. Where your data is processed

Our servers run on Hetzner (Germany, EU). Cloudflare provides DNS, the CDN/proxy and email delivery. The AI assistant uses OpenAI. When you speak a request with the microphone, the recording goes through our server to OpenAI only to be turned into text; neither keeps it, and only the text you send reaches the assistant. Usage analytics use Microsoft Clarity. Error reports stay on our own Hetzner server (GlitchTip). These providers process data only to run the service.

Technical diagnostics

To investigate failures, we keep technical event summaries on our EU servers for 90 days: compilation outcomes, error categories and line numbers, board and execution mode, your operating system family (such as Linux or macOS, nothing finer), how the board's port was found, operation timings, and outcomes of assistant, account and mission-saving requests. A random page-session code connects events within a visit and is attached when you send feedback. It resets when the page reloads; it is not linked to your email or Clarity replay. These diagnostic logs do not contain your BASIC source, the chat (the assistant's exchanges are in section 5), passwords, account tokens or sensor readings. What you send through the feedback form reaches us by email and Telegram and is also kept for 90 days, with the reply address you give and, when you are signed in, your account. Delivery is best-effort; you can download recent diagnostics from Feedback. The terminal command that installs the firmware on the Nordic board sends one anonymous outcome when it ends (success, or the step that failed, plus the tool, operating system family, chip variant, number of attempts and duration), not linked to any visit; it says so when it starts, and TEXTOCHIP_NO_REPORT=1 turns it off. Your component checklist stays in your browser.

Boards on your Wi-Fi and your things

If you connect a board to your Wi-Fi from the IDE, it is registered in your account under the room name you give, and once a minute it sends us the values its program sends (for example the room's temperature and humidity) and the tags of your things it hears, with their signal strength. We keep the values for 30 days, and an hourly summary of each (its count, sum, lowest and highest) for a year; when the board was offline it sends the values it measured meanwhile, up to 6 hours. We keep the room each thing was last heard in, and its changes of room for 30 days; never the scans themselves, and never the devices of others nearby: a board reports only the tags you added. Your Wi-Fi password goes over the USB cable to the board and never reaches us; the board's key is stored only as a fingerprint. Only you see this data, in the Data tab of your projects at textochip.com/ide. If you set an alert on a value, we keep its threshold and its state, and email your account's address when it fires and when it is back to normal, at most once every 6 hours; you can download a board's values as a CSV file. If you send a project's program to a board over its Wi-Fi, we keep that program for the board, with when it arrived or why the board refused it, until you send another one. Removing a board or a thing, or deleting your account, deletes its data at once.

10. Children

Text to Chip is made for learning, including by children. An account is optional and asks only for an email and a name. If you are below the age of digital consent in your country, please ask a parent or guardian to create and manage the account. We collect the minimum needed and never sell data.

11. Your rights (GDPR)

You can access, correct or delete your data. Delete your account in the app to erase it and your saved missions; clear your browser storage to remove local data. For any other request, contact [email protected].

12. Changes

We may update this policy as the product evolves; the date above reflects the latest revision.