Privacy policy
Version 1, in force since 8 November 2026
This page explains which personal data we use when you visit adventdoors.com, join the waiting list, create and give a calendar, and receive one. It applies to the website, to the calendar and to the apps that open it.
In short
- We never sell, rent or lend data. No advertising, no profiling, no advertising or audience measurement cookies.
- A calendar is never public: only its private link opens it, and search engines do not index it.
- Photos are resized and stripped of their metadata (including GPS location); the original is not kept.
- Calendar content is deleted on 31 January 2027. Before that date, you can download it.
- Data is hosted in the European Union, by Scaleway. Two services involve US companies: payments (Stripe, which may transfer data to the United States under a framework recognised by the European Union) and the forwarding of messages you send to contact@adventdoors.com (ImprovMX, part of whose servers are in the United States).
1. Who is responsible for your data
The controller is Lieven Solutions (SIREN 810 576 587), who runs Advent Doors. Contact: contact@adventdoors.com. Other details are on the Legal notice page.
For any question about your data, or to exercise your rights: contact@adventdoors.com.
2. The data we use, why, and on what legal basis
2.1 You visit the website
| Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| IP address, date and time, page requested, browser, in the server logs | Running the website, protecting it against abuse and attacks, fixing errors | Our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure |
Number of visits per page and per campaign link (for example ?utm_source=…), counted by the server without cookies or identifiers | Knowing which pages and posts work | Our legitimate interest; these counters cannot identify you |
The private link of a calendar is masked in the logs: it is never written in full.
2.1a You join the waiting list
| Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
Email address, language, date and time of sign-up and of its confirmation, version of the text accepted, choice made in the "upcoming occasions" box, source of the visit (campaign link, for example utm_source) | Letting you know when sales open, with your early access and your discount code, then sending you at most two reminders; keeping proof of your consent; knowing which posts bring sign-ups | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
We only write to you about what you asked for: the opening of sales for Christmas 2026 (24 hours before the public, with a discount code), then at most two reminders, until 3 December. If you also ticked the box for upcoming occasions, we let you know when we launch new occasions (birthdays, all year round; Valentine's Day; Easter; Mother's Day; next Christmas). Your sign-up only counts once you click to confirm it; without that click, the address is deleted after 30 days. Every email contains a one-click unsubscribe link.
2.2 You create and give a calendar
There is no account: you start without giving anything. Your email address is only asked for if you want to save your calendar for later, or when you pay.
| Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Draft started without an email address (calendar content, technical identifier) | Keeping your calendar in progress, on your device and on our servers | Your request to use the editor (pre-contractual steps) |
| Email address (if you give it to save your calendar, or when paying), language, links sent to get back to your calendars (stored only as a hash) | Letting you find and edit your calendars; sending you the order confirmation | Pre-contractual steps, then performance of the contract after payment |
| Content of your calendars: title, scene, texts, photos, recordings, links, settings, time zone, recipient's first name, sender name shown, PIN (stored only as a hash) | Providing the calendar you created | Performance of the contract |
| Orders: number, date, product, amount, currency, Stripe payment identifiers, card country, status, refunds | Collecting payment, activating the calendar, keeping the accounts | Performance of the contract and legal obligation (accounting) |
| Date, time, version and language of the texts accepted (terms of sale, waiver of the right of withdrawal) | Proving what you accepted | Legal obligation and our legitimate interest in being able to establish our rights |
| Messages sent to contact@adventdoors.com (customer service, withdrawal or refund requests, exercising your rights): your email address and the content of the message | Answering you and handling your request | Performance of the contract and legal obligation; our legitimate interest in answering messages sent to us |
| Email address and the status of your calendars (started, paid, number of doors filled) | Reminding you that a calendar you started is not paid yet (2 emails at most for the season) | Your consent, given with the box next to the email field (saving your calendar or paying); withdrawable in one click in every email |
| Email address and the status of your paid calendars | Letting you know that a paid calendar still has empty doors before they open (6 emails at most per calendar, no advertising) | Performance of the contract. You can still turn them off (link in each reminder, setting in the editor) |
| Email address, to tell you about our upcoming occasions | Writing to you, after a purchase, about similar products (birthdays, Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, next Christmas) | Our legitimate interest (Article L34-5 of the French Postal and Electronic Communications Code, "customers" exception). You can refuse when you give your address, and then in every email |
We never receive your full card number: it is entered on Stripe's payment page. Stripe only passes on what the order and the accounts need (payment status, amount, card country).
2.3 You receive a calendar
The person who gave you the calendar entrusted us with your first name and, if they chose to, your email address. We use them only to deliver this gift to you.
| Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| First name, time zone, language | Showing the calendar and opening the doors at the right time | Legitimate interest of the person giving you the calendar, and ours, in delivering this gift to you |
| Email address, if the sender gave it or if you gave it yourself | Announcing the calendar, sending you the link to the day's door, resending the link if you lost it | The same legitimate interest; if you gave your address yourself, your consent. You stop these emails in one click |
| Date and time each door was first opened, answers to riddles and quizzes, puzzle progress, chosen scene | Keeping your progress from one device to another; overall opening statistics, without third-party tools | The same legitimate interest |
| On the website: notification subscription (technical address provided by your browser) | Letting you know when doors open, if you accepted | Your consent, given in your browser's prompt; you withdraw it in its settings |
Emails and notifications never contain what is behind the doors: only a generic text and the link.
The buyer can see which doors have been opened. They cannot see your answers to riddles and quizzes. [To be adjusted if the editor shows the buyer other information.]
2.3a You use the app to open your calendar
The Android and iPhone app is only used to open calendars you have been given. It requires no account, contains no ads, no analytics and no trackers, and sells nothing.
- On your phone only, the app keeps the list of your calendars (each one's private address, its title, the displayed first name and sender name, the opening times of the doors), your reminder time and, for PIN-protected calendars, a token so you are not asked for the PIN every time. It also keeps a copy of the doors you have already opened so they can be shown offline. All of this is erased when you remove a calendar from the list, tap "Clear app data", or uninstall the app.
- Morning reminders are local notifications: your phone schedules them itself from the opening times. No notification service (Google, Apple) receives an identifier of your device, and we keep none. You can turn them off in the app's or the phone's settings.
- What the app sends us: the calendar's private address or the code you type, to open it; your answers to riddles, to check them; your progress (opened doors, puzzle), as on the website; and, if you use "Get my link by email", the email address you type. This data is handled as described in section 2.3.
- Like any server, ours sees your phone's IP address when the app contacts it (see section 5 for how long logs are kept).
- The "Privacy" and "Report content" links, and links inside doors (song, video), open in your phone's browser.
- The app store (Google Play, App Store) processes its own data when you download the app, under its own privacy policy; we only receive aggregate, anonymous statistics from it (number of installs, possible crashes).
2.4 You appear in a calendar
A calendar may contain photos, recordings or texts about other people, including children. Whoever creates the calendar undertakes to have the right to do so and to have the consent of the people concerned, and of the parents for a child (content rules).
On our side, we keep this content only to provide the calendar, on the basis of the legitimate interest of its creator and our own in providing the service requested, with these safeguards:
- the calendar can only be seen through its private link, never published, never indexed;
- photo metadata (date, device, GPS location) is removed and the original is not kept;
- no automated analysis of faces or content;
- no reuse, and in particular never for advertising;
- everything is deleted on 31 January 2027.
If you appear in a calendar without having agreed to it, write to us or use the report form: we will remove the content concerned.
2.5 You report content
| Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email address, link to and description of the content, explanation, date | Handling your report, informing you of the decision, cooperating with the authorities where the law requires | Legal obligation (EU Digital Services Act, Articles 16 to 18) |
We do not disclose your identity to the creator of the calendar, unless the law requires it.
2.6 What we do not do
- We do not read the content of your calendars, except when you ask us to (support), when content is reported, for the security of the service or at the request of an authority.
- We take no decision about you based solely on automated processing.
- We do not use your content to train artificial intelligence tools.
3. Who receives your data
Your data is only accessible to us and to the following providers, who act on our instructions (processors) or, for Stripe, also on their own behalf:
| Provider | Role | Where the data is |
|---|---|---|
| Scaleway SAS (Paris) | Hosting of the website and database, storage of photos and recordings, sending of emails | European Union (the Netherlands and France) |
| Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Limited, Dublin, Ireland) | Payment, fraud prevention | European Union, with transfers to the United States (see section 4) |
| ImprovMX (US company, Dover, Delaware) | Forwarding to our inbox the messages sent to contact@adventdoors.com | Servers in the European Union and in the United States (see section 4) |
| On the website only, your browser's notification service (Google, Apple, Mozilla, depending on the browser); the app schedules its reminders on the phone itself | Delivering notifications, if you accepted them. The message is end-to-end encrypted and contains only a generic text | Depends on your browser's vendor |
Stripe processes payment data as our processor, and as a separate controller for its own obligations (fraud and money-laundering prevention, financial obligations). Its policy is available at stripe.com/privacy.
We may also disclose data to an authority that requests it within a legal framework (for example a court order), or to the authorities in the case of seriously illegal content (see the content rules).
4. Transfers outside the European Union
Our servers are in the European Union (the Netherlands and France). Two providers may process data outside the European Union.
Stripe may transfer payment data to Stripe, LLC in the United States. This transfer relies on the European Commission's adequacy decision of 10 July 2023 on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, to which Stripe, LLC has signed up, and on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
ImprovMX is a US company that forwards to our inbox the messages sent to contact@adventdoors.com; only these messages (your email address and what you write) pass through it. According to its privacy policy, its email infrastructure is mostly in the European Union (Amazon Web Services and Scaleway) and partly in the United States (PhoenixNAP and Servers.com). ImprovMX states that it follows the principles of the EU-US Data Privacy Framework without being certified under it: we therefore do not rely on the adequacy decision for this transfer. ImprovMX has appointed a representative in the European Union. Its policy is available at improvmx.com/privacy-policy.
Browser notification services may be operated outside the European Union; the content of notifications is encrypted and generic.
5. How long we keep your data
| Data | Duration |
|---|---|
| Calendar content (doors, photos, recordings, puzzle, progress, openings, notification subscriptions) | Until 31 January 2027 at 23:59 (Paris time), then deleted. Before that date, an email reminds you to download your calendar |
| Recipient's email address | Deleted on 26 December 2026, or earlier if they unsubscribe or the buyer removes it |
| Draft without an email address | 30 days after your last visit on our servers, and at the latest on 31 January 2027; on your device, until you clear it |
| Email address and unpaid calendars | Until 31 January 2027, or earlier if you delete them |
| Orders, accounting records and proof of acceptance of the texts | 10 years, as required by the French Commercial Code for accounting records |
| Email address for our news (customers) | 3 years after your last purchase or contact, unless you unsubscribe earlier |
| Waiting list | Until you unsubscribe, and at the latest on 31 January 2027; if you asked for upcoming occasions, 3 years after your last contact (sign-up, confirmation, click in an email); unconfirmed address: 30 days |
| Unsubscribed addresses | A hash of the address, kept so that we never write to you again |
| Server technical logs | 6 months |
| Messages sent to contact@adventdoors.com | The time needed to answer you and handle your request, then at most 3 years after the last exchange; longer only if an order, a report or proceedings require it (see the corresponding periods). ImprovMX only forwards them; the retention of its own logs is governed by its privacy policy |
| Data that French law requires hosting providers to keep to identify the author of content (Decree No. 2021-1362) | Email address: 5 years after the end of the relationship (deletion of your calendars). Technical identifier, payment data, IP address of each creation, modification or deletion of content: 1 year. This data is kept apart and used only to answer a request from a judicial authority |
| Reports | 1 year after the decision, longer if proceedings are under way |
| Login links and codes | 15 minutes; a login session expires after 30 days without use |
| Backups | 30 days: deleted data disappears from backups at the latest 30 days later |
6. Security
- Everything goes over HTTPS. A calendar's private link is random (128 bits) and can be replaced with a new one; a PIN can be added.
- There are no passwords: you log in with a single-use link or code sent by email.
- Links, codes and PINs are stored as hashes or encrypted, never in plain text.
- Photos are served through temporary links (10 minutes), and only after their door's opening time.
- Access to the servers is restricted to us.
In the event of a data breach that poses a risk to you, we notify the French data protection authority (CNIL) and, if the risk is high, the people concerned, as the GDPR requires.
7. Cookies and storage on your device
We use no advertising, social network or audience measurement cookies, and no third-party content (no embedded YouTube video, no font loaded from another website). The only items stored on your device are strictly necessary for the service you request; the law exempts them from consent, which is why there is no banner.
| Item | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Editing identifier (cookie or local storage, buyer) | Finding and editing your calendars in progress on this device, without an account | 30 days without use, or until you clear it |
| PIN cookie (recipient) | Not asking for the PIN at every visit, for this calendar only | 90 days, or until the PIN changes |
| Browser local storage | Chosen language, doors already opened, display settings | Until you clear it |
Language cookie (site_langue, website visitor) | Not redirecting you to another language once you have chosen yours | 1 year, or until you clear it |
| Offline cache (service worker) | Showing the calendar faster and without a network | Until you clear it |
| Notification subscription (website) | Letting you know when doors open | Only if you accept; can be withdrawn in your browser settings |
| List of calendars in the app | Reopen your calendars without the link | Until you remove the calendar, clear the app's data or uninstall it |
| Offline copy in the app | Show already opened doors without a connection | Same |
| Reminders scheduled by the app | Let you know when a door opens, if you accepted | Until 24 December; can be removed in the app's or phone's settings |
If we ever added a tracker that requires consent, we would ask for your consent before setting it.
8. Your rights
You have the right:
- to access your data and receive a copy;
- to have it rectified;
- to have it erased;
- to restrict its use;
- to object to its use based on our legitimate interest, and at any time to direct marketing;
- to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting what was done before;
- to receive the data you provided to us in a reusable format (portability);
- to set instructions on what happens to your data after your death.
From the editor, you can download and delete your calendars. For anything else, write to contact@adventdoors.com. We reply within one month. We may ask you to prove your identity if we have reasonable doubts.
The recipient of a calendar can stop the emails at any time (link at the bottom of each email) and ask us to erase their address. To have content about them removed, they can also report the content.
If, after contacting us, you believe your rights are not respected, you can lodge a complaint with the CNIL (3 place de Fontenoy, TSA 80715, 75334 Paris Cedex 07, France, www.cnil.fr) or with the data protection authority of your country.
9. Minors
Buying is reserved for adults (18 or over). A calendar can be given to a child: we then ask the child for no data, apart from what is described in section 2.3.
10. Changes
If we change this policy, we publish a new dated version on this page. If the change is significant, we let buyers know by email before it takes effect.