Google Calendar
When you open an event that came from Google, Anser reads its description from Google to show it to you, and keeps none of it. A description you write for an event’s guests is the exception: it’s saved to the Google event, where your guests read it, and Anser keeps its own copy; a change made to it in Google isn’t read back.
When you open an event with guests, Anser reads from Google who has said yes, no or maybe, to show it to you, and keeps none of it. When you change who’s on an event, Anser reads the guest list from Google at that moment instead of keeping it.
When you save a new event with guests, change one in the event editor or by dragging it, or delete one you organise, Anser asks whether to email them. Only if you choose “Email guests” does Google send them its own invitation, update or cancellation, from your Google account; Anser doesn’t write or send that email, and nobody is emailed unless you choose it.
If you turn a calendar off (neither shown nor used for free time), its events are removed from Anser; they stay in Google. If you disconnect Google, events already in Anser stay.
In the policy: Your Google Calendar
Badges and challenges
For your badges, we keep where each one has got to (a number, and for the two counted from your calendar, the last day counted) and the day you reached each level and each first.
For the Kind no badge we keep only how many invites you have declined in protected time, never which invites or who sent them.
If you start a challenge, we keep which one, when it started and how it ended; its count is read from your own pages.
In the policy: What you write in Anser
The focus timer
If you use the focus timer, we keep each session: what it was on, when it started, and how long you focused. When you start one from an event, we also keep which event, its category and, for a repeating event, which series it belongs to.
In the policy: What you write in Anser
Inviting friends
To stop people inviting themselves, we compare the two accounts’ email addresses and Google accounts, and the card fingerprint Stripe gives us for each payment (a code for the card, never its number); none of that is shown to either of you.
If a friend deletes their account, their name goes with it; a note that someone joined stays, so the months you earned still count.
In the policy: Inviting friends
Weather
Weather is off until you turn it on in Settings. If you choose to use your location, your browser asks you first, then shares it so Anser can show local weather. It is rounded to about 1 km before it leaves your device, sent to our weather providers, and not stored on our servers.
If you choose a city instead, what you type is sent to Open-Meteo to find it, and the city and its rounded coordinates are kept in your browser, not on our servers.
In the policy: Your location or city, only for the weather
What we count
To learn which pages and features help people, we count a few things with PostHog, without cookies:
- visits to our public pages (like the home page, schedule templates, the FAQ, the blog and sign-in), and which site or campaign link brought the visit (just the site, like pinterest.com, and its campaign tag)
- which button on the home page was clicked
- which schedule template was looked at
- that a template was added, and how many blocks, boundaries and routines it added
- that someone started signing in, and whether with Google or an email code
- that a new account was made, whether with Google or an email code, and the campaign link it first came from, if any
- that a free trial started, how many days it is, and whether it came from a friend’s invite link
- which plan was chosen (monthly or yearly, just you or Friends & Family)
- that a vision board was saved or shared as a pin, how many photos it had, and whether words and goals were shown
- which free wallpaper or printable page was downloaded, and for which month
PostHog stores nothing in your browser: no cookies, no local storage. PostHog counts visitors with a code made from your IP address, your browser type and a key that changes every day, and doesn’t keep your IP address. Account events (a new account, a trial, a plan) are counted one by one, not linked to you or to each other: no ID, no email.
In the policy: How Anser is used (analytics)
Google Analytics, Google Ads and Pinterest, only if you say yes
On our public pages (the home page, pricing, comparisons, schedule templates and vision boards, wallpapers, the blog and the pages about Anser for Chrome and Mac), we ask whether Google Analytics may count your visit, and Google Ads and Pinterest tell us whether one of our ads brought you. Nothing from Google or Pinterest loads until you choose Accept.
If you do, Google receives the page you’re on (with its campaign tag and the code Google adds when you click one of our ads, if it has them, and nothing else after the “?”), the site you came from (just the site), your kind of device and browser, your IP address, which Google uses to work out your country and says it doesn’t keep, and an ID kept in two cookies whose names start with “_ga”, for up to 13 months. Google Ads keeps its own ID, and the ad you clicked if you came from one, in cookies whose names start with “_gcl_”, for as long. Google never receives what you write, your name, your account, or your email address as it is, even when you read our public pages signed in. Ad personalisation and Google signals stay off: Google is told not to use any of it to personalise ads, and we don’t use it for remarketing.
Pinterest’s tag receives the page you’re on, the page you came from, your kind of device, browser and screen, and your IP address. It reads a page’s whole address itself, so it’s only told about a page whose address carries nothing but a campaign tag or an ad’s code. It keeps an ID in cookies whose names start with “_pin”, and the code from a Pin’s link in “_epik” if you came from one, for up to 12 months. It never gets your email from the page. Pinterest uses what it receives under its own privacy policy, which can include choosing the ads it shows you; we don’t use it for remarketing.
If you chose Accept and then make an Anser account, our server tells Google Analytics and Pinterest once that a new account was made, so Google Ads and Pinterest can count it as a sign-up from our ads. With it goes a hashed (SHA-256) copy of your email address, never the address itself, your name or your account. Google and Pinterest can match a hashed address to an account you have with them; that’s how they connect the sign-up to our ad. Google also gets the ID from its “_ga” cookie, and Pinterest the code from its “_epik” cookie. Nothing is sent if you chose Reject or haven’t answered, if your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, or from Anser for Mac or iPad.
None of them runs in the app itself (Today, your calendar, day pages, notes or Settings), on pages whose address carries a private link or code (signing in, invites, unsubscribing), or inside Anser for Mac, iPad or Chrome. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, we don’t ask and none of them loads.
To change your mind, use Cookie choices at the foot of our public pages. Choosing “Reject optional cookies” removes Google’s and Pinterest’s cookies right away, and nothing more is sent. Your answer is kept in your browser (“anser-cookie-choice”) and in a cookie (“__Host-anser-cookie-choice”), which our server sets so your browser doesn’t clear it after a week and reads at sign-up; we ask again after 13 months.
In the policy: How Anser is used (analytics)
Your browser’s storage
We use cookies to keep you signed in. Your browser also stores a few preferences, like your theme and prompts you’ve dismissed, a short-lived copy of the weather, the campaign link you first arrived from (“anser-first-touch”, see Where you first came from), and the invite code from a friend’s link (“anser-referral”), kept until your trial starts so the invite is recorded, and for at most 60 days. It also keeps your answer to the cookie question (“anser-cookie-choice”) and, only if you choose Accept on our public pages, Google’s and Pinterest’s cookies (see Google Analytics, Google Ads and Pinterest, only if you say yes).
In the policy: Cookies and browser storage
Anser for Chrome
So it opens instantly, it keeps one copy of today in Chrome on your computer: what the popup shows, and today’s events with their times, so it knows what’s next. Each copy replaces the last.
To know whether you’re signed in, it checks whether Anser’s sign-in cookie is there, looking only at its name; it never uses, keeps or sends the cookie itself.
While a focus session runs, it also keeps when the session’s round or break ends (not what it’s called), so the icon can count the minutes down with the popup closed, and asks Anser every five minutes whether it’s changed; that’s deleted when the session ends.
What you tick while you’re offline waits there too, until it’s sent to your account (it’s deleted if you sign out first).
Chrome asks you to let it “read and change your data on www.anserplanner.com”: that’s how it reaches your Anser account.
In the policy: Anser for Chrome
Anser for Mac
So that its menu bar opens at once, and still shows your day when your Mac is offline, the app keeps a copy of today’s day on your Mac, in its own storage: what’s next, your Top 3 and routines, and your look. It also remembers where you left its window.
Mac notifications, if you turn them on, are scheduled on your Mac by macOS.
In the policy: Anser for Mac
The blog
Akismet checks each comment for spam, using what you wrote, your name, email address, IP address and browser.
Reading the blog needs none of this: its pictures come through Anser, so your browser doesn’t contact WordPress, and a download link takes you to the file on Pressable.
In the policy: Comments on the blog
Recently deleted and backups
When you delete a note, a day’s page or an event, it goes to Recently deleted for 30 days so you can bring it back. After 30 days it’s deleted for good, with its photos and files. You can delete it for good sooner, any time. When you erase or rewrite handwriting on a page, the earlier version is kept for up to 30 days so it can be recovered, then deleted for good. Our database backups keep a copy for up to 9 days after that, then it’s gone too.
In the policy: Keeping and deleting
Deleting your account
To delete your account, use Settings › Profile & account › Delete account, or email hello@anserplanner.com and we’ll do it within 30 days. Then:
- Your Anser data and files are deleted right away, including anything in Recently deleted.
- Our database backups keep a copy for up to 9 days, then it’s gone too.
- Stripe keeps billing records for as long as the law requires.
- Events Anser added to your Google Calendar stay there, because it’s your calendar. You can delete them in Google.
- If you used Sign in with Apple, we tell Apple that Anser no longer has that sign-in, so Anser leaves your Apple Account’s Sign in with Apple list.
- The browser you deleted from forgets you: you’re signed out and what Anser kept in it is cleared.
In the policy: Keeping and deleting