Privacy policy

This is a short policy because there is genuinely little to describe. SoloWork keeps your work on your own computer, so almost none of it ever reaches us. What we do hold is listed below in full — not summarised, not “including but not limited to”.

1. Who is responsible

The data controller is Craig Ormston trading as Blockout Digital, at Heron House, Nuneaton, CV11 4GR, United Kingdom. For anything in this policy, write to support@blockoutdigital.com.

2. What we hold, and why

Everything stored about your account, with the lawful basis for each.

• Your name and email address — to identify your licence, let you sign in, and contact you about your subscription. Basis: performance of a contract.
• A hash of your password — argon2id. We cannot read your password and could not tell you what it is, even if you asked. Basis: performance of a contract.
• Whether your email address is confirmed — so we know we can reach you. Basis: performance of a contract.
• Your subscription — the plan, whether it is paid, when it renews, and a Stripe customer reference. Basis: performance of a contract.
• Which computers use your licence — a random identifier generated once per installation, the platform, and the computer’s own name so you can tell your machines apart when freeing a seat. Optionally a one-way hash of hardware identifiers, where the machine will give them. Basis: performance of a contract, and our legitimate interest in enforcing seat limits.
• A record of licence checks — when a device asked, and what we answered. Basis: legitimate interest — so that “it signed me out” can be answered with a fact rather than a shrug.
• Two-step sign-in details, if you turn it on — a secret shared with your authenticator app and a set of backup codes. Neither is ever displayed again after setup or sent anywhere. Basis: performance of a contract.
• A record of support actions taken on your account — if we release a seat, grant or withdraw a licence, or delete an account, we log what was done, by whom and when. Basis: legitimate interest and legal obligation — being able to say what happened to somebody’s data is part of being accountable for it.

3. What we never hold

No clients. No projects. No invoices, quotes, expenses, time entries, notes, goals, documents or files. None of it is sent anywhere, and there is nowhere on our side for it to go — the licence database has no table it could live in.

One thing changes that, and only if you ask for it. Connecting a social account is the single feature where something of yours leaves this machine and stays with us. Section 4 says exactly what, and why it has to work that way. Connect nothing and none of it applies to you.

Your work lives in a folder you chose, on your machine. The app’s own sign-in screen promises that only your licence, your email address and your computer’s name are ever sent, and this policy exists partly to keep that honest.

4. Connected social accounts

If you connect LinkedIn, we hold a little more, and it is worth being exact about what. Everything in this section applies only to an account you have connected, and stops applying the moment you disconnect it.

Why this cannot stay on your computer

Two reasons, both unavoidable. LinkedIn will not issue a token to an application that cannot keep a secret, and a desktop app cannot — anybody can read one out of the download. And a post scheduled for Tuesday morning has to go out on Tuesday morning whether or not your laptop is open. Both of those put the connection on our server rather than on your machine.

What we hold

• An access token and a refresh token for the account you connected, encrypted at rest. These are what let us act for you. They are never shown to you, never sent to your computer, and never given to anybody else. Basis: performance of a contract.
• Which account it is — your LinkedIn member id or company page id, the display name and the handle, so the app can show you what is connected. Basis: performance of a contract.
• Posts you schedule — the text, any image, and the time you chose. Held until it is published and for 30 days after, so you can see what went out and when. Basis: performance of a contract.
• Comments and reactions on your posts — so they can reach your Inbox. This includes the commenter’s name, their public profile link and what they wrote. Basis: legitimate interest, in providing a feature you asked for — and they published that comment publicly, on your post.

What we never ask for

Not your messages. SoloWork does not request access to LinkedIn messaging or InMail, cannot read your private conversations, and will not ask for that permission in a later version without telling you first. Comments, reactions and posting are the whole of it.

We do not read your connections, your feed, other people’s posts, or anything belonging to a page you have not connected.

What it is used for

Only the thing you asked for: publish what you scheduled, show you the comments and reactions on it, and send the replies you write. None of it is sold, shared, used for advertising, combined with data from anywhere else, or used to train any model.

Disconnecting, and deletion

Disconnect an account in Settings and its tokens are deleted immediately, along with every comment and reaction cached for it. Anything scheduled and not yet sent is cancelled. You can also revoke our access from LinkedIn’s own settings, under Data privacy, which has the same effect from the other end.

Deleting your SoloWork account removes all of it without being asked twice. Posts already published stay on LinkedIn — they are yours, on your profile, and we could not remove them even if you asked.

If you are the commenter

If you commented on somebody’s post and it reached their SoloWork Inbox, we hold your name, your public profile link and what you wrote, for as long as they stay connected. Write to support@blockoutdigital.com and we will delete our copy. Deleting the comment on LinkedIn also removes it from ours at the next check.

How we handle it, in LinkedIn’s terms

We use LinkedIn data only to provide the features described above, and only for the person who connected the account. We keep it no longer than those features need it, delete it on disconnection or on request, and do not transfer it to any third party. We comply with LinkedIn’s API Terms of Use and its developer policies, and we hold this data under the same controls as everything else in section 9.

5. Payments

Payment is handled by Stripe as merchant of record. Card details go to Stripe and never touch our systems — we could not see a card number if we tried. We receive a customer reference, a subscription status and the plan purchased. Stripe holds the billing name, address and payment details under its own privacy policy and its own retention rules, including whatever it must keep for tax.

6. Who else processes it

• Vercel — hosts this website and the licence API, and counts page views through Vercel Web Analytics.
• Neon — the account database. The instance is in London.
• Stripe — payments, as merchant of record.
• Resend — sends account email: confirmation, password resets, welcome, and notices about your subscription.
• Microsoft 365 — the mailbox that receives anything you write to support.
• GitHub — hosts the installer you download and the update feed the app checks.
• LinkedIn — only if you connect an account. We send it what you publish and ask it for the comments and reactions on your own posts. LinkedIn is a controller in its own right for everything it holds, under its own privacy policy.

Each is used only to run the service. None of them is given your data to use for their own purposes, and none of them receives anything from your workspace, because we do not have it.

7. Where it goes

The database is in London. Some of the providers above are US companies and may process data outside the UK. Where that happens, transfers are covered by the UK’s adequacy arrangements or by standard contractual clauses with the UK addendum, under each provider’s own data processing terms.

8. How long we keep it

• Your account — for as long as you have one. Ask us to delete it and we do, along with its licence, its devices and its sign-in sessions.
• Devices — a computer that has not checked in for 90 days releases its seat automatically.
• Licence check records — kept while the account exists, and removed with it.
• Support action records — kept for six years, including after an account is deleted. This is deliberate: a record of a deletion that is destroyed by the deletion cannot answer the question it exists for. It holds an email address, a date and what was done, and nothing else.
• Payment records — held by Stripe under its own retention rules, and for the six years UK tax law requires.
• Connected social accounts — tokens and cached comments for as long as the account stays connected, deleted the moment it is disconnected. Published posts are kept 30 days as a record of what was sent.

9. Security

Passwords are hashed with argon2id and never stored in any recoverable form. The desktop app holds a bearer token; only a hash of it is stored, so a stolen database backup is not a pile of working sessions. Everything is served over HTTPS. Two-step sign-in is available to every account and required for anyone with administrative access. Administrative actions are logged.

No system is perfect. If a breach occurs that is likely to be a risk to you, we will tell you and report it to the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware.

10. Cookies and analytics

One cookie, which keeps you signed in to this website. It is strictly necessary for a service you asked for, which is why there is no banner asking you to accept it — there is nothing here to opt out of. It lasts up to 30 days and disappears when you sign out.

We count visits using Vercel Web Analytics: that a page was viewed, roughly where in the world from, and what kind of device and browser. It sets no cookie, stores nothing on your machine, and creates no identifier that can be followed between visits or across sites. We cannot tell who you are from it and it is not joined to your account.

There is no advertising, no third-party tracking, no pixels, and nothing that follows you anywhere else.

11. Email we send you

We send email about your account: confirming your address, resetting your password, welcoming you, and telling you about purchases, upgrades and cancellations. These are part of the service and are not marketing, so they are not something you can unsubscribe from while you have an account.

We do not currently send marketing email. If that changes, it will be on the basis of consent you have given, every message will carry a working unsubscribe, and this policy will be updated before the first one is sent.

12. Automated decisions and children

Nothing here makes an automated decision with a legal or similarly significant effect on you. Seat limits and licence status are contractual arithmetic, and a person can override any of it.

SoloWork is business software and is not intended for anybody under 18.

13. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of what we hold about you;
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete it;
• restrict or object to how we use it;
• send it to you, or to somebody else, in a portable format;
• stop relying on consent, where consent is what we relied on.

Email support@blockoutdigital.com and we will do it, free, within one month. Given the list in section 2, a copy of your data is a short email rather than a project.

Deleting your account does not touch your workspace. That folder is on your own computer and we have never had a copy — which also means we cannot recover it for you. It does delete any connected social account, and everything cached for it.

14. Complaints

Tell us first and we will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or on 0303 123 1113.

15. Changes

If this policy changes we will update the date at the top, and email you first if the change is significant.

16. Contact

Craig Ormston trading as Blockout Digital
Heron House, Nuneaton, CV11 4GR, United Kingdom
support@blockoutdigital.com