Privacy Policy

Thread Studio is operated by Linkage, LLC (“we”, “us”). This policy explains how we collect, use, store, secure and disclose personal information through the Thread Studio website, web application and related services (together, the “Service”).

For information about your own account, we are the data controller. For personal information about your buyers and other people that we access on your behalf through Etsy, Google Sheets or ShipStation, we act as your service provider (processor). We process that data only on your instructions and only to provide the Service, as required by Etsy's API Terms of Use and the other services' developer terms.

Information you give us

• Contact and sign-up details: your name, email address, why you contacted us and the message you send about your workflow. If you ask about early access or a tailored setup, also your optional shop or business name, what you sell, your monthly order volume, how many Etsy shops you run, your team size and what you would like help with first. We also keep whether you chose to receive follow-up product updates, and when you accepted our Terms and acknowledged this policy.
• Account and team details: names, email addresses and roles of teammates you invite, and the shops each person can access.
• Content you create: catalog edits, production notes, saved views, assistant prompts and files you upload.
• Support messages: anything you send to [email protected].

Information from services you connect

• Etsy, only through Etsy's API after you approve access on Etsy's OAuth consent screen. We never scrape Etsy. See Your Etsy shop data below.
• Google Sheets and ShipStation: only the spreadsheets and shipping data you grant access to. See Other connected services below.
• CSV and other files you upload.
• Stripe, for billing. See Payments and billing below.

We combine data from your connected services only to build your own workspace, at your direction. We never use it to build profiles of you or your buyers, and never combine it with data from other customers or outside sources.

You need to give us an email address to create an account. Everything else is optional, but some features will not work without the related data.

Information collected automatically

• Service logs: IP address, browser type, pages requested and timestamps, used for security and troubleshooting.
• Browser storage: we use your browser's local storage to remember interface preferences such as the selected shop, saved views and whether the Thread Studio panel is open. These are strictly necessary for features you use.
• No advertising trackers. We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking or third-party analytics. Our pages load fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when the font files are requested.

When you connect an Etsy shop, you approve specific permissions on Etsy's own OAuth consent screen. We never see, collect or store your Etsy password. We access Etsy only through its official API and request the minimum permissions needed for the features you use:

We do not request access to buyer email addresses. If a future feature needs it, we will update this policy and ask for your consent first.

Our commitments for Etsy member data

• We use it only to provide the Service to the seller who connected the shop, only for that seller's shops, and only as described in this policy and our Terms of Service.
• We never sell, rent, license or otherwise commercialize Etsy data, and never transfer it to third parties except the service providers listed below that process it on our behalf to run the Service.
• We never use it for marketing or advertising and never connect it to advertising or marketing platforms.
• We never contact your buyers. Order, shipping and tracking updates reach buyers only through Etsy.
• We never send order, shipping or tracking information to your buyers or anyone else by email, text or other messages. It is shown only inside Thread Studio and on Etsy.
• We never use Etsy data to train, fine-tune or evaluate AI models, and never use it for our own analytics, benchmarking across sellers, licensing or content removal. Charts in your workspace are built from your own shops' data, only for you.
• We keep data fresh: listing information we display is refreshed from Etsy at least every 6 hours, and other Etsy information at least every 24 hours. We store Etsy data only as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Service.
• Your connection starts read-only. Nothing is written to Etsy until you review and approve the change.

You can revoke our access at any time from Thread Studio settings or from your Etsy account under Account settings → Apps.

Each service connects only when you choose it. Google Sheets connects through Google's own OAuth consent screen, so we never see your Google password.

Google user data

Thread Studio's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. See the Google API Services User Data Policy.

• We use Google user data only to provide the import and export features you see in Thread Studio.
• We transfer it only to provide those features (including to our AI model provider when you ask Thread Studio about that data), for security, to comply with law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with your prior consent.
• We never sell it or use it for advertising, and never transfer it to advertising platforms, data brokers or information resellers or use it to judge creditworthiness.
• We never use it to develop, train or improve AI or machine-learning models.
• Our staff do not read it unless you ask us to in writing (for example, in a support request), it is needed for security, it is required by law, or it has been aggregated and anonymized for internal operations.

Revoke access at any time in Thread Studio settings or in your Google Account under Security → Third-party connections.

ShipStation data

• We use ShipStation data only to show and reconcile your shipments, and we store your ShipStation API credentials encrypted.
• We keep cached ShipStation data no longer than ShipStation allows, and never share it with anyone outside your workspace without your opt-in consent.
• We do not send data to ShipStation; shipping labels and buyer notifications stay in ShipStation and Etsy.

Subscriptions are processed by Stripe on Stripe's hosted checkout and billing pages. Your card details go directly to Stripe; we never see or store full card numbers. We receive your billing name, email, billing address, plan, payment status and the card's brand, last four digits and expiry date. Stripe uses payment data, including device information for fraud prevention, under the Stripe Privacy Policy, and may process and store it outside your country.

• Provide, maintain and secure the Service you signed up for.
• Sync listings, orders and shipments between Thread Studio and the services you connect, when you approve it.
• Apply the roles you set, so teammates see only the shops, records and fields they are granted.
• Respond to support requests, confirm and follow up on contact-form messages, and send essential service email.
• Send occasional product updates to account owners and to contact-form senders who tick the optional box, using the email address you gave us, never data from Etsy or your other connected services. You can opt out at any time. We never email or text your buyers.
• Bill your subscription through Stripe.
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse and security incidents.
• Meet legal obligations.

If you are in the EEA or UK, our legal bases are performance of our contract with you, our legitimate interests in operating and securing the Service, compliance with law and, where we ask for it, your consent.

Thread Studio's AI assistant answers questions and drafts changes using records your account is allowed to see. To produce an answer, the relevant records and your prompt, which may include data from Etsy, Google Sheets, or ShipStation, are sent to our AI model provider. It processes them only to answer your request, on our behalf, under terms that prohibit using your data to train its models. Assistant drafts never change Etsy or your other connected services until you review and approve them. Teammates without financial access never have financial data sent to the assistant on their behalf.

We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share it only with:

• The services you connect, only when you approve a change that we write to them: listing updates and tracking to Etsy, exports to Google Sheets.
• Teammates you invite, limited to the shops and fields their role allows.
• Service providers that host and operate the Service under contracts requiring them to protect the data and use it only for our instructions:

• Legal and safety: when required by law or to protect the rights, property or safety of our users or others.
• Business transfers: in a merger or acquisition, subject to this policy. Data from Etsy, Google and ShipStation will be transferred only as their terms permit, and Google user data only with your prior consent.

• Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest.
• Access tokens and API credentials for Etsy, Google and ShipStation are stored encrypted and never exposed to the browser. We never collect your Etsy or Google passwords or your full card numbers.
• Access is checked on every request by account membership, role and shop grant, not by settings sent from your browser.
• Staff access to customer data is limited to people who need it to operate or support the Service, and is logged.
• If Etsy member data we hold is compromised or suspected to be compromised, we will notify the affected seller and Etsy promptly, and no later than 24 hours after discovery. If data from another connected service is affected, we notify you promptly and that service as its terms require. We will also notify others as required by law.

Controls in the Service

• Choose what we can access: you approve each permission on Etsy's and Google's consent screens and choose which shops, spreadsheets and shipping accounts to connect.
• Control your team's access: invite or remove teammates and choose which shops and fields each role can see, including whether financial data is visible.
• Approve every change before it is written to Etsy or Google Sheets.
• Disconnect any service from settings at any time, or revoke access from your Etsy or Google account.

Requests and rights

• Access, export, correct or delete your information by emailing [email protected]. We respond within 30 days.
• Unsubscribe from product updates using the link in any such email.
• EEA and UK residents may also object to or restrict processing, request portability, withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it, and complain to their local data protection authority.
• California and other US state residents may request to know, delete or correct personal information. We do not sell or share personal information, do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you, and will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. You may use an authorized agent.
• Buyers and other Etsy members: we process your information for the seller you bought from. Contact that seller, or contact us and we will pass your request to them.

We verify requests by confirming control of the email address on the account. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. Because we do not track you across sites, browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals do not change how we process your information; we treat them as a valid opt-out of any sale or sharing.

We and our service providers may process information outside the country where you live. Where we transfer personal information from the EEA, UK or Switzerland, we use appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

The Service is for businesses and is not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect their personal information.

If we make material changes, we will notify account owners by email or in the app before they take effect and update the effective date above.

Linkage, LLC
Morton Grove, Illinois, USA
Privacy: [email protected]
Support: [email protected]