Privacy policy

Draft of 18 October 2026

The short version

• AniMates draws everything on your own device. Your characters, special days, notes, photos and settings stay there unless you choose to make an account.
• To show your weather, the app sends the coordinates of the cities you pick to Open-Meteo. Not your name, not your exact location.
• Once a day the app sends us an anonymous count (the version, the kind of device, free or Plus, and your language), and when something breaks, what went wrong. Nothing personal, and you can turn it off in Settings › More, "Help improve AniMates".
• If you buy AniMates Plus, Lemon Squeezy sells it to you and handles the payment. We never see your card.
• If you make an account, we keep your email, your synced settings and your own notes, to-dos, passport and photos, your friends list, and what you share with friends, so it can reach the friends you chose. You can download all of it, turn sync off, and delete it all.
• This website has no cookies, no analytics and no trackers.
• We don't sell your information, show you ads, or use what you share to train AI.

Who we are

AniMates is made by Tro Mirzaian, 100 Echo Point, Scarborough, Ontario M1W 2V2, Canada ("we"). We're responsible for the information described here. Write to us at [email protected] about anything in this policy.

What stays on your device

Without an account, these never leave your computer. With one, the ones marked under "Accounts" below are also kept in your account, unless you turn that off:

• who sits on the bench: the people and pets you make, and their names
• your special days: birthdays, anniversaries, adoption days and the holidays you pick
• love notes, the to-do list, the photos you add to the photo widget, and the places in your passport
• pictures, postcards and clips you save with Keep this moment
• your settings, widget layouts and themes
• the music now playing and your PC's CPU, memory and battery, which the Now playing and System widgets read from Windows to show you, and nothing else
• your calendar, if you connect one (below): the sign-in is kept encrypted on your PC, and your plans only in memory while the app runs

On Windows they're kept in the app's folder on your PC (%APPDATA%\AniMates); on the web, in your browser's storage for animates.me. The lock screen and screensaver use pictures made on your PC too.

What the app sends, and to whom

Like any website, these services see your IP address when the app connects to them. Our own server uses it only in memory, for a few minutes, to slow down anyone trying too many passwords or sending too much; it isn't stored with your account, your counts or your crash reports. Open-Meteo is a free weather service that doesn't need an account; its own terms and privacy policy apply to what it receives (open-meteo.com/en/terms). The coordinates are a city's, from Open-Meteo's own search, not your device's location: AniMates never asks your device where you are.

Help improve AniMates: counts and crash reports

So we know how many people use AniMates, on which versions, and what breaks, the app sends the two things in the table above. It's on unless you turn it off in Settings › More, "Help improve AniMates"; off, nothing is sent.

• The daily count carries no name, no email, no account and no address. The install's random id is mixed on our server with a secret that never leaves it (a salted hash) before it's stored, so we can count each install once a day, but we can't link it back to you, your account or your other devices. Counts are kept for about a year, then deleted.
• Crash reports are grouped by what went wrong and counted. We keep one until we've fixed it, and delete it once it hasn't happened again for six months.

We use these only to make AniMates work better. They're never sold, shared or used to show you anything.

Buying AniMates Plus

Our shop is run by Lemon Squeezy, which sells AniMates Plus to you as the merchant of record: it's the seller on your receipt, takes the payment, works out and pays any sales tax, and handles refunds. When you buy, Lemon Squeezy collects your name, email address, billing country and payment details, and sends you your receipt and licence key. We never see or keep your card details. Lemon Squeezy's privacy policy applies to what it collects (lemonsqueezy.com/privacy).

From Lemon Squeezy we receive your order and its updates: your name, email, country, what you bought and when, your licence key and its activations, and later renewals, cancellations, failed payments and refunds. We use them to switch Plus on and off at the right time, to answer you when you write, and for our accounts and tax records. The notices themselves are kept on our server for 90 days; the records the law asks us to keep for tax, for 6 years, as Canadian tax law requires.

Plus finds your account by your email. If you buy with the same email as your AniMates account, and you've confirmed that email, Plus goes on your account by itself. If there's no account with that email yet, we keep the licence key with the purchase email until you make one and confirm it, then attach it for as long as the subscription runs, or up to 2 years for a lifetime purchase. You can also paste your key into the app instead.

Accounts, sync and sharing with friends

Accounts are optional. One account works on every AniMates app: Windows and the web now, phones from December 2026. Without one, everything above stays as it is. With one, this is what we keep and why.

Your account

• Your email address, to sign you in and to write to you about your account: a welcome, a code to confirm the email is yours (it works for a day), and a code when you ask to reset your password (it works for 30 minutes). We keep only a hash of each code, and delete it once it's used or expires. Confirming your email is what lets Plus bought with it arrive on its own, and keeps anyone else from claiming your address. These emails come from [email protected] through our email delivery service, which receives your address and that message only.
• A password, if you sign in with one. We store only a salted hash of it (scrypt), never the password itself.
• Sign in with Google, if you choose it. Google tells us your Google account's id, its email address and your name, and nothing else: we don't ask for your contacts, files or Google password. We use them only to sign you in. Google's privacy policy applies to Google's side (policies.google.com/privacy).
• A display name and a friend code, which your friends see.
• Your devices: a sign-in token per device (stored only as a hash), its name ("AniMates for Windows", "AniMates on the web"), and when it signed in and was last used. You see the list in your account's settings, and can sign out any device, or all the others. Unused ones are removed after 180 days.

Your settings and your own things on every device

• Settings: your characters, places, home city, special days, themes, widget layouts (per device and monitor, with each monitor's size) and desktop options, so they match on each device you sign in to. "Keep my settings in my account" turns this off for a device.
• Your notes, to-dos, passport and photos: kept in your account so they're the same everywhere. Photos are stored at most 1200 pixels on their longer side, up to 200 photos. When you delete one, it's deleted from our server straight away; a small record that it was deleted (no content) stays up to 180 days so your other devices hear of it. "Keep my notes, to-dos, passport and photos too" turns this off for a device.

Friends, your partner and what you share

• Friends: we keep the list of people you've added and who added you, pending requests, and who you've blocked. Friends see your display name. People who aren't your friends can't see you or send you anything.
• Your partner on the bench: if you choose one of your friends as your partner, we keep that choice, and they can see that you chose them.
• Being here: while AniMates is open and on your screen, the app tells our server, so your friends see a soft glow on you. Our server keeps this only in memory while it lasts: we don't store or log when you were here or for how long. Turn off "Show when I'm here" and friends don't see it at all.
• "Thinking of you" taps: when you send one to a friend, we keep who sent it, to whom and when for 24 hours, so it still arrives if the friend isn't there right then.
• A question for two: if you and your partner chose each other, each day brings a question. We keep your answers, together with the day. Your partner sees your answer only once you've both answered.
• Notes and photos you share: a note or photo you send goes only to the friends you chose for it. We store it so it can reach them, along with who sent it, to whom, and when. Friends can react to it and send you a short reply; only you, the sender, see those. A photo you upload but never send is deleted after a day.
• How long: what you share is kept until you take it back or delete your account. When you do, we remove it from our servers, and it goes from your friends' widgets the next time their app connects. Ending a friendship (removing or blocking) deletes your partner choice and the answers you shared with that person. We can't take back a copy a friend has already saved or photographed.
• Who can read it: everything travels encrypted (HTTPS). On our server it is not end-to-end encrypted, so it can be read there. Only the person who runs AniMates may look, and only when it's needed to keep the service running or to look into a report.

Notifications on your phone (from December 2026)

If you allow notifications in the AniMates phone app, the app gives our server your phone's notification token, whether it's Android or iPhone, and which kinds you want (notes and photos, taps, friend requests, answers to the daily question). Notifications go through Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging and, for iPhones, Apple's push service. They say only who it's from and what kind it is ("Sam left you a note"), never the note or photo itself. We delete the token when you sign out on that phone, turn notifications off, or remove the app.

AniMates Plus on your account

If Plus is on your account (bought with your email, or a key you pasted in), we keep the key with your account and check it with Lemon Squeezy every few days, and Lemon Squeezy tells us straight away when it renews, ends or is refunded, so every device you sign in to has Plus exactly while you've paid for it. We activate it under the name "AniMates account", not your computer's name. Removing it, or deleting the account, gives the key back so you can use it elsewhere. Sometimes we give Plus as a gift; we keep that, with a note of why, on your account.

Download my data

In your account's settings, "Download my data" gives you a zip of everything your account keeps: your account, devices, settings, your notes, to-dos and passport, friends and blocks, what you've sent and been sent, your daily answers, Plus, and your photos. What friends wrote stays theirs, except what they sent to you.

Reporting and blocking

• You can block anyone. They can't send you anything after that, and they aren't told.
• You can report a note, a photo, a reply or a person. A report sends us the reported item (we keep a copy of a reported photo even if the sender takes it back), who sent it, and anything you add. We look at reports to enforce our terms, and we may remove content or close accounts.
• We keep reports and what we decided for 12 months, and longer where the law requires it (for example, we must report child sexual abuse material to the authorities).

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app at any time. Your account, settings, devices, your own notes, to-dos, passport and photos, friends list and blocks, partner choice, answers, phone notification tokens, and everything you shared, reacted or replied are deleted at once, and your Plus key is set free. From our backups, they go within 14 days (we keep the last 14 nightly copies). We keep only what the law makes us keep, such as purchase records, and anything tied to an open report.

Feedback you send us

Settings › Feedback sends us what you write, your email if you give it (or your account's, if you're signed in and leave it empty), and, if you leave them ticked, the few details and the picture of the scene listed in the table above. Signed in, we also note which account sent it. We use it to answer you and to fix and improve AniMates. We keep it until we've dealt with it, and no longer than 12 months.

Your calendar (Plus, Windows)

If you connect a Google or Outlook calendar, AniMates asks Google or Microsoft for read-only access, and reads your next 8 days of plans (at most 40) so the Calendar widget can show them and the bench can react: party hats before a birthday, an umbrella when rain meets an outdoor plan. The sign-in is kept only on your PC, encrypted by Windows for your user; the plans are kept only in memory while the app runs. None of it goes to our server or anyone else. Disconnecting deletes the sign-in from your PC and, for Google, revokes our access.

AniMates' use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

How long we keep things

Who helps us

These companies handle information for us, only to do their part:

• Our hosting provider runs our server and stores account data. We'll name it here before accounts open.
• An email delivery service sends our emails (welcome, codes). We'll name it here too.
• Google Workspace holds the email you exchange with us at support@ and [email protected].
• Cloudflare runs our domain's DNS and serves this website.
• Lemon Squeezy sells Plus as merchant of record (above), under its own privacy policy.
• Google and Apple deliver phone notifications, from December 2026.

If information is moved out of your country, we use the legal safeguards the law asks for, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

This website

This site uses no cookies, no analytics, no advertising and no third-party scripts or fonts. This site is served by Cloudflare, which handles each request (including your IP address) under its own privacy policy; we don't keep logs of your visits. When you click Buy, you go to Lemon Squeezy's checkout, where its policy applies. AniMates on the web (animates.me/app/) keeps your settings in your browser's own storage, and talks to our server only for the things in the table above.

Why we're allowed to use it

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies: we use information to give you the app and the account you asked for (contract), to keep the service safe, fix problems, count usage anonymously and handle reports (legitimate interests, which you can object to, for example by turning off "Help improve AniMates"), and to meet tax and legal duties (legal obligation). Where we rely on your consent, such as for sync or your calendar, you can withdraw it at any time.

Your choices and rights

• Use AniMates without an account. Everything then stays on your device, apart from the weather, licence, update and anonymous counts above.
• Turn off the anonymous counts and crash reports in Settings › More, "Help improve AniMates".
• Download everything your account keeps ("Download my data"), and delete your account, in the app at any time.
• Ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, to delete it, or to move it elsewhere.
• Object to how we use it, or ask us to limit it.
• Complain to your data protection authority. We'd like the chance to sort it out first.

Write to [email protected]. We answer within a month.

Children

AniMates itself is fine for everyone. Accounts and sharing are for people aged 13 and over, or 16 where local law requires it,. If you think a child under that age has an account, tell us and we'll delete it.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top, and tell you in the app before a change that matters takes effect.