DirectConnectPrivacy policy
We collect only what we need to sell you a licence and keep it working: your email address when you buy, and a few details about each computer that uses a licence or trial. We also count website visits, without cookies. Your files never reach us.
Effective 9 October 2026. Privacy and data protection explains the same facts in less formal terms.
Who we are
DirectConnect (“we”, “us”) is based in New Zealand. We’re responsible for the personal information described here. For anything about your information, email [email protected].
What we collect and why
| Information | When we get it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address, the number of licences and the payment result | When you buy | To send your licence codes and receipt, handle refunds and answer questions about your order |
| Your licence code, the computer’s name, whether it runs macOS, Windows or Linux, and its DirectConnect key | When you activate, move, renew or remove a licence | To show where your licence is active and keep it working on one computer at a time |
| A one-way code made from each computer’s hardware ID, and the DirectConnect key of the computer that starts the trial | When you start a free trial | To allow one trial per computer. We can’t turn the code back into the hardware ID. |
| Your IP address, the time and the address requested | When you visit our website, check for updates or contact our licence server | To deliver the request, protect our servers from abuse and fix faults |
| The page you view or the installer you download, the website that sent you, your country, and whether you use a phone, tablet or computer and which operating system | When you view a page on our website or download DirectConnect | To count visitors and downloads. See “Website visit counts” below. |
| What you write to us | When you email us | To answer you |
Stripe, our payment provider, collects your card details and billing address at checkout. We never see your card number. Stripe uses this information under its own privacy policy.
What we don’t collect
- Your files, file names or anything about what you share. They travel only over the cable between your computers.
- Usage statistics, crash reports or analytics from the app.
- Analytics, advertising or tracking cookies on the website.
- Third-party analytics. We count visits ourselves, without cookies.
The website stores a random checkout reference in your browser for the length of the visit, so it can show your licence codes after you pay. Cloudflare, which protects our servers, may set a cookie it needs to block attacks.
Website visit counts
We count page views and downloads so we know which pages help people and how many download DirectConnect. We don’t use cookies for this and don’t store your IP address. We keep the page or installer, the name of the website that sent you (not the full address), your country (from your IP address), and your device type and operating system.
To count each visitor once a day, we make a one-way code from your IP address and browser details, mixed with a random value that changes every day. We delete each day’s random value the next day, after which nobody, including us, can link that code to you or to your visits on other days.
If your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, the website doesn’t count your page views. Downloads are counted on our server, so they are counted either way.
Who processes your information
We don’t sell or rent personal information, and we don’t share it for advertising. These companies process it for us, only to provide our service:
| Company | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Takes payments and keeps payment records | United States and other countries |
| Hetzner | Hosts the server that runs our website, licence server and order records | United States |
| Cloudflare | Carries and protects traffic to our servers | Worldwide |
| Zoho Mail | Sends licence emails and holds our support mailbox | Australia |
| Resend | Sends licence emails if Zoho Mail is unavailable | United States |
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect our rights in a dispute.
Your information may be processed outside the country you live in. Where the law requires it, these transfers rely on the companies’ standard contractual clauses or similar safeguards.
How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Orders, email addresses and licence records | 7 years after you buy, the period New Zealand tax law requires |
| Computers using a licence | Until the licence is removed from that computer or moved |
| Trial codes | As long as we offer trials, so each computer gets one |
| Payment events from Stripe | 90 days after we process them |
| Server logs with IP addresses | 14 days |
| Website visit counts | As long as we run the website. The daily random value that links a day’s visits is deleted the next day. |
| Support emails | 3 years after the last message |
Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it. Where the law gives you the right, you can also ask us to delete it, limit how we use it, or give it to you in a portable format. Email [email protected] from the address you bought with. We answer within 20 working days.
If you’re in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on these legal bases:
- Contract: to sell you a licence and keep it working.
- Legal obligation: to keep tax and accounting records.
- Legitimate interests: to limit trials to one per computer, protect our servers and count website visits. You can object to these.
If you’re unhappy with how we handle your information, contact us first. You can also complain to the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner or the data protection authority where you live.
Children
DirectConnect isn’t aimed at children under 16, and we don’t knowingly collect their information.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we update this page and its effective date. If a change affects how we use information we already hold, we email the people it affects before it takes effect.