1. Who we are
Ateliant is a sole proprietorship owned and operated by Uzay Yildirim in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy, and Uzay Yildirim is accountable for our compliance with it. You can reach us about privacy at [email protected].
We handle personal information in line with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and, where it applies to you, the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
2. What this policy covers
This policy covers ateliant.com, your Ateliant account at myaccount.ateliant.com, and the Ateliant apps you use through it: CertZilla, Linkchime and AI credits. Linkchime's website also has its own privacy notice for features specific to Linkchime.
When you use our apps to handle other people's information, such as the recipients of your certificates or the people who open your Linkchime links, you decide what is collected and why. We process that information on your behalf to provide the service to you, and you are responsible for having a lawful basis for it and for giving those people any notice the law requires.
3. Information we collect
Information you give us
- Account details: your name, email address and sign-in methods, such as a password or passkey. For passkeys we store only the public key; the private key never leaves your device.
- Billing details: Stripe collects your card or other payment details when you buy a plan. We receive only what we need to manage billing: your Stripe customer ID, plans and purchases, invoices and payment status, and the card brand, last four digits and expiry date. We never see or store your full card number.
- Support requests: the messages and details you send us, and our replies.
- Project enquiries: if you send us a custom software brief, the details you choose to include in your email.
- Your content: what you create in our apps, such as Linkchime links, QR codes, landing pages and workspace settings.
Information collected as you use the Services
- Plan and usage data: which apps and plans you use, the usage counts we need to apply plan limits (for CertZilla, how many recipients you send to each week, not who they are), and an AI usage record of the model, the amount of text processed, the credits used and when.
- Security and technical data: IP address, browser and device type, sign-in events and server logs, used to keep accounts secure, prevent abuse and fix problems.
- Linkchime link analytics: when someone opens a Linkchime link or scans its QR code, we record the time, referring site, browser, device type and approximate location (country, region and city), with a hashed form of the IP address, to show the link's owner how it performs.
What we do not collect
- CertZilla creates certificates and badges in your browser. Your designs and recipient lists stay on your device and are sent from your browser to the email provider you connect. They are not stored on our servers.
- We do not keep the content of your AI prompts or responses. They pass through to our AI provider to produce a response, and we keep only the usage record described above.
- ateliant.com uses no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.
4. How we use information
We use personal information to:
- create and secure your account, and sign you in across Ateliant apps;
- provide the apps and features you use, and apply your plan's limits;
- take payments, manage subscriptions, and keep invoices and tax records;
- answer support requests and send messages about your account, such as security alerts and notice of changes to prices or terms;
- detect and prevent fraud, abuse and security incidents;
- find and fix problems, and improve the Services;
- meet our legal obligations.
We do not sell personal information, share it for targeted advertising, or use it to train AI models. We send marketing emails only if you have agreed to receive them, and each one lets you unsubscribe.
Under Canadian law we rely on your consent, which may be implied when you use a feature that needs the information. You can withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual limits, though we may then be unable to provide some Services. If the GDPR applies to you, our legal bases are performing our contract with you, our legitimate interests in securing and improving the Services and answering enquiries, complying with legal obligations such as keeping tax records, and your consent where we ask for it.
7. Where information is stored
We are based in Canada. Our service providers may store and process information in Canada, the United States, the European Union and other countries, where it may be accessible to the courts and authorities of those countries. Where the GDPR applies, we rely on the European Commission's adequacy decision for Canada or on standard contractual clauses for these transfers.
8. How long we keep it
- Account details and your content: while your account is open. When you close your account or ask us to delete it, we delete or anonymise them within 30 days, apart from what we must keep below. Copies in backups are overwritten in the normal backup cycle.
- Billing records such as invoices: for six years after the end of the tax year they relate to, as Canadian tax law requires.
- Support requests: while your account is open, so we can see the history if you contact us again, and then deleted with it.
- Security logs: for a limited period, unless we need them longer to investigate an incident.
- Linkchime link analytics: for the retention period of the link owner's plan, from 30 days on Free to two years on Business, unless the owner deletes them sooner.
9. How we protect it
We use encryption in transit (HTTPS) everywhere, passkey sign-in, access controls that limit who can reach personal information, and a separate database for each app. Payment card details are handled by Stripe, which is certified to PCI DSS Level 1.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your information at real risk of significant harm, we will tell you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.
10. Your choices and rights
Depending on where you live, you can ask us to:
- give you access to the personal information we hold about you, and a copy of it;
- correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
- delete your account and personal information;
- stop or restrict some processing, or withdraw your consent;
- give you the information you provided in a portable format.
You can update most account details yourself in your account. For anything else, open a support request or email [email protected]. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we reply within 30 days. Reasonable requests are free.
If you received a certificate from, or opened a link created by, one of our customers, please contact that customer first. We will help them respond.
11. Children
The Services are not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from them. Customers who issue certificates to minors, such as schools, are responsible for any consent required. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
12. Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when our practices change. We will post the new version here with a new date, and tell you by email or in your account before a material change takes effect.
13. Contact and complaints
For questions, requests or concerns, email [email protected] or open a support request. Ateliant is owned and operated by Uzay Yildirim in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. In the EU or UK, you can contact your local data protection authority.