Privacy policy

This policy explains how Captivated Ltd handles personal data in connection with the Auto·Launch website (auto-launch.app) and the Auto·Launch desktop application. Auto·Launch is built to be local-first: wherever possible your data stays on your own device and is never sent to us.

1. Who is responsible for your data

The data controller is Captivated Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 15936109, with its registered office at Electric Works, 3 Concourse Way, Sheffield, S1 2BJ, United Kingdom. You can reach us about privacy at hello@auto-launch.app.

2. The short version: the app is local-first

The Auto·Launch desktop app keeps your products, channel selections, generated copy, checklists and submission tracking in a database on your own computer. The AI that writes your launch copy runs on your machine. The app contains no telemetry, no analytics and no crash reporting, and it does not transmit your content to us or anyone else. It only makes network connections when you explicitly ask it to — or opt in to a feature that needs one.

3. What we collect and process

This website

If you join the launch waitlist, we process the email addressyou submit, together with the time you submitted it, solely so we can email you when Auto·Launch is available. We store nothing else — no name, no IP address, no tracking identifiers. As with any website, our hosting provider (Cloudflare) processes standard request data such as IP address transiently to deliver the site and protect it from abuse; we do not use this to identify or profile you.

The desktop app

• Your product and launch data — product profiles, channel selections, generated copy, checklists, campaigns and submission records are stored locally on your device. We do not collect or receive them.
• Credentials — any API token you choose to add (for example a Product Hunt token for launch monitoring) and, after launch, your licence key, are stored in your operating system's secure keychain (Apple Keychain or Windows Credential Manager). They are never written to plain files, never logged, and never transmitted to us.
• Local AI — launch copy is generated by a large language model running on your own computer via Ollama. Your product details and prompts are not sent to us or to any third-party AI service.
• Submissions — Auto·Launch tracks where you have submitted your product, but it does not submit on your behalf. When you open a channel's submission page, that happens in your browser, directly between you and that channel.
• Opt-in launch monitoring — if you enable it, the app can fetch public launch metrics for your product: from Hacker News (via its public search API) and from Product Hunt (via its API, using a token you provide). These requests go directly from your device to those services and return only publicly available figures; results are stored locally.
• Foundations & Readiness checks — these optional features look at your own product site: a domain check performs DNS-over-HTTPS lookups for the domain you enter, and the shareable-preview check fetches your page to inspect its title, description and social-preview image. They run only when you ask, against the URL you provide, and results stay on your device.
• Software updates — the app can check our release server (hosted on Cloudflare) for new versions. This is a standard file request and is manual or opt-in; it carries no personal data about you.

Purchases and licensing

When Auto·Launch is available to buy, payments are handled by our merchant of record, Polar, and licences are validated via Keygen. These providers process your billing details and licence key under their own privacy policies. We do not see or store your full payment-card details.

4. Why we process it (lawful bases)

Under the UK GDPR we rely on:

• Consent — for adding your email to the launch waitlist (you can withdraw at any time).
• Contract — to provide the app and any licence you buy.
• Legitimate interests — to operate, secure and improve our website and services in a way you would reasonably expect.

5. How long we keep it

We keep waitlist emails until launch or until you ask us to remove them, whichever is sooner. Data held inside the app lives on your own device for as long as you keep it there — you can delete individual items, or remove the app and its data, at any time. Purchase and licensing records are retained by our payment and licensing providers in line with their policies and our legal obligations.

6. Sharing and sub-processors

We do not sell your personal data. We rely on a small number of processors:

• Cloudflare — website hosting and delivery, waitlist storage, and update delivery.
• Polar — payment processing (merchant of record), at launch.
• Keygen — licence-key validation, at launch.

Separately, when you use an optional feature that reaches an outside service — Product Hunt or Hacker News for monitoring, your DNS resolver for a domain check, or your own product URL for a preview check — the app exchanges that data directly with the relevant service. It does not pass through us, and your use of those services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies.

7. International transfers

Some of our processors operate outside the United Kingdom. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement / Standard Contractual Clauses.

8. Your rights

Subject to the conditions in UK data-protection law, you have the right to access your personal data; to have inaccurate data corrected; to have data erased; to restrict or object to processing; to data portability; and, where we rely on consent, to withdraw that consent at any time. Because most app data lives only on your device, you can exercise much of this directly within the app. For anything we hold (such as a waitlist email), contact hello@auto-launch.app and we will respond within the statutory time limits.

9. Cookies and analytics

This website sets no advertising or tracking cookies and does not track you across sites. Any analytics we introduce will be privacy-friendly and cookieless (for example Plausible), producing only aggregate statistics that cannot identify you individually. The desktop app uses no cookies and no analytics of any kind.

10. Children

Auto·Launch is a professional tool intended for adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top reflects the current version; material changes will be highlighted here.

12. Complaints

If you have a concern we haven't resolved, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority, at ico.org.uk. We'd appreciate the chance to put things right first, so please do contact us.

13. Contact

Captivated Ltd, Electric Works, 3 Concourse Way, Sheffield, S1 2BJ, United Kingdom — hello@auto-launch.app.