Privacy Policy

This policy explains what data Burnt Hill Data Ltd., doing business as LightningXL ("we", "us"), collects, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It covers:

The website at lightningxl.com
The LightningXL app for macOS and its Office add-in

If you have a question about this policy, email hello@lightningxl.com.

The short version

We collect the minimum we need to run a free trial, sell licenses, and keep the app working.
The app never sends the contents of your workbooks, documents or slides anywhere, and it never records what you type into them.
We do not sell your personal data. We do not show ads.
You can ask us to show, correct, export or delete your data at any time.

Data we collect

When you use the website

Data	Source	Why
Pages viewed, referring site, device type, browser, and approximate location	Vercel Web Analytics (no cookies; visits are counted with a hash that is discarded every 24 hours)	To understand which pages and features people use
IP address and browser details in server logs	Vercel (hosting)	Security and to keep the site running

Pages load the Inter typeface from Google Fonts, which sees your IP address and browser details when a page loads.

When you download the trial

Data	Where it goes	Why
Email address	Resend, which sends our email, and then to us	To email you the download link, then setup tips during the trial and, after it ends, a reminder about subscribing. You can unsubscribe with one click in any email.
IP address, for a few minutes	Vercel (hosting)	To stop the form being abused

The download link is sent by email, so the address has to be one you can read. We do not ask for a name or anything else.

When you buy a license

Data	Where it goes	Why
Name, email address and billing country	Polar, our merchant of record, and then to us	To issue your receipt and license key, and so we can support you
Payment card details	Polar only	To process payment. Card numbers never reach us.
Order, subscription status and license key	Polar and us	To manage your subscription and honor the license

Polar's handling of your data is described in Polar's privacy policy.

When you use the app

Free trial. The 7-day trial runs on your Mac and sends nothing anywhere. The email address you gave to download it is the one we use for setup tips, to check how the trial is going, and, after the trial ends, to remind you about subscribing and tell you about the product. You can unsubscribe with one click in any email.

License activation and checks. When you activate a license key, and periodically while the license is active, the app sends to Polar:

Your license key
Your Mac's computer name, as set in System Settings
The app version and your macOS version

We use this to count activated Macs against your license and to let you move a license to a new Mac. If you do not want your computer name shared, change it in System Settings › General › About › Name before activating.

Software updates. Once a day the app fetches a small update feed from lightningxl.com to see whether a newer version exists, and downloads the new version from lightningxl.com when you choose to install it. These requests carry the app version, your macOS version and your IP address, and nothing else.

Diagnostic reports. If you hit a problem you can save a diagnostic report from the app's menu and send it to us yourself. It holds the app's settings, the recent log (which includes the shortcuts you pressed, with times) and a map of the Office window in front: its buttons, their positions and whether they were enabled. The report also names the file and its sheets. Nothing is sent automatically - you choose where the file goes, it is plain text, and you can read it before you send it.

Local data. The app stores your license details and settings in your user account on your Mac, including the date and version of the Terms and License you accepted when you started the trial or activated a key. None of it is sent to us. The app has no crash reporter and no usage analytics.

What the Accessibility permission does and does not do

LightningXL needs the macOS Accessibility permission so that it can see when you tap the Option key in Excel, Word or PowerPoint and press the matching ribbon button for you.

While an Office app is in front, it looks for one thing: a tap of the Option key, and then the keytip letters that follow it. Every other key goes straight to the app.
What you type into your cells, documents and slides is never recorded.
The Option sequences and the shortcut combinations you press are written to a log file on your Mac, so that a problem can be diagnosed later. That log stays on your Mac unless you choose to send us a diagnostic report.
It reads the structure of the Office ribbon: tabs, groups, buttons. It does not read cell values, document text or slide text.

The Excel add-in that carries the modeling shortcuts and formula tracing runs entirely inside Excel and sends nothing anywhere.

Emails we send

License keys and purchase receipts, sent by Polar
Renewal reminders, sent by Polar
The download link, when you ask for the trial
Setup tips during the trial
Reminders and offers after the trial ends, if you have not subscribed
Occasional product updates and news from us
Replies to your support email

Every email we send other than receipts, license keys and support replies has an unsubscribe link, and one click stops them.

Why we use your data

Purpose	Legal basis
Run the free trial, sell licenses, activate Macs, send license keys and receipts	Performance of a contract with you
Prevent license abuse, improve the app and website	Our legitimate interests
Send trial tips, offers, product updates and news	Your consent (unsubscribe at any time)
Keep tax and accounting records	Legal obligation

Who we share data with

We share data with the service providers below so that they can do their job for us. They may not use your data for their own purposes.

Provider	What they handle	Their privacy policy
Polar Software Inc.	Payments, receipts, license keys, activations, customer portal	polar.sh/legal/privacy
Vercel Inc.	Website hosting, the update feed and downloads, and website usage statistics	vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy
Resend, Inc.	Sending our email, and the list of trial email addresses	resend.com/legal/privacy-policy
Google Fonts	The typeface the site uses	policies.google.com/privacy

We do not sell your personal data. We do not share it with advertisers. We will disclose data if the law requires it, or to protect our rights or the safety of others.

Cookies

The website sets no cookies of its own and stores nothing on your device to count visitors. Our usage statistics come from Vercel Web Analytics, which is cookieless: it identifies a visit with a hash derived from the request, and that hash is discarded after 24 hours, so visits cannot be linked to you or followed across other websites. The checkout on the Buy page is provided by Polar and sets the cookies it needs to complete a purchase.

How long we keep data

Order, license and subscription records: for as long as your license is active, then for up to 7 years for tax and accounting. Polar keeps its own copy of order records under its own retention rules, which we cannot shorten.
Mac activations: for as long as the license is active. When you deactivate a Mac its record is removed.
Trial email addresses: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
Analytics data: aggregate page and visit counts only. Nothing that identifies a single visit survives past 24 hours.
Support email: three years after the last message.
Server logs: for the short period set by Vercel.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

Tell you what personal data we hold about you
Correct data that is wrong
Delete your data, where we are not required to keep it
Send you a copy of your data
Stop sending you marketing emails
Object to or restrict how we use your data

Email hello@lightningxl.com and we will respond within 30 days. We may ask you to confirm your identity first.

If you are in Canada: you have these rights under PIPEDA, and you can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

If you are in the EU, UK or Switzerland: you have these rights under the GDPR and UK GDPR, and you can also contact your local data protection authority. We are based in Canada and our providers process data in the United States; those transfers rely on our providers' standard contractual clauses and equivalent safeguards.

If you are in California: you have the right to know, delete and correct your personal information, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. We do not sell or share personal information as defined by the CCPA, and we will not treat you differently for exercising your rights.

Security

All traffic between your browser, the app and our providers uses HTTPS.
Card details go directly to Polar. We never see them.
The app stores your license details in your own user account on your Mac.
Access to our provider dashboards is limited to the people who need it.

If you think your data has been exposed, email us right away.

Children

LightningXL is a tool for professionals. It is not directed at anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe someone under 18 has given us personal data, email us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we will update the date at the bottom of this page. If a change is significant, we will also tell you by email or with a notice in the app.

Contact

Burnt Hill Data Ltd.
hello@lightningxl.com