Terms of service

The rules for using Private Santa.

These terms explain what the app provides, what remains your responsibility, and the limits you should understand before making a draw.

Effective 22 September 2026

1. Accepting these terms

By using Private Santa, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the app. You must be legally able to agree to these terms. If you organise a draw for a group, you are responsible for explaining how the app works to its participants.

2. What the app provides

Private Santa is a browser-based tool for creating a Secret Santa gift exchange, applying pairing exclusions, and producing a private reveal link for each participant. The app does not provide payment, messaging, identity verification, gift fulfilment, or dispute-resolution services.

3. Your group and its information

You must have a lawful and appropriate reason to enter participant names and share their reveal links. Do not add sensitive information to event names, participant names, or notes. You are responsible for checking that names, exclusions, dates, budgets, and messages are accurate before making the draw.

4. Local storage and backups

Event information and assignments are stored in the organiser’s browser rather than an application database. Browser settings, device failure, private-browsing rules, or clearing site data may remove that information. You are responsible for exporting an encrypted backup and remembering its passphrase. The app cannot recover a lost draw, backup, or passphrase.

5. Reveal links

Each reveal link contains access to one assignment. Anyone with the complete link may be able to open it, so treat it like a private message. You are responsible for sending each link to the intended person and for the consequences of copying, forwarding, publishing, or sending it to the wrong recipient. Shared links cannot be recalled through the app.

6. Acceptable use

Do not use the app to break the law, mislead or harass someone, distribute harmful material, interfere with the app or its hosting, attempt unauthorised access, or place unreasonable load on the service. Do not use automated tools to disrupt the experience for others.

7. Availability and changes

The app may be updated, interrupted, or withdrawn. We do not promise that it will always be available or compatible with every browser or device. We may change these terms when the app or applicable requirements change. The effective date at the top of this page will be updated when new terms are published.

8. Third-party services

The app may rely on static hosting and may offer links to services such as WhatsApp or Buy Me a Coffee. Those services operate under their own terms and privacy practices. We are not responsible for third-party services or for messages after they leave this app.

9. Responsibility when things go wrong

We are responsible for losses that are a foreseeable result of our failure to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for losses caused by information you entered, a lost passphrase, cleared browser data, a forwarded reveal link, third-party services, or events outside our reasonable control. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits responsibility where doing so would be unlawful, including responsibility for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or your statutory rights.

10. Intellectual property

Using the app does not transfer ownership of its software, artwork, branding, or written content to you. You may use the app for its intended personal or group gift-exchange purpose. Any separate licence published with the app’s source code continues to apply to that code.

11. Disputes and applicable law

Please raise concerns first through the support profile linked from the home page so there is an opportunity to resolve them informally. If you are a consumer, you keep the benefit of mandatory protections that apply where you live and may bring proceedings in courts available to you under applicable consumer law.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent through the Stuart Builds support profile linked from the home page.