Privacy Policy
Santa Post is built for families, and a good part of it is built for children. This describes what is collected, what is not, and why a child's copy of the app behaves differently from an adult's.
Last updated 9 October 2026
Who is responsible
Santa Post is published by Thomas Jutla, trading as Santa Post, who is the data controller for the purposes of the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR. You can reach us at hello@santapost.app about anything on this page, including a request to see or delete your data.
Children under 13
The app asks for a birth year and month before anything else, on a neutral screen with no branding designed to push an answer. If the answer makes you under 13:
- You are given an anonymous session rather than an account. There is no sign-in, and no email address or name is ever requested.
- No advertising is shown, and no advertising code runs.
- You cannot upload a photograph. The server refuses it, not just the app.
- You cannot report a Christmas sighting, so no location is collected.
- Secret Santa is unavailable, because it involves other people and an invitation.
The result is that no personal data is collected from children under 13, which is why no verifiable parental consent is sought — there is nothing to consent to. This is our approach to the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the UK Age Appropriate Design Code and Article 8 of the GDPR.
A grown-up can attach their own email address to a child's app so that the child's letter to Santa and Christmas Spirit score survive a new phone. That email belongs to the adult, is collected from the adult, and is covered by the sections below.
Young people aged 13 to 17
Advertising is shown, but it is never personalised and the advertising SDK is instructed to treat the user as a child regardless of any consent given. This is stricter than the consent age in most of Europe, and it is deliberate.
What is collected from adults
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | When you create an account | To sign you in, to recover your account, and to confirm an address attached to a child's app |
| Name or nickname | When you set up your profile | So people in your Secret Santa group know who drew whom |
| Approximate location | Only when you report a Christmas sighting | To put a pin on the map. It is rounded to three decimal places — roughly a hundred metres — before it is stored, so it describes a neighbourhood rather than an address |
| A profile photograph | Only if you choose to upload one | Optional. The default is a drawn elf, so nobody has to upload a picture to be recognisable. A photograph is visible only to members of a private group you were invited to |
Santa Post does not read, store or transmit the contents of your letter to Santa. The app records only that a letter was sent and when, so it can show the journey.
Advertising
For adults, the app shows advertising through Google AdMob. Google's advertising code may collect a device identifier, advertising data, interaction and crash data, performance data, and an approximate location derived from your IP address. Some of this is used for tracking across apps and websites, which is why the app asks your permission before it happens.
- On iOS you will see Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt. Decline it and the identifier is not used for tracking.
- In Europe and the UK you will see a consent form before any personalised advertising. Decline it and advertising continues, non-personalised.
- Under-13s see neither prompt, because they see no advertising.
Google's own handling of this data is described in their privacy policy.
Where your data is held
Accounts, letters and groups are stored with Supabase in London (eu-west-2). Transactional email — confirmations and password resets — is sent through Resend from Ireland (eu-west-1). Both are in Europe, which is deliberate for an app used by European families.
Santa Post is run from the United Kingdom, and the providers above hold your data in the UK and Ireland. Where any of them processes data outside the UK and EEA as part of running their own service, that is covered by the standard contractual clauses in our agreements with them.
How long it is kept
Account data is kept while the account exists. Delete your account and the account, profile, letters, group memberships and any uploaded photograph are deleted with it — the photograph included, which takes a deliberate step rather than falling out of the database on its own. Sightings are deleted 14 days after they are reported, whether or not you delete your account; they are only ever shown for a week, so nothing is kept that anyone could still see. Anonymous sessions hold nothing to delete.
What is never done
- Your data is not sold, and it is not shared with anyone beyond the service providers named above.
- There is no tracking pixel in any email the app sends.
- No advertising, analytics or tracking code runs for a user under 13.
- Nothing you write to Santa is read, kept or analysed.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of your data, ask for it to be corrected, ask for it to be deleted, object to how it is used, or withdraw consent you have given. Write to hello@santapost.app and we will answer within 30 days. You can delete your account from inside the app without asking anyone.
If you think we have handled your data badly you can complain to your national data protection authority — in the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office.
Reporting something
If you see a profile photograph or a person that should not be in a group, you can report it from inside the app or write to hello@santapost.app. Reports about a child's safety are dealt with first and answered quickly.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what is collected, the app will say so rather than quietly updating this page, and the date at the top will change.