Privacy and terms

What we collect

If you join the list: your email address and the date you joined.

If you press, or move to, the go button or the deal’s image: so that each visitor counts once, your browser keeps a random ID in a cookie called hourdrop_visitor for up to a year, even if you do not go on to tap. It is not your name or your email. If you tap, we keep the tap and its time. Cloudflare Turnstile may check that the tap came from a person, and your IP address is used, without being kept with the tap, to limit how often one network can tap. Your browser also notes, in its own storage, which drops you tapped and the code you were given, so the page can show it again.

When you arrive: your browser keeps a cookie called hourdrop_source for up to 30 days. It holds only the kind of place that first brought you to HourDrop, the last kind of place that brought you back if it was not direct, which of our pages you first landed on, and the times those were seen, which is what the 30 days are counted from. The kinds are broad: a search engine, an AI assistant, social media, email, a paid ad, another website, or direct. It does not hold the address of the page you came from, your name, your email address, an account or payment detail, a discount code or a discount link. If you ask for a sign-in link, the link carries those same kinds, so they are not lost when the link opens in another browser.

If you book an hour: your email address, the content of your drop (title, line, image, link, codes or discount links), a record of what you paid, and the kind of place that first brought you to HourDrop and the last kind that brought you back before you booked. Card payments go through a payment processor; we never see or store your card number.

If you sign in: your email address, when you first and last signed in, and a cookie that keeps you signed in until you sign out, sign out everywhere, or it expires. We also keep the network each sign-in came from (its IP address, or the first part of it on IPv6) and when, so nobody else can use up that inbox’s daily sign-in links.

Limits: to stop one network or one inbox asking for sign-in links, joining the list or uploading images too often, we count those requests by IP address and by email address. The counts are used only for those limits.

Server logs: standard technical logs, kept for security. They can include your IP address, your browser, the addresses of the pages you requested, sign-in links among them, and the error details our email provider sends back when an email does not go through.

Traffic: Cloudflare, which runs the site, counts visits in aggregate. We use no advertising cookies.

Steps towards booking an hour: we count a few steps on the way to booking: pressing a booking button, choosing an hour, starting to sign in, starting a bid or a lock, and a booking becoming paid. Each count keeps the kind of place you came from, your country, whether you are on a phone, a tablet or a computer, which kind of page it happened on, and whether it was a bid or a lock. They are counts, not a record of a person: no name, no email address, no address of the page you came from, no discount code, no discount link and no payment detail.

Why

To email you about drops, which you asked for. To count taps, so the flames and sellers’ results are real, and to stop fake taps. To run a seller’s hour: review the drop, show it, report its numbers, and pay refunds. To understand which kinds of places bring the people who go on to book hours, and where people stop on the way. To keep the site working and safe.

If you’re in the EU or UK: the list runs on your consent, a seller’s hour runs on our agreement with them, and counting and security run on our legitimate interest in keeping the site honest.

Who else sees it

Our email provider, which sends email and sign-in links. Our payment processor, which takes payments and issues refunds. Cloudflare, which hosts the site, stores and resizes the images sellers upload, counts traffic and the steps above, and checks taps for bots. Nobody else. We don’t sell the list, share it, or rent it.

How long we keep it

Your email: until you ask us to take it off the list. After that we keep it marked as unsubscribed, so the signup form cannot put it back.

The visitor cookie: up to a year in your browser. Clearing your cookies removes it.

The hourdrop_source cookie: up to 30 days in your browser. Clearing your cookies removes it.

Request counts: used only for those limits.

How to unsubscribe

Write to support@heynews.co and we’ll take you off the list. Sellers can ask at the same address to close their account.

Your rights

You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, at support@heynews.co.

Refunds

You are charged when you bid on an hour or buy one outright, not before, and a losing bid costs nothing more until you pick. You can call an hour off for a full refund until 24 hours before it begins, as long as we have not approved it yet. After that, write to support@heynews.co if anything needs to change. If we reject a drop before it goes up, you can fix it once, and the fix goes up only once we approve it; if we reject the fix too, or it is not made in time, it is refunded in full. A drop not approved before its hour ends is refunded in full. Refunds go to the payment method you used, within 10 business days. If we cancel your hour for a reason on our side, you get a full refund. Read the rules.

Terms for sellers

You own your drop and you’re responsible for it. By submitting it you confirm you have the right to use the images, that the discount is real, and that you’ll honor it for the time shown. HourDrop shows your drop; it doesn’t sell your product. Purchases happen on your site, under your terms, and any dispute about a purchase is between you and the buyer. A discount link has to be on your own site, or on a checkout or membership platform, and no link may be shortened or redirected. A link that phishes, deceives or breaks the law gets its seller banned for good and reported to the authorities.

We may reject a drop before it goes up, or take one down while it is on the screen, if it breaks the rules. Rejected before it goes up: you can fix it once, the fix goes up only once we approve it, and if we reject the fix too, or it is not made in time, full refund. Not approved before its hour ends: it does not go up, full refund. Taken down while on the screen for breaking the rules: no refund.

We don’t promise a number of visitors or taps. The numbers you get are the real ones, and they’re all you get.

Bidding, locks, losing bids and the launch floor work as described on the rules page, which is part of these terms.

The site is provided as it is. Our liability to you for anything to do with an hour is limited to the amount you paid for that hour. These terms are governed by the law of the United States.

Contact

support@heynews.co

Changes

If this page changes, the date at the top changes.