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Privacy Policy

What information Zeiral collects, why, who it is shared with, and how long it is kept.

Last updated 8 November 2026

This policy explains what Zeiral collects and why. It is about how Zeiral works today; if that changes we will update this page.

1. What we collect

  • Account: your name, email, phone if you add one, profile photo and bio, and security data such as a hashed password and sign-in activity. If you set up two-factor authentication, we store an encrypted authenticator secret and hashed recovery codes.
  • Celebrations: titles, stories, dates, places, Schedules, photos and galleries you add.
  • Guests: names, emails and phone numbers that organizers add or guests provide; each guest's RSVP reply, which can include whether they attend, dietary needs, special requests and a note to the host; and the name, email and phone number of a plus-one when a guest adds one. Dietary needs and special requests are free text and can reveal health or religious information, so share only what you are comfortable with the host knowing. If you add a plus-one, you are giving us another person's details, so make sure they are happy for you to. Invitation links are personal: anyone who has a guest's link can see and change that guest's RSVP and, for an invited-only Celebration, open the Celebration.
  • Wishes, gifts and gallery: the name and message of a wish; for a gift, the giver's name, email, amount and message and whether they chose to hide their name; for a Gallery photo, a visitor's like (stored against a random code, or against the account if signed in) and a comment's name and text. Wishes, gift details and comments are shown to other people as described in section 4.
  • Payments: gifts, Paid Entry and Plus upgrades are paid through Bachs or Paystack, depending on the checkout. Payment details are entered on the provider's checkout. We keep payment references, amounts, status, payer name and email, the phone number supplied for Paid Entry, and related transaction records and provider responses.
  • Payouts: organizers enter their bank and account number in Zeiral, and the provider verifies the account name. The full number is stored encrypted and shown masked. To set up and deliver payouts, we share the necessary bank and account-holder details with the payout provider. For Bachs connected accounts, this also includes the organizer's email, display name and representative name derived from the verified bank-account name.
  • Support: when you contact us, we collect your name, email, selected topic, any reference you provide and your message. The Help form emails these details to our support inbox so we can respond.
  • Reports and moderation: a Celebration report records the reason, an optional note, your account if you are signed in, and a keyed hash of your IP address used only to prevent abuse. Moderation actions are logged.
  • Security and audit: important account events (such as email or password changes and payout changes) and finance and admin actions are logged. Finance, payout and admin records include the IP address and browser details of the request.
  • Technical data: like most websites, our servers and security tools handle your IP address and browser details to deliver pages and to limit abuse; for example, repeated attempts from one address are counted and slowed down.

2. Why we use it

We use this information to run Celebrations, process gifts and Paid Entry payments, pay eligible funds to hosts, provide support, keep Zeiral secure, prevent fraud and abuse, and meet legal and accounting obligations. We also send emails needed to use the service, such as invitations, reminders, payment receipts, refund updates and account security notices.

3. Who it is shared with

  • Organizers see what guests send them (name, RSVP, wishes, gifts, ticket details).
  • Service providers that operate Zeiral: Bachs and Paystack for payment processing, bank-account verification and payouts, according to the route being used; Cloudinary, which stores uploaded images and delivers them to the visitors who view them; email delivery and support inbox services; hosting and infrastructure; and Google, in the limited ways below.
  • Google Maps: when an organizer types a Schedule address, the address is sent to Google to look up the location, and the organizer's Schedule details page shows a Google map. Public Celebration pages do not load Google Maps. Links such as “Add to calendar” on RSVP pages and “Open in maps” on the organizer's Schedule page take you to Google when you choose them.
  • A small animation script (used for the celebration effect after a payment) is loaded from a public script host (jsDelivr) on public Celebration pages. Like any service that delivers a file to your browser, these providers can see your IP address and browser details.
  • Authorities or advisers where the law requires or to protect against fraud and abuse.

We do not sell your personal information.

4. What other people can see

  • The organizer sees what guests send them: RSVP replies and every detail above (including dietary needs, special requests and plus-one details), wishes, and gifts with the amount and message. In the organizer's gift list the giver's email is shown only when the gift is not anonymous.
  • Anyone who has the link to a public Celebration (or, for an invited-only Celebration, anyone with valid invitation access) can see its page, including: wishes (the sender's name, message and time, and a “Sent a gift” marker where a gift came with it); recent gifts and the “See all gifts” list (the giver's name or “Anonymous”, the amount, the message, the time and any reply from the organizer); the total received and any goal; and, where the plan includes them, Gallery photos, like counts and comments (the commenter's name and text). Password-protected Celebrations ask for the password first.
  • Anonymous gifts: choosing to send a gift without showing your name replaces your name with “Anonymous” on the Celebration page and keeps your email out of the organizer's gift list. It does not hide the amount, the message or the time, and Zeiral and the payment provider still keep your name and email for payment records.
  • Shareable wish cards: after sending a wish, the sender can save or share it as an image. The organizer can also share it from their Messages page. The card includes the sender's name and message, the Celebration title, an image where available and a link or QR code. Copies shared outside Zeiral may be seen by people who cannot open the Celebration. Removing the wish or restricting the Celebration does not remove copies already saved or shared.
  • RSVP details are not shown on the Celebration page to other guests.

5. Cookies

Zeiral sets only the cookies it needs to work and does not use advertising or analytics cookies. Third-party services on our pages, including the payment provider when you pay, may set their own cookies under their own policies.

  • Session and form protection (a session cookie and an XSRF-TOKEN cookie): set for every visitor, signed in or not, to keep you signed in, to remember a Celebration password you entered, and to protect forms. The session is configured to expire after 120 minutes of inactivity.
  • Remember me: only if you tick it when signing in; keeps you signed in on that browser for up to about 400 days.
  • Invitation access (zairal_ca): set when a guest opens a Celebration from their invitation. It is encrypted, holds which guest you are and a version number for the Celebrations you have been invited to, and lasts 30 days. If an organizer removes your access, it stops working.
  • Gallery visitor (zairal_gv): set the first time someone who is not signed in likes a Gallery photo. It holds a random identifier that does not contain your name or contact details, lasts one year, and lets your like be counted once and removed.

6. How long we keep it

  • Payment, ticket, payout, ledger and audit records are kept as long as needed for accounting, disputes and legal obligations, even if an account is closed.
  • When you close your account it is anonymized and can no longer sign in. Your personal details are removed from the account, and uploaded images are deleted when the content they belong to is safely removed. A Celebration that has gifts, tickets, guests or messages is kept for those records, hidden from the public, and its content may remain in our systems where needed.
  • Closing an account does not erase everything immediately.

7. Your choices

You can edit your profile and close your account. You can also ask us about your information, for example to see it, correct it or have it deleted. Send privacy requests through Help & Contact (choose “Privacy or closing my account”). We check that a request comes from the person it is about before we share or change anything, and we reply within the time the law requires.

Some information we keep or cannot change on request, such as payment, ticket and audit records (see section 6). Information an organizer collects for their Celebration, such as a guest list or RSVP replies, is managed by that organizer, so we may need to involve the organizer in a request about it.

8. Security

We protect accounts with hashed passwords, encrypted payout numbers, login throttling and security emails. Optional authenticator-app two-factor authentication adds another sign-in check, and it is required for administrators. No system is perfectly secure. Never share your password or one-time codes with anyone, including us.