This Privacy Policy explains what data the TextBay app for Windows handles. The short version: your contacts, your messages and your sending history live on your own PC, and your messages are sent through your own Twilio account - not through servers of ours. The only things that ever reach a server of Bosau Digital LLC ("we", "us") are license checks and the support messages you choose to send. The app has no telemetry, shows no advertising and builds no profile of you. This policy covers the app; for the pythonandvba.com website itself, please see the website Privacy Policy.

1. Who We Are

TextBay is made by Bosau Digital LLC, the company behind pythonandvba.com. For any privacy-related question, contact contact@pythonandvba.com.

2. Data That Stays on Your PC

Everything TextBay works with is stored locally on your computer, in the folder TextBay inside your Windows user folder:

• Your contacts: phone numbers, names, lists and any details you add, and, if you use Check numbers, each number's line type (for example mobile or landline) and when it was checked
• Your sending history - every processed message including its text, delivery status, Twilio's explanation when a message failed and, when Twilio reports it, its price
• Your campaigns: for each send, its name, the message you wrote and who it went to, so you can send again or send to the rest later
• Your reusable saved messages (templates)
• Your skipped numbers list (numbers TextBay never texts: people who replied STOP, numbers you added yourself, and numbers Twilio reported as unable to receive texts, such as landlines or disconnected numbers), plus the numbers you chose to allow again
• Your settings, including your license key and your Twilio Auth Token (both stored encrypted for your Windows account, using Windows DPAPI) and your Twilio Account SID (stored as plain text)
• The inbox's per-conversation read and hidden markers - these are stored keyed by the other person's phone number
• A small machine-bound counter for the one-time 20 free messages (kept redundantly as a file in the TextBay folder, a hidden file in your user folder, a registry entry and a database entry; it contains usage counts and a signature derived from your Windows installation - no names, numbers or message text)
• A local error log, automatic daily safety copies of the database (newest seven kept), the safety copy of your database and settings TextBay saves in its backups folder each time you restore a backup (these are not deleted automatically), and, only if the database is busy during a send, a small temporary file of send results that TextBay writes back into the database as soon as it can

None of this is uploaded or synced to us. Incoming replies shown in the inbox are fetched from your Twilio account each time and displayed from memory; their content is not written to disk by the app. The error log is written so that phone numbers and message text stay out of it, and the app never transmits it. Backup files you export from the Settings page are ordinary zip files stored wherever you choose to save them (they contain your data, so treat them like the original; your license key and Auth Token inside are encrypted for your Windows account, so on another PC you enter them again).

Uninstalling keeps your data. The TextBay folder deliberately lives outside the app container, so removing the app from Windows leaves your contacts and history in place and reinstalling later brings everything back. To erase all data, use Delete everything and start fresh on the app's Settings page, or simply delete that folder. Two small copies of the free-message counter are kept on purpose even then: a hidden file named .textbay in your user folder and a registry entry, so the free messages cannot be reset by reinstalling. They hold usage counts and a signature only, nothing about you or the people you message.

3. How Your Messages Are Sent

TextBay talks directly to Twilio's API over HTTPS, using the Account SID and Auth Token you enter. Your recipients' phone numbers, your message text and any media links travel from your PC to Twilio, which delivers them as SMS, MMS or WhatsApp messages and bills your Twilio account; replies are fetched back from Twilio the same way. When you choose Delete from Twilio for a conversation in the inbox, TextBay asks Twilio to delete those messages from your Twilio account. After a send, TextBay also asks Twilio for the delivery status of those messages (in the background for up to about 12 hours, and whenever you refresh History). If you use the optional Check numbers feature on the Contacts page, TextBay sends the numbers you check to Twilio's Lookup service, which reports what kind of line each one is; Twilio bills your account for each lookup, and the app shows the estimated cost before anything is sent. Our servers are not involved in any of this. Twilio is a product of Twilio Inc. with its own privacy policy; WhatsApp is a product of Meta Platforms with its own privacy policy. TextBay is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Twilio or WhatsApp.

4. Data That Leaves Your PC

License checks

When you enter your license key, and once per app start while a key is stored, TextBay verifies the key against our license server at api.pythonandvba.com (and again before a send or when you open the Account page, if the last check could not reach the server). This sends your license key, the name of your PC (to enforce the per-device limit of your license) and the app version. It never includes contacts, phone numbers or message text. When you open the Account page with a valid license, the app also sends your key to load your license details (such as your plan and renewal date) for display.

Like any web server, our license server also receives your IP address with each check. It appears, with the approximate country derived from it, in our server logs, which are deleted after 14 days (90 days for warnings and errors). The device names (your computer names) registered to your license are kept with your license record (when each was first seen and last used, and the app version) for as long as the license exists, together with a count of checks and when the license was last used. If a check fails, we keep the license key, IP address, approximate country, device name and app version for up to 90 days to detect misuse of keys.

Support messages you send

The contact form on the Account page sends a message only when you press the button. It includes what you typed (topic, your name, your reply email address, your message), plus technical facts that help resolve the issue: the app version, your Windows version, the name of your PC, your license key and status, a short excerpt of the local error log, and a few setup facts (whether Twilio is connected, which kind of sender is chosen, whether test mode is on, and how many contacts you have as a single number). The log excerpt is automatically redacted before sending: phone numbers and anything secret-shaped are stripped out. These messages never contain your contacts, phone numbers, message text or your Twilio credentials. The form's own small print names the same list.

When you send a support message, we check that your email address can receive mail with Reoon (an email verification service), deliver the message to us and send you a confirmation by email via Postmark, create a task in our task list (Todoist) so it gets answered, and tag your email address as "contacted support" in our self-hosted customer database (FluentCRM) if you are already in it. To answer faster, we look up your license and purchase records with us. Like every request, the message arrives with your IP address, which appears in our server logs as described under License checks. We keep the message as support history for up to 24 months after your last contact, then delete it; ask us to delete it sooner.

Nothing else

The app sends no usage statistics, builds no analytics profile, shows no advertising and does no automatic error reporting. There is no update check either - installation and updates come from the Microsoft Store. Managing your subscription, devices and invoices happens on your account page in the browser, not through the app; the link the app opens carries your license key so the page knows which license you mean, and the website Privacy Policy applies there. Apart from Twilio (section 3), the license checks and the support messages above, TextBay makes no network requests.

5. Microsoft Store

TextBay is distributed through the Microsoft Store, so installation and updates are handled by Microsoft, which may process install and usage statistics under its own privacy statement. We only see the aggregated numbers Microsoft shows to app publishers, never anything about you personally.

6. Purchases

Licenses are purchased on pythonandvba.com, not inside the app. Payment and billing information is processed by Pabbly Subscription Billing, Stripe and/or PayPal; we receive your email address and the product purchased in order to deliver your license key. We do not store your payment card details. Please see the Pabbly, Stripe and PayPal privacy policies for details. What you spend with Twilio for the messages themselves is between you and Twilio.

7. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we process the data described above under these legal bases:

• Contract performance: validating your license and delivering the product you bought
• Legitimate interests: enforcing the per-device license limit, detecting misuse of license keys, keeping short-lived server logs to prevent abuse and diagnose faults, and answering the support messages you send
• Legal obligation: keeping transaction records where the law requires it

Your own sending lists are your responsibility: when you message people with TextBay, you are the controller of those contacts, and obligations like consent and opt-out handling toward them are yours. The app helps with the mechanics (STOP replies are honoured automatically and your skipped numbers list is enforced on every send, including inbox replies), but it cannot obtain consent for you.

8. Data Sharing

We do not sell personal data. Purchase data is shared with the payment processors named above, and license records are stored by our hosting providers on our behalf. Support messages are shared only with the service providers that help us deliver and answer them (Reoon, Postmark, Todoist; see Support messages you send). Your contacts and messages cannot be shared by us with anyone because they never reach us in the first place - they exist only on your PC and in your own Twilio account.

Bosau Digital LLC is based in the United States, so the data described in this policy is processed in the United States and/or in the countries where our service providers operate. Where personal data of EEA or UK residents is transferred internationally, we and our service providers rely on appropriate safeguards such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and/or Standard Contractual Clauses.

9. Data Retention

• License and activation records: kept for as long as your license is active and as required by law; this includes the device names registered to your license
• Server logs: deleted after 14 days (90 days for warnings and errors)
• Failed license checks: deleted after 90 days
• Support messages: kept as support history for up to 24 months after your last contact, then deleted
• Everything on your PC: under your control alone. The app removes only its own housekeeping copies (daily safety copies beyond the newest seven, and the temporary send-results file once written back). Delete everything and start fresh removes everything in the TextBay folder, including the safety copies made before a restore; only the free-message counter described in section 2 stays

10. Your Rights

If you are in the EEA or the UK, you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you (which is limited to license, purchase and support records), and to object to processing based on legitimate interests. Contact contact@pythonandvba.com and you will receive a response within 30 days. These requests are honoured for customers everywhere, not only where the law requires it.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk); in the EEA you can find your national authority through the European Data Protection Board (edpb.europa.eu). We would welcome the chance to resolve your concern first, so please consider contacting us before you do.

11. Data Security

All communication between the app, Twilio and our license server uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). On your PC, your Twilio Auth Token and your license key are encrypted with Windows DPAPI so only your Windows account can read them; the rest of your data is protected by your Windows user account like your other documents. The app keeps its data outside cloud-synced folders on purpose.

12. Children's Privacy

TextBay is a business tool and is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the latest change. Material changes will be visible here before they take effect.

14. Contact

Related documents: Terms & Conditions · Privacy Policy · Refund Policy · EULA