Privacy Policy

GearCred is operated by Windy Point Media, LLC (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what personal information we collect when you use GearCred, how we use it, and the choices you have. It covers shoppers, creators, and brand users.

What we collect

Everyone with an account

• Email address and password. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and stored only in hashed form; we never see them.
• Your name, if you provide it.

Shoppers

• The activities and interests you choose, your email preferences, the creators and brands you follow, the posts you save, and the gear lists you create.

Creators

• Public profile details: display name, bio, profile photo, and links to your social accounts.
• The posts you publish: photos, captions, video embeds, and the gear you tag.
• Contact and business details: phone number, tax identification number (for commission payments and tax reporting), and shipping address (for product samples you request).
• Commission and payout records, and your coupon code requests.
• If you connect Instagram, the data described in the Instagram section below.

Brand users

• Your name, email, and the brand you represent, plus content you upload such as your brand logo.

Activity on GearCred

• When someone clicks a gear link, we record which link was clicked and when, so creators can see how their recommendations perform. We do not record the clicker's IP address or device details for this.

Instagram

If you are a creator and choose to connect your Instagram professional account, you sign in with Instagram and approve access. We then receive and store:

• Your Instagram user ID, username, and account type.
• An access token that lets us read your profile and media on your behalf. It is stored encrypted and is never shown to anyone.
• The list of your recent posts, which we show only to you so you can choose which ones to bring into GearCred.

Nothing from Instagram is published on GearCred unless you choose a post and publish it. When you import a post, we copy its photos and caption into your GearCred post so it keeps working if Instagram's links change. We never post to Instagram, and we do not access your messages, followers, or insights.

You can disconnect at any time in Account Settings, which deletes the stored token and Instagram details. You can also remove GearCred from Instagram under Settings, Apps and websites. See Data deletion.

How we use it

• To run GearCred: show creator profiles and posts, keep your follows, saves and lists, and let you log in.
• To build affiliate links and attribute sales, so creators are paid commissions.
• To handle requests between creators and brands, such as coupon codes and product samples.
• To pay creators and meet tax obligations.
• To send the emails you've chosen to receive, and essential account emails such as password resets.
• To keep GearCred secure and prevent abuse.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

Who we share it with

• The public: creator profiles, published posts, tagged gear, and public gear lists are visible to anyone. Shopper accounts are not public.
• Brands: when a creator requests a coupon code or product sample from a brand, that brand sees the creator's name and email, and for samples, the shipping address provided.
• Affiliate networks and retailers: when you click a gear link you are sent to the retailer through an affiliate network (such as AvantLink or Impact), which receives the click under its own privacy policy.
• Service providers that host and run GearCred for us, including Supabase (database, authentication, file storage), Replit (hosting), and logo.dev (brand logo images). They process data only on our behalf.
• Meta: if you connect Instagram, the connection is made through Meta's systems under Meta's terms.
• Legal reasons: when required by law, or to protect the rights and safety of our users or GearCred.

Cookies

We use cookies only to keep you signed in and to secure sign-in flows. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies. Retailers and affiliate networks you visit from GearCredset their own cookies to credit the creator who referred you.

Your choices and rights

• Edit your profile, preferences, and email settings at any time in your account settings.
• Delete your account from your settings page. See Data deletion for what is removed.
• Ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct or delete it, by emailing nick@windypointmedia.com.

Depending on where you live (for example California, or the EU and UK), you may have additional rights, including to know what we hold, to delete it, and to object to certain uses. We honor these requests regardless of where you live.

Retention

We keep your information while your account is open. When you delete your account we remove it from our live systems right away; copies in backups are overwritten within 30 days. Commission and tax records may be kept longer where the law requires.

Security

We protect data with access controls and encryption in transit, and we encrypt stored social account tokens. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep yours safe.

Children

GearCred is not intended for anyone under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their information. Creator accounts require you to be 18 or older.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date above, and tell you directly for significant changes.

Contact

Questions or requests: nick@windypointmedia.com. Windy Point Media, LLC.