Privacy policy

Who we are

SQL Multicast is operated by AERai Group LLC, the controller of the personal data described here. Contact us at support@sqlmulticast.com or through the contact page.

What we collect, and why

We collect your name, email address and organization because a license is issued to a person, and an unreachable account is a license nobody can use. We collect nothing about your databases.

• Name, email address and organization. They go on your license and are how we reach you. Held in our database, and your name and organization are inside the signed license itself.
• Your answer to the eligibility question. It determines which tier you qualify for, and it is the record of what you declared.
• A password, if you choose to add one. Held hashed; we cannot read it. A sign-in code is kept only as a hash, for ten minutes, and deleted once used.
• The licenses we have issued you. So we can answer what has been signed, and for whom.
• Devices. A random identifier the app generates and the name of the computer, so a license can be limited to the three devices it covers. See Devices, below.
• Support tickets. If you contact support from your account, the subject and the messages you and we write are stored with the ticket, so a conversation survives a failed email.
• Payment records. Held by our payment provider for tax and accounting. Your card details never reach us.
• Your language. The site puts it in the address. If you dismiss the offer to switch language, a small preference cookie remembers that. See Cookies, below.

What the app never sends us

• Server, instance or database names
• Connection strings, usernames or passwords
• Script content, query text or results
• Schema, table or column names
• Anything from a run log

That is a property of the code rather than a promise layered over it. The only outbound calls the application makes are a license request carrying an access token, a random install identifier and the name of the computer, and, in builds you download from us rather than from the Microsoft Store, an update check against a public GitHub repository. The Store updates its own installs, so those make no update check. There is no telemetry endpoint, and the code to read a workspace and send it anywhere does not exist.

The identifier in your license

Your license carries an opaque identifier derived from your account — a SHA-256 hash, not your email address. The desktop app uses it as a folder name for your local state. It is deliberately not your address: addresses change, and a folder named after one would write your email onto every machine you ever sign in from.

Devices

A license covers up to three devices per user. To enforce that, each time the desktop app asks for a license it sends a random identifier it generated on first sign-in and the name of the computer. We keep both, with when the device was first and last seen, for as long as your account exists or until you remove the device from your account page. A device that has not been seen for 30 days stops counting toward the three.

The identifier is random: it is not derived from your hardware, your network card or your operating system, and we collect no hardware details. The computer name is whatever you called the machine, so if that names you or your employer, it names you to us. Command-line use on build agents and air-gapped machines does not send either, and is not counted.

Release email

Optional, unticked by default, and never a condition of getting a license. It is a separate consent because it is a separate purpose, and bundling them would make both unreliable. Every message carries an unsubscribe link.

Why we are allowed to use your data

Where the law asks us to name a basis for using personal data, these are ours.

• To give you a license and let you sign in — because it is what you asked for when you registered (performing a contract with you).
• To limit a license to the devices it covers, and to keep accounts secure — our legitimate interest in applying the license terms and preventing misuse. It is limited to a random identifier and a computer name, for the reason given under Devices.
• To count visits to the website and see where they come from — our legitimate interest in knowing which pages are useful and how people find us. It identifies nobody; see Website analytics.
• To send release email — your consent, which you can withdraw at any time with the unsubscribe link.
• To keep payment and tax records — because the law requires us to keep them.

Who receives your data

• Microsoft Azure hosts our database and the site. See Where your data is.
• Our payment provider handles payments and holds the payment records. We do not receive your card details.
• Cloudflare counts visits to the website for us. See Website analytics.
• Whoever you ask us to share with. For example, a colleague you add to an organization license.
• Authorities, only where the law compels us to.

Where your data is

Our database runs in Microsoft Azure, in the South Central US region, so your data is processed in the United States. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or elsewhere, that means it is transferred there. We depend on Microsoft for hosting, and the region may change without notice: Microsoft can retire, consolidate or relocate capacity, and we may move for reasons of cost, resilience or availability. This section describes where your data is today, not a commitment about where it will always be. If a move would materially change how your data is handled, we will update this page.

Cookies

The site sets three kinds of cookie, and no others:

• Sign-in — keeps you signed in, and is set only when you sign in.
• Form protection — a security cookie that stops another site submitting a form as you. It is set on pages that have a form.
• Language offer — a preference cookie that records you dismissed or took the offer to switch language, for a year. Nothing in it identifies anyone.

None of them is for analytics, advertising or tracking. The website analytics below set no cookie at all.

Website analytics

To know which pages are read and how people find the site, the website uses Cloudflare Web Analytics. When a page loads, a small script from Cloudflare reports the page's address, the address of the page that linked to it, and the browser, device type and country. Cloudflare states that it does not use cookies or local storage for this, and does not use your IP address to identify or fingerprint you. We see totals, such as visits per page and the sites that send visitors, never a record of one person.

This covers the website only. The desktop app sends nothing of the kind; see What the app never sends us.

How long we keep it

• Account and license records — while your account exists, and for as long afterwards as tax and accounting law requires for anything with a payment attached.
• Devices — for as long as your account exists, or until you remove the device. A device not seen for 30 days stops counting toward your three.
• Sign-in codes — ten minutes, and deleted once used.
• Authentication tokens — removed automatically 14 days after they expire. The grace period exists so a refresh token presented after it was rotated can still be recognised as a replay.
• Support tickets — with your account, and deleted with it.
• Anything you ask us to delete — deleted.

Your data on your machine

Workspaces, projects, scripts, connection details and run logs are yours and stay on your machine. Connection secrets are held by Windows DPAPI, scoped to your user account, and never leave it. Run logs record target and database names, messages and SQL error text — your production topology — and are kept outside your workspace folder specifically so that committing a workspace to source control does not commit them too.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to see what we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, restrict or object to how we use it, take a copy of it elsewhere, and withdraw a consent you gave. Ask us and we will do it. Deleting your account deletes the account and license records that are not required for accounting. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

Get in touch or write to support@sqlmulticast.com.

Children

SQL Multicast is a professional tool and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe we have, tell us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the software, our providers or the law change. The current version is always the one published here, and the date at the top says when it last changed.

• Material changes, such as collecting a new kind of data, using existing data for a new purpose, or adding a party that receives it, are published here, and we intend to notify you by email if you have given us an address. Publishing the change here is what makes it effective; notification is a courtesy we aim for, not a condition of the change.
• Other changes, such as clarifications, corrections and updates to the data location, are posted here and may take effect without notice.

If you do not agree with a change, you can stop using the software and ask us to delete your account.

Contact

AERai Group LLC — sqlmulticast.com — support@sqlmulticast.com