Privacy Policy

Privacy at a glance

Without an account, your stitching projects stay on your device. Source patterns, converted projects, progress, notes and project photos remain on the device or in the local folder where you saved them, unless you choose one of the diagnostic or support actions described below.

With a Ruta account, your projects are synchronised. While you are signed in, Ruta copies your project library to private Ruta storage so that the same projects and progress are available on your other devices. A synchronised project includes its chart, progress, notes, project photos and, where the project keeps it, the source pattern file. When you sign in, projects already on the device are added to your account and synchronised. Synchronisation is part of having an account; to keep projects only on the device, use Ruta without signing in.

Some account and technical information is sent to Ruta services. Ruta uses account, trial, purchase, security and diagnostic information to provide access, restore purchases where paid plans are offered, investigate import compatibility, maintain the service and process account deletion.

Source PDFs have a separate diagnostic-sharing control. Ruta asks for explicit one-time consent before this sharing is authorised. The switch may initially be shown as on in the consent screen, but no PDF or technical report is authorised for upload unless you select Allow. Selecting Continue without sending with the switch off keeps sharing disabled, and you can turn sharing off later. This control covers diagnostic sharing only: for a signed-in account, the copy of a source PDF that a project keeps is synchronised together with that project.

Ruta does not sell personal data or use it for behavioural advertising. The app does not contain third-party advertising SDKs, and project content, account data and telemetry are not sold to advertisers.

1. Information Ruta processes

Authentication, profile and account data. Ruta may create a background anonymous technical session and identifier so that trial and access checks can work before you create a visible account. If you continue with email, we process your email address, Ruta account identifier, optional display name, verification and session information, login events and account status. Ruta does not receive your email password. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive from them your email address (with Apple, possibly a private relay address) and, if you choose to share it, your name, which becomes your Ruta profile name until you change or clear it. When you sign in with Apple on an iPhone or iPad, Ruta also keeps a token issued by Apple, only so that your Sign in with Apple can be revoked when you delete your account. If you choose a profile photo while signed in, Ruta keeps it in private, account-scoped storage so that your other signed-in devices can show it. You can remove it at any time; it is then deleted from Ruta’s storage and from your other devices. It is also removed when you delete your account.

Trial, access and purchase data. Paid plans are not offered in every version of Ruta, including pre-release and testing versions. We process trial start and expiry, trial-consumption status, entitlement state, promotional or tester grants, lifetime access, store and purchase identifiers, product information, transaction or purchase history needed for access, and purchase-restoration results. Payment-card details are handled by the relevant app store or payment provider and are not provided to Ruta.

App Store purchases. On iPhone and iPad, Ruta Pro is sold through Apple’s in-app purchase. Apple processes the payment. The app and Apple’s server notifications pass the purchase information to RevenueCat, which manages access for Ruta: the product bought, purchase, renewal and expiry dates, free-trial, cancellation and refund status, the storefront country and currency, and Apple’s transaction identifiers. Ruta receives from RevenueCat whether you have Ruta Pro and until when. RevenueCat also notifies Ruta of each purchase event (such as a purchase, renewal, cancellation or refund, with the product, the price in US dollars, the store’s estimated tax and commission share, the time and the store’s transaction identifiers). Ruta uses these events only to calculate partner commissions, described under Partner and referral data: for a purchase by someone a partner referred, Ruta keeps the details needed for that commission; for everyone else, Ruta keeps only the event’s identifier, when it arrived and how it was handled, so that a repeated notification is counted once. Ruta does not receive your Apple Account email address, name or payment details from Apple.

Google Play purchases. On Android, Ruta Pro is sold through Google Play’s billing system. Google processes the payment. The app and Google Play’s real-time developer notifications pass the purchase information to RevenueCat in the same way: the product bought, purchase, renewal and expiry dates, free-trial, cancellation and refund status, the country and currency, and Google Play’s order and purchase identifiers. Ruta receives from RevenueCat whether you have Ruta Pro and until when, and uses purchase events only as described above for App Store purchases. Ruta does not receive your Google account email address, name or payment details from Google Play.

Free imports. Where Ruta Pro is sold, the number of free imports you have used is counted on the device and is not sent to Ruta.

Device, network and security data. Ruta and its hosting providers may process platform, operating-system and app/build version, IP address and request metadata, security events, and a pseudonymous device-derived proof used where supported to enforce trial eligibility and prevent repeated-trial abuse. The server is designed to receive a cryptographic or otherwise pseudonymous representation rather than the raw underlying device identifier where the platform supports that design. The Android app does not currently send a device-derived identifier.

Routine product and import telemetry. Ruta may send technical events such as app and build version, platform, timestamps, app lifecycle, import route and outcome, stable error or status codes, performance timings, feature usage, entitlement state, and stitch, page or object counts. Where an account or technical session is present, an event may be linked to that account or session. A source basename, cryptographic file hash and limited pattern or project metadata may be included when needed to correlate an import problem. Routine telemetry is designed not to include full PDF bytes, full project files, raw filesystem paths, passwords, one-time codes, access tokens, email addresses or unrestricted stack traces.

Crash reports. When Ruta stops because of an error, or was closed unexpectedly the last time it ran, the app sends a short report: app and build version, platform, device model, operating-system version, the kind of work that was under way (for example, drawing a project cover), the size of the chart as counts of stitches and thread colours, the type of the error and a limited list of the names of the app’s own functions and code files where it happened. A crash report does not include file names, chart content, notes, photos or the text of the error message. Where an account or technical session is present, a report is linked to it. Crash reports are kept for up to 180 days.

Extracted compatibility diagnostics. When an authenticated import produces an incomplete, rejected or otherwise non-passing technical assessment, Ruta may upload a private account-scoped diagnostic package containing extracted chart structures needed to understand the failure, such as bounded cell, cluster, thread, binding or special-geometry records and related counts or hashes. This package is not the original PDF and is not a cloud backup of the project, but it can contain pattern-derived technical content.

Problematic source PDFs. Ruta has a separate Send PDFs to the Ruta team setting under Sharing in Ruta’s settings. Before this sharing is authorised for the first time, Ruta shows an in-app consent screen. The switch may initially be shown as on in that screen, but no PDF or technical report is authorised for upload unless you select Allow. Selecting Continue without sending with the switch off keeps sharing disabled.

With your consent, a complete source PDF and a bounded technical report from an import that ends as partial, unverified, refused, failed or incomplete may be uploaded automatically to private storage for compatibility diagnosis. Complete and cancelled imports are not uploaded through this path. Turning sharing off stops future authorised transfers and requests cleanup of eligible queued or stored diagnostic files, although processing already completed cannot be undone.

Pre-release versions of Ruta distributed before October 2026 could also upload the source PDF of a completed import to private storage. That upload has been switched off. A file received that way is removed when its account is deleted, or on request.

If you later adopt a guest library into an account, a never-sent guest diagnostic file may be associated with that account only under the recorded sharing consent. A transfer already attempted under another technical identity is not reassigned.

Project synchronisation. While you are signed in to a Ruta account, the app uploads the files that make up each project in your library to private, account-scoped storage and downloads them on your other signed-in devices. A synchronised project can contain the converted chart, saved edits, stitching progress, drafts, project details and notes, project photos and, where the project keeps it, the original source pattern file. The position and zoom at which a device last showed a chart stay on that device. When two devices change the same project, Ruta may keep both versions, one of them as a conflict copy. Deleting a project in Ruta marks it as deleted for your other devices; the stored files of a deleted project remain in private storage until you delete your account.

Local projects, photos and other files. When you use Ruta without an account, converted projects, progress, notes and project photos are processed on the device. They are then sent to us only through a clearly identified diagnostic or support action described in this Policy. A subscription or purchase receipt does not by itself create a server copy of your projects.

Support and correspondence. If you contact us, we receive your email address, optional name, Ruta account identifier where needed, message, diagnostic information you choose to provide and any attachments. In-app support messages may be linked to your Ruta account so that the conversation can be shown and answered securely. In-app support can also be used without an account; that conversation is linked to a random identifier kept on the device. In-app messages are also delivered to the Ruta support mailbox by email.

Weekly leaderboard. Taking part in Ruta’s weekly leaderboard is optional and needs a Ruta account. It starts only when you choose a name for it and select Join. While you take part, each of your devices tells Ruta how many stitches were marked on it in each hour of the current and the previous week, together with a random identifier of that device made only for the leaderboard. It does not send which projects, charts or patterns the stitches belong to, and stitches that come with a project file are not counted. Ruta counts at most a set number of stitches per hour and per day, and works out your total for the week, your place and a star for a top-three place in the previous week. Other people using Ruta, with or without an account, can see the name you chose (a generated name, or the first name and the first letter of the last name from your Ruta profile), its first letter, your stitches counted this week, your place, your star and your last three weeks in the top three. If you use the name from your profile and turn on Show my photo, they also see a small square copy of your profile photo beside your name. Ruta keeps that copy apart from your profile photo and deletes it when you turn the switch off, choose a generated name, remove your profile photo or stop taking part. Other people do not see your email address, account identifier, projects, patterns or designers. Other people’s numbers are updated about every 15 minutes. Another person can hide your name on their own screen, in which case they see a generated name and no photo instead, and can report a name or photo to Ruta. Ruta may then replace a name from a profile with a generated one, remove the photo from the leaderboard or take an entry off a week’s board. A picture of a top-three week that you choose to share shows other people only as a letter and a number.

Website and early-access data. Netlify and related hosting services may process website logs such as IP address, browser or device information, requested page and visit time. If you submit the early-access form, we process your email address and selected device. The website does not use third-party advertising analytics or advertising cookies.

Partner and referral data. Ruta works with partners, such as cross-stitch pattern designers, who recommend Ruta and receive a share of the subscriptions of the people they refer. When you arrive through a link, code or file shared by a partner, Ruta records which partner referred you so that the partner can be credited. Depending on how you arrived, this may include:

• a visit to a partner page on go.rutastitch.com: the partner link, the visit time and the kind of device (such as iPhone or Android);
• the network (IP) address of your visit to a partner page, kept only in scrambled form for at most 3 days and compared with the address the app first connects from, to credit the partner whose link was opened from the same network;
• an App Store offer code or a partner code you redeem or enter, which names the partner who gave it;
• a partner link that opened the Ruta app;
• on Android, the install referrer that Google Play passes to the app, which names the partner link the app was installed from;
• for a Ruta chart file (.ruta) you import, the neutral partner number the file carries if a partner made it, or otherwise the SHA-256 fingerprint of the file, used only to recognise a chart a partner gives away; nothing else of the file or the chart is sent. A chart a partner made may also name its designer, which Ruta shows in the project details;

This information is used only to credit partners and to calculate and pay their commissions. It is never used for advertising and is not shown to you. Ruta does not ask you who referred you. A referral is recorded for your Ruta account or technical session; if you used Ruta without an account and then sign in, it moves to your account. Only people who are new to Ruta are credited, and after the first payment the credit no longer changes.

Partner data. If you take part in the partner programme yourself, Ruta processes your name or studio name, the email address of your Ruta account, your partner links and codes, the totals shown in your partner area, your commissions, payout requests and payout records, and the details you give to receive payouts. If you use the PDF check in your partner area, Ruta stores the PDF patterns you send, the chart files and pictures made from them, and what you write to us about how a pattern was read. The chart files carry your name and your neutral partner number, so that people who open them can be credited to you.

2. Why the information is used

We use the information described above to operate Ruta; provide anonymous and signed-in sessions; start and enforce Ruta’s seven-day trial where it is offered; verify App Store and Google Play subscriptions, free trials, paid, tester, promotional and lifetime access; restore purchases and move a purchase made without an account to the account you sign in to; synchronise the projects of a signed-in account between its devices; credit partners who referred you and calculate and pay their commissions; run the weekly leaderboard for people who choose to take part; secure accounts and services; prevent fraud and trial circumvention; import patterns; diagnose compatibility, reliability or performance problems; improve product reliability; answer support requests; process account deletion; comply with store requirements and law; and communicate material service or policy changes.

Ruta does not use project content or telemetry to build advertising profiles. Where applicable law requires a legal basis, processing may be necessary to provide the service or perform a contract, based on your consent for an optional action, necessary for legitimate interests such as security and product reliability, or required by law. You may withdraw consent for an optional activity, but this does not affect processing already completed lawfully. Taking part in the weekly leaderboard, and showing your photo on it, is based on your consent.

3. Service providers and sharing

Ruta does not sell personal information and does not share it with advertisers. Information is shared only as needed with authorised Ruta operators and service or distribution providers, including:

• Supabase, for authentication, anonymous technical sessions, server functions, entitlement records, synchronised project storage, private telemetry and diagnostic storage, support and account-deletion processing;
• RevenueCat, for purchase and entitlement management, restoration and deletion of the associated RevenueCat customer where applicable; for a signed-in account RevenueCat receives the Ruta account identifier and the account email address, so that access can be found and managed for that account; when you use Ruta without an account, a purchase is recorded under the random identifier of the device’s technical session, and when you then sign in on that device, the purchase is moved to your Ruta account;
• Google Play, Apple App Store, Microsoft Store or another distribution or payment provider, for downloads, purchases, subscriptions, refunds, transaction history and store-account functions;
• Netlify, for website hosting, technical logs and early-access form submissions;
• Cloudflare, for hosting the partner pages on go.rutastitch.com and the partner area on partners.rutastitch.com, and their technical logs;
• Resend, for delivering in-app support messages and replies by email;
• email, hosting and security providers, where needed to deliver support, messages and maintain the service.

Partners see only totals and anonymous summaries about the people they referred, for example how many people arrived through each of their links, how many subscribed, and how many payments, refunds or cancellations there were in a month. They also see how many people who came through their links, codes or chart files were not credited to them, and, for all time and in rounded numbers, how many of those had already come through another partner or had used Ruta before; numbers from 1 to 5 are shown only as “5 or fewer”. They do not receive your name, email address, account identifier, projects or other personal information.

Other Ruta users see the leaderboard entries of people who chose to take part, including the photo of those who chose to show it, as described in section 1. Nothing else about you is shown to other users.

We may also disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect users or the service, investigate fraud or security incidents, or complete a business transfer subject to applicable safeguards. Service providers may process information in countries different from yours. Where required, we use the contractual or other safeguards required by applicable law.

4. Patterns, diagnostic files and artificial intelligence

You keep any rights you already have in your patterns, designs, notes and photos. Processing or sending a file for a selected feature does not transfer ownership to Ruta.

Private telemetry, extracted compatibility diagnostics and an uploaded problematic PDF may be inspected by authorised Ruta operators only as needed to investigate compatibility, security or support. Their submission does not give Ruta permission to publish or sell the file, use it for advertising, add it to a permanent compatibility corpus, or use it to train an artificial-intelligence model. We will request separate, express permission before any such additional use.

Synchronised projects are stored so that your devices can receive them. Authorised Ruta operators access them only when needed to keep the service working, investigate a fault or security incident, or help with a support request you raise. The same limits apply: synchronisation does not give Ruta permission to publish or sell a project or pattern, use it for advertising, add it to a compatibility corpus, or use it to train an artificial-intelligence model.

Support attachments may be inspected to answer your request and diagnose the problem. Avoid sending material you are not legally allowed to share or information that is not needed for support. If Ruta later offers an optional cloud artificial-intelligence feature that sends project content to another provider, a separate in-app disclosure will be provided before that transfer.

5. Retention

Account, session and entitlement information is kept while needed to provide or restore access, secure the service and meet legal or store obligations. Purchase and entitlement records may be retained for accounting, fraud prevention, dispute handling and restoration of valid access.

Routine telemetry and extracted diagnostic packages are kept only as long as reasonably necessary for import investigation, reliability, security, support and legal obligations. Account-linked telemetry and private diagnostic objects are included in the account-deletion process unless limited retention is required for a legitimate reason described below.

When source-PDF diagnostic sharing is enabled, the local staged diagnostic copy is normally removed within seven days. A remotely uploaded problematic PDF is assigned an expiry, normally 30 days after staging and no later than 90 days under the current server policy. Retry does not extend that expiry. Secure deletion may finish shortly after the expiry while a worker completes cleanup. After file deletion, a limited operational record may remain for idempotency and security, with the stored file and identifying file metadata removed or scrubbed.

A pseudonymous trial-consumption or device-security record may remain after sign-out, reinstall or account deletion for as long as reasonably necessary to enforce one trial per eligible device, prevent abuse and protect the service. A limited account-deletion receipt or tombstone may also remain to prevent an old session or delayed request from recreating deleted data. These records are not used for advertising or to recreate the deleted account.

Support correspondence and attachments are kept while the request is active and afterwards only as needed for follow-up, security, dispute handling or law. Early-access contact information is kept while needed to respond to the request or send the requested availability notice, unless you ask us to remove it sooner.

The scrambled network addresses of partner page visits are deleted within 3 days. PDF patterns a partner sends for checking, and the chart files and pictures made from them, are kept in private storage until the partner deletes them in the partner area or asks us to remove them. The record of which partner referred an account, and the commission records calculated from its purchases, are kept while needed to calculate and pay commissions and for accounting and dispute handling. When the account is deleted, its referral record is removed and its commission records are kept without the link to the account (the store’s transaction identifiers, amounts and dates remain for accounting).

Hourly leaderboard counts are deleted after about two weeks. The leaderboard copy of your photo is kept only while it is shown. The places of finished weeks and the names you hid are kept while the account exists, so that your weeks in the top three can be shown to you. A report about a name or photo is kept as a record after Ruta has looked into it. When you stop taking part, your counts for the current week and the copy of your photo are deleted and you are no longer shown to other people on any board, including past weeks.

Synchronised project copies are kept while the account exists so that your devices can receive them. They are removed when the account is deleted. The stored files of a project you deleted also remain until then.

Local project data is controlled through the app and device storage. Ending a trial, subscription or granted entitlement does not by itself create an automatic project-deletion schedule. Local data can still be lost if you delete projects, uninstall Ruta, clear app data, delete local files, lose the device or experience storage failure.

6. Account and data deletion

You can request deletion from inside Ruta or through the public Ruta account-deletion page. Ruta may require fresh email verification or other reasonable verification before accepting the request.

After a verified request is accepted, deletion may be queued briefly for secure processing. Access associated with the deleting account is blocked while cleanup proceeds. The deletion process removes the Ruta authentication user, profile and account data, account-linked entitlement records, synchronised project copies, support conversations and files attached to them, the record of which partner referred the account, leaderboard entries and places, the leaderboard copy of your photo, the names you hid and reports about your name, telemetry and diagnostic records, private account-owned storage objects and the corresponding RevenueCat customer where applicable, and revokes your Sign in with Apple where Ruta holds a token for it. A report you made about someone else’s name or photo stays without the link to your account.

Limited information may remain where necessary for security, fraud and repeated-trial prevention, proof that deletion was completed, valid purchase or entitlement restoration, accounting, dispute handling or legal compliance. App stores and payment providers may also retain transaction information under their own rules. Aggregated or irreversibly anonymised information may remain because it is no longer linked to the account. Temporary deactivation or freezing is not treated as account deletion.

If you used Ruta without an account, there is no account to delete, but a technical session, telemetry, a problematic PDF shared with your consent, a source PDF uploaded by an earlier pre-release version or a support conversation may still be held by Ruta services. Email support@rutastitch.com to ask for their removal. We will ask for details that help us find them, such as the date and what was sent, and will remove what we can identify. Problematic PDFs shared with consent also expire as described in section 5.

Deleting a Ruta account does not automatically cancel an app-store subscription and does not automatically erase independent local project files on your device. The account-deletion page explains how to cancel a subscription and remove local files separately.

7. Security

Ruta uses technical and organisational safeguards appropriate to the information and service. These include encrypted network connections, account-scoped access controls, private storage, server-side credentials, signed or verified entitlement information, bounded diagnostic payloads, restricted administrative access and controls that block an account and older sessions after a verified deletion request is accepted. No storage or transmission method is completely secure, so absolute security cannot be guaranteed.

8. Your choices and rights

You can turn Send PDFs to the Ruta team off under Sharing in Ruta’s settings. Turning it off prevents future authorised uploads and triggers cleanup of eligible queued or stored diagnostic PDFs, but it cannot reverse analysis or processing already completed lawfully. You can also choose whether to provide an optional profile name, profile photo, support attachment or early-access email.

You can choose whether to take part in the weekly leaderboard, which name it shows and whether your photo is shown beside it, change these at any time, and stop with Show me on the board.

Project synchronisation runs only while you are signed in to a Ruta account. Signing out stops further synchronisation from that device, and deleting the account removes the synchronised copies. Projects on a device are not erased by either action, but Ruta may not show them while you are signed out or after the account is deleted, so keep a separate copy of anything you need first.

Depending on applicable law, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection or a portable copy of personal information, and may complain to a data-protection authority. You may also unsubscribe from optional product email. Contact support@rutastitch.com and include enough information for us to identify the relevant account or request.

Some information is necessary for Ruta to provide authentication, access verification, security or purchase restoration. If you ask us to delete information that is necessary for an account, the account or related service may no longer work.

9. Children

Ruta is not directed to children below the minimum age at which they may independently consent to the relevant data processing in their country. A parent or guardian should supervise use where required. Contact us if you believe a child provided personal information without the required permission.

10. Changes and contact

We may update this Privacy Policy when Ruta, its data practices, service providers or legal requirements change. The updated date above identifies the current version. Material changes will be communicated in the app, on the website, by email or through the relevant store when reasonably required.

Privacy questions, requests and complaints can be sent to support@rutastitch.com. Ruta Stitch is an independent software project operated by Olesia Artymchuk, an individual developer. Verified developer or seller information may also be shown in the relevant app-store listing, distribution page or purchase receipt.