Privacy policy
Last updated 2026-11-13
Effective date: to be set at launch.
PoolSketch is made by Tegminestar LLC ("we", "us"). This policy explains what we collect when you use PoolSketch and this website, why, who helps us handle it, how long we keep it, and how to delete it. It is written for pool builders and their teams. If a homeowner's details end up in PoolSketch, it is because a builder typed them in; see "Customer details you enter" below.
The short version, in plain English
- We set no cookies and run no advertising or third-party tracking scripts on this website. A small script of ours counts visits and page speed anonymously (see Anonymous page-speed and visit numbers below).
- Survey images stay on your own device. We do not upload them.
- Your account, company, designs (including any customer names and addresses you type in) and basic usage events are stored on our servers so they can be backed up and shared with your team.
- Usage events say what was done, never who the customer is.
- If you ask for an AI photo finish, we send the picture to an AI image service. We never send customer names or addresses. It is optional.
- If you use "Start from an address", the address you type is sent through our server to OpenStreetMap Nominatim (and for US addresses, if needed, the US Census Bureau geocoder) to find the place. Only coordinates go on to the building and elevation services. It is optional and only runs when you press the button.
- We do not sell your data and we do not use it for advertising.
- You can export your data and delete your account in the app (Settings), or by email to info@tegminestar.com.
What we collect
| What | Why we need it | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Email address (required), name and phone (optional) | To sign you in with an emailed code, to show who is on your team, and to contact you about your account | Our database |
| Company name and branding (logo, business name, phone) | To put your branding on handouts your team sends | Our database |
| Designs: shapes, sizes, finishes, options, status (Draft, Sent, Won, Lost), and the design name, which may include a customer's name and address | To back up your work and show it on your other devices and to your teammates | Our database |
| Survey photos and PDFs | To draw over them | Your device only |
| AI renders, composite photos and videos | To show and send them | Your device only. A client share link may hold a copy, see below |
| Usage events: for example "template added", "3D opened", "handout sent", with the template name, a time and the design it relates to. They carry no customer name, address, survey or drawing content | To count what is used so we can improve the app, and to show you your own dashboard | Our database, and on your device before they are sent |
| Share links you create: a read-only snapshot of a design, a picture, a view count and viewing time | So a homeowner can open a live view | Our database and file storage |
| Sign-in codes: a keyed hash of the code, not the code | To check the code you enter | Our database |
| Billing details: plan, seats, and Stripe customer and subscription numbers | To run your subscription. Stripe holds your card details. We do not | Our database and Stripe |
| Emails we send you (sign-in codes, invitations, trial and renewal reminders): the address, kind and time | To avoid sending duplicates, and to show we sent them | Our database |
| Messages you send through the website contact form: your name, email, company (optional), topic and message | To answer you. The message is emailed to our support inbox. It is not saved in our database | Our email inbox |
| Feedback you send from inside the app: type (idea, problem, praise), a star rating, your message, the screen you were on, app version and language, and your 0 to 10 score and comment if you answer the satisfaction question. Your email is shown to us only if you tick "OK to contact me" | To improve the app and to answer you if you asked us to | Our database. A "problem" report is also emailed to our support inbox |
| Error reports from the app: the kind of error, a short scrubbed message, the screen and the app build. No stack trace, customer name, address or drawing content | To find and fix faults | Our database |
| The description you type or dictate into "Describe your pool", and, for a change request, a summary of the current design (piece names and sizes, no customer name or address and no pictures) | To turn it into a design layout. See the AI section below | Sent to the AI text service while the request runs. We log only counts, not the text |
| Sign-in and admin actions that change an account, recorded in an audit log | To keep accounts secure and to resolve support problems | Our database |
| Technical data such as your IP address, which our hosting provider sees when you connect. We also keep a short counter against your IP address and email to limit sign-in and contact form abuse | To deliver the service and to limit abuse | Cloudflare and our database |
| Your choice about product news emails (off unless you tick the box) | To respect your choice | Our database |
We do not put customer names, addresses, survey images or drawing content into usage events.
Customer details you enter
When you type a homeowner's name or address into a design, you are the one who decides to collect it, and we handle it for you. In privacy law terms you are usually the "controller" and we are your "service provider" or "processor". Please tell your customers how you use their details. We use it only to run PoolSketch for you.
Describe your pool (optional)
"Describe your pool" only runs when you press Create. We send the text you typed or dictated to an AI text service through OpenRouter, with a list of the shapes and pieces the app can draw, and we place the result on your plan on your device. For a change request we also send a short summary of the current design (piece names and sizes). We never send customer names, addresses or pictures, and we do not keep the text: our logs hold counts only. Do not type personal details of a homeowner into the description.
Start from an address (optional)
"Start from an address" only runs when you press "Find this address", and the app asks for your agreement the first time on each device. This is what happens:
- The address text you typed (up to 200 characters) is sent from your device to our server. Our server sends it to the OpenStreetMap Nominatim search service, run by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, to find the place. If Nominatim finds nothing and the address looks like a US address, our server may send it to the US Census Bureau geocoder, which is public-domain US government data.
- The map coordinates of the place (not the address text) are then sent to the OpenStreetMap Overpass API to read the outline of the building and the nearest street, and, for US places, to the USGS 3DEP elevation service to estimate the slope. If you tick the optional aerial picture (US only), the coordinates go to the USGS National Map imagery service.
- We do not send your name, your account id, your email, the customer's name or any picture to these services. They see our server's address and a descriptive User-Agent that names PoolSketch, not you. We do not store the address on those services; each of them keeps its own logs under its own policy (OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy: https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy ; Nominatim usage policy: https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/nominatim/ ; US Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/about/policies/privacy.html ; USGS: https://www.usgs.gov/privacy-policies).
- What we keep: the answer (place, building outline, nearest street, elevation numbers) is cached on our server for up to 30 days, filed under a one-way hash of the normalised address text. The cache holds no account, company or user id. We also count lookups per company (a counter with no address in it) to enforce a daily limit; those counters are removed after 2 days. We never write the address text to our logs. The estimate you create is saved in your design like any other piece, and the address is also saved on the design if you had not already typed one.
- A customer's address is that customer's personal information. Only look up an address if you have the right to, and tell the customer if they ask. The map services are independent recipients: the OpenStreetMap Foundation, the US Census Bureau and USGS each decide for themselves how they handle what they receive.
- Building outlines come from OpenStreetMap: (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL), https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright . The credit appears in the app, on the plan and in the PDFs made from an estimate. Elevation: USGS 3DEP, public domain. Aerial imagery: USGS National Map / NAIP, public domain.
AI photo finish (optional)
AI photo finish is optional and only runs when you press the button. We send the image you ask us to improve: a render of your design or a composite picture, and a yard photo only if you choose to include one. We never send customer names or addresses, and survey images stay on your device unless you choose one as the yard photo. The images go to OpenRouter, a service that passes them to the image model that makes the picture: ByteDance Seedream, or Google Gemini as a back-up. Every AI image is marked "Artist's concept". Check any yard photo before you send it, as it may show people, vehicles or house numbers.
Who handles your data for us
We use these providers. The Data processing summary lists what each does and where.
- Cloudflare: hosting, our API, DNS and email routing, and file storage for share links
- Neon: our database (United States, AWS US East)
- Resend: sign-in code, invitation, reminder and notification email
- Stripe: payments and sales tax, in our own Stripe account
- OpenRouter, and the models it routes to (ByteDance Seedream and Google Gemini for the optional AI photo finish; a text model such as DeepSeek for "Describe your pool")
These independent services receive data only when you use "Start from an address" (see that section). They are recipients that decide for themselves how they handle it, not processors working only on our instructions:
- OpenStreetMap Foundation services (Nominatim address search and the Overpass API)
- US Census Bureau (geocoder, US addresses only, only as a back-up)
- US Geological Survey, USGS (3DEP elevation and National Map imagery)
We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
Anonymous page-speed and visit numbers
To keep the website and the app fast, and to see which pages people read, we record anonymous numbers: how long a page took to load, how long some actions take, which page was opened, the country and the kind of device (phone, tablet or computer). We set no cookies and keep no IP address, name, email or account number with these numbers, and the visitor code used to count visits changes every day so it cannot follow you. We respect Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control, and the iOS and Android store apps send none of it. These records are deleted after 90 days.
Cookies
None. See the Cookie statement. The demo video on our Resources page loads from YouTube (youtube-nocookie.com) only after you press play.
How long we keep it
We only list periods that the system really applies today.
- Account and company data: while your account is open.
- Deleting your account in the app: the sign-in and personal details are removed from our live database at once. If you are the only member, so are the company, its designs, events and share link files.
- A company that is marked deleted by us (for example at your request by email): hidden at once and permanently removed after 30 days.
- Sign-in codes: stop working after 10 minutes.
- Share links: stop working after 60 days, or when you revoke them. Revoking removes the stored picture.
- Abuse-limit counters (sign-in, contact form and address lookups): removed after 2 days.
- Cached address lookup answers: up to 30 days, keyed by a hash of the address text, with no account information.
- Payment records: Stripe keeps these for as long as the law requires.
- Backups and some logs: our database and hosting providers keep short-term backups and logs on their own schedules, which we do not control. We have not set longer retention periods of our own for other records. If that changes, we will say so here.
Your choices and rights
You can ask us to access, correct, export or delete your personal information at any time. In the app, open Settings and choose "Export my data" or "Delete my account". Or email info@tegminestar.com, or use the contact form and choose the topic "Privacy". See the Delete your account page.
If you live in Texas, California or another US state with a privacy law, you have rights under it. For Texas (the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act) these include the right to confirm we process your data, access it, correct it, delete it, get a copy you can move, and opt out of the sale of data, targeted advertising and profiling. California residents have similar rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act. We do not sell personal information, we do not share it for advertising, and we do not use it to make automated decisions with legal effect, so there is nothing to opt out of, but you can still ask. We honour these rights whatever state you are in and will not treat you worse for using them.
We aim to answer within 45 days. If we turn down a request, tell us you disagree by replying to our answer. We will review it and answer within 60 days. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Texas Attorney General.
Auto-renewal and billing
Paid plans renew automatically until you cancel. Read the Terms of service and the Refund and cancellation policy for how cancelling and refunds work. Stripe works out and collects sales tax where it applies.
Security
Data travels over HTTPS. Each company's data is kept apart in the database by row-level security. Read more on the Security page. No system is perfectly secure, and we will tell you if a breach affects you, as the law requires.
Children
PoolSketch is for businesses. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you think a child has given us information, tell us and we will delete it.
Where data is processed
Mostly in the United States. Our database is in AWS US East. Cloudflare and some other providers run global networks, so data may pass through other countries. AI images are processed by OpenRouter and its model providers, which may run outside the United States. OpenStreetMap services run in Europe and elsewhere; USGS and the US Census Bureau run in the United States.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell account owners by email and update the date above.
Contact
Tegminestar LLC. Email: info@tegminestar.com. Postal address: to be added.
