Privacy

Shopstead is an AI-assisted web presence builder for small businesses. You create an account, build one or more business sites, and we publish them as fast static HTML you own. We send your address to Google Maps for geocoding, and we send transactional emails via Resend. We do not use any third-party analytics or trackers, on Shopstead itself or on the sites we publish for you.

Sign-in identity is managed by Lotl Auth. Business-org data, site content, opening hours, menus, galleries, and visitor messages live on our server, owned by you. Address geocoding and embedded map images come from Google Maps. AI rewriting goes through Lotl AI (OpenAI / Anthropic) and never invents facts about your business. Subscriptions go through Lotl Pay (Stripe). Email goes through Resend. Telemetry goes to Lotl Observe. The Lotlsoft sales / lifecycle CRM (Lotl CRM) holds outbound-lead records from Lotlsoft's own marketing forms, not from customer-site forms.

What we collect

We collect and store the following kinds of data, each with its own retention and legal basis:

Account: Your sign-in identity is managed by Lotl Auth, our authentication service (auth.lotlsoft.com). Lotl Auth stores your email, your name if you provided one, and a hash of your password (argon2id). Sign-in issues a short-lived JWT access token (15 minutes) and a refresh token (30 days). Email verification and password resets go through transactional email (Resend).Stored on our server. Kept until you delete it. Legal basis: contract (needed to run the service). Removable when you delete your account. Shared with: Lotl Auth, Resend.
Business organisations: Business orgs you create or join, including business name, ABN, industry category, timezone, primary location, members, and role assignments (owner / admin / editor / viewer).Stored on our server. Kept until you delete it. Legal basis: contract (needed to run the service). Removable when you delete your account.
Sites and content: Everything you write or upload for a site: hero text, about, opening hours, menu items, services, gallery images, social links, brand colour, photos. Stored as the source of truth and baked into each published static site.Stored on our server. Kept until you delete it. Published sites also contain a copy of this content as static HTML; republishing replaces the published copy. Legal basis: contract (needed to run the service). Removable when you delete your account.
AI rewriting and humanise pass: Site content you submit for AI rewriting (the humanise pass, hero generation, headline help) is sent to OpenAI or Anthropic via Lotl AI. We send the content only; we do not send your account identifier.Stored on our server. Kept until you delete it. Drafts are kept against your site so you can revert. The third-party AI providers (OpenAI / Anthropic) do not retain content used for inference under their no-training API terms. Legal basis: contract (needed to run the service). Removable when you delete your account. Shared with: OpenAI / Anthropic.
Address and map data: Business addresses you enter are sent to Google Maps Platform for geocoding and Places lookups. Published sites that show a map embed a Google Static Map; the visitor's browser fetches that image directly from Google.Stored on our server. Kept until you delete it. Geocoded coordinates are cached against your site to avoid repeat charges; updating the address replaces the cache. Legal basis: contract (needed to run the service). Removable when you delete your account. Shared with: Google Maps Platform.
Visitor messages (contact form submissions): Contact-form submissions sent to your published site by your customers. Stored locally in the Shopstead database against your site and visible to you in the Messages dashboard. Never forwarded to Lotlsoft's own CRM.Stored on our server. Kept until you delete it. You control deletion through the Messages dashboard; deletion is immediate. Legal basis: legitimate interests. Removable when you delete your account.
Outbound email: Transactional emails (sign-in links, billing receipts, weekly digests when enabled) are delivered through Resend on Shopstead's behalf.Stored on our server. Held briefly during the request and discarded. Email content is constructed at send time; Resend retains delivery logs per their own retention policy. Legal basis: contract (needed to run the service). Removable when you delete your account. Shared with: Resend.
Subscription and billing: Subscription state, plan tier, billing history, and pending checkouts, processed via Lotl Pay (which uses Stripe). Stripe holds the card data; we hold the subscription record.Stored on our server. Kept permanently. Billing records are kept for tax and dispute-resolution reasons even after account deletion. Legal basis: contract (needed to run the service). Not individually deletable. Shared with: Stripe.
Usage telemetry: Page views, click events, AI operation counts, build outcomes, and crash reports sent to Lotl Observe so we can see what works and what breaks. Does not include the contents of your sites, AI prompts, or visitor messages.Stored on our server. Kept permanently. Aggregated and stored against Shopstead's observability account; not joined to your account identifier outside the standard request log. Legal basis: legitimate interests. Not individually deletable. Shared with: Lotl Observe.
Lotlsoft outbound leads: When Lotlsoft runs outbound marketing for Shopstead and a prospective customer fills in a lead-capture form on a Lotlsoft-hosted landing page, the lead is forwarded to Lotl CRM. This category does NOT include visitor messages on customer sites.Stored on our server. Kept until you delete it. Legal basis: legitimate interests. Removable when you delete your account. Shared with: Lotl CRM.
Image screening: Every image uploaded to a site is checked for illegal and explicit content before it is stored or shown to any visitor. The check runs on our own servers, on the file as uploaded. Almost always it finds nothing and the image is simply saved. If an image looks explicit it is refused and nothing is kept. If an image matches a list of known illegal material it is refused and a copy is kept, separately from anything a visitor can reach, so that a person can review it and report it if the law requires. That copy is the one thing here you cannot delete yourself.Stored on our server. Kept permanently. Legal basis: legal obligation. Not individually deletable.

What we don't collect

We deliberately don't collect or store any of these:

Visitor messages submitted on customer sites are stored locally for the site owner; they are never forwarded to Lotlsoft's own CRM
We do not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, Hotjar, FullStory, or any third-party analytics or session-replay tool
We do not embed third-party comment systems, ad networks, fonts, or CDNs

Third parties

These external services receive some of your data:

DigitalOcean — server hosting for the Shopstead service
Google Maps Platform — address geocoding, Places lookups, and static map images for published sites
OpenAI / Anthropic — AI rewriting and humanise pass (via Lotl AI)
Resend — transactional email delivery
Stripe — subscription billing (via Lotl Pay)

Your rights

You can export everything we hold about you, and delete your account at any time. Both options live in your account settings. Deletion is immediate and unrecoverable.

Last updated: 2026-07-30.