Privacy policy

The short version

• There are no accounts, and Goussdle never asks for your email.
• It stores the doodles people create and the names and answers people give them — nothing else.
• Google Calendar is optional and read-only: Goussdle reads your calendar list and the events around a doodle's dates, only to untick the dates you are busy on. Your calendar events are never saved, and Google access tokens are never written to the database.
• An uploaded .ics calendar file is read in your browser and never sent to or stored by Goussdle.
• No ads, no analytics, no tracking cookies. Nothing is sold or shared.

What Goussdle stores

Everything below is kept in a single database on Goussdle's server.

• Doodles: the name, the optional description and the proposed dates and times an organizer enters, the organizer's time zone (so whole days mean the same days for everyone), a random link identifier and the creation time.
• Participants: the name you type when answering a doodle, when you first answered and last changed your answer, and a one-way hash of a random edit token (see cookies below). The token itself is not stored.
• Answers: for each proposed date, whether you ticked it or not.

A doodle's name, description and dates can be seen by anyone who has its link, and every participant's name and answers by anyone with the link who has answered it too. Please don't put sensitive information in them.

Cookies and browser storage

Goussdle only uses cookies and storage that make the app work. None of them are used for tracking or advertising.

• Edit cookie (one per doodle you answer, kept for a year): a random secret that lets this browser change its own answer and see the results. It is httpOnly, so page scripts can't read it.
• Google Calendar cookies (only if you connect a calendar): a random anti-forgery value kept for up to 10 minutes while you are on Google's consent screen, and the Google access token, kept for at most one hour. Both are httpOnly.
• Remembered name (localStorage): the last name you answered a doodle with, so the next doodle can prefill it. It stays in your browser and is never sent to the server by itself.
• Form draft (sessionStorage): your half-filled answer, saved just before you go to Google's consent screen and deleted as soon as you come back.
• Theme (localStorage): whether you picked light or dark mode.

You can clear all of these at any time from your browser's settings. Clearing the edit cookie means that browser can no longer change the answer it saved.

Google user data (Google Calendar)

When answering a doodle you can choose to connect Google Calendar, so Goussdle can untick the dates that clash with your events. This is entirely optional: you can always tick your dates by hand.

Google user data Goussdle accesses. Goussdle asks Google for two read-only permissions, and nothing else:

• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.calendarlist.readonly — the list of calendars in your Google Calendar. From it Goussdle reads each calendar's identifier and whether you have it ticked as visible, so it knows which calendars to check.
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events.readonly — the events on those visible calendars that fall within the doodle's dates (plus a day either side, to account for time zones). For each event Goussdle reads its start and end, its title, whether it is all-day, whether you declined it, whether it is marked as "free", and its link in Google Calendar.

Goussdle does not access your calendar settings, sharing settings, the people events are shared with (beyond whether you declined), event descriptions, locations or attachments, your contacts, your email address or any other Google data. It asks for online access only, so Google never gives it a refresh token and it cannot read your calendar once the short-lived access token has expired. It can never create, change or delete anything in your calendar.

How it is used. Only to work out which of the doodle's dates overlap your events, and to show you — and only you — which events clash, so you can decide. The comparison happens on the server during that one request, and the clashing events are sent back to your browser only.

What is kept. Nothing. Calendar events are never written to the database or to any file, and are not shown to the doodle's organizer or other participants. The access token lives only in a cookie in your browser (at most one hour) and is sent back to the server just to make the calendar request; it is never stored on the server. Only the ticks you choose to save become part of the doodle.

What is never done. Google user data is not sold, not shared with or transferred to anyone, not used for advertising, not used to train AI or machine learning models, and not read by any human.

Goussdle's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Revoking access. The access expires on its own within an hour. You can also remove Goussdle's access at any time from your Google Account permissions page, and clear your cookies for goussdle.gousse.cool.

Uploaded calendar files (.ics)

Instead of connecting Google Calendar, you can upload an .ics file exported from any calendar app. That file is read in your browser and never sent to or stored by Goussdle: it does not reach the server, it is never written to the database or to any file, and nothing about it is remembered once you leave the page. Goussdle works out which of the doodle's dates your events overlap on your own device, and shows you — and only you — the result. Only the ticks you choose to save become part of the doodle.

How your data is protected

• Encrypted in transit. Goussdle is served over HTTPS only, and every request to Google's APIs is made over HTTPS (TLS).
• Google data is never stored. Calendar events are held in the server's memory only for the request that compares them with the doodle's dates, then discarded. They are never written to the database, to files or to logs.
• Short-lived, protected access tokens. The Google access token is kept only in a cookie on your browser marked HttpOnly (page scripts can't read it), Secure (only sent over HTTPS) and SameSite=Lax (not sent by other sites' forms), and it expires within an hour. No refresh token is ever requested, so there is no long-term credential to steal.
• Protection against forged sign-ins. Each connection to Google carries a random one-time value that must match an HttpOnly cookie in your browser, so a Google response can only be accepted by the browser that asked for it.
• Hashed edit tokens. The secret that lets your browser change its answer is stored only as a one-way SHA-256 hash and compared in constant time.
• Restricted access. The database is not reachable from the internet; only the application and its operator can access the server, and the Google client secret is kept in the server's environment, never in the source code or the browser.

Sharing and third parties

Your data is not sold, rented or shared with anyone. There are no ads, no analytics and no third-party trackers or scripts on the site. The only outside service Goussdle talks to is Google, and only when you connect your calendar.

Like any website, Goussdle runs on a server and is reached through a network provider (Cloudflare), which handle the traffic, including your IP address, as part of delivering the site.

How long data is kept

Doodles, participant names and answers are kept until the operator deletes them, either on request or when cleaning up. There is currently no automatic expiry. Google Calendar data isn't kept at all, and the Google access token cookie expires within an hour.

Deleting your data

Since there are no accounts, deletion is done by hand. Email lucasriondelpro@gmail.com with the doodle's link and, if it's about your answer, the name you answered with. The doodle, or your name and answers in it, will be deleted. You can also ask what data is held about you, or have it corrected.

Children

Goussdle isn't aimed at children and doesn't knowingly collect data from them.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated when Goussdle changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If Goussdle ever starts using Google data in a new way, this page will say so before it happens.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email lucasriondelpro@gmail.com. See also the terms of service.