privacy
Privacy notice.
We collect as little as possible. The software itself collects nothing.
Last updated 15 October 2026
Who is responsible
Harry Smallwood, trading as HLS Software, is the data controller. Contact hello@hlssoftware.com about anything in this notice.
What we collect and why
- Contact and support forms: your name, email, organisation and message, so we can reply. Each message is saved in our contacts database and emailed to us through our email provider, Resend, and you get an automatic confirmation with a reference number. Support tickets and enquiries get a reference (TKT or ENQ) so replies can be matched up.
- Purchases: your name, email, organisation, billing details and order history, so we can issue licences, invoices and renewals. Card payments are handled by our reseller, who acts as merchant of record; we never see card numbers.
- Your account: your name, email address and organisation, and your password, which is stored only in a scrambled form (a salted hash) that can't be turned back into the password. A cookie keeps you signed in for up to 12 hours; it's needed for the account to work and isn't used for anything else. Your account keeps a record of what you've asked for, what's been approved, the computers you've activated (by machine code, and any name you give them) and the licence keys issued, so you can download the software, manage your workstations and get keys re-issued. Your IP address is counted for a day to limit repeated sign-in attempts.
- Free trials: your name, email and organisation, written into the trial key so the software can show who it's licensed to, along with your computer's machine code (a scrambled ID that ties the key to that computer and reveals nothing else about it), and kept on record so each person and computer gets one trial per product and the key can be extended or re-issued. Requests are checked by hand and the key is emailed to the address given, so your details are also kept in our contacts database, and a record is kept of each email sent. If you tick the product-updates box on the form we keep a note of when you did, and you can withdraw at any time. Your IP address is counted for a day to limit repeated requests.
- Licence files: your organisation's name, the products and the dates your updates run to.
Our lawful bases are performing a contract with you, and our legitimate interest in replying to enquiries and supporting customers.
What the software collects
Nothing. It doesn't send usage data, telemetry, files or results anywhere, and licence checks happen on your machine.
This website
The site doesn't use advertising or tracking cookies. It's hosted by Cloudflare, which processes standard request information such as IP addresses to deliver and protect the site.
How long we keep it
Enquiries are kept for up to two years, and trial records for one year. Your account is kept until you ask us to close it, or after two years without a sign-in or a current licence. Order and licence records are kept for as long as you hold a licence plus six years, for accounting and so we can re-issue licence files.
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct or delete your data, or object to how we use it, by emailing us. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.