Draft for legal review. This notice is not final until a lawyer has checked it. Words in [square brackets] are still to be filled in.
Privacy notice
The short version
- Curtain Up turns theatre tickets into a gift: a short spoken message from a show character, a countdown and a few surprises, at a private link.
- We only ask for what the gift needs: the person's first name, who it's from, the occasion, and your ticket order number. Recording yourself saying the names is optional.
- Children's names are typed only on curtainup.uk. We never send them to the theatre's ticketing system.
- We delete each gift, and any recordings of the names, 45 days after the show.
- No advertising, no tracking cookies, no selling or sharing of personal information, and no profiling of anyone.
- The character voices are made by computer (AI). We never copy or imitate the voices of the real performers.
Who we are
Curtain Up (curtainup.uk) is run by [LEGAL NAME OF OPERATOR], [registered address] (“we”, “us”). For UK data protection law we are the controller of the personal data described here. Our ICO registration number is [number].
Questions, requests or complaints: [email protected].
The theatre that sold your tickets has its own privacy notice for your booking. We don't receive your payment details from them, and they don't receive the names you give us.
What we collect, and why
| What | From whom | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The first name of the person the gift is for, and how to say it | You, the buyer | So the character can say it in the message and it can be shown on the gift page. |
| Who the gift is from (a sign-off such as “Mum and Dad”), and how to say it | You | The same. |
| Your ticket order number | You, or a link in the theatre's confirmation email | To match the gift to the right show and performance. |
| The occasion, the character, the language and the day the gift unlocks | You | To make the gift. |
| Optional: a few seconds of you saying the names | You | So the character says an unusual name the way you do. The recording is checked to make sure it's just a name, then turned into the character's voice. |
| Your email address, if you ask us to email you the gift | You | To send you the gift link, and nothing else. We don't send marketing. |
| Whether the gift has been opened, and when it was first opened | The gift page | So you and the theatre know gifts arrive (counted, not tracked). |
| Your language choice | The language menu | Kept in a cookie called lang so pages appear in your language. |
| Technical data: IP address, browser, pages requested | Your device | To run the site securely and stop abuse, for example limiting how many recordings one address can make. Server logs never contain names. |
We don't ask for dates of birth, ages, photos, addresses, phone numbers or payment details, and please don't put them in a name field. A word check stops some words being used, and our staff may look at a gift's words if the check flags them.
Children
A gift is often for a child, but it is made by an adult. Curtain Up isn't designed for children to create gifts, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children. The only information about a child is the first name (and how to say it) that the adult buyer gives us.
To protect children we:
- keep names out of the theatre's ticketing system and out of our server logs;
- give every gift a long, random link that can't be guessed, keep gift pages out of search engines, and slow down anyone who tries link after link;
- never use a child's name for advertising, profiling, training AI or anything other than the gift;
- delete the gift and any name recordings 45 days after the show.
The gift page shows the name together with the show, the date and the seats, just like a ticket. Please treat the link like a ticket: share it only with the person it's for, and don't post it publicly.
The character voices
The spoken message is made with ElevenLabs, a voice service. The words of the message, including the names, are sent to ElevenLabs to record it in the character's voice. If you record yourself saying a name, that recording is sent to ElevenLabs to hear how you said it, and the name it heard is sent to Anthropic (see below) to spell it the way the character should say it. We use these voices only for the gift, and we never clone or imitate the real performers.
Who else handles the data
We use these service providers, who act on our instructions and may not use the data for their own purposes:
- Railway: hosts the website and stores the gifts and recordings. United States.
- Supabase: our database, in London (once we've moved to it).
- Cloudflare: delivers the site securely and handles email to curtainup.uk.
- ElevenLabs: records the character voices (see above). United States.
- Resend: sends the gift email when you ask for one. United States.
- Anthropic: an AI service. If you record how to say a name, it gets the name as typed and as heard, and nothing else about you, and turns it into a spelling the voice can read. United States.
- Google: only for our staff to sign in to the admin pages. No visitor data.
We also use Anthropic to draft translations of the site's own wording, which involves no personal data. We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.
How long we keep it
- Gifts, names and name recordings: deleted automatically 45 days after the show the gift was for.
- Your email address (if you gave one): deleted with the gift.
- Recordings and videos we make: deleted after 45 days unless a gift that still exists uses them.
- Server logs: kept by our hosting providers for up to [30] days.
- Founding-theatre sign-ups (a name, theatre and work email): deleted a year after you last contacted us through the form.
- Admin audit log: which staff member changed what, kept for [12 months]. It records gift codes and field names, not the names themselves.
Backups held by our providers are overwritten on their normal schedule, at most [30] days later.
Cookies and storage
We use one cookie for visitors, lang, which remembers your language. Your browser also keeps the gift you're making while you make it (in session storage), so a reload doesn't lose it; it's cleared when you close the tab. Staff signing in to the admin get a sign-in cookie. There are no analytics, advertising or social media cookies, so we don't ask you to accept any.
Keeping it safe
Everything travels over HTTPS. The database can only be read by our server. Admin pages need a Google sign-in from an approved address, and every change there is logged. If something ever goes wrong, we'll tell the people affected, and the regulator where the law requires it.
If you're in the UK (or the EU)
Our legal reasons. Making and delivering the gift you asked for is a contract with you (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR). Using the recipient's name to make their gift, keeping the site secure and counting opens are our legitimate interests, which we've weighed against the recipient's privacy, especially where they're a child (Article 6(1)(f)). The optional recording of a name is used only with your consent, which you can withdraw by not recording, or by asking us to delete it (Article 6(1)(a)). We don't use voice recordings to identify anyone.
Your rights. You can ask for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to take it elsewhere. A parent or guardian can make these requests for a child. Email [email protected] with the gift link or order number; we'll reply within one month. It's free.
Outside the UK. ElevenLabs and Resend are in the United States. Transfers there are covered by the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or otherwise by the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the standard contractual clauses. [Lawyer to confirm for each provider.]
Complaints. Please tell us first and we'll try to put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, 0303 123 1113.
We've designed Curtain Up with the ICO's Children's Code in mind: high privacy by default, no profiling, no nudges to share more, and no location tracking.
If you're in the US
Categories. In the last 12 months we've collected identifiers (first names, order numbers, email addresses if given, IP addresses), audio information (optional recordings of a name) and internet activity on our own site (pages requested, gift opens). We collect them for the purposes in “What we collect, and why” and disclose them only to the service providers listed above, for those purposes.
No selling or sharing. We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are used in the California Consumer Privacy Act and similar state laws. We don't use sensitive personal information to infer anything about anyone. We treat a Global Privacy Control signal as a request to opt out, though there is nothing to opt out of.
Your rights. Depending on your state, you can ask to know what we hold, get a copy, correct it or delete it, and appeal if we say no. We won't treat you differently for asking. Email [email protected]; we'll confirm we've received it within 10 days and answer within 45 days. An authorised agent can ask for you with your written permission. If we refuse, reply to appeal and we'll answer within 60 days; you may then contact your state attorney general.
Children (COPPA). Curtain Up isn't directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. A child's first name comes only from the adult who buys the gift. If you think a child has given us information directly, email us and we'll delete it.
Changes
If we change this notice in a way that matters, we'll update the date at the top and, if we have your email address and the gift is still active, tell you.