Privacy
Buildplate is a swipe deck for 3D-print models. It works without an account, and the short version is that what it learns about you is built and kept on your own device.
What stays on your device
Your taste profile — the weights the app derives from your swipes and uses to rank models — is computed on the device and stored there. It is never uploaded, not even when you make an account. If you sync, what travels is the list of models you judged, and a new device rebuilds the same profile from that list locally.
Your library, your filters and your swipe history are also stored on the device by default.
If you make an account
An account is optional and exists only so a second device can pick up where the first left off. If you create one, we store:
- Your email address, so the sign-in link has somewhere to go.
- The models you liked, saved and passed, so another device can rebuild your profile.
- An account identifier that ties those two together.
There is no password. Signing in sends a one-time link. Accounts are hosted on Supabase, which stores this data on our behalf, and rows are readable only by the account that owns them.
What we never do
- We never send what you swipe to an advertiser. What the app has learned about your taste stays on your device and is used only to pick the next model — no ad is ever chosen from it.
- We do not sell or share your data with data brokers.
- We do not send anything you swipe to MakerWorld or Printables. They never learn what you liked or passed.
Third parties that do see something
Model thumbnails are loaded directly from MakerWorld’s and Printables’ own image servers rather than being copied onto ours. That is deliberate — it keeps the creators’ images on the creators’ infrastructure — but it does mean those servers see the network request, including your IP address, the same way any website embedding an image would. Opening a model sends you to its page on the source site, where that site’s own privacy policy applies.
On the website, Vercel collects anonymous performance measurements — page load timings, no cookies, no identifiers.
Advertising
Buildplate is free, and where ads are switched on they pay for it. They appear on Library and Profile only, never on the swipe deck, and one purchase removes them permanently.
Ads are served by Google — AdSense on the website, AdMob in the app — and Google sees the request that fetches them, including your IP address and coarse location. It does not see your taste profile, your library or anything you swiped: those never leave your device, and no ad is targeted from them.
- In the app, ads are non-personalised. The app does not ask for permission to track you, does not read the advertising identifier, and does not follow you to other apps or websites.
- On the website, Google may use cookies to choose ads, as it does across the web. In the UK, EEA and Switzerland you are asked first, and you can change that answer at any time from the link in the ad’s corner.
Google’s own explanation of what it collects is at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Deleting your data
Both options are on the Profile screen in the app, and neither needs to go through us.
- Start my profile over clears what the app has learned and keeps your library.
- Delete everything removes the learned profile, the library, the whole swipe history and — if you made one — your account and everything synced to it. There is no undo and no copy kept.
If something goes wrong and the account cannot be reached, email support@buildplate.dev from the address it uses and it will be removed by hand.
Children
Buildplate is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect anything from anyone under 13.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what is collected, the date at the top changes with it.
Contact
Questions go to support@buildplate.dev.