Privacy Policy
Short version: the things that matter most (your NIE, your name, your certificate, your applicants' data) live in your browser and never touch our servers. We only store what we need to sell you a license and keep it working.
1. Who we are
TIE Checker is operated by Emu Apps Limited (company number 13305125), registered in England & Wales. Registered office: 4th Floor St James' House, St James' Square, Cheltenham GL50 3PR. Contact: hello@francisbeasley.co.uk. This site and the TIE Checker Chrome extension are referred to below as "the Service". "We", "us" and "our" refer to Emu Apps Limited.
Emu Apps Limited is the UK GDPR data controller for any personal data we process through the Service.
2. What we collect, and why
On this website
- Purchase email — collected by Stripe when you subscribe. Needed to send you your license key, issue receipts, handle refunds, and contact you about subscription renewals.
- Payment details — handled entirely by Stripe. We never see or store card numbers.
- Language preference — stored in your browser (
localStorage), not on our server.
In the Chrome extension
- Personal data (NIE, full name, country, mobile number, applicant email) — stored only in your browser's local storage. It is sent to the Extranjería website (
icp.administracionelectronica.gob.es) when the extension runs an appointment check, exactly as it would be if you typed it in yourself. It is never sent to our servers. - Your .p12 certificate — lives in your operating system's keychain. The extension cannot read it. It is used by Chrome for TLS client-authentication with the Spanish government's Cl@ve gateway.
- Appointment filters (province, office, trámite) — browser-local only.
- License key & device ID — your API key (e.g.
TIE-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) and a randomly-generated device ID are sent to our server at activation and on each scheduled check, to verify the license is valid and bound to this device. The device ID is a random 32-character string — it is not your MAC address, IP address or any stable system identifier. - Check results — stored locally in your browser. Not transmitted to us.
3. What we store on our servers
Our server (Google Firebase, region europe-west2) stores only:
- The license key itself and its status (active / revoked / expired)
- The purchase email the key was issued to
- The Stripe customer and subscription ID for billing purposes
- The device ID the key is currently bound to
- Timestamps (when activated, when last seen, when it expires)
We do not store your NIE, name, applicants' details, appointment filters, or check results.
4. Third parties
- Stripe — payment processing. Subject to Stripe's privacy policy.
- Google Firebase — hosting and database. Subject to Google's privacy policy.
- Extranjería (Spanish government) — when you run a check, your browser communicates directly with the sede website as it would for a normal manual booking. This is not us passing your data on — your browser talks to the sede, we are not in the middle.
We do not use advertising networks, analytics SDKs, or social trackers.
5. Your rights (GDPR / UK GDPR)
You can at any time:
- Access — request a copy of what we hold about you (realistically: your license key, purchase email, device ID, subscription status).
- Delete — cancel your subscription and request deletion. Your license record is removed within 30 days, subject to our legal obligation to keep purchase receipts for tax purposes (typically 6 years).
- Rectify — correct wrong information (e.g. update the email your key is bound to).
- Port — export your data in a readable format.
- Object — to processing you feel is unfair.
Email hello@francisbeasley.co.uk for any of these requests; we aim to respond within 7 days.
You also have the right to complain to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office or your local EU data protection authority.
6. Retention
- Active license records: retained for as long as your subscription is active.
- Cancelled / expired licenses: kept for 30 days after cancellation, then deleted — except for fields required for tax records (invoice number, amount, date, purchase email), which are retained for 6 years as required by HMRC.
- Browser-local data: you can clear it at any time by uninstalling the extension or clearing your site data.
7. Security
Data in transit is encrypted via HTTPS. License data is stored in Firestore under rules that prevent any client-side read/write — only our server-side Cloud Functions can access it. Your certificate never leaves your device.
8. Children
TIE Checker is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from minors.
9. Changes
If we make material changes to this policy we will email affected users and update the date below. Continued use after the notice period constitutes acceptance.
10. Contact
Emu Apps Limited (company number 13305125)
4th Floor St James' House
St James' Square
Cheltenham GL50 3PR
United Kingdom
hello@francisbeasley.co.uk