My Cards AI is owned by My Cards AI LLC and built and run by one person. This page
describes exactly what the software does with your information — in plain language,
without the boilerplate.
Where your collection lives
Your cards, photos, values, sets, wishlist, and financial records live in a folder on your
own Mac, in the Windows app's folder on your own PC, and in the app on your own iPhone. You can
use the Mac app without an account, and when you do, none of your collection is stored on any
server run by My Cards AI. The Windows app needs a sign-in to open a collection, so its
collection is always also in your account.
If you sign in to a My Cards AI account, which identifying cards in the Mac
app, the Windows app, syncing between devices, the web app, share links, and paid plans need, a copy is kept on our server so your other
devices can show it. That copy includes:
your cards, including values, purchase and sale prices, and notes
a smaller copy of each card photo, clear enough to see the card (the full-resolution
original stays on your device)
the Mac app's other records: sets, sales ledger, expenses, invoices, purchase lots,
wish list, eBay listings, and value history
It is stored with our hosting provider (Render) and kept until you delete it or delete
your account.
What gets sent off your device, and why
Card images go to an AI service (Anthropic's Claude API), through our
server, when the app identifies a card or estimates its condition. The Windows app reads
each card as it comes off the scanner unless you untick Identify cards as they arrive. They
are used to answer that request, are not kept by us afterwards, and are not used to train
models. A name clean-up sends the cards it checks as text (player, team, sport, year, brand
and card number), the same way.
Card descriptions (player, year, brand, card number) are sent to the
My Cards AI pricing service, which queries eBay's public marketplace data and returns
values. The Wishlist's check for deals sends the same words for each card you are hunting. The query text is cached for up to a day so repeat lookups are faster and cheaper.
An anonymous device identifier goes with the requests the Mac, Windows and
iPhone apps make to our server (scanning, pricing, set checklists, eBay listing, the check-in and
crash reports), so usage limits can be applied fairly and installs counted. It is a random
string, and it is not linked to your name, email, or collection. The Windows app's scans
carry your sign-in rather than the identifier.
A check-in when the Mac, Windows or iPhone app opens: once the first time, and at
most once a day after that. It carries the same anonymous identifier, a yes/no for whether it
is the first launch, and, if you are signed in, your sign-in token (so our own accounts can be
left out of the counts). From the Mac app it also says which kind of chip the Mac has (Intel
or Apple silicon) and its macOS version, so we can tell when a build will not open on one
kind of Mac. The Windows app's check-in says nothing about the PC. Nothing else. It lets us
tell whether people who download the app go on to use it.
Usage counts. When a feature that runs on our server is used, such as a
scan, a price check, or publishing a listing, one is added to a daily count for that feature.
The count records only which app it came from (Mac, iPhone, or web; the Windows app counts in
the web column) and whether the person was signed in. To count active installs, we keep a one-way scrambled form of the app's
identifier (or of your account's, if you are signed in), which kind of app it is, the
first and last day it was seen, and, for a Mac, its chip and macOS version. These numbers are only ever read as totals, never to look
up who someone is, and deleting your account removes the account's entry. A Mac's chip and
macOS version are kept under the app's identifier, not your account, so that entry stays.
The monthly counts used to apply plan limits are also read as totals only, for example how many
free accounts and installs used 1 to 5, 6 to 10 or 11 to 25 scans, or 1 to 5, 6 to 10 or 11 to 50 Price
Fetches, in a month; never a list of people.
Your internet (IP) address reaches our server with every request, as it
does with any website. It is used in the moment to stop any one address from overloading the
service, and our hosting provider's logs record it with each request. If a scan arrives
without the app's anonymous identifier, the address stands in for it when counting free-plan
use.
Your account details, if you have an account: your email address, the
name of each device you signed in from, when you last used it, your plan, and the day your free
plan's first 30 days began (kept with your account, and with the app's anonymous identifier and
any App Store purchase the app uses, with or without an account). We also keep a one-way scrambled form of your email
address, with dots and + tags ignored, so the same inbox gets the free plan's first 30 days only
once. Sign-in codes are emailed through an email delivery service (Resend or Amazon Web Services).
Sale prices you record are pooled with other collectors' to estimate
what cards sell for. Only prices you enter yourself are pooled, never sales read from a
marketplace account, and no pooled figure identifies who sold a card. The
terms spell out these commitments.
Share links. If you make one, anyone with the link can see the cards
and details you chose to show. We keep the label you give each link (for example, who it
is for) and count how many times it is opened.
Discount codes and referrals. If you redeem a discount code or pass on a
referral code, we record which account redeemed it and when, and for referrals how many
months the new member has paid, so rewards can be credited. A code printed on an invoice
may carry the name of the person it was issued to. If you create your account with a
friend's invite code, we record that your account joined on their code and when, so they
can be given free scans, and a one-way scrambled form of your email address so the same
inbox can only ever count once. Your friend sees only how many people joined, never who. If
you then subscribe in the iPhone app, we count your paid App Store months toward their
reward. If Apple bills your plan and a referral earns you a free month, we keep the App Store
offer code given to you and whether it was redeemed.
Crash reports from the iPhone and Mac apps: Apple's diagnostic report of
a crash or freeze, sent the next time the app opens, with the app version and the anonymous
identifier. The Mac app also sends its chip and macOS version, and a short note if it was
opened and never finished starting. The Windows app sends its own report of an error, or of
a start that never finished, at once or the next time it opens: the app version, the kind of
processor (Intel/AMD or Arm), the Windows version, the anonymous identifier, and the error
text with your user name and the path of your user folder blanked out. No crash report from
any app carries your collection.
Update checks. The Mac app asks our server once each time it opens
whether a newer version is announced. The Windows app asks mycardsai.com for the newest
version's file half a minute after it opens and every six hours, and downloads the installer
from GitHub in the background. Neither request carries the anonymous identifier or your
account; our server, and GitHub for the download, see your internet address as with any
request. A Windows copy from the Microsoft Store is updated by the Store instead.
Hobby news. The Mac and Windows apps read four card-news sites' public
feeds directly (Cardlines, Sports Collectors Digest, Sports Card Investor and Sports
Collectors Daily), the Windows app about once an hour, so those sites see the request as
they would any visit. Nothing about you is sent with it.
Messages you send us from inside the app, along with the basic device
and app details the app attaches (from the Windows app: its version, the Windows version,
the kind of processor, the anonymous identifier, and, unless you untick it, the last few
error lines from its own log), arrive as an email, sent through an email delivery service (Amazon Web Services or
Resend).
eBay. If you connect your eBay account to list cards, eBay's sign-in
passes through our server once and is then kept on your Mac. Listings you create are sent
to eBay.
Payments are handled by Apple (iPhone) or Stripe (the website, and the
Windows app's checkout panel). We
never see your card number. We keep your plan, when it renews, and Stripe's reference for
your customer record.
That is the complete list.
This website
mycardsai.com, including the web app and share pages, uses Google Analytics to count
visits and see how people find the site. Google sets its own cookies for this and receives
the address of each page you view, but not your email address, your account, or your
collection. On share pages, the link's code is removed before anything is sent to Google.
Presses of the download buttons are counted by day, by which button, and by the kind of
device the browser says it is, with nothing about who pressed them.
If you arrive from one of our ads or a link we tagged, a first-party cookie remembers which
one for 30 days, by a short name such as “facebook/firstmonth” and nothing else (a second
cookie holds the same name until midnight, so a second visit that day is not counted twice).
With it, visits, download presses, sign-ups and website purchases are counted by campaign, as
totals; the name also goes with a website checkout to Stripe, and with the App Store and
Microsoft Store links, so their reports show downloads by campaign. It does not identify you,
is not shared with Facebook or any advertiser, and does not follow you to other sites.
The Mac, Windows and iPhone apps contain no Google Analytics, advertising code, or other
third-party tracking. The only measurement they are part of is the check-in, usage counts,
and crash reports listed above.
What is never done
Your data is never sold, rented, or shared with advertisers or data brokers.
There is no advertising in the apps or on this website.
No one at My Cards AI browses your collection.
Backups
The Mac app can copy your collection data to your own iCloud Drive, and to any other
folder you choose (for example a Dropbox or Google Drive folder). The Windows app copies your
cards, and the sets and books as last synced, into a folder you choose each day it opens
(OneDrive is offered by name; any folder inside Dropbox or Google Drive works too), keeping the
last 14 days; pictures are not part of that copy. The app writes only to that folder on your
PC, and never through our server. Those copies live in your accounts, under your control, and
are governed by those providers' terms — not by this one.
eBay and affiliate links
Values come from eBay's public marketplace data. Links that take you to eBay listings may
be affiliate links, which means a purchase may earn a small commission at no additional cost
to you. This never influences which cards or prices are shown to you.
Your control
Export everything to CSV at any time from within the app.
Delete your account from the iPhone app's settings, or by emailing
support@mycardsai.com. That removes your cards,
thumbnails, records, pooled sale prices, share links, and sign-ins from our server. The only
thing kept is the record of any discount code you redeemed, with your account removed from
it, because it is part of the financial books, and, if you joined on a friend's invite code,
the fact that someone joined, with your account removed from it, so their count stays right,
and the one-way scrambled form of your email address, so the same inbox can't join as new
again. Any App Store offer code you were given stays too, with your account removed from it,
so it is never handed to anyone else. The one-way scrambled form of your email address also
stays with the day your free plan's first 30 days began, so a new account on the same inbox
doesn't start a second first 30 days. Crash reports and the daily usage totals
were never tied to your account, so they stay as they are. Stripe and Apple keep their own
records of payments under their own privacy policies, and our hosting provider's logs are
deleted automatically within 30 days.
If you use the Mac app without an account, deleting its folder removes your collection.
None of it was ever on our server. Only the anonymous check-ins, usage counts, and any crash
reports described above remain.
If you have a question about any of this, email
support@mycardsai.com and a human (me) will answer.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what leaves your device, the change will be
described in the app's update notes, not buried here silently.