RouteGuard Privacy Policy

Last updated: 24 September 2026

1. Who we are

RouteGuard is developed by Nathan Louter, trading as JackalNode. We decide why and how the personal information described below is used, which makes us its “responsible party” or “controller” under data protection laws. This policy applies to everyone who uses RouteGuard, wherever you live. Details that depend on where we are based are in the “Local law” section at the end.

2. What we collect

Stored on our server (hosted by Render — see §5):

• Email address — the one on your PayPal account, which PayPal sends us when you subscribe. Used to identify your subscription, recover a lost licence key, and contact you about your subscription.
• PayPal subscription ID — PayPal’s reference number for your subscription. This is how we identify your account.
• Licence key — generated by us; the app uses it to confirm your subscription is active.
• Subscription status — active, cancelled, suspended or expired, as reported by PayPal, plus when your record was created and last updated.
• Licence-recovery attempts — if you use licence-key recovery, we record the subscription ID entered, your IP address and the time, to stop repeated guessing. These records are deleted automatically within a day.

Seen briefly, not saved by us:

• IP addresses — our server uses the IP address of each request to limit abuse. It’s held only in the server’s memory, never saved to our database, and cleared when the server restarts. Our host, Render, also records the IP address and requested web address of each request to our server in its own logs, which it keeps for about 7 days.

Handled by the app on your computer, never sent to us:

• Your server’s IP address — before using a new server, the app checks it against public spam blocklists (DroneBL and PSBL, plus UCEPROTECT only if one of those already lists it). These are ordinary DNS lookups that contain your server’s IP address and go through your computer’s normal DNS resolver.
• Your cloud-provider API token, SSH key and licence key are stored on your own device (see §6).

Do you have to provide it? No law requires you to give us this information, and it’s your choice. But we can’t run a subscription without your email address, PayPal subscription ID and licence key, and our server can’t respond to the app without seeing your IP address. If you don’t provide them, you can’t use a RouteGuard subscription.

3. What we never collect

• We never see, store, or have access to your VPN traffic or your server’s contents.
• We never see your cloud provider login, billing information, or API token. Your API token stays on your device (see §6); the app uses it to talk directly to your cloud provider. What the token is allowed to do depends on your provider, and for some providers that is your whole account — see §3 of our Terms of Service.

4. Why we collect it

Purely to operate your subscription: identifying your account, processing payment, and providing support. Our legal basis for each use:

• Running your subscription and licence — needed to perform our contract with you.
• Keeping payment and tax records — needed to meet our legal obligations.
• Rate-limiting and blocking abuse of our servers — our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and available.

We don’t sell your information or use it for advertising. The only automated decision we make is checking whether your subscription is active before allowing deploys and rotations; that check is part of performing our contract with you.

5. Who we share it with

• Payment processor — PayPal processes your payment; we don’t see or store your card details ourselves.
• Render (Render Services, Inc., United States) — hosts our licence server and database. Render handles this information only on our behalf, under its Data Processing Addendum, which forms part of its terms with us and requires it to keep the information secure and confidential.
• GitHub (update checks) — Each time RouteGuard starts, it asks GitHub (run by GitHub, Inc., in the United States) whether a newer version is available. If you choose Update Now, the installer is also downloaded from GitHub. As with any website, GitHub receives your IP address when your computer connects to it, and handles it under its own privacy statement. RouteGuard sends nothing else with the check: no licence key, email, subscription ID or device identifier. We don’t receive or see these requests. We do this because keeping RouteGuard updated is part of what your subscription provides.
• We do not sell or share your information with anyone else.

Where your information is processed. These providers are outside South Africa. Render stores our subscription database in the United States. We receive your email and subscription ID from PayPal, whose services to us are provided by PayPal Pte. Ltd. in Singapore (the PayPal company you deal with depends on where you live). GitHub is in the United States. We send your information to Render because we can’t run your subscription or check your licence without it. Diagnostic reports are different: if you post one in our Discord server, you send it yourself under Discord’s terms, and the RouteGuard app never sends it for you.

6. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information. Your subscription state is held in a Postgres database on Render; your RouteGuard client stores your cloud-provider API token, the SSH key RouteGuard generates locally to manage your server, and your licence key locally on your own device, protected by Windows Credential Manager (DPAPI) — not on our servers.

Windows Credential Manager protects these against a different Windows user, or someone with physical access to your device but not your Windows login, from being able to read them. It does not protect against malware running under your own logged-in Windows account — no local credential-storage mechanism does, and we don’t want to imply otherwise. If this is a concern, see our Terms of Service for how your cloud-provider API token’s own permissions — which differ by provider — limit what a compromised token could actually be used for.

7. Data breach notification

If we become aware of unauthorised access to your personal information, we’ll tell affected users and the relevant authorities as soon as reasonably possible, as the law requires (see “Local law”).

8. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• confirm what personal information we hold about you, and give you a copy of it;
• correct it if it’s wrong;
• delete it;
• object to our use of it where we rely on our legitimate interests (see §4), or ask us to limit how we use it;
• give it to you in a common, machine-readable format.

Email us at the address below from the email on your subscription, or include your PayPal subscription ID, so we can confirm it’s you. We’ll reply within 30 days. If we have to keep some records by law (see “Local law”), we’ll tell you what we’re keeping and why. Deleting your data or stopping us from using it may mean we can’t keep your subscription running.

You can also complain to the data protection authority in the country where you live or work, or to the authority named in “Local law”. We’d appreciate the chance to fix things first, but you don’t have to contact us before complaining.

9. How long we keep it

We keep your subscription record while your subscription exists, and afterwards only as long as tax and accounting law requires (see “Local law”), then delete it. Licence-recovery records and server logs are kept for the shorter periods listed in §2.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the product evolves. Material changes will be communicated to active subscribers by email before taking effect.

Local law: South Africa

• Who we are: Nathan Louter, a sole proprietor trading as JackalNode, in South Africa. Email: jackalnode@gmail.com.
• Data protection law: the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). Under POPIA we are the “responsible party”.
• Transfers outside South Africa (§5): we rely on POPIA section 72(1)(c): the transfer is necessary to perform our contract with you. Render is also bound by a written agreement (its Data Processing Addendum) that requires it to keep your information secure and confidential, as POPIA sections 21 and 72(1)(a) contemplate.
• How long we keep records: your subscription record for 5 years after your subscription ends, to meet South African Revenue Service record-keeping requirements under the Tax Administration Act.
• Data breaches: we’ll notify the Information Regulator and affected users as required by POPIA section 22.
• Complaints: you can complain to South Africa’s Information Regulator:
  • Online: https://eservices.inforegulator.org.za
  • Email: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
  • Phone: 010 023 5200, or toll-free 0800 017 160
  • Address: Woodmead North Office Park, 54 Maxwell Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg, 2191

11. Contact

jackalnode@gmail.com

Terms of Service