StarDrive Inc.

Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 17, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how StarDrive Inc. (“StarDrive,” “we,” “us”) collects, uses, and shares information in connection with the FirstLight website, the FirstLight Compose platform, and FL-1 hardware reservations (together, the “Services”). For individuals in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the United Kingdom, StarDrive Inc. is the data controller of your personal data.

1. Information We Collect

Account data: your email address and a salted hash of your password (never the password itself), or your email as verified by Google sign-in. Usage data: board descriptions you submit, generated design artifacts, run history, and plan and quota status. Contact and lead data: if you submit our “Talk to us” form or email us, we collect your name, email, company, and the message you send. Reservation and payment data: payments are handled entirely by Stripe; we receive a subscription or reservation status, a customer reference, and, for FL-1 reservations, the billing address Stripe collects. We never receive full card numbers. Technical data: standard server logs (IP address, timestamps, and request metadata) used for security and operations.

2. Bring-Your-Own-Key AI

If you configure a personal AI provider API key, it is used only to authenticate your own requests to that provider. Where a key is stored for your convenience, it is stored encrypted and never used for our own purposes. We do not sell or share your provider keys.

3. How We Use Information

We use information to operate and secure the Services: generating designs, maintaining your run history, enforcing plan limits, processing subscriptions and reservations, responding to your inquiries, following up on sales leads, and preventing abuse. Board descriptions are processed by third-party AI model providers (such as Anthropic, or the provider whose key you supply) to power the design interview, reviews, and diagnosis. Component lookups may be sent to distributor APIs (such as DigiKey, Mouser, or Octopart) without your identity attached.

4. How We Share Information (Sub-processors)

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers who process it on our behalf under contract, and only as needed to run the Services:

We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect our rights, or in connection with a merger or acquisition. Your private designs are visible only to your account unless you choose to share them; we do not sell them, share them with other users, or use them to market to third parties. We may use your descriptions, designs, and generated artifacts to develop, train, and improve our own models and the FirstLight pipeline, except for content in Enterprise workspaces, which we never use for training. If you are on another plan and would prefer that we not use your content for model development, email jack@thestardrive.com.

5. International Data Transfers

We operate from the United States, and several of our sub-processors are based in the United States, while our application server is in the European Union. Where personal data of EEA or UK individuals is transferred to the United States or elsewhere, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum) or another lawful transfer mechanism offered by the relevant provider.

6. Cookies

We use a session cookie to keep you signed in and short-lived cookies during Google sign-in and Stripe checkout. These are strictly necessary to provide the Services. We do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

7. Data Retention and Deletion

Account and run data are retained while your account is active. Contact and lead data are retained while we evaluate or pursue a business relationship, and afterward for a reasonable period unless you ask us to delete it. Payment records are retained as required for tax and accounting. Email jack@thestardrive.com to request deletion of your account, lead record, and associated data; we will honor verified requests within 30 days, subject to legal retention obligations.

8. Your Rights (EEA and UK)

If you are in the EEA or the UK, you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to our processing of your personal data, to data portability, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. We process your data on the following legal bases: performance of a contract (providing the Services and processing your subscription or reservation); our legitimate interests (securing the platform, improving and training our models and the Services, and responding to and following up on inquiries), balanced against your right to object; consent (where we ask for it); and compliance with legal obligations (such as tax records). To exercise any right, email jack@thestardrive.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.

9. Your Rights (California)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it, to request access to or deletion of your personal information, and to correct inaccurate information. We do not sell or share your personal information as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. To make a request, email jack@thestardrive.com.

10. Security

Passwords are hashed (scrypt), sessions are signed, transport is encrypted in transit, and access to run artifacts requires authentication. No system is perfectly secure; please use a unique password.

11. Children

The Services are intended for business use by adults and are not directed to anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

12. Changes

We may update this policy; material changes will be posted here with an updated date.

Contact

StarDrive Inc., 1400 Mission St. #214, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. jack@thestardrive.com

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