Privacy Policy
Effective date: 10 September 2026
This policy explains what personal data Hookshift collects, why, who it is shared with, and what you can do about it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
1. Who is responsible
Kaleidoscopic GmbH
Gustav-Gull-Platz 4
8004 Zurich
Switzerland
This business, referred to here as "Hookshift", "we" or "us", operates hookshift.co and the Hookshift service, and is the controller of the personal data described here under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, where it applies, the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation.
2. What Hookshift does with your Instagram account
Hookshift is a tool for testing creative variants of short video. You connect an Instagram professional account, upload video, supply hook text, and Hookshift renders variants and, if you ask it to, publishes them to your own account as Instagram trial reels and reads back their performance.
Everything Hookshift does with your Instagram account is done on your instruction.
3. What data is collected
Account data. Your email address and, if you provide one, your name. Created when you sign up.
Unfinished sign-ups. If you start signing up and do not finish, the email address you typed, with the time and your browser type.
Instagram data. When you connect Instagram, Hookshift receives and stores data such as:
- your Instagram user IDs and username
- an access token, used to act on your account at your instruction, and the permissions you granted
- your reels and the metrics Instagram reports for them, such as views, reach, likes, comments, saves and shares
- your account's metrics over time, such as followers and views
- the video of any reel you choose to import
Content you upload. Video files, hook text and captions you provide, and the rendered variants Hookshift produces from them. If you enable subtitles, an automatic transcript of the speech in your video.
Community posts. What you post in Hookshift's community features, and the name and profile details you choose to show there.
Payment data. Payments are processed by Polar, which acts as merchant of record and is the seller for your purchase. Hookshift receives from Polar information such as a customer identifier, your plan and its status.
Affiliate data. If you created your account through an affiliate's link or code, or asked for access from one, we record which affiliate and the discount it gave you. If you are an affiliate, we record what you earn and are paid, such as commissions, your balance, your payouts and their invoices.
How you found Hookshift. How you came to Hookshift, such as the link you followed, the website or ad that sent you, the pages of hookshift.co you visited, and what you tell us when asked.
Technical data. Such as IP address, browser type, pages requested and timestamps, and error reports when something in the service fails.
Email activity. Whether the emails Hookshift sends are opened, and which of their links are clicked.
Measuring Hookshift's ads. Hookshift shares some of the data above with Meta, which uses it to measure and improve Hookshift's ads.
4. Why, and on what legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Providing the service you signed up for: rendering, scheduling, publishing, reporting | Performance of a contract |
| Billing, invoicing and tax compliance | Contract, and legal obligation |
| Keeping the service secure, diagnosing failures, preventing abuse | Legitimate interest in a service that works and is not abused |
| Learning how the service is used, to improve it | Legitimate interest in a service that works well for the people using it |
| Automatic transcription for subtitles | Performance of a contract, at your request when you enable it |
| Responding to your support requests and feedback, and improving the service from them | Contract, and legitimate interest |
| Sharing community posts anonymously, including to promote Hookshift | Legitimate interest |
| Publishing statistics about how content does on Hookshift, including to promote Hookshift | Legitimate interest |
| Writing to you, if you started signing up and did not finish, to ask whether something went wrong, and learning where sign-ups stop, to improve them | Legitimate interest in a sign-up that works |
| Learning what brings people to Hookshift, to decide where to spend time and money on it, including measuring Hookshift's ads with Meta | Legitimate interest in knowing what brings people to Hookshift |
| Knowing whether the emails reach you and which ones help, from opens and clicks | Legitimate interest in emails that are read |
| Retaining invoices and business records | Legal obligation under Swiss law |
Hookshift does not sell your data.
5. Who your data is shared with
Hookshift uses processors such as these:
| Processor | Function | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Fly.io | Application hosting and database | EU and US |
| Cloudflare | Video and file storage (R2), DNS, website hosting | Global |
| Polar | Payment processing as merchant of record | US |
| Meta Platforms | Instagram publishing and metrics, at your instruction; measuring Hookshift's ads | US |
| Sentry | Error monitoring | US |
| Resend | Sending sign-in and account emails, and recording whether they are opened and clicked | US |
| Wise | Sending affiliate payouts, and collecting the affiliate's bank details for them | EU and UK |
What you post in the community can be seen by other Hookshift members. We may also share it outside Hookshift, including to promote it, in a way that does not identify you.
Your data is also disclosed where the law requires it, and to professional advisers bound by confidentiality.
Some of these processors are outside Switzerland and the EU, such as in the United States. Those transfers rely on safeguards the law recognises, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
6. How long data is kept
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Instagram data | Until you disconnect Instagram or delete your account |
| Uploaded video, rendered variants and transcripts | Until you delete your account, at the latest |
| Account and contact data, and how you found Hookshift | Until you delete your account |
| What you post in the community | As long as it is part of the community. If you delete your account, what you posted may stay, without your name. |
| Email address and card fingerprint of a free trial, kept by Polar so a free trial is not taken twice | As long as Hookshift offers free trials, including after you delete your account |
| A coded form of identifiers such as your referral code, kept to prevent abuse of the service | As long as needed for that purpose, including after you delete your account |
| Backups | A limited time, to recover the service from a failure |
| Invoices and payment records | 10 years, as Swiss commercial law requires |
| Technical data and error reports | As long as needed to keep the service working and secure |
| Unfinished sign-ups | A limited time, to ask whether something went wrong |
7. Where your video is stored, and who can reach it
Uploaded video and rendered variants are stored in private Cloudflare R2 buckets. They are not publicly listable and not publicly readable.
When a variant is published, Instagram must fetch the file from a URL. Hookshift generates a signed link that expires shortly after and is not indexed or shared.
8. Cookies
Hookshift uses only cookies the service needs to work, such as the one that keeps you logged in. They cannot be turned off without breaking the service, which is why the site does not ask you to accept cookies.
9. Your rights
You can ask to access your data, correct it, delete it, receive a portable copy of it, restrict how it is used, or object to processing based on legitimate interest. Write to support@hookshift.co and you will get an answer within 30 days.
You can also disconnect Instagram and delete your account yourself in Hookshift. See the Data Deletion Instructions page.
If you think your data has been handled improperly, you can complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (edoeb.admin.ch). If you are in the EU or UK, you can complain to your national supervisory authority instead.
10. Security
Hookshift protects your data with technical and organisational measures, such as encryption. Hookshift may access your account to help you or to diagnose a problem.
No service can promise it will never be breached. If a breach affects your personal data and presents a high risk to you, you will be told.
11. Children
Hookshift is a business tool and is not offered to anyone under 18. It is not directed at children, and no data is knowingly collected from them.
12. Changes
If this policy changes in a way that materially affects you, you will be told.
13. Contact
support@hookshift.co
Hookshift, Gustav-Gull-Platz 4, 8004 Zurich, Switzerland