Privacy

Your file

Your file is used only to convert it. While it uploads it may pass through a temporary file on the server, which is deleted when the request ends; anything a crash leaves behind is wiped when the service starts. The conversion runs in memory and the original is not kept.

The converted result lives only in memory: it can be downloaded for 5 minutes or up to 3 times; after that it is no longer reachable and is removed from the server's memory. The result is not written to disk.

No accounts, no cookies, no third-party trackers

There is no signup and no accounts. The site sets no cookies. Your browser stores only the language you chose, in its local storage, and nothing else.

No third-party analytics, no pixels: this page makes no request to any other domain, not even for fonts. The donation link goes to Cafecito only if you click it, and without telling them where you came from; we do count the click on our own server, as explained below.

What we measure

We measure visits with our own script, without cookies or third-party services. For each visit we keep the page, the language, the device type (computer, phone or tablet), the country you connected from and only the domain of the site you came from (never the full page; empty if you came directly or from ForgeBridge), for 180 days.

The country comes from matching your IP address against a database that lives on our own server: no external service is queried, so your IP never leaves it. We keep only the two-letter country code (AR, ES, US…), never the city, the region or any coordinates (that database does not even carry them), and for an IPv6 address we look up the prefix, not the full address. If your IP is not in the database, or you use a VPN, the country stays empty.

Your IP address and your browser's identifier are combined into a code of 16 characters using a secret key that changes every day and exists only in the server's memory: during that day the code is a pseudonym; afterwards nobody, not even us, can link it back to you.

If your browser sends the Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, we count the visit without that code.

After 30 days the code is erased from the database; after 180 only daily totals remain, with no per-visitor data at all: how many visits and how many people there were each day, and from which countries, with nothing pointing at anyone in particular.

For each conversion we record the target printer, the brand of the printer the file had been prepared for (for example, Bambu Lab or Creality), whether it succeeded or what kind of error it gave (for example, that the file was already sliced), the approximate file size, the layer height, the chosen profile, how many filaments it had and how many were kept, whether anything was trimmed, whether the model came split or with painted supports, how long it took and from what device type it was done; never the file name, its contents or its colors. If the file is rejected for not coming from Bambu Studio, we also keep the name of the program that made it, as declared by the file itself (for example “tinkercad”), without its version; never the file name.

We also record each click on a donation button (only the destination domain, never the full URL) and each download of the result (whether it succeeded or what error it gave, and from what device type). And we count, without uploading anything, the times the app rejects a file in your browser for exceeding the size limit or for not being a .3mf; when it is about size we also keep which range it fell into (say, between 150 and 200 MiB), never the exact size nor the file name.

A backup of this database is saved daily on the same server and kept for 14 days, so a deleted record can survive in the backups for up to two more weeks; any visitor code left there can no longer be linked to anyone, because the daily key it was made with no longer exists.

Only the person who runs the site sees this data, behind a password, and it is used to know how many people use ForgeBridge and what fails.

What the server logs

That access log does not keep your IP address, cookies, your browser language or the page you came from; what the visit script measures is described in the previous section. The log keeps the method and path of each request (never your file name), the response code, the time, the duration, the response size and your browser's identifier (User-Agent), among other technical request data.

Your IP address is used in memory to limit abusive use (one counter per address and path): it is not written to disk or to the log, it is discarded on its own at most one hour after your last request (the sweep runs with the next request the server handles), and it disappears when the service restarts. The basis for that use is our legitimate interest in keeping the service available.

The server's operating system logs, like any server, administrative connection attempts (SSH) with their IP address. That does not go through the application or through this filter.

If you write to me

The site has a contact form and the app offers to leave a message after a conversion or an error. For each message we keep the text you write, your email (required: it is the only way to reply to you), the link to the model if you paste it, the language, which page you sent it from, the country of your connection (from the same local country database we use for visits, just the two-letter code) and, if you send it from the app, the name and size of the file you uploaded, which printer you picked, which ForgeBridge version converted, the profile and the choices (purge, extruders, materials) and which notices or error it showed, with their values. Never the file.

We use it to read you and reply. A message is kept until we archive it; once archived it is deleted after 180 days. Nobody else receives it: there are no third parties in between, neither to send it nor to store it.

The Chrome extension

The extension does the same as the website, on its own. A .3mf finishes downloading, it reads it from disk, sends it to our server to be converted for the printer you chose and saves the converted file next to the original. Everything above still applies: your file is converted in memory and not kept, and the result lives for 5 minutes or 3 downloads.

It does not look at the pages you browse. It asks for no permission on MakerWorld, Printables or any other site. It reads a single file, the .3mf Chrome has just reported as a finished download, at the path Chrome gives it. It never looks through your folders or reads other files. To read that file, Chrome asks you to turn on “Allow access to file URLs” on the extension's page.

In your browser it stores only your settings (the printer, whether you want the report, whether it is on) and a short list of recent activity with file names, which you can clear whenever you like. None of that leaves your browser. Each conversion made from the extension counts as one more conversion, with the same data described under “What we measure” plus the extension's version, to know how many people use it.

Where the server is

At OVHcloud in Beauharnois, Canada. We use no content delivery networks or third-party proxies: the encrypted connection ends on our own server.

Contact

For any question about this page: hola@forgebridge.app.