privacy
last updated 27 August 2026
You engage in a conversation with our machine about your memory, and it creates a custom perfume. That conversation is the most personal thing we handle, and we want to do so with a lot of care.
We do not keep a recording of your voice and we do not keep a transcript of what you said. We keep a short written summary of the memory, the emotions the blend was built from, and the perfume formula itself. Your archive is private by default and nothing appears publicly unless you decide to share it. You can download everything we hold, or delete all of it, from your account page.
Who we are
index is a trading name of Index Fragrances Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16553405), registered office 71-75 Shelton Street, London, United Kingdom, WC2H 9JQ. We are the data controller for everything described here, which means we decide what is collected and why.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under reference ZC223290.
For anything on this page, write to hi@index.you. We answer rights requests within one month.
What happens at the machine
You scan your key, the machine greets you, and you talk. While you are talking, the audio from the microphone is streamed live to OpenAI, which runs the conversation and understands what you are saying. This is the one part we cannot do without: the machine cannot hold a conversation without sending it your voice.
We do not save that audio. It is not written to the machine, not uploaded, and not kept by us in any form. We also do not generate or keep a written transcript of your side of the conversation.
What we do keep from a session:
- a short written summary of the memory you described, in a few sentences, and the closing piece the machine writes for you
- the emotions the blend was built from, and their proportions, which is what makes your perfume specific to you
- the recipe that was dispensed, and the code printed on your bottle
- an image of the orb generated for your memory
- which installation you were at, and when
Anyone else audible near the machine while you are speaking is picked up by the microphone too, for as long as the conversation runs. That audio is treated exactly the same way: streamed, not stored.
If your summary happens to mention someone else, that person’s information is in our records because you put it there. If they ask us to remove it, write to us and we will.
Your archive, and choosing to share
Your memories live in a private archive that only you can see when signed in. Nothing about them appears on the public archive unless you choose it, one memory at a time, from that memory’s own page.
Sharing is deliberately in parts. You can share the orb alone, which appears on the map as a cloud with nothing to read. You can additionally share the title and scent notes, the written story, and the date and place. You can sign it with your first name or stay anonymous. Every one of those starts off, and you can reverse any of them at any time, which unpublishes the memory and clears the shared copy.
Two honest notes. Once something has been public, we cannot undo other people having seen it or search engines having cached it. And if you delete your whole account, anything you published is deleted with it.
On the website
- Your account: your name, email address, member ID, and a password held by our authentication provider. We never see your password.
- Buying something: what you ordered and what you paid. Card details go straight to Stripe and never touch our systems.
- The queue at an event: the name you chose to show on the host’s screen, and the times you joined, were called and were served.
- The mailing list: your email address, and your city if you gave one, so we can tell you where the next pop-up is.
- Asking about a size: your email address and which blend and size you asked about, so we can write when it exists.
We use no analytics and no advertising trackers. Nothing on this site profiles you as you browse. See the cookie page for the small number of things we do store in your browser.
Why we are allowed to (lawful bases)
| What | Basis |
|---|---|
| Running the conversation, making your perfume, keeping your archive | Performance of our contract with you |
| Publishing a memory to the public archive | Your consent, given per memory, withdrawable at any time |
| Taking payment, and keeping the records of it | Contract, and our legal obligations for tax records |
| The mailing list | Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Fragrance allergens you declare, so the machine can keep those bases out of your perfume | Your explicit consent, withdrawable at any time by removing them from your account |
| Keeping the machines working and the queue moving | Our legitimate interests in running the experience safely |
The summary of your memory is kept as part of the service, because without it your archive is a bottle with nothing behind it. If you would rather we kept the perfume and not the words, write to us and we will switch that off for your account.
Who else sees it
We use other companies to run parts of this. Most of them act only on our instructions and cannot use your information for their own purposes.
| Who | What they get | Where |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Your voice, live, during the conversation, and a short note of who you are: the name you registered with, how many times you have been, and the leading emotions from your last few visits, so the machine can greet you as someone it has met before | United States |
| Anthropic | The summary of your memory, to write its title and description | United States |
| Supabase | Everything we store, including your archive | United Kingdom (London) |
| Vercel | Runs this website, so it sees requests to it | United Kingdom (London) |
| Stripe | Your email and payment, and it keeps its own record | United States and Ireland |
| Resend | Your name and email, to send you email | United States |
| fal.ai | Colour words and a number, to draw your orb. No name, no story, no photograph | United States |
Nobody trains an AI on your memory. Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic is permitted to use what we send them to train their models. That is the standing position for the business accounts we hold rather than a setting we had to go and find. They may each hold what we send for a short while so they can check it was not abused, normally no more than a month, and then it is deleted. If one of their own safety systems flags something, or the law requires it, they may keep it for longer, and we would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise. Beyond what the table above says, neither of them is given your account or the rest of your archive.
Your archive is stored in the UK. The database holding your memories and your account sits in London, and so does the server that runs this website.
Some of the companies above are outside the UK, mostly in the United States. Where information leaves the UK we rely on approved safeguards. In most cases that is the standard contractual clauses as amended by the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, issued by the Information Commissioner. Some of these companies are also certified under the UK Extension to the EU to US Data Privacy Framework. Write to hi@index.you and we will send you a copy of the safeguards that apply to any company on this list.
Stripe is the exception. When it takes a payment it is not simply working for us: it decides for itself how it handles the transaction, including checking it for fraud across its own network, and it keeps its own record under its own privacy policy. That record is Stripe’s rather than ours, so if you delete your account we can remove your name from our copy of the order but we cannot delete theirs. Write to Stripe for that.
We do not sell your information, and we never have. We would only hand it to anyone else if the law required it.
How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Your memories and your archive | While your account exists. If you do not sign in or buy anything for five years we write to warn you, then delete it |
| Memories you published | Until you unshare them, or delete your account |
| Orders and tickets | Six years, because tax law requires it. Your name is removed from them when you delete your account |
| Mailing list | Until you unsubscribe |
| The copy on the machine at the venue | Until it has reached us and a short while after, then wiped. The few details it caches to greet you go a month after your last visit |
| Your voice | Not kept by us |
Your rights
You can:
- Get a copy of everything we hold. There is a download button on your account page and it gives you the lot, including the written summaries.
- Delete your account and everything in it. Also on your account page. It is irreversible, and the QR codes on your bottles stop working.
- Correct anything that is wrong.
- Object to what we are doing, or ask us to restrict it.
- Withdraw consent, for sharing or for email, at any time.
If you made a perfume at a pop-up and never set up an account, write to us with roughly when and where and we will find it.
Age
You must be 18 or over to use a machine or hold an account. Children are very welcome to come along, watch, and smell the result. We do not create accounts for children. A memory can be about anyone, so a summary you give us may mention a child; if you would rather it was not in your archive, tell us and we will remove it.
Keeping it safe
Your archive sits behind your password. Everything travels encrypted. A machine at a venue keeps a copy of your session until it has safely reached us, and briefly after that as a backstop, then wipes it. It also caches a few details about you, so it can greet you, for up to a month since your last visit. Only the people who need access have it.
No system is perfect. If something goes wrong in a way that puts you at risk, we will tell you and the regulator, as the law requires.
Complaints
Please come to us first at hi@index.you. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes
When we change this page we update the date at the top. If a change actually affects you, we will email you rather than expect you to notice.