Last updated September 2026

Privacy

The short version: your diploma is made in your browser, and your name is not sent to us — unless you choose to add yourself to the list of people who have printed one, and even then only your first name.

What we collect right now

Almost nothing. There is no account to create, we run no analytics of our own, and we set no tracking cookies. The name and date you type on the diploma are used to draw it on your own device and are not transmitted to any server.

There are two exceptions, and both only happen if you choose them: a card you send to the wall, and saying you printed a pledge. Both are covered below.

When you print, the printing happens locally between your browser and your printer. We never see the document.

The site is hosted by Cloudflare, which, like any web host, handles your IP address in order to deliver pages to you and to block attacks. We keep no request logs of our own.

Cards on the wall

A card is anonymous. There is no name field, no account and no email, so the only thing stored is the two pieces of text you wrote. We cannot tell who sent a card, which also means we cannot find yours again for you, or remove one at your request by matching it to you — if you want a card taken down you will need to quote it back to us.

While a card is waiting to be read we hold a one-way hash of your IP address. It exists only to stop one person flooding the queue, it is never stored as an address, and it is deleted the moment the card is approved or turned down. A card on the wall carries nothing about the person who wrote it.

Every card is read by a person before it appears. Nothing you send is published automatically. We may decline a card without explanation — most often because it names somebody else, or because it has no second half.

Once a card is on the wall it is public, and public means it can be copied, quoted or archived by other people. Removing it here cannot undo that.

The share buttons

One set of share buttons under your diploma is provided by Elfsight, an outside company, and appears only once you have printed. Their code is loaded from elfsightcdn.com, which means your browser makes a request to them at that point, and they may set their own cookies and log the visit under their own privacy policy rather than this one. We do not receive anything from it. Nothing about your diploma — not your name, not the date — is sent to them or to anyone else. The share buttons everywhere else on the site, including on every famous-failure entry, are ours: they are plain links to each network’s own composer, and they send nothing to anyone until you press them.

The plain text links next to them are not that. They open your own app with a message ready, and nothing is posted unless you press post yourself.

Images on the failure library

Portraits in the failure library are served from this site. Most come from Wikimedia Commons and are credited on each entry, but viewing them makes no request to Wikimedia or anyone else.

Saying you printed one

After you print, you are offered the chance to say so. It is optional, and nothing is sent unless you press the button. The form asks for the name you want shown — only your first name is taken from what you typed, and your surname is removed in your browser and never reaches us — and, if you like, your town.

If you choose to be counted privately, we keep only the fact that one more pledge was printed. Your name and your town are discarded before anything is saved.

If you choose to be listed, which is off by default, we keep the first name and town you gave and show them publicly on this site, exactly as the form shows them to you before you agree. Nothing else about you is stored with them: no email address, no surname, nothing linked to a payment.

Either way we briefly hold a one-way hash of your IP address, only to stop one person flooding the list. It is never stored as an address and is deleted within the hour.

A public listing can be copied by other people, and if we later publish the list as a feed, other services can fetch and republish it. We will remove your listing from this site on request, but we cannot retract copies already taken elsewhere.

Payments — not in effect yet

Paid styles will be handled by Stripe, who process the payment on their own pages. Card details never reach this site. Stripe holds the email address you give at checkout and sends your receipt; that receipt carries a link that lets you print your styles again later.

All we keep is a long random key and whether it has been paid for. We do not store your email address or your name. The link is the key, so anyone who has it can print with it — keep it like a receipt.

Your rights

Because we hold almost nothing, there is usually nothing to request or delete. Where we do hold something — a wall card, a public listing, or a purchase record — you can ask us to show it to you or remove it.

This is a plain-language draft and not yet legal advice. It must be reviewed before this site takes payments or publishes anyone’s name.