Could Have Been an Email is built on a simple belief: honest feedback requires real anonymity.
Survey Creators
Anyone who creates and sends a survey. No account required. You might be the meeting organizer, an attendee, or anyone who wants feedback on a meeting.
Survey Respondents
Anyone who receives and responds to a survey. No account required.
Pro Account Holders
Users with a paid Pro subscription who want extended survey capabilities and a reporting dashboard.
Teams Account Holders
Organizations with a paid Teams subscription that provides Pro features to multiple employees.
Many users are both creators and respondents at different times.
When You Create a Survey (No Account Required)
To create a survey, you provide your email address. We send you a confirmation link to review and approve the survey before it sends. This helps prevent abuse while keeping the process simple.
We collect:
All email addresses — yours and your attendees’ — are stored only while the survey is active and for up to 7 days after it closes. After results are delivered, all email addresses are deleted from our system.
Your confirmation link remains active until 7 days after the survey closes, allowing you to:
Surveys remain open for 7 days. You are limited to one active survey at a time. To create more simultaneous surveys, extend survey windows, or access additional features, upgrade to Pro.
When You Respond to a Survey
Your individual responses are processed through a one-way hash (SHA-256) before storage. Your answers contribute to aggregate results, but we have no record connecting those answers to you.
We temporarily store your email address for up to 7 days after the survey closes so we can send you the results. After results are delivered, your email address is deleted from our system.
If you respond using a shareable survey link (rather than a direct email invitation), we ask you to enter your email address before submitting. This email is used only to send you results and is deleted on the same schedule.
Our email delivery service (SendGrid) receives only your email address for delivery purposes — never your survey responses. SendGrid may retain email addresses for up to 37 days before automatic deletion.
You do not need an account to respond to a survey.
Pro Accounts
When you create a Pro account, we collect:
Pro accounts can:
Teams Accounts
When your organization creates a Teams account, we collect:
Teams accounts receive Pro features for all members, plus organization-wide reporting.
Individual survey responses linked to identities. We use one-way hashing. Once processed, there’s no key to reverse it.
Long-term email address storage. Email addresses are deleted from our system within 7 days of survey completion.
Browsing behavior or tracking across other sites. We don’t sell personal data or build advertising profiles.
Content of your meetings. We ask whether a meeting could have been an email, not what was discussed.
Anonymity isn’t just a policy — it’s built into how the system works.
One-way hashing
Survey responses are processed through SHA-256 hashing before storage. This is the same approach used for password security. There’s no “key” to reverse it.
Minimum response thresholds
Surveys require at least 5 participants. Results are only delivered if at least 3 people respond. If fewer than 3 responses are received, all participants are notified that the survey closed without sufficient responses — no data is shared.
Aggregate-only dashboards
Pro and Teams dashboards display trends, averages, and patterns. They never display individual responses, email addresses, or any data that could identify a specific respondent.
No unique identifiers stored
We don’t create or retain any identifier that could link a response back to an individual.
Separation of data
Survey response data and email addresses are never stored together. Your responses are anonymized; your email address is used only for delivery and then deleted.
We may use fully anonymized, aggregate data to:
Industry categorization may be inferred from email domain names (for example, identifying response patterns from healthcare vs. technology sectors). This data is always aggregate — it reflects patterns across many users and organizations, never individual responses or identifiable information.
We do not sell personal data. Any aggregate data we share or publish contains no information that could identify individuals, specific organizations, or individual survey responses.
Survey creators can cancel a survey at any time before it closes.
If a survey is cancelled after invitations have been sent, all participants (attendees and the creator) receive a notification email.
Any responses already submitted are discarded. No results are delivered.
SendGrid (Email Delivery)
Survey invitations and results are sent through SendGrid, a Twilio company. When we send an email, SendGrid receives only the recipient’s email address and the email content — never survey responses.
SendGrid may retain email addresses for up to 37 days for delivery and troubleshooting purposes. Anonymized delivery event logs (such as whether an email was delivered or bounced) may be retained for up to one year for security and fraud prevention. These logs do not include survey responses.
Stripe (Payment Processing)
Stripe handles all payment transactions for Pro and Teams subscriptions. We receive confirmation of successful payments but do not store complete payment card information. Stripe’s privacy policy governs their handling of your payment data.
Cloudways (Hosting)
Our application and database are hosted on Cloudways. Data is stored on servers in the United States.
| Data Type | Retention Period |
| Survey responses (anonymized/hashed) | Retained while associated account is active; deleted for no-account surveys after results delivered |
| Creator and attendee email addresses | Deleted within 7 days of survey completion |
| Pro/Teams account information | Retained while account is active; deleted within 30 days of account closure |
| Payment records | As required for tax and legal compliance |
Opt-Out
You can opt-out from all Could Have Been an Email survey invitations at any time. An opt-out link is included in every email we send. Once opted-out, you will not receive survey invitations from any user of our platform.
Alternatively, you can opt-out of our platform visiting our dedicated opt-out page and use the opt out form.
To remove yourself from the opt-out list and receive surveys again please visit our opt-out page and use the opt-in form to opt back in to our platform.
Teams Accounts
If your organization has a Teams account, survey participation may be part of your organization’s internal feedback process. In this case, the opt-out option is not available. Please contact your organization’s administrator if you have concerns.
We believe you shouldn’t need to email anyone to exercise your privacy rights.
For Survey Creators (No Account) and Respondents
Your individual survey responses cannot be deleted because they cannot be identified — this is by design.
To manage your email preferences or request deletion of your email address:
For Pro Account Holders
You can delete your account and all associated data from your dashboard:
Account Settings → Delete Account
This removes your account information, survey history, and dashboard data. Deletion is processed within 30 days.
For Teams Account Administrators
Organization administrators can delete the Teams account from the Teams dashboard. This removes all organization data, member accounts, and survey history. Deletion is processed within 30 days.
Depending on your location, you may have rights under GDPR (European Union), CCPA/CPRA (California), or similar laws, including:
You have the right to:
California residents have additional rights under the CCPA, including the right to know what personal information is collected whether it is sold. We do not sell your personal information.
We do not sell personal information as defined under CCPA/CPRA. Our use of aggregate data does not include personally identifiable information.
Enter your email address to see what personal data we have stored about you.
A verification email will be sent to confirm you own this email address.
Request a copy of all personal data we have stored about you in a machine-readable format (JSON).
A verification email will be sent. After verification, your data export will be emailed to you.
Request permanent deletion of all personal data we have stored about you.
A verification email will be sent. Your data will only be deleted after you confirm via the link in the email.
Use the forms above to exercise these rights. All requests require email verification for your security and privacy protection.
We implement industry-standard security measures including:
We may update this policy as our practices evolve. Significant changes will be communicated via email to account holders. The “Last Updated” date at the top of this page indicates when revisions were last made.
Questions about this policy?
Could Have Been an Email is operated from Charlotte, North Carolina, United States.
