Subprocessors
Last updated: 2 May 2026
Founder Mode works with two kinds of third parties. Processors handle your personal data on our behalf to operate the Service. Independent third parties are services you interact with directly (such as OAuth sign-in providers); they operate under their own privacy terms. Apple appears in both categories: APNs (push delivery) is a processor relationship, while Sign in with Apple is an independent-controller relationship.
For background on how data flows to each, see our Privacy Policy.
Processors
| Subprocessor | Purpose | Region | Used when | Privacy policy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner Online GmbH | Compute, PostgreSQL database, and S3-compatible object storage for files (images, documents, attachments). | Germany (EU) | Always — primary infrastructure. | hetzner.com/legal/privacy-policy |
| Resend | Transactional email delivery (verification, password reset, notifications) and bounce/complaint webhooks. | United States | Always — outgoing email. | resend.com/legal/privacy-policy |
| Polar | Subscription billing and payments. Polar receives your customer reference and email; we never receive card details. | United States | Paying customers only — when you start, manage, or cancel a paid plan. | polar.sh/legal/privacy |
| Plausible Analytics (self-hosted instance) | Cookieless, aggregated web analytics. No personal data is collected. | Germany (EU) | Always for website visitors. | plausible.io/privacy-focused-web-analytics |
| Google LLC (Gemini) | Primary large-language-model and embeddings provider for AI features. Receives your prompts and the relevant content from your account. | United States and global | When you use AI features. | policies.google.com/privacy |
| Zhipu AI (智谱 / GLM) | Fallback large-language-model provider. Receives prompts only when primary LLM providers are unavailable. | China | Fallback only — when primary providers are unavailable. | open.bigmodel.cn |
| fal.ai | Image-generation provider for AI image features. | United States | When you use AI image-generation features. | fal.ai/legal/privacy-policy |
| LangChain, Inc. (LangSmith) | LLM-call tracing and observability. Receives prompts and AI responses for debugging and quality monitoring. | United States | Always when AI features are used (current configuration). | langchain.com/privacy-policy |
| Apple Inc. (APNs) | Apple Push Notification service for delivering push notifications on iOS and macOS. | United States | When you enable push notifications in our iOS or macOS apps. | apple.com/legal/privacy |
Independent third parties
| Service | Purpose | Region | Used when | Privacy policy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discord, Inc. | OAuth sign-in and the Founder Mode community server. Discord operates the platform under its own privacy terms; you have a direct relationship with Discord when you sign in or post on the FM server. | United States | When you sign in with Discord or join the Founder Mode Discord server. | discord.com/privacy |
| GitHub, Inc. | OAuth sign-in. We receive your GitHub identifier, email, and avatar; GitHub operates as an independent controller for the sign-in flow. | United States | When you sign in with GitHub. | docs.github.com/en/site-policy/privacy-policies |
| Apple Inc. (Sign in with Apple) | OAuth sign-in. Apple operates as an independent controller for the sign-in flow. | United States | When you sign in with Apple. | apple.com/legal/privacy |
International transfers
Most of your data is stored in Germany. When personal data flows to a service outside the EU/EEA, we apply transport-layer encryption and pass only the minimum content the service needs to do its job. Each non-EU service operates under its own published privacy terms, linked above.
Questions
Have a question about a specific subprocessor? Email [email protected].
Changelog
- 2 May 2026 — split into "Processors" and "Independent third parties" tables; separated Apple APNs (processor) from Sign in with Apple (independent controller); simplified the international-transfers paragraph.
- 29 April 2026 — initial published list.