Privacy, plainly

Last updated: 29 September 2026

Who runs Wax Read

Wax Read (waxread.site) is an independent project run by Mohamed Elkarmi, based in Morocco. For anything about your data, email elkarmimed@gmail.com.

What happens when you look up a record

Wax Read gets its information from Discogs, the public music database. When you paste a link, search, or check a wantlist, the release numbers, your search words, or the Discogs username you type are sent to Discogs to fetch the answer, either straight from your browser or through our small server. We don't save your searches or build a profile of you.

Album covers are loaded through our server so the app can pick up their colours and draw share cards. The images come from Discogs and aren't kept.

The share card is drawn entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded when you share or download it.

What's saved on your device

A few small settings are stored in your browser's local storage, so the app remembers them next time. They never leave your device, except the license key when it's checked (see below).

You can erase all of this at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser settings.

Buying the unlock

Payments are handled by Gumroad, which processes your payment and emails you a license key. We never see or store your card details. As the seller, Gumroad gives us your purchase record (such as your email and what you bought) so we can support you and handle refunds. Gumroad's own privacy policy covers what they collect.

When you activate a key in the app, it's sent to our server, which asks Gumroad whether it's valid. Gumroad counts how many browsers a key has been activated on (up to 3 per purchase). The app re-checks the key about once a day so refunded keys stop working. We don't keep a log of keys.

Visit counts (no cookies)

We use Vercel Web Analytics to count visits and see which pages are viewed and which site sent people here. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and doesn't identify you: visits are counted in anonymous, aggregated form.

Analytics (only with your OK)

If you click "Accept" on the cookie banner, we use Google Analytics to understand how the app is used: how many people visit, which site sent them, and which features they use (for example, looking up a record, using the better-value search, or opening the unlock window). This helps us decide what to improve.

• Nothing from Google loads until you accept. Declining is as easy as accepting, and the app works exactly the same either way.
• Google Analytics sets cookies named _ga and _ga_… to tell visits apart.
• Google's advertising features and "Google signals" are switched off. Your data isn't used for ads.
• Google may process this data in the United States, under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. See Google's privacy policy.

You can change your mind at any time:

Hosting

The site is hosted by Vercel. Like any web host, Vercel briefly processes technical information such as your IP address to deliver pages and keep the service secure.

The legal part, in short

• Analytics: based on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Purchases and license checks: needed to provide what you bought.
• Record lookups and hosting: needed to run the app you're using.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask to see, correct or delete personal data we hold about you (in practice, only your Gumroad purchase record), and you can object to or restrict its use. Email elkarmimed@gmail.com and we'll reply within a month. If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live (for example the CNIL in France), or to Morocco's CNDP.

Changes

If this changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top.