Privacy Policy

Manifold-BT runs locally on your machine. Your trading strategies, market data, and backtest results stay on your computer and are never transmitted to our servers.

This policy describes the limited personal data we do collect, how it is used, and your rights regarding that data. It applies to the Manifold-BT software, website, and any related services (the "Service").

Purchase data. When you buy a Pro or Researcher license, payment is processed by Stripe. We receive your email address and a Stripe customer identifier. Card details are handled directly by Stripe and are never sent to or stored by us.

License and update check. The library contacts the network on its own for three things, each described in full below: validating a paid license, checking for a newer version, and a daily install report sent to our server. None of them carries your strategies, your data or your results.

License validation. When a Pro or Researcher license is installed, the library contacts our license server when it starts, to validate the license. The server answers with a signed lease that the library verifies on your machine. The request carries a hash of the license key, the license identifier, the email address the license was issued to, a hash identifying the machine, the time of the request, the Manifold-BT version, the operating system, the CPU architecture, and whether it is a GPU build. We use it to keep licenses within the terms they were sold under (device limit, trial expiry), and to know which build you are running when you report a problem. An installation without a license never sends it.

Update check. Once a day, the library asks PyPI, the public Python package index, for the latest published version of Manifold-BT, and prints a notice when a newer one exists. The request goes to pypi.org, not to our server, and carries no identifier.

Daily install report. Once a day, and on the first import of a new version, every installation, Community included, sends a report to our server. A report that does not arrive is retried after an hour, then at growing intervals, up to once a day. It carries an anonymous installation identifier, derived from the machine with its own salt so that it cannot be matched to a license record, the Manifold-BT version, the operating system, the CPU architecture, whether it is a GPU build, the Python major and minor version, whether the installation runs on Community or on a paid license, and the time it was sent. It carries no email, no license key, and no account of any kind, and it is stored separately from license records.

The same report adds two things, both of them counts and ranges rather than exact values. The first is the class of machine it runs on: a range for the number of processor cores, a range for the amount of memory, which vector instruction sets the processor supports, the processor brand, and the generation and memory range of the GPU, that last one only once the engine has used a GPU on this machine. The second is a daily summary of what the software was asked to do: how many operations of each kind ran (backtests, batches, parameter sweeps, walk-forward analyses, portfolio runs, Monte Carlo simulations, replays, diagnostics, data imports, order-flow, market-making and tick runs), how the strategy was handed to the engine, how many parameter combinations sweeps asked for, how many runs used the GPU, how much data they covered as a range, the median and longest duration of a backtest, which Community plan limits were reached, the category of each error that was returned, the number of crashes and the location of the last one as a file and line number inside our own source, and how many runs were driven by a coding agent. Those counters cover the last three days, and each report replaces them rather than adding to them.

None of it describes your work. It contains no instrument or ticker name, no strategy parameter, no expression, no error message, and no path to any file on your machine: nothing in it is text you wrote or chose. We use it to know which versions and platforms are still in use, so that we know what we can safely stop supporting, which parts of the engine are worth maintaining, and what hardware it has to run well on.

Like any request on the internet, each of these reaches its server from your IP address. We do not write that address into license or install records; our hosting provider, Vercel, sees it in the normal course of serving the request.

Turning it off. Set MANIFOLDBT_NO_TELEMETRY=1 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 in your environment to stop the daily install report. Nothing is counted then, not even on your machine. MANIFOLDBT_NO_TELEMETRY=1 also stops the update check, which MANIFOLDBT_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 stops on its own. Both stay silent when the CI variable is set. License validation runs whenever a paid license is installed, since it is how that license is checked.

Website analytics. The Manifold-BT website uses Vercel Analytics to collect aggregate visit metrics (page views, referrers, broad geography). It does not use cookies and does not track individual visitors across sessions.

We do not collect, transmit, or have access to:

• Your strategy source code
• Market data you import or download
• Backtest results, trade logs, or equity curves
• Brokerage credentials or API keys
• The contents of your local datasets

All computation happens on your machine. The engine has no network calls beyond the license and update check described above, and the data-provider connectors you explicitly configure.

The data we collect is used only to:

• Process payments and issue license keys
• Validate active licenses and enforce device limits
• Send transactional emails (license delivery, receipts)
• Diagnose bugs and prioritize features based on aggregate usage
• Communicate critical security or licensing notices

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.

We use a small number of third-party services to operate the Service. Each is bound by its own privacy policy.

• Stripe, payment processing
• Vercel, website hosting and analytics
• Neon, database for license validation and install reports
• PyPI, run by the Python Software Foundation, answers the daily update check
• Google Search Console, indexing and search performance

Data-provider connectors (Binance, Bybit, Hyperliquid, dYdX, Bitstamp, Deribit, Yahoo Finance, Dukascopy, London Strategic Edge, Massive, Databento) operate under your own credentials and are subject to their respective privacy policies.

Purchase records are retained for the duration of the license and as long as required by applicable accounting and tax laws.

License validation records are retained while the license remains active.

Daily install reports are anonymous and are kept for as long as they remain useful for support decisions. The update check leaves nothing on our servers.

The Manifold-BT website does not use tracking or advertising cookies. Stripe may set its own cookies during checkout for fraud prevention.

Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and similar laws, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your data, subject to legal retention requirements
• Object to or restrict processing of your data
• Request a portable copy of your data
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on it

To exercise any of these rights, email us at contact@manifoldbt.com. We will respond within 30 days.

We use industry-standard practices to protect data in transit (TLS) and at rest. License keys are signed with Ed25519 and verified locally; raw keys are never stored on our servers.

No system is fully immune to compromise. If we become aware of a breach affecting your data, we will notify you in accordance with applicable law.

The Service is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the latest revision. Material changes will be announced on the website or by email where appropriate.

For privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at contact@manifoldbt.com.