What is kept in your browser
When you open a file, the viewer reads it in the browser tab and holds the map in memory while the tab is open. Nothing from the file is written to Themescape.
While the tab is open
Closing the tab clears the map from memory. Opening the viewer again starts from nothing until you load a file or a progress file.
Progress files
If you save progress, the progress file is written to your own computer through your browser's normal download, and you choose where it goes. It contains your map, definitions and chosen quotes, and nothing else.
Connecting a Google Sheet
The Google Sheets mode is opt in, for non-sensitive data only.
When you connect a sheet, your browser reads it once from Google using the sheet's own link, and the viewer builds the map from it in the same way as from a file. Themescape holds no copy of the sheet. The sheet is shared by link while you connect, so set its access back to Restricted once the map is open.
What your exported files contain
Exports are made in your browser and saved to your computer.
Spreadsheet exports
A spreadsheet export carries the refined definitions and chosen quotes you marked in Work mode, so you can take them back to your coding software.
Figure exports
A figure export carries the map as an image or vector file for a report, a thesis or a slide. Neither export passes through Themescape.
"Your file. Your browser. Your screen. Nothing travels to Themescape."
Hosting and services
The viewer and the account system run on Google Firebase, payments are handled by Stripe, email is sent through Resend, and this website is served by Cloudflare.
What these services hold
These services hold account information only, as set out above. They never receive research data, because the viewer never sends any.
Regions and sub-processors
The privacy statement lists each service, what it holds and why.
Privacy law in New Zealand and overseas
Themescape Limited is a New Zealand company and handles account information under the Privacy Act 2020.
Account information
Because research data never reaches us, there is no transfer of research data to assess. The account information we hold is handled under the Privacy Act 2020, and the privacy statement sets out how.
Researchers outside New Zealand
Researchers outside New Zealand should still check the position of their own institution and data protection law for the account information Themescape holds.
Māori data sovereignty
Māori data is a taonga, and the people it comes from hold authority over it. Themescape is built so that research data never reaches us, which keeps that authority where it belongs: with the researcher, their institution, and the whānau, hapū and iwi who shared it.
What Themescape never holds
Interview transcripts, quotes, codes, participant names and anything else in your research data are read in your browser and go nowhere else. We hold no copy, we cannot see it, and nothing in it is used to build or train anything. The only thing we hold about a researcher is their account information, and that is handled in New Zealand under the Privacy Act 2020.
So there is no Māori data on Themescape's servers to govern, move, or return. It stays in the storage your ethics approval describes, under the agreements you made with the people who gave it.
If your research holds Māori data
Your obligations come from your consultation, your ethics approval and the communities you work with, not from us. Themescape does not replace any of that; it only makes sure the tool is not in the way.
Your data stays where your ethics approval says it lives. Opening a file in the viewer does not copy it anywhere.
Exports are plain files on your own computer, so data can be returned, shared or deleted as you agreed with participants, whānau, hapū or iwi.
Do not use the Google Sheets mode for Māori participant data. The sheet is shared by link while it is connected and sits on Google's servers overseas. That mode is for non-sensitive data only.
Progress files hold your map, definitions and chosen quotes. Treat them with the same care as the data itself.
For guidance on governance, the usual starting point in Aotearoa is Te Mana Raraunga, the Māori Data Sovereignty Network, and its principles of rangatiratanga, whakapapa, whanaungatanga, kotahitanga, manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga, alongside Te Ara Tika for health research. Your institution will have its own process; at the University of Canterbury, for example, that is the Māori ethics consultation run with the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre and Kaiārahi Rangahau. Positive consultation recognises Te Tiriti o Waitangi and can change the direction of a project, including how findings are shared back.
Our commitment
Themescape Limited is a New Zealand company and acknowledges Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We will not add a feature that sends research data to Themescape. If that ever changed, it would be opt in and set out on this page first. We welcome guidance from Māori researchers and advisors on this section and on the product, at support@themescape.co.nz.