Skip to main content

Account, Security and Privacy

Your email address is your Bookings sign-in. Bookings sends a code or link instead of asking for a password, so keep your email account secure: anyone with access to it can sign in.

Signing In to BusyCal​

Create your account by signing in from BusyCal > Settings > Bookings on a Mac. Enter your email address, then the six-digit code sent to it. The code expires after 10 minutes. Your other devices join through the same iCloud account without a separate sign-in. See Turn On Bookings in BusyCal.

Signing In to Your Dashboard​

Your dashboard is at busybook.me/my. You can open it in any browser, or click Open Dashboard in BusyCal > Settings > Bookings.

  1. Enter the email address that you use in BusyCal, then click Email Me a Sign-In Link.
  2. Open the sign-in email.
  3. Click the link in the email, then click Sign In in your browser. Or type the six-digit code from the email in the browser where you asked to sign in, then click Sign In.

The link and code are single-use and expire after 10 minutes. Sign in with an address you've already used for Bookings in BusyCal; the dashboard doesn't send sign-in emails to other addresses.

Your browser stays signed in until you sign out or leave the dashboard unused for 90 days. To sign out, open the account menu at the top right and choose Sign Out.

Where You're Signed In​

Open Settings > Sign-in and security > Where you're signed in to see your signed-in browsers. Each entry shows its sign-in date, last activity and expiry. The current one is marked This browser.

  • To sign out another browser, click Sign Out… in its row, then click Sign Out. That browser then needs a new sign-in link or code to open your dashboard again.
  • To sign out every browser, including this one, click Sign Out Everywhere…, then click Sign Out Everywhere.

Signing out browsers doesn't sign out BusyCal. Your devices stay signed in and keep your booking pages up to date.

Devices That Use Bookings​

Each device using Bookings can share busy times and add bookings to your calendar. After you sign in on one Mac, devices using the same iCloud account join automatically. See Using Bookings on Your Other Devices.

The Devices group in BusyCal > Settings > Bookings lists your other devices that use Bookings. It shows when each of them was last seen.

  • To remove a device that you no longer use, for example a Mac that you sold, click Sign Out… in its row, then click Sign Out. If that device has already signed out on its own, this just removes it from the list.
  • To sign out of Bookings, click Sign Out… in the Account group on a Mac, then click Sign Out. Your iPhone, iPad and other Macs that use the same iCloud account sign out too.

A device that signs out of iCloud, or that changes to another iCloud account, stops using Bookings. Your other devices keep using it.

Signing out keeps your account, pages, bookings and previously shared busy times. If no other device updates those calendars, new bookings require approval once the busy times exceed your chosen limit. After 7 days, your pages stop offering times. To remove stored busy times, use Settings > Access > Remove Busy Times in the dashboard. See Busy Times for Each Calendar.

The dashboard's Settings > Access lists signed-in devices, their BusyCal versions and last activity. Notifications off means a device can't receive push notifications. It still checks for updates about every 15 minutes while BusyCal can run.

Access to Bookings​

In the dashboard, Settings > Access > Access until shows when your current access expires. BusyCal renews it automatically while your license, subscription or membership includes Bookings.

If access expires, your pages stop accepting new bookings and show that you're not taking bookings right now. Your pages and bookings are kept. Access on iPhone and iPad also pauses until your Mac copy is eligible again.

BusyCal > Settings > Bookings explains why access ended and offers Buy…, Renew… or Subscribe…, as appropriate. For a Setapp copy, check your membership in Setapp. See Who Can Use Bookings.

Deleting Your Account​

When you delete your Bookings account:

  • Upcoming bookings still managed by Bookings are cancelled, and pending requests are declined. Invitees receive the usual emails. Past meetings aren't cancelled and generate no email.
  • Your account closes immediately, your pages stop accepting bookings, and all browsers are signed out of the dashboard.
  • After the final emails are sent, Bookings removes your profile, pages, busy times and remaining booking records. Your links stop working. It retains only records without personal details to prevent duplicate submissions and explain why an old booking link no longer works.

Meetings that have left Bookings stay in your calendar, and their invitees aren't contacted. Delete those meetings in your calendar if you want to cancel them.

A booking still managed by Bookings may also have a calendar event, for example while its call link is being prepared. Deleting your account can cancel that booking without removing the event, because BusyCal can't update your calendar for Bookings after deletion. Check your calendar for any meetings that need removing. For bookings whose emails have no calendar attachment, the cancellation email asks invitees to remove the meeting themselves. See The Invitation from Your Calendar.

Devices sign out when deletion finishes. Until then, BusyCal > Settings > Bookings shows that deletion is in progress and disables changes.

You can't undo this.

You delete your account in your dashboard, not in BusyCal:

  1. Choose Settings > Privacy and data.
  2. Click Delete Account…. The confirmation shows how many bookings it cancels (Bookings to cancel) and how many requests it declines (Requests to decline).
  3. Click Delete Account.

To open your dashboard from BusyCal, click Open Dashboard in BusyCal > Settings > Bookings.

To keep your account but stop using it on your devices, sign out on a Mac. To stop accepting bookings temporarily, turn your pages off or pause them.

Privacy​

  • Existing events: Bookings doesn't connect to your calendar accounts or receive their passwords. BusyCal shares only busy start and end times, without event titles, locations, notes or guests. These times remain until they're replaced or removed, or you delete your account.
  • Calendar and account information: BusyCal shares calendar names, colors and account names so you can choose a destination in the dashboard. These names aren't public. It also shares whether each account is turned on, so pages using a disabled account can stop accepting bookings.
  • Organizer address: BusyCal shares the email address used to organize meetings on each calendar. Invitees and guests see it on invitations, but it doesn't appear on booking pages. Secondary Google calendars use a generated address ending in @group.calendar.google.com.
  • Your booking pages: They set no cookies and load no tracking or analytics scripts, and the emails have no tracking pixels. While someone fills in a booking form, their browser keeps their answers in that tab until the booking is made or the tab is closed.
  • Invitee details: Names, email addresses, phone numbers, answers, guests and messages are encrypted separately for each booking. They're deleted with the booking. See Invitee Details.
  • Old booking links: After a booking leaves the dashboard, Bookings keeps a one-way fingerprint of its invitee link and the removal time. This lets the link explain that the booking is no longer managed there. No host, meeting or invitee details are stored with it.
  • Booked times: After a booking leaves the dashboard, its start, end and buffer times remain blocked until they pass, even if you move or delete the calendar event. The page and start time are also kept for 45 days after the start so the booking still counts toward Maximum bookings. These records contain no invitee details.

You are responsible for the details that your invitees enter, and Bookings stores them for you. The Bookings Privacy Notice lists everything that Bookings stores and for how long. The Bookings Terms describe your responsibilities toward invitees.

Invitee Details​

Bookings keeps invitee details while it manages the booking or request:

  • Confirmed booking: Until BusyCal finishes adding the meeting and any video call link.
  • Declined or expired request: Until its final email is sent.
  • Withdrawn request: Until you dismiss the notice.
  • Booking BusyCal can't finish: Until a week after the meeting's start, when Bookings emails you and deletes it.

These retention rules also appear in Settings > Privacy and data.

Your calendar keeps the meeting, including invitee details in its notes unless you chose to leave them out. Once the booking leaves the dashboard, Bookings no longer changes that event.

To remove details sooner, you can:

For upcoming bookings still managed by Bookings, either option cancels the booking or declines the request and sends the usual email. For past meetings, only the details are removed, with no cancellation or email. Both options remain available after your access to Bookings expires.

Once a booking leaves the dashboard, Bookings no longer has its invitee details. To remove them from your calendar, edit or delete the meeting there.

If an invitee or a guest asks you about their details, it's up to you to answer.

Erasing an Email Address​

Erase an email address to remove all retained bookings and requests associated with it. This includes meetings the person booked and meetings where they were a guest, across all your pages, including deleted pages.

  1. In your dashboard, choose Settings > Privacy and data.
  2. Under Invitee details, click Erase an Email Address….
  3. Enter the address, then click Find Bookings.
  4. Read what erasing does, then click Erase Email Address. To leave the bookings as they are, click Keep Bookings.

Before you confirm with Erase Email Address, the screen shows the affected bookings in three groups:

  • Bookings to cancel: Each upcoming booking is cancelled and removed from your calendar, and the invitee gets the usual email.
  • Requests to decline: Each one is declined, and the invitee gets the usual email.
  • Bookings and requests that already ended: Each one loses its details. This includes bookings whose meeting has ended: they aren't cancelled, and nobody gets an email.

Each matching booking is erased in full, including everyone else's details on that booking, even when the address belongs to a guest. Records awaiting deletion show Details removed in your lists. This can't be undone. When it's complete, Privacy and data shows Email address erased and a summary.

If the bookings change while the confirmation is open, erasure stops and the counts update. Review them before confirming again.

On a booking's screen, Erase This Email Address… appears next to the invitee's address and next to each guest's address. It opens the same confirmation for that address, so you don't need to type it.

If no retained booking matches the address, the screen says so and nothing changes. The search can't find bookings that have left the dashboard or whose details were already removed. To remove details from a calendar event, edit or delete the event in your calendar.

If you have your own privacy policy, your booking forms can link to it next to the Bookings privacy notice.

  1. In your dashboard, choose Settings > Privacy and data.
  2. Under Your privacy policy, enter the link. It must start with https://.
  3. Click Save.

To remove the link, empty the field, then click Save.

Last updated on