Effective date: 28 September 2026 Last updated: 5 November 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how StayCharted LLC ("StayCharted", "we", "us") handles personal information in connection with the StayCharted service (the "Service"). It forms part of our Terms of Service.
1. The short version
- You upload files; we train a model on them for you and store the results.
- We do not use your uploaded content to train base models, to train models for other customers, or to improve our general capabilities. It is processed to run the Service for you and for nothing else.
- Your content lives in a database schema dedicated to your organisation, with workspaces separated from each other inside it.
- If you connect your own AI platform (such as Amazon Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, Google Cloud, OpenAI or Anthropic) and choose to use it, we send it the rows it needs to answer or train, under your own agreement with that provider. We never do this unless you connect one.
- We do not sell or share personal information, and we do not run advertising.
- You can export your content yourself at any time, on every plan including Free. Export any content you wish to retain before deleting it, deleting its workspace, or closing your organisation. You can request organisation closure at any time. An export contains your datasets, corrections, model reports and Try predictions; it does not contain uploaded files, pictures, filled files or model weights.
- A Builder can delete individual training files in the Service. The Owner can permanently delete a whole workspace, subject to the safeguards in section 8.
2. Two different roles, and which one applies
We are a controller for the information we hold about you as our customer: your account, your sign-in, your billing, how you use the Service, and our security and audit records. Sections 3 to 13 describe that.
We are a processor (a "service provider" under US state privacy laws) for the personal information contained inside the files and text you submit ("Customer Content"). We process it only on your documented instructions, which for most purposes are the actions you take in the application and through the API.
If you are an individual whose personal information appears in a customer's uploaded file and you want it accessed, corrected or deleted, contact that customer, not us. We will refer you to them. If you do not know who they are, write to privacy@staycharted.com and we will pass your request on where we can identify the account.
Where we act as processor and the processing is subject to the GDPR, the UK GDPR, Swiss law or a US state privacy law, our Data Processing Addendum applies. It is published at https://staycharted.com/legal/dpa, is incorporated into our Terms of Service, takes effect automatically when you accept them, and needs no signature, though we will provide a countersigned copy on request to privacy@staycharted.com. It includes the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum for transfers out of Europe. Where it conflicts with this Policy about the processing of personal data, the Addendum prevails.
3. What we collect
3.1 Account information
| What | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Email address, and whether it is verified | You, at signup |
| Name and organisation, if you provide them | You |
| Password (stored only as a salted scrypt hash, never in readable form) | You |
| Linked sign-in identities, where you sign in with a third-party identity provider or your organisation's single sign-on: the provider's identifier for you, your email address, and your name where the provider supplies it | The identity provider |
| Preferred language, profile settings | You |
We do not receive your password from a third-party sign-in provider, and we do not receive your contacts, files or anything else from them.
3.2 Billing information
Subscription tier, billing cycle dates, invoices, payments, refunds, disputes and plan changes. Stripe, our payment processor, collects your billing address and, if you provide one, your tax ID to calculate applicable taxes. Payments are processed by Stripe; card numbers go directly to that processor and are never received or stored by us. We hold the processor's identifiers for your customer and subscription records, and the last four digits and card brand where the processor reports them.
If you subscribe through AWS Marketplace, AWS handles the payment and we receive from AWS your AWS account identifier, the customer and licence or agreement identifiers for the subscription, the product and dimensions you bought, and changes to that subscription. We use them to link the subscription to your workspace and to apply your plan. We do not receive your payment details from AWS.
If you subscribe through Microsoft Marketplace, Microsoft handles the payment and we receive from Microsoft the subscription identifier, the offer and plan, the subscription's status and term, and the email address and Microsoft Entra tenant identifier of the purchaser and, where different, the beneficiary. We use them to link the subscription to your workspace, apply your plan and report usage of add-ons to Microsoft. We do not receive your payment details from Microsoft.
3.3 Customer Content
Everything you submit through the Service, including:
- training files you upload, and the archived copy of each upload we retain as provenance;
- the curated dataset derived from them: your labels, corrections, merged and excluded categories, and de-duplicated rows;
- files you submit to be filled, and the filled results;
- text you submit to the Prediction API, and the predictions returned;
- answers your models were unsure about that are kept for review in the Review Queue (Essentials and Business), with the text or picture each was given, and the answer a person gives;
- rows read when you start a model from rows without categories, with the categories suggested for them and the ones you confirm;
- pictures, where you use Vision: uploaded in a ZIP file, fetched by us from image links you supply in a spreadsheet or send to the API, or read by us from object storage you connect (Amazon S3 or another S3-compatible service);
- the trained models themselves: Classifier Models and AI Classifier Models, AI Image Classifier Models, and the adapter files produced by Dedicated AI Model and Dedicated AI Image Model training.
We do not inspect Customer Content, other than automated processing to run the Service (parsing, file-type and safety validation, sensitive-data detection, training, prediction) and except where we must to investigate a security incident, respond to a support request you make, or comply with a legal obligation.
What we do with pictures
When you supply a picture in a ZIP file, as a link we fetch, or through object storage you connect, our image service produces from it a checksum, a resized copy no larger than 512 pixels, a small thumbnail, and a numeric vector used to train and run the Model. We remove the picture's embedded metadata in doing so (EXIF, including any GPS position, camera serial number and time taken, along with XMP and the colour profile), and the resized copy we store carries none of it. The vector, resized copy and thumbnail are used for model training and prediction. The original ZIP you upload is also retained unchanged as the model's training file for 90 days after upload, unless you delete that file, the model or its workspace sooner. The resized copies, thumbnails and numeric representations made from the ZIP stay with the model; deleting the original ZIP does not delete those derived copies. Pictures inside that original ZIP may still contain location, camera and other embedded metadata. Metadata removal from the model-use copies does not remove it from the original ZIP.
Pictures in your own storage. If you connect your object storage, we read the pictures in the folders you list where they are, and we do not keep the originals. We never write to, move, rename, delete, re-encode or tag a picture we read. If you ask for sorted copies, we write a copy of each picture into the folder you name for them, with StayCharted's tags beside the picture's own, and, if you choose, its category added to the copy's metadata. We keep the access key you give us encrypted, or, for Amazon S3, use a role in your account that you can remove at any time.
Categories from a picture's metadata. If you choose to take each picture's category from its own metadata, we read only the field you choose, its keywords, title or description, and use it as that picture's category.
Pictures returned with their categories. When you fill a ZIP of pictures, we keep that ZIP as you uploaded it until the fill finishes. If you ask for the pictures back with their categories, we return your own files with each category added to its metadata and every other detail as uploaded. That returned ZIP follows the retention period for filled files in section 8.
Checking text for personal information
Before you train a text Model, the Service automatically examines your data for values that look like personal or secret information: email addresses, payment card numbers, IBANs, US social security numbers, IP addresses, telephone numbers, access keys and credentials embedded in links. This runs on every plan.
You choose how detected values are handled. The findings appear as a data quality step showing masked hints rather than whole values, and you choose per type to mask the values, leave out the rows containing them, or keep them as they are. A decision to keep is recorded with who made it and when. The check does not refuse or change anything on its own.
Where you mask, the masking applies to what is trained and predicted on: the training data, and the text sent for prediction through the app, the API and file fills. Masking does not modify the following files:
- the original file you uploaded, which we keep as provenance exactly as you supplied it, including any values you later masked;
- the filled file we give back to you, which keeps your original text.
The Review Queue
On the Essentials and Business plans, when a model answers with less confidence than the review cutoff set for it, we keep a copy of what it was asked, so that a person in your workspace can confirm or correct the answer. This applies to answers given in filled files, in the Google Sheets add-on, in a model's Try box, through the Prediction API and through a connected AI assistant, for text and for pictures. On the Free plan nothing is kept for review.
What is kept is the text the model read — with any values you chose to mask already masked — or, for a picture, the resized copy and thumbnail described above, together with the model's answer and its confidence. A copy nobody has reviewed is removed after 30 days: its text is deleted and only the answer, its confidence and the date remain. A person can also clear everything waiting at any time. An answer a person reviews is kept with the model, and the reviewed answers are added to the model's training data the next time it is retrained with them. A reviewed answer is deleted with the model or its workspace.
Starting a model from rows without categories
On the Essentials and Business plans, you can upload rows or pictures that do not yet have categories and have the Service suggest them. To do this, the Service reads the columns or pictures you choose and keeps that text, or the resized copies and thumbnails, together with numeric representations of each row, with the model, so you can group the rows, review the suggestions and train. These are kept until you start over or delete the model or its workspace; they are not removed by the 90-day rule for original training uploads. Where you choose a model that reads rows on a GPU, the rows are sent to our GPU servers in the same cloud infrastructure for that purpose. Suggested and confirmed categories become your training data only when you choose to train with them.
Original training uploads, including text files and picture ZIP files, are automatically deleted from the live Service 90 days after upload, unless deleted sooner. This removes the uploaded file and its archived upload copy, not derived datasets, resized pictures, thumbnails, numeric representations or already-trained models. The model continues to work; removing a record's influence requires correcting the dataset and retraining or deleting the model. Deleted copies in protected backups remain subject to section 8.
A user with the Builder role can delete an individual training file and its archived upload copy in the Service. The already-trained model continues to work until retraining; deleting the file does not remove its influence from trained weights or delete the derived dataset or image copies. To remove the data fully, address those copies and retrain or delete the model as appropriate. The Owner may also delete the whole workspace (see section 8).
Other automatic deletion periods. Filled files, unused uploads for filling, questions entered in a model's Try box, example rows in older validation reports and unreviewed answers in the Review Queue have the separate retention periods set out in section 8. The exception for Try-box questions with feedback and the retention of validation-report figures are described there. These periods concern deletion from the live Service; protected backups follow section 8.
Please do not upload special-category or highly sensitive personal data (health, biometric, genetic, precise location, government identifiers, payment card numbers, or criminal-offence data) unless we have agreed to it in writing under a data processing agreement. The Service is not designed for it, and the detection described above is a safety net for what turns up by accident in business records, not permission to send such data deliberately.
3.3A AI platforms you connect
A workspace Owner can connect the workspace's own AI platform: Amazon Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, Google Cloud, OpenAI, Anthropic, or a service with an OpenAI-compatible API. For a connection we keep its name, the provider, the models your Builders may use, the region and resource details you enter, and, for platforms that use one, the key or service-account credential you paste. Credentials are stored encrypted, shown only as their last characters, and never returned to a browser. Amazon Bedrock connects through a role in your AWS account that only StayCharted can assume, with an external identifier unique to the connection, so no key is stored.
Your AI Model. When your Builders set up and use Your AI Model, we send the connected platform, for each row it is asked about: your categories and labelling guide, the most similar rows your team has already categorized with their answers (ten by default, up to thirty), and the row itself. Each row is asked up to five times (three by default) so the answers can be compared. When it is tested, up to 500 of your held-out rows are asked. The answers are kept like any other prediction (section 8).
Training in your own Amazon Bedrock. On Business, if you choose to train a Dedicated AI Model in your own Amazon Bedrock, we write the training rows to a private storage bucket in your AWS account, start the training job there, and delete the training file when the job ends; the bucket also deletes anything left after 7 days. The trained model is created and kept in your AWS account, and we do not receive a copy. Rows the model is asked about are sent to your Bedrock for the answer.
The provider processes this data under your agreement with it, and charges you directly. It is not a StayCharted subprocessor (section 6). Removing the connection stops anything further being sent; what the provider already holds is governed by your agreement with it.
3.4 Usage and metering
Counts of predictions consumed against your monthly budget, training runs, retrains, active models, storage consumed, API calls and rate-limit state, and the timestamps of your activity. We use these to enforce plan allowances, bill correctly, and detect abuse.
3.5 Technical and security information
Server logs including IP address, timestamp, request path, status code and user agent; session records; API key identifiers and their last-used times; failed sign-in attempts and throttling state; and file-validation outcomes.
3.6 Operator audit log
Every administrative action our staff takes on an account (who did what, to whom, and when), including suspensions, plan changes, overrides, closures and erasures. Settings changes record which fields changed, never their values.
3.7 Communications
Emails we send you (verification, password reset, plan and billing notices, completion notices for long-running fills, inactivity warnings where that feature is in use) and support correspondence you send us.
3.8 Cookies, and how our public website differs
In the application, we use strictly necessary cookies only: a session cookie
to keep you signed in, and, for our staff, a separate operator session cookie.
Both are HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax and Secure over HTTPS. Customer sessions
expire after 30 days; operator sessions after 12 hours.
On our public website, we use one optional, cookieless analytics measurement provided by our hosting provider. It does not run until you accept it. On your first visit you are asked to accept or decline, and nothing is sent to the measurement unless and until you accept.
We record your choice in your browser's local storage, under the name
staycharted-privacy-v1, for 180 days. This is not a cookie and is not
transmitted to us or to anyone else; it exists so that we can honour your choice
on later visits, and storing it is strictly necessary for that purpose. A
decision to decline is recorded the same way, and that record is what keeps the
measurement from running. After 180 days we ask again.
To change or withdraw your choice, use "Privacy preferences" in the footer of any page. Withdrawal takes effect immediately and stops any further collection. Your choice applies to this browser on this website, so another browser or device is asked separately, and clearing your browser storage discards the record and returns you to the initial question. Declining does not affect how the website works.
If you accept, each page view sends:
- the page address you are on, with any query string and fragment removed before it is sent, and the referring address that brought you there;
- your browser, operating system and device type, and your approximate location, derived from your request (our provider documents this as potentially including country, region and city);
- a short-lived identifier computed from your request, including your IP address and browser user agent, which resets every day, so a visitor cannot be recognised from one day to the next, or on any other website.
The measurement sets no cookies. The daily identifier is still personal data. We use it to count how many people read a page and which page sent them there, and for nothing else. We do not use it to identify anyone, to single out an individual visitor, or to make any decision about a person.
Across both the application and the website, we use no advertising cookies, no tracking pixels, no cross-site trackers, and no analytics that follow you between sites or build a profile of an individual. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
We do not use performance or diagnostic measurement on the website. If we add further measurement, we will describe it here and ask for your consent before it runs.
4. Why we use it, and on what legal basis
For customers in the EEA, UK or Switzerland, the legal bases are noted in the third column.
| Purpose | Information used | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Create and operate your account, authenticate you | §3.1, §3.5 | Performance of a contract |
| Provide the Service — train models, produce predictions, store results | §3.3 | Performance of a contract (and, for the personal data inside Customer Content, processing on your instructions as processor) |
| Bill you and take payment | §3.1, §3.2, §3.4 | Performance of a contract |
| Enforce plan allowances and rate limits | §3.4 | Performance of a contract |
| Send service and transactional emails | §3.1, §3.7 | Performance of a contract |
| Keep the Service secure; detect and investigate abuse and incidents | §3.5, §3.6 | Legitimate interests (securing our service and our customers' data) |
| Maintain an audit trail of administrative actions | §3.6 | Legitimate interests; legal obligation |
| Keep financial and tax records | §3.2 | Legal obligation |
| Diagnose faults and improve reliability | §3.4, §3.5 | Legitimate interests |
| Respond to legal claims and requests from authorities | As relevant | Legal obligation; legitimate interests |
| Measure use of our public website | §3.8 | Consent, given on the website and withdrawable at any time through Privacy preferences |
| Remember your analytics choice for that website | §3.8 | Legitimate interests (recording and honouring the choice you made; the browser storage is strictly necessary for that) |
| Send getting-started emails after you sign up | Email address, first name, first training, first fill and plan-limit events (§3.1, §3.4; see §4.1) | Legitimate interests (helping you use the Service); opt out through Profile or the email link |
| Send product tips and news you choose to receive | Email address, first name, and whether you have trained a model, filled a file or reached a plan limit (§3.1, §3.4; see §4.1) | Consent, withdrawable at any time through an unsubscribe link or Profile |
We do not carry out automated decision-making with legal or similarly significant effects about our own customers. The Service produces automated classifications for you; how you use them, and any obligation that creates for you under Article 22 GDPR or equivalent, is your responsibility as controller.
4.1 Emails we send you
Account and model emails. Confirming your address, files and training runs that finish, answers waiting in your Review Queue. These are part of the service.
Getting started emails. After you sign up, and when you train your first model, fill your first file or reach a plan limit, we send a few emails to help you use AI Model Trainer and explain what your plan includes. To decide which to send, we use your email address, your first name, and whether you have done those things. We send them once your address is confirmed. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in helping you use the service you signed up for. Turn them off at any time on Profile or with the link in any of them.
Product tips and news. Only if you choose them (the box at sign-up, or Profile → Product tips and news): occasional emails about what's new. The legal basis is your consent. Stop them at any time on Profile or with the link in any of them.
When you stop either kind, or close your account, we tell our email provider; when you close your account, your address is removed from its list.
5. What we do not do with your data
- We do not use Customer Content to train base models.
- We do not use one customer's content to train, tune or evaluate anything for another customer.
- We do not use Customer Content to improve the Service's general capabilities.
- We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA and comparable state laws. We have not done so in the preceding 12 months. Passing information to a service provider so it can do a job for us, or disclosing it because the law requires us to, is not a sale and not a share.
- StayCharted's own models are trained and answer on infrastructure we control within our own cloud account. We do not send Customer Content to third-party AI providers except to an AI assistant you connect, or to an AI platform you connect and choose to use (section 3.3A), as described in section 6.
6. Who we share it with
We share personal information only with the following categories of recipient, and only as needed.
Service providers and subprocessors. We use a small number of established third-party providers to operate the Service. They act on our instructions, under written contracts that restrict them to providing their service to us, and they may not use your information for their own purposes. The categories are:
- Cloud infrastructure: application hosting, the database, object storage, and the compute that runs model training and prediction.
- Payment processing: taking payment, managing subscriptions and issuing invoices.
- Resend: sends our account, model, getting started and (if you choose them) product news emails.
- Identity providers: only where you choose to sign in with one, or where your organisation has configured single sign-on.
- File safety scanning: checking uploaded files for malware.
- Website hosting: serving our public website, and the cookieless aggregate visitor analytics described in section 3.8.
- Professional tooling: error reporting, support ticketing and similar operational services, where used.
We will identify the specific providers on request to privacy@staycharted.com, and where a data processing agreement is in place we will give notice before adding a new subprocessor, as that agreement provides.
AWS Marketplace (where you buy through it): we exchange subscription information with AWS Marketplace to confirm, link and manage your subscription, and to process cancellations and refunds.
Microsoft Marketplace — where you buy through it: we exchange subscription information with Microsoft to confirm, link, activate and manage your subscription, report add-on usage, and process changes and cancellations.
AI assistants you connect. If you connect an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT to StayCharted, the assistant's provider receives what the assistant reads through the connection, for the models and workspace you allow, under your own agreement with that provider. We keep a record of each connection (the assistant's name, the workspace, and when it was connected and last used) and record actions taken through it in Activity, until you disconnect it or your account is closed.
AI platforms you connect. If your workspace connects its own AI platform and uses it for Your AI Model, or to train a model in your own Amazon Bedrock, that platform's provider receives the rows and examples described in section 3.3A, under your own agreement with that provider. The provider is chosen and contracted by you and is not our subprocessor. We record each connection and its changes in Activity, and keep it until an Owner removes it or your account is closed.
Professional advisers: lawyers, accountants and auditors, under confidentiality obligations.
Authorities: where we are legally required to disclose. We will notify you of a request for your data unless legally prohibited, and we will challenge requests we consider overbroad or unlawful.
A successor: in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, subject to this Policy continuing to apply, with notice to you.
We do not otherwise disclose your information to third parties.
6.1 Google Sheets add-on and Google user data
If you use StayCharted AI Model Trainer for Google Sheets:
- What it can access: it reads only the spreadsheet it's opened in (Google's
spreadsheets.currentonlypermission), and nothing else in your Google Drive. - What it sends us: the contents of the columns you choose, when you check data, train or fill. This is the training data and the rows to classify.
- What it writes: answers and confidences into empty cells, in the column you choose.
- Your sign-in: we receive your StayCharted sign-in from the add-on. We don't receive your Google account password or access to other Google services.
- How we use it: we use this data only to train and run the models in your StayCharted workspace and to show you their results. It is kept and deleted under the same rules as files you upload to StayCharted (see "How long we keep it").
- Who else handles it: only the infrastructure providers that host StayCharted for us (listed above in section 6), under contracts that let them use it solely to run the Service. We don't share it with anyone else, and we don't send it to third-party AI services, unless you connect an AI assistant to your workspace yourself, or the model you fill the sheet with is Your AI Model using an AI platform your workspace connected (see sections 3.3A and 6).
- How it is protected: in transit with TLS (HTTPS) and at rest with encryption; access is limited to your workspace's members and roles. See section 9.
- Aggregated data: the accuracy figures and counts in your model's reports are computed from your rows for you and are not shared or used for any other purpose.
- What we don't do: we don't sell it, use it for advertising or credit decisions, or transfer it to data brokers. We don't use it to develop, improve or train any AI or machine-learning model other than the models in your own workspace, and the pre-trained AI models StayCharted uses never learn from it. People read it only with your permission for support, where necessary for security, or where the law requires.
- Limited Use: StayCharted's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
7. Where it is stored, and international transfers
Where it is hosted today. Customer Content is currently stored and processed in data centres in the United States. We may add or change hosting locations as the Service grows. Where we do, we will update this Policy, and we will give account holders at least 30 days' notice before a change that moves Customer Content to a different country.
International transfers. Some of our providers, and our own staff, are located in the United States. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, this means your information is transferred outside your region. Where it is, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum), or on an adequacy decision or another lawful transfer mechanism, together with the technical measures described in section 9. A copy of the relevant clauses is available from privacy@staycharted.com.
8. How long we keep it
Most of what we hold is kept for as long as your organisation exists and is removed when it closes. Where a period is fixed, it is stated; where it depends on circumstances, the criteria we use are stated instead.
| Data | Retained |
|---|---|
| Original training uploads, including text files and picture ZIP files | Uploaded files and their archived upload copies are automatically deleted from the live Service 90 days after upload, unless deleted sooner. Derived datasets, resized pictures, thumbnails, numeric representations and trained models are not deleted by this rule; protected backups follow the backup period below |
| Filled files returned to the customer, including pictures returned with their categories | Deleted 24 hours after the first download, or after 7 days if never downloaded |
| Files uploaded to be filled, including a ZIP of pictures | Deleted when the fill finishes, or after 7 days if never run |
| Questions typed into a model's Try box | Deleted after 30 days, unless feedback was given. A question kept for review in the Review Queue follows the Review Queue rows below |
| Example rows in an older validation report | Deleted 14 days after a newer version replaces it; the report's figures are retained |
| Answers kept for review in the Review Queue, not yet reviewed | The text is deleted after 30 days; the answer, its confidence and the date remain until the model is deleted. Clearing the queue deletes the unreviewed records sooner |
| Answers reviewed in the Review Queue | Kept with the model until the model or its workspace is deleted. Once a retrain takes them in, they are also part of the model's training data |
| Rows read to start a model from rows without categories | Kept with the model, with their numeric representations and suggested categories, until you start over or delete the model or its workspace |
| Customer Content in a live workspace | While the organisation is open, until you delete the content or delete the workspace, or until an applicable retention period expires, including the automatic deletion periods above |
| Customer Content in a deleted workspace | Models, files, datasets and API keys are deleted from the live Service immediately. The deletion is final; protected backup copies expire under the backup period below. The workspace name, billing history and deletion Activity entry are retained for billing, audit and accountability purposes |
| Customer Content after cancellation or an unsuccessful payment | Cancelling a paid subscription moves the workspace to Free at the end of its paid period. Paid access continues during payment retries; if those retries are exhausted and the subscription ends, the workspace moves to Free. The workspace remains visible and its content is retained, subject to the retention rules above. See sections 4.6 and 11.2 of our Terms |
| Organisation record, while open | For the life of the organisation |
| Organisation record, after closure | Retained, marked closed, with commercial history attached, so we can answer later questions about whether and what you paid |
| Organisation record, after erasure on a lawful request | Deleted |
| Financial and tax records | For the period our tax, accounting and audit obligations require. After an erasure we remove the identity from these records where the law permits; where a record must carry a name to serve its legal purpose (an invoice, for example), it keeps it |
| Dispute and chargeback records | Until the dispute is resolved and any period for challenging that resolution has passed |
| Operator audit log | For as long as we need it to answer questions about an account's history and to meet our legal and accountability obligations. Retained after account closure. Where an erasure is a lawful demand, the identifying label on that account's entries can be removed on request; the action, date, operator and an unlinked identifier remain |
| Server and security logs | A limited period, set for security investigation and fault diagnosis, and shorter than the retention of anything they describe |
| Your website analytics choice | 180 days, held in your own browser's local storage and not by us. Cleared sooner if you clear browser storage; changed at any time through Privacy preferences in the website footer |
| Session records | Until expiry (30 days for customer sessions, 12 hours for operator sessions) or until sign-out, whichever comes first |
| Deleted stored files | Stored files deleted from the live Service are kept as recoverable prior versions in object storage for up to 30 days, and are then permanently removed. |
| Backups | No more than 35 days. Backups exist for disaster recovery only and are never used for ordinary business purposes. Deleted content persists in a backup until the window rolls past it, is not restored to the live Service, and remains protected while it persists. |
| Support correspondence | For as long as needed to handle the matter and any follow-up, and to keep a record of what we told you |
If you want the current figure for any period stated as criteria above, ask at privacy@staycharted.com and we will tell you what it is today.
Deleting a workspace yourself. The Owner can delete an active or archived workspace in the Service, but not the last remaining workspace or one with work running. Deletion is immediate and final, with the content and retained records described in the table above. Export what you need before deleting it.
On closure of an organisation, we drop the database schema holding its content, delete its API keys and sessions, and remove its stored files from object storage. Signing up again on the same email address creates a new organisation, not the old one reopened — so retrieve what you need before closing.
Logins are handled separately from the organisation they belonged to, because a person may be a member of more than one. Closing an organisation deletes the login of anyone whose only connection to StayCharted was that organisation. A person who owns an organisation of their own, or who is a member of another one, keeps their login and that other access, and simply loses their membership of the closed organisation.
Removing one person from an organisation is different again: it ends their membership and their roles in that organisation's workspaces, and reaches nothing else. Their login survives, as does their own organisation and any other membership they hold. The organisation keeps everything they created. Section 11.3 of our Terms sets out when a login is deleted and when it is not.
Inactivity. Where an inactivity policy is in operation, we email a warning to the owner with a grace period of at least 7 days before closing anything, we never close an organisation holding a paid subscription (including one whose payment has failed) or one that is suspended, and we never close an organisation we could not successfully warn. Activity is measured across sign-ins, API key use and work done in the Service, so an organisation used exclusively through the Prediction API is not treated as dormant.
9. How we protect it
- Isolation at the database. Each organisation's content is held in its own database schema, and workspaces are separated from each other inside that schema by row-level security, which is enabled and forced at the database level rather than relying on application queries alone.
- Encryption. TLS in transit, with HSTS. Encryption at rest is enabled on the database and on every storage bucket holding your content, and public access to those buckets is blocked. Stored secrets (worker keys, payment provider keys, and the access keys for storage or AI platforms you connect) are separately encrypted and are never returned to a browser. Passwords are hashed with scrypt and verified in constant time.
- Our staff do not sign in to your account. The Service provides no way for us to sign in as you, act on your behalf inside the application, or use your API keys. There is no impersonation or support-login mechanism. If one of your API keys is compromised, you delete it; we cannot do it for you.
- Access control. Staff access is role-separated, and every administrative route names the role it requires. The most destructive actions (erasure, closure, plan pricing and the account-lifecycle policy) are restricted to a single owner role. Every administrative action is recorded in an audit log.
- Multi-factor authentication for staff. Accounts with administrative access to the deployment require a second factor in addition to a password.
- Authentication. Credential routes are rate-limited and sign-in is protected against account enumeration.
- Uploads are treated as hostile. File types are verified against their actual contents rather than their extension, and spreadsheet formulas are neutralised on export. For data files, macro-bearing formats and archives other than workbooks are refused. For picture ZIP files, a separate reader accepts only image files (anything else in the archive is skipped and reported back to you), with limits on the size of each file, the total uncompressed size and the number of entries.
- Uploads are scanned for malware, and an upload is refused if the scanner cannot be reached.
If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and any required regulator without undue delay and, where the law specifies a deadline, within it.
10. Your rights
To delete your account, see Delete your account.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you;
- Correct it if it is inaccurate;
- Delete it;
- Export it in a portable format;
- Object to or restrict certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests;
- Withdraw consent where we relied on it, without affecting prior processing;
- Not be discriminated against for exercising a right (CCPA/CPRA). We do not offer financial incentives for personal information;
- Appeal a refusal, where your state's law provides for it;
- Complain to a supervisory authority. In the EEA this is the authority where you live or work; in the UK it is the Information Commissioner's Office. We would appreciate the chance to address it first.
How to exercise them. Write to privacy@staycharted.com. We will verify your identity by reference to the account, and an authorised agent may act for you with written permission we can verify.
How long we take, depending on which law gives you the right:
| We respond within | Extension | |
|---|---|---|
| GDPR / UK GDPR | One month of receiving the request | Two further months where the request is complex or there are several; we will tell you within the first month, and why |
| Texas (TDPSA) and comparable US state laws | 45 days | One further 45 days where reasonably necessary, with notice to you within the first period |
| California (CCPA/CPRA) | 45 days | One further 45 days, with notice |
If we decline a request we will tell you why and how to appeal. We will decide an appeal within 60 days under the TDPSA, or within the period the applicable law sets, and if we refuse it we will tell you how to complain to your regulator.
Texas residents. We are established in Texas, and Texas residents have rights under the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, including the rights to access, correct, delete and obtain a portable copy of their personal data, to opt out of targeted advertising, sale of personal data and certain profiling, and to appeal a decision we make on a request. We do not sell personal data, do not process it for targeted advertising, and do not profile individuals for decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects. If an appeal is refused you may complain to the Texas Attorney General at texasattorneygeneral.gov.
Product features are not the same as these rights. Some of what is listed above you can also do yourself in the Service: edit your profile, change your email address, retrieve content, delete an individual training file as a Builder, delete a whole workspace as its organisation's Owner, or ask for your organisation to be closed. Those features are a convenience, and what they cover depends on your plan and your role. The rights in this section do not. They apply whatever plan you are on, including Free, and whether or not your account is in good standing, and we will fulfill those requests where self-service functionality is unavailable.
Two different requests, which we handle differently:
- "Give me my personal data." This is the access and portability right above, and it belongs to you as an individual whatever role you hold. It produces the personal data we hold about you: your account and profile, your sign-in and activity records, and personal data about you that we hold as controller. It does not produce your employer's business records, your colleagues' data, or the contents of a workspace.
- "Give me the contents of this workspace." That is business content belonging to the organisation, not personal data belonging to a person, and it is not something we do for you: the owner exports it from within the Service, on any plan. Our staff do not sign in to customer accounts, so there is no route by which we could produce it even if asked. A member who needs an export asks their owner. See section 11.4 of our Terms of Service.
If personal data about you sits inside a workspace's business content — because your employer or a customer of ours uploaded it — see section 2: we are the processor for it, and the request goes to them.
If you are not our customer, see section 2. Direct your request to the customer whose account holds your information.
11. Categories at a glance
The following table summarises the information described above.
| Category | Why we process it | Who may receive it |
|---|---|---|
| Identifiers: name, email address, organisation, sign-in identifiers | Creating and operating your account, authenticating you, support, service emails | Cloud infrastructure, email delivery, and identity providers where you use them |
| Commercial information: plan, billing cycle, invoices, payments, refunds, disputes | Taking payment, managing your subscription, tax and accounting records | Payment processing, AWS Marketplace, Microsoft Marketplace and cloud infrastructure providers |
| Customer Content: your uploaded files, labels, datasets, models, predictions and answers kept for review | Providing the Service you asked for, and nothing else | Cloud infrastructure and file safety scanning; an AI assistant provider when you authorize a connection, and an AI platform provider your workspace connects and chooses to use, as described in section 6 |
| Usage and metering: predictions consumed, training runs, storage, API calls | Enforcing plan allowances, billing correctly, detecting abuse | Cloud infrastructure providers |
| Product tips and news, if you opt in: email address, first name, and whether you have trained a model, filled a file or reached a plan limit | Choosing and sending the product emails described in section 4.1, with your consent | Email delivery provider (Resend) and cloud infrastructure providers |
| Internet and technical activity: IP address, browser and device type, request logs, security events | Operating and securing the Service, diagnosing faults | Cloud infrastructure and operational tooling providers |
| Public website activity, collected only with your consent: page and referring addresses, browser, operating system, device type, approximate location, and a daily-rotating identifier derived from IP address and user agent | Understanding which pages are read | Our website hosting provider |
| Operator audit records: administrative actions taken on accounts | Accountability, answering later questions about an account, legal obligations | No one outside StayCharted, except professional advisers or where the law requires |
We do not sell or share any of these categories. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for any purpose that would give you a right to limit it under state law, and we ask you not to send us sensitive personal information in the first place — see section 3.3.
12. If you have a separate agreement with us
Our Data Processing Addendum already applies to every account, automatically, wherever we act as processor under a law that requires one (see section 2). If your organisation has in addition signed a separate written agreement with us (an order form, a negotiated addendum, or similar), that agreement controls wherever it directly conflicts with this Policy. Everything not covered by it still applies.
13. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy. If a change materially affects how we handle your information, we will give at least 30 days' notice to the email address on your account before it takes effect. Otherwise we will post the updated Policy with a new date. Previous versions are available on request.
14. Contact
StayCharted LLC
3801 N Capital of TX Hwy Ste E-240
Austin, TX 78746, United States
Privacy: privacy@staycharted.com
Security: security@staycharted.com