Privacy and data processing
Which legal text covers what: the Privacy Policy, the Data Processing Terms, the Terms of Service and the Expert Terms, and where to go with a question or a request.
This page says where to find what. It is a guide to the legal texts and adds nothing to them: where it and a text differ, the text is right.
The texts
| Text | What it covers | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy Policy | The personal data Costimate collects and what it does with it: the website, your account, the app's use, the providers who help, how long things are kept, cookies, and your rights | Anyone: visitors, members, experts, and people Costimate writes to |
| Data Processing Terms | How personal data a company puts into its workspace is processed on its behalf: instructions, security, sub-processors, breaches, deletion or return, audits and transfers | A company that uses Costimate. They are part of the Terms of Service |
| Terms of Service | The agreement to use Costimate: accounts, plans and payment, your data, acceptable use, AI features, availability, liability and ending | Everyone with an account |
| Expert Terms | What an independent expert agrees to on joining the Costimate Expert Network | Experts. They add to the Terms of Service |
An expert's network agreement is sent to them to sign. See Join the Costimate Expert Network.
Two kinds of data
The Privacy Policy divides personal data into two. Which one you are asking about decides which text to read, and who to ask.
- About you as a user or visitor: your account, your company's subscription, how much the app is used. The Privacy Policy covers it, and Costimate is who to ask.
- What a company puts into its workspace: its clients, contacts, employees, experts, bids, projects, invoices and files. The Data Processing Terms cover it, and that company is who to ask first.
So if your details are in a company's workspace, for instance as a contact, write to that company. The Privacy Policy says what then happens.
Where to go
| You want to | Go to |
|---|---|
| Know the providers who help us, and what each receives | Who helps us and Sub-processors |
| Know how long something is kept | How long we keep it |
| Know what happens when AI reads a document | AI features, and What AI does here, and never does |
| Exercise a right over your data | Your rights |
| Read about cookies | Cookies |
| Know what happens when a company leaves | Deletion or return |
| Ask a question about personal data | Contact, or privacy@costimate.net |
What you can do yourself
- Get your company's data out. Export lists to Excel, from each list or the Data center, and download a record's files, one by one or as a zip. Quotations, invoices and proposals print as PDFs.
- Find, correct and delete what is in your workspace, in the app. Many kinds of deleted record can be restored for a while. See Restore something deleted.
- Keep prices and pay apart. See Security and your data, and Employees for personal details.
- Switch off an AI app's access. See Connect ChatGPT.
- Switch off usage analytics for yourself:
- Usage analytics, on your Profile, under Privacy. Off, your page sends no signal and nothing more is counted. What was counted before is deleted after 180 days.
- Learn more says what is measured and what never is.
An expert has the same place on their profile, and their own switch for a public profile. See Join the Costimate Expert Network.
When a company's owner accepts
A company's owner accepts the Terms of Service and the Data Processing Terms when the company starts. When the Terms change materially, each company's owner is told by email at least 30 days before, and asked to accept the new version. They can choose Not now: silence is not acceptance, and the version they accepted continues, kept at its own page.