Business BuddyPrivacy Policy
Last updated: 26 July 2026
- We collect what the app needs to do its job: your account details, your jobs and clients, your photos, and — when you allow it — your location.
- We do not sell your data, and we do not use it for advertising.
- Location is used for two things only: filing a jobsite photo to the right job, and recording where a shift started and ended. Your employer can see those.
- You can delete your account, and everything in it, from inside the app.
- Questions: privacy@usebusinessbuddy.com
1. Who we are
Business Buddy ("we", "us") makes job-management software for contractors and construction businesses. This policy covers the Business Buddy iPhone and iPad apps and the Business Buddy web app.
2. Two kinds of people in this app
This distinction matters for everything below, so it comes first.
- Users — the contractor who signs up, and the managers, foremen, and estimators they invite. You have an account and you log in.
- Your clients — the homeowners and businesses your company works for. They do not have accounts. Their details are in Business Buddy because you entered them.
For your clients' information, your company is the data controller and we are the processor: we hold and process that data on your behalf and under your instructions. You are responsible for having a lawful basis to enter it, and for telling your clients what you do with it.
3. What we collect
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Account details — name, email, phone number, profile photo, password (stored only as a one-way hash, never in readable form) | To create your account, sign you in, and let your teammates identify you |
| Company details — company name, address, logo | To brand your invoices and estimates, and to keep your data separate from every other company's |
| Your work — jobs, bids, estimates, invoices, expenses, purchase orders, daily logs, notes, tasks, checklists, documents | This is the product |
| Your clients' details — name, email, phone, service address, job history | To create and send their quotes and invoices, and schedule their work |
| Photos and files you take or upload, including the time taken and (if you enable the stamp option) the location | Job documentation, receipts, before-and-after records |
| Location — see section 4 | Filing photos to jobs; recording where a shift started and ended |
| Time entries — clock-in and clock-out times, the job worked, and pay rates set by your employer | Timesheets, payroll, and job costing |
| Technical data — device type, app version, crash and error information, IP address | Keeping the app working and diagnosing faults |
We do not read your device's contact list, your calendar, your messages, or your camera roll as a whole. When you pick a photo, we receive only the photo you picked.
4. Location — the detail, because it deserves it
Business Buddy asks for location permission. Here is exactly what it does with it.
When we read your location
- When you take a photo through the app — so the photo files itself to the job you're standing on, instead of you filing it by hand later.
- When you clock in or clock out — a single reading at that moment, so a timesheet can show where the shift started and ended.
- When you create a job — to suggest nearby addresses.
When we do not
We do not track you continuously, and we do not follow you between those moments. There is no ongoing trail of your movements in Business Buddy — only individual readings taken at the moments listed above. We do not read your location when the app is closed.
Who sees it
If you are an employee, your employer can see where your clock-in and clock-out happened, and how far that was from the jobsite. That is the purpose of the feature and you should assume it is visible to them. We show you the same information the manager sees, on your own timesheet, so nothing about your record is hidden from you.
Saying no
You can refuse location permission, or turn it off later in your device settings. The app keeps working: you can still clock in and out and still take photos — you'll just choose the job yourself instead of it being chosen for you. A refused or unavailable location is recorded as "no location", never as a problem with you.
5. What we never do
- We do not sell your personal information, or your clients'.
- We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.
- We do not use it to build advertising profiles.
- We do not use your business data to train public AI models.
6. Who we share it with
Only the services that make the app work, and only what each one needs:
| Service | What it receives |
|---|---|
| Render (hosting) and MongoDB Atlas (database) | Everything, because that is where the app runs and your data lives |
| Backblaze B2 (file storage) | Photos and documents you upload |
| Resend (email) | Recipient address and the contents of emails you choose to send, such as an invoice |
| Stripe (payments) | Invoice amount and your client's payment details when they pay online. Card numbers go straight to Stripe and never touch our servers. |
| Google Gemini (the Buddy AI assistant) | Only when you ask the assistant a question: a summary of your own jobs, schedule, and tasks. Scoped to what your role may see. Not used to train Google's models. |
| Firebase (push notifications) | A device token and the notification text |
| Photon / OpenStreetMap (address lookup) | The address text you're searching for. No account identifier is sent. |
| Apple and Google | Subscription purchases, if you subscribe. We never see your card. |
| Twilio (text messaging) | Only if your company enables it: the phone number and message text |
| Intuit QuickBooks | Only if you connect it: invoices, payments, expenses, and customers, so your books match |
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety or our legal rights. If our business is ever sold or merged, your data may transfer with it — you'd be told before that happened.
7. Where it lives, and for how long
Data is stored on servers in the United States. If you are outside the US, using Business Buddy means your information is transferred there.
We keep your data for as long as your account is active. When you delete something in the app, it is marked as deleted and hidden immediately, and cleared from our systems within 90 days — this is so an accidental deletion can be recovered. Backups roll off within 90 days. Some records, such as invoices, may be kept longer where tax or accounting law requires it.
8. Your rights
Wherever you live, you can:
- See your data — most of it is visible in the app; email us for the rest.
- Correct it — edit it in the app.
- Delete it — More → Personal Info → Delete Account removes your account. If you own the company, this deletes the company's data too, so make sure that's what you mean.
- Export it — email us and we'll send your company's data in a machine-readable format.
- Object or restrict — tell us and we'll stop the processing you object to, or explain why we can't.
If you are in the UK or EEA, our lawful bases are performing our contract with you (running the app), legitimate interests (keeping it secure and working), and consent (location, notifications — each revocable in your device settings). You may complain to your local data protection authority.
If you are in California, you have the right to know, delete, correct, and to not be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA.
To exercise any of these, email privacy@usebusinessbuddy.com. We reply within 30 days.
9. Security
Traffic is encrypted in transit with HTTPS. Passwords are hashed, never stored in a readable form. Access is scoped so that one company can never read another's data, and within a company, roles limit what each person sees — a foreman, for instance, cannot see what a job is worth. We restrict staff access to what's needed for support and maintenance.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we'll tell you and the relevant regulator as the law requires.
10. Children
Business Buddy is a tool for businesses and is not for anyone under 16. We don't knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has given us information, email us and we'll delete it.
11. Changes
If we change this policy we'll update the date at the top, and for anything significant we'll notify you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
12. Contact
Privacy questions: privacy@usebusinessbuddy.com
Anything else: support@usebusinessbuddy.com