# Assessment Buddy - Privacy Policy
**Last Updated:** 2025-04-26
Jovansoft Limited ("Company", "we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our Assessment Buddy software-as-a-service platform, including the website and mobile applications (collectively, the "Service").
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access or use the Service.
This Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions.
**1. Information We Collect**
We collect information about you in various ways when you use our Service. This information is collected to provide and improve the Service, comply with legal obligations, and communicate with you. In accordance with New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020, we strive to collect only the personal information necessary for the purposes outlined in this policy.
**(a) Information You Provide Directly:**
* **Account Information:** When you register for an account, we collect information such as your name (optional), email address, and password.
* **User Content:** We collect the data you input into the Service while creating assessments or inspections, which may include text, notes, images, location data (if you enable location services), and other information related to the assessment ("User Content").
* **Communication Information:** If you contact us directly (e.g., via email at info@assessmentbuddy.com), we may receive additional information about you such as your name, email address, the contents of the message and/or attachments you may send us, and any other information you may choose to provide.
* **Payment Information:** When you subscribe to a paid plan, payment is processed by a third-party payment processor. We do not directly collect or store your full credit card information, although we may receive transaction details or limited payment information from the processor (e.g., billing address, last four digits of card number) for verification and record-keeping purposes.
* **Recipient Information:** If you use the Service to share reports or assessments with others, we collect the email addresses or contact information of those recipients as provided by you.
**(b) Information Collected Automatically:**
* **Usage Data:** We automatically collect information about your interactions with the Service, such as the features you use, the pages or screens you view, the frequency and duration of your activities, assessments created, reports generated, IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, and referring URLs.
* **Cookies and Similar Technologies:** We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons) to track activity on our Service and hold certain information. Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.
**(c) Information Processed by AI:**
* **AI Inputs:** When you use AI-assisted features, the text or other data you provide as input is processed to generate suggestions or report content.
* **AI Outputs:** We may store the AI-generated content associated with your assessments.
**2. How We Use Your Information**
We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:
* **To Provide and Maintain the Service:** To operate, maintain, secure, and provide the features and functionality of the Service, including processing your User Content and generating reports.
* **To Improve and Personalize the Service:** To understand how users interact with the Service, develop new features, improve existing ones, personalize your experience, and perform analytics.
* **To Process Transactions:** To manage your Subscriptions, process payments (via our third-party processor), and prevent transactional fraud.
* **To Communicate With You:** To respond to your comments, questions, and requests, provide customer support, and send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, and administrative messages.
* **For AI Feature Functionality:** To process your inputs through AI models (which may involve third-party providers) and provide you with AI-generated assistance and content.
* **For Marketing (with Consent):** We may use your email address to send you newsletters, promotional materials, and other information about our Service, but only where we have your consent or a legitimate interest to do so, and you will always have the option to opt-out.
* **For Compliance and Protection:** To comply with legal obligations, enforce our Terms and Conditions, protect our rights and property or those of others, detect and prevent fraud, security breaches, or other potentially prohibited or illegal activities.
* **Aggregated Data:** To create aggregated, anonymized statistical data for business intelligence, service improvement, and industry analysis, which does not personally identify you.
**3. How We Share Your Information**
We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information in the following circumstances:
* **With Service Providers:** We share information with third-party vendors, consultants, and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work on our behalf. This includes:
* Cloud hosting providers (e.g., Google Cloud Platform, Firebase) for data storage and infrastructure.
* Payment processors to handle Subscription payments.
* AI model providers to enable AI features (Your inputs may be processed by these providers subject to their own privacy practices and our agreements with them).
* Analytics providers to help us understand Service usage.
* Communication services for email delivery.
We require these service providers to agree to protect the information we share with them and use it only for the purposes we dictate.
* **When You Direct Us to Share:** If you use the Service to share an assessment or report with another person, we will share the relevant User Content and report with the recipient(s) you specify.
* **For Legal Reasons:** We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with a legal obligation or government request; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Jovansoft Limited; (c) prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service; (d) protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public; or (e) protect against legal liability.
* **Business Transfers:** If Jovansoft Limited is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information.
* **Aggregated or Anonymized Data:** We may share aggregated or anonymized information that does not directly identify you with third parties for research, analysis, or other purposes.
**4. Data Security**
We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security measures designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. We leverage the security capabilities of our cloud providers (e.g., GCP, Firebase). However, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against interception or misuse. You are responsible for keeping your account password confidential.
**5. Data Retention**
We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as for tax, accounting, or other legal requirements).
Generally, this means we retain your account information and User Content while your account is active and for a reasonable period thereafter in case you decide to re-activate the Service, or as needed for backup, archival, fraud prevention, analytics, or to comply with our legal obligations. When you terminate your account, some information may be deleted immediately, while other information (e.g., legally required records, aggregated data, system logs) may be retained according to our policies.
**6. International Data Transfers**
Your information, including personal data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction. As Jovansoft Limited is based in New Zealand and uses global service providers (like GCP/Firebase), your information will likely be processed in New Zealand and other countries where our service providers operate. We will take appropriate steps to ensure that your personal data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.
**7. Your Privacy Rights (New Zealand Privacy Act 2020)**
Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, you have certain rights regarding your personal information:
* **Right to Access:** You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you.
* **Right to Correction:** You have the right to request correction of any personal information we hold about you that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
* **Right to Request Deletion:** You may have the right to request the deletion of your personal information under certain circumstances, subject to our legal obligations and legitimate interests.
* **Right to Withdraw Consent:** Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
To exercise these rights, please contact us at info@assessmentbuddy.com. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe and in accordanceance with applicable law.
If you are located outside New Zealand (e.g., in the EEA or California), you may have additional rights under laws like GDPR or CCPA. Please contact us if you wish to exercise any rights applicable in your jurisdiction.
**8. Children's Privacy**
Our Service is not intended for use by children under the age of 13 (or a higher age threshold if required by applicable law). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under this age. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under the relevant age without parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information.
**9. Changes to This Privacy Policy**
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date. If the changes are significant, we may provide more prominent notice (e.g., via email or an in-app notification). You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page. Your continued use of the Service after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Privacy Policy.
**10. Contact Us**
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:
Jovansoft Limited
Email: info@assessmentbuddy.com
If you have a concern about our handling of your personal information that we have not been able to resolve, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with the New Zealand Office of the Privacy Commissioner (www.privacy.org.nz) or your local data protection authority.