Privacy Policy · BriefingMate

01Introduction

Welcome to BriefingMate ("BriefingMate," "we," "us," or "our"). We are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our BriefingMate desktop application, web platform, and companion mobile applications (collectively, the "Services").

Please read this privacy policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this privacy policy, please do not access or use the Services.

Our core principle is to respect your privacy. We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information with third parties for their marketing purposes.

02Information we collect

We may collect information about you in a variety of ways when you use our Services:

a. Information you provide to us

Account Information: If you create an account, for example to sync your notifications to the web and your phone or to subscribe to a paid plan, we collect the information necessary to create and manage your account, such as your email address. Payment information is processed by our third-party payment processor (PayPal), and we do not store your full payment card details.
Contact Information: If you contact us by email, we may collect your name, email address, phone number (if provided), and the content of your message to respond to your inquiries.

b. Information collected automatically for core functionality

Notification Data: Our desktop application is designed to capture notifications from your operating system and other applications (including via "Stealth Mode" for custom UI alerts). This notification content is stored locally on your device for display, search and offline use. If you sign in, this data is synced to our servers so it is accessible on your other connected devices (web, mobile), and it is used to write your daily summary ("brief").
Calendar Data: If you choose to connect your calendar, the application will access your calendar event data to display it. This data is processed locally and, if sync is enabled, is handled similarly to notification data for syncing.

c. Usage and technical data (for service improvement)

Device and Usage Information: We may collect limited, anonymized, or aggregated technical information about your device (e.g., operating system, application version) and how you use our Services (e.g., features used, crash reports). This data helps us improve the stability, functionality, and user experience of our Services. We do not use this to track individual user behavior for unrelated purposes.
Session Recordings: Release versions of our desktop and mobile applications record sessions of the application's window, meaning what the application shows on screen and the clicks, taps and scrolling within it, and send these recordings to our servers. We use them to find and fix problems in the applications.

For users of our Free plan who do not sign up for an account, the collection of personally identifiable information is minimal. Notification and calendar data are primarily processed and stored locally on your device.

03How we use your information

We use the information we collect for purposes including:

Providing and Maintaining Our Services: To operate and maintain the BriefingMate application, including capturing and processing notifications, syncing data across your devices (if applicable), and allowing offline functionality.
Improving Our Services: To understand how users interact with our Services, to enhance usability, develop new features, and to identify and fix bugs or performance issues.
Communication: To respond to your inquiries, provide customer support, and send important service-related notices (if you have an account or have contacted us).
Processing Transactions: To manage subscriptions and process payments for our paid plans through our third-party payment processor.

We are committed to your privacy and limit sharing of your information:

Service Providers: We may share information with third-party vendors and service providers who perform services on our behalf, such as cloud hosting for data sync and payment processors. These providers are authorized to use your information only as necessary to provide services to us and are contractually obligated to protect your information.
Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required by law, subpoena, or other legal process, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request.
Business Transfers: If BriefingMate is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information.

Again, we do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their marketing or promotional purposes.

05Data security

We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction. For synced data, we use encryption both in transit and at rest. However, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against interception or other misuse.

06Data retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with the Services. Data captured and stored locally on your device is under your control. Synced data is retained to provide you with cross-platform access and is deleted when you delete your account, within 30 days of your request, subject to our backup and operational policies (see Delete your account). Anonymized or aggregated usage data may be retained for longer periods for analytical purposes.

07Your choices and rights

You have certain choices and rights regarding your information:

Access and Update: If you have an account, you may be able to review and update certain account information through your account settings.
Data Deletion: You can delete data stored locally by uninstalling the application or clearing its data. To delete your account and the data synced to it, sign in to the BriefingMate phone app or app.briefingmate.com, open Account and tap Delete account. We delete your account and everything in it within 30 days; Delete your account explains what is deleted and what is kept.
Stealth Mode: You can turn stealth mode off at any time.
Opt-Out of Communications: If you receive non-essential communications from us, you can opt-out by following the unsubscribe instructions in those communications.

For users of the Free plan without an account, your data primarily resides locally. Uninstalling the application will remove this data from your device.

08Children’s privacy

Our Services are not intended for individuals under the age of 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in the relevant jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under this age. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

09Third-party services

Our Services may integrate with third-party services (e.g., PayPal for payments). This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that we do not own or control. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you access or use.

If you sign in to the BriefingMate phone app and allow it to show notifications, the notifications your PC captures reach your phone as push notifications delivered by Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging: each one’s app name, title and text pass through Google’s servers on the way, and Google may keep a push for up to an hour for a phone that is offline.

10Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by updating the "Effective Date" at the top of this Privacy Policy and, in some cases, we may provide more prominent notice (such as by adding a statement to our website or sending a notification if you have an account). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically.