The short version
- We collect what CostBook needs to work: who you are, your business details, and what you put into the app. Nothing more.
- No ads and no tracking cookies. We count visits to this website and the app anonymously, with no cookies and no names, and you can switch that off. We don't sell or share personal information, and we don't use your data to train AI.
- For the details of your own customers that you store in CostBook, we act on your behalf and follow your instructions.
- Three service providers process data for us: Railway (hosting), Resend (email) and Creem (payments, as merchant of record).
- To use your privacy rights, or for any privacy question, email cloyd.abad@costbook.app.
1. Who we are and what this policy covers
CostBook is run by Cloyd C. Abad, a sole proprietor doing business as Stewardship Website Application Services, Dumaguete City, Philippines ("CostBook", "we", "us"). This policy explains how we handle personal information when you visit this website, use the CostBook app, receive a quote sent through CostBook, or contact us.
We have two roles, and the policy treats them separately:
- For account and website information, we are the controller (a "personal information controller" under the Philippine Data Privacy Act). This covers information about the people who sign up, use the app and pay for it, and about visitors to this site. We decide how it's used.
- For the information businesses store in CostBook about their own customers, we are a processor. This covers client names, contact details and quotes. The business that uses CostBook is the controller and decides why that information is collected. We handle it only to provide the service, following their instructions. See section 4.
2. What we collect
When you sign up and use CostBook
- Account details: your name, email address and password. We store passwords only as a one-way hash (scrypt), never in readable form. When you verify your email, we record that it's verified.
- Business details: your business name and region, and anything you add in settings, such as address, phone, email, website, tax registration numbers and logo.
- Your team: the email addresses and roles of people you invite, and who invited them.
- What you put in the app: your price book, parts lists, projects, quotes, client details, notes and attached files (PDFs and images). This is your content, and it belongs to you.
Automatically, while you use the app
- Sign-in sessions: for each signed-in device, the IP address and browser or device description (the user agent), so you stay signed in and we can spot misuse.
- Activity record: an audit log of changes to your business's data. It records who made each change, what changed (before and after), when, and from which IP address and browser. It's how CostBook shows where every price change came from.
- Security counters: short-lived counts of requests per IP address or user, used to block repeated password guessing and abuse.
- Technical logs: our hosting provider keeps short-lived server logs, such as IP address, page requested, time and error details, to run and protect the service. We don't use them to profile anyone.
When you subscribe
Creem handles checkout and payment as our merchant of record. It collects your payment and billing details under its own privacy policy. We receive and keep your Creem customer and subscription IDs, your plan, your subscription status, your trial and billing dates, and whether the subscription is set to cancel. We never see or store your full card or bank details.
When you contact us
If you email us, we keep your message and our reply so we can help you, and handle any follow-up.
When you visit this website
This marketing website sets no cookies and uses no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking scripts. Fonts are served from our own server. We count visits ourselves, anonymously: see Counting visits to this website. As with any website, the server logs each request (IP address, page, time and browser) to keep the site running and secure.
We don't ask for sensitive personal information (such as health, religion, government ID numbers or biometrics), and CostBook isn't designed to hold it. Please don't put it in notes or files.
3. How we use it, and why we are allowed to
- To provide CostBook (performing our contract with you): creating and securing your account, saving and calculating your quotes, sharing data with your team according to their roles, generating PDFs and quote links, and sending the emails the app depends on. These include email verification, password resets, team invitations, quotes you choose to send, and notices when a customer opens or responds to a quote.
- To bill you (contract): matching your Creem subscription to your business and setting what your plan includes.
- To keep CostBook secure and working (our legitimate interest in a safe, reliable service): preventing fraud and abuse, rate-limiting sign-in attempts, investigating problems, and keeping the activity record.
- To support you (contract and legitimate interest): answering your questions and fixing problems you report.
- To tell you about important changes (contract and legitimate interest): changes to these policies, your plan or prices, and security notices. We send marketing emails only if you have agreed to receive them, and every one has an unsubscribe link.
- To meet legal obligations (legal obligation): tax and accounting records, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
We don't sell personal information, use it for advertising, build profiles, or use it to train AI models. CostBook makes no automated decisions about people that have legal or similarly significant effects.
If you choose not to give us information the service needs, such as an email address, we may not be able to give you an account.
4. If you received a quote through CostBook
Businesses use CostBook to prepare and send quotes. If a business sent you a quote, that business controls your information and its own privacy notice applies. We process your information on its behalf. Here is what that involves:
- What the business stores: the client details it enters, such as your name, company, email, phone, billing address and notes, along with the quote itself.
- Opening a quote link: we count how many times the link has been opened and record when it was last opened, so the business can see that you've looked at it. We don't record your IP address or browser when you simply view a quote.
- Accepting or declining: we record the name and email you type, any message you add, the options you chose, the time, your IP address and browser, and a fingerprint of the exact quote version. The business can see your name, email, message and choices, and this record is kept as evidence of the decision.
- Quote emails: these come from a CostBook address with replies going to the business. We use Resend to deliver them.
To access, correct or delete your information, please contact the business that sent you the quote. If you contact us instead, we'll pass your request on to them and help them respond. You can reach us at cloyd.abad@costbook.app.
6. Where your information is stored
CostBook's database and files are hosted by Railway in the United States (Railway's US West region). Emails are processed by Resend in the United States, and payments by Creem, which is based in Estonia in the European Union and whose payment processors operate internationally. CostBook is run from the Philippines, and the operator may access data from there to provide support and keep the service running.
This means your information may be stored or accessed outside the country or province where you live, including outside Canada and Québec. There it may be subject to local laws, which can allow courts and authorities to access it. We stay accountable for your information wherever it is processed. We protect transfers with contracts that require our providers to keep it secure and confidential, including standard contractual clauses where they apply.
7. How long we keep it
- Your business's data (price book, projects, quotes, client details, files and team): for as long as the business exists. We don't delete it automatically when a trial ends or a subscription is cancelled, so you can come back to it or download it. If we ever decide to delete a cancelled or expired business's data, we'll email the owner at least 60 days ahead.
- Activity records and quote acceptance records: for as long as the business exists, because they are the record of who changed prices and who agreed to what.
- Sign-in sessions: a session keeps you signed in for up to 30 days after it was last renewed. The session record, including its IP address and browser, is kept while your user account exists.
- Temporary files: quote PDFs are cached for up to 30 days, draft PDFs and abandoned uploads are removed after a day, and the undo history for imports is cleared after about a week.
- Billing records: as long as tax and accounting laws require.
- Anonymous visit counts: 400 days, then they are deleted automatically.
- Support emails: as long as needed to help you, and to keep a record of what we agreed.
Deleting your data. The owner of a business can ask us to delete the business and everything in it, including its activity records. Anyone can ask us to delete their own user account. Email cloyd.abad@costbook.app. We'll confirm the request and delete the data from our live systems within 30 days. Copies in backups are removed as those backups expire on their normal schedule. We may keep a minimal record where the law requires us to, such as billing records, or to show that we handled your request.
8. How we protect it
- Each business's data is kept separate, and every request is checked against the business it belongs to.
- Access within a business follows roles, and viewers can't change anything.
- Passwords are hashed, and sign-in is protected against repeated guessing.
- Connections use HTTPS. Session cookies are secure and unreadable by page scripts.
- Files are kept in private storage and handed out through links that expire within minutes.
- Quote links are signed so they can't be guessed. They're kept out of search engines, and you can switch them off at any time.
- The activity record cannot be edited after the fact.
- Signing out clears CostBook's copy of your data from that browser.
No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and fix problems quickly. If a breach affecting your personal information is likely to cause you harm, we'll notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires. In the Philippines that means the National Privacy Commission, within 72 hours where required.
10. Counting visits to this website
We want to know which pages of this website are useful and which are not, so we count visits ourselves. We don't use Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics, and counting needs no cookies. Here is exactly what happens:
- What is counted: the page you opened (for an article or an industry page, which one), when, whether it was the first page of your visit, the website that sent you (its name only, not the full address), the campaign tag in the link if it had one (utm_source), and whether you used a phone, tablet or computer.
- Where in the world: your country. We work it out from your IP address on our own server, using a location database that runs there too, so the address isn't sent to anyone for this. We keep the country, not the address.
- How you read a page: how long the page was open in front of you while you were active (moving, scrolling or typing), how far down you scrolled (in steps of ten percent), and for how long each section of the page was on screen while you were active. This measures what was on screen, not where you looked, and nothing you type or click is recorded.
- Counting you once a day, without knowing who you are: to avoid counting one person many times, we turn your IP address and browser description into a short anonymous code, using a secret that changes every day and is never kept. You are the same code for one day and a stranger the next, so we can't follow anyone from one day to another.
What this does not do: it stores nothing on your device, and records no name, email address or IP address. We don't combine it with your account, and we don't share it with anyone. Visits from search engines and other automated programs are left out.
The CostBook app counts which of its screens are opened in the same way. It records the name of the screen only, never a project, client, quote or any ID in the address, and it doesn't measure time or scrolling.
Your choice: if your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, we don't count you, on this website or in the app. You can also use the "Don't count my visits" link at the bottom of every page of this website. It stores one setting on your device saying you have opted out, which is the only thing this website ever stores there for this, and you can reverse it from the same place.
Why, who sees it and for how long: our legitimate interest in understanding and improving the website and the app. The counts are kept for 400 days, then deleted automatically. Only the operator can see them, in an internal dashboard, and they are hosted by Railway like the rest of CostBook (see Who we share it with).
The location database is IP Geolocation by DB-IP, "IP to Country Lite", licensed under CC BY 4.0.
11. Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to tell you what personal information we hold about you, and to give you a copy, correct it, delete it, or export it. You can also object to how we use it, and withdraw any consent you've given. Email cloyd.abad@costbook.app. You can change most business details and download your data yourself in the app. To change the name or email on your login, email us.
We'll respond within 30 days, and there's no charge. We may need to confirm your identity first. If your information is part of a business account, for example as a team member, we may involve that business's owner. If you received a quote, see section 4.
Philippines
Under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 you have the right to be informed, to access, to object, to erasure or blocking, to damages, to data portability, and to rectification. If you think we have mishandled your information, you can complain to the National Privacy Commission.
Canada and Québec
Under PIPEDA and Québec's privacy law you can access and correct your information and withdraw consent. In Québec, you can also ask for your information in a structured, commonly used technological format, and ask us to stop disseminating it. You can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, in Québec, the Commission d'accès à l'information.
United States
We don't sell or share personal information, or use it for targeted advertising. We honor the access, correction and deletion requests described above wherever you live in the US, and we won't treat you differently for making one.
European Union and United Kingdom
CostBook isn't aimed at the EU or UK, but if those laws apply to you, the legal bases we rely on are listed in section 3. You have the rights described in Articles 15 to 22 of the GDPR. Please raise any concern with us first; you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
12. Children
CostBook is a tool for businesses and isn't meant for anyone under 18. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us information, tell us and we'll delete it.
13. Changes to this policy
We'll update this policy when the way we handle information changes. If a change is material, we'll email account owners or show a notice in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when this policy was last updated.
14. Data protection officer and contact
Our data protection officer, who is also our privacy officer under Québec law, is Cloyd C. Abad. Write to cloyd.abad@costbook.app, or use the details below:
- Operator: Cloyd C. Abad, a sole proprietor doing business as Stewardship Website Application Services
- Address: Dumaguete City, Philippines
- Email: cloyd.abad@costbook.app