Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 18, 2026

We collect the minimum we need to run Auctores Helm. We don't sell your data. We don't use it to train AI models. This page is the long version.

What we collect

Account info: name, email, password hash, organisation name. You give us this when you sign up.
Workspace data: clients, tasks, time entries, comments, credentials (encrypted), invoices, and anything else you store. You enter this.
Connected accounts: Gmail OAuth tokens (encrypted) if you connect email-to-task. Tokens are scoped to read-only message metadata + content. See the dedicated Gmail integration section below for the full breakdown.
Operational logs: activity log (who did what, when), AI call log (which features ran, latency, cost), error logs. Pruned after 30 days.
Cookies: a single auth cookie set by NextAuth. No analytics cookies, no advertising cookies, no third-party trackers.
Server logs: Vercel records IP, user-agent, and path for every request, retained 4-7 days for diagnostics. We don't add any extra logging beyond this.

What we don't collect

Payment card numbers, those go directly to PayPal.
Browsing history outside Auctores Helm.
Location data beyond what's inferable from IP.
Health, biometric, or government-ID data.

Why we collect it

To run the service you signed up for. Specifically: to authenticate you, render your workspace, run AI features when enabled, deliver invoice and trial-expiry emails, prevent abuse, and meet our legal obligations. The legal basis is "performance of a contract" (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)) plus "legitimate interest" (Art. 6(1)(f)) for security and fraud prevention.

Who we share it with

Vercel, hosts the app and serves traffic. US/EU regions.
Neon, Postgres database hosting. US region.
Anthropic, receives AI prompts when AI features are enabled. Their data-use terms forbid training on customer data. Your AI history (which prompts) is logged in our DB; the prompt content is not retained beyond the immediate response.
Resend, sends transactional email (password reset, invitations, trial expiring). EU/US data residency.
PayPal, processes subscription payments. We pass them an organization id; they handle the card details.

We don't share data with anyone else unless legally required (subpoena, court order), or you tell us to (e.g. data-export support tickets).

Gmail integration (Google API data)

Auctores Helm offers an optional Gmail integration that parses incoming email into tasks. This section is the full, Google-API-Services-User-Data-Policy-compliant breakdown of what we access, what we do with it, and what we don't do. If you never connect a Gmail account, none of this applies to you.

Scope requested

We request a single scope: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly. This is Google's "read all Gmail content" scope. We do not request, store, or use any write/send/modify/delete scope.

What we access

Message metadata: sender, recipients, subject, date, message-id, thread-id, labels.
Message body: plain-text and HTML parts.
Attachment metadata: filename, MIME type, size. We don't download attachment bodies.

What we do with it

Incoming messages are parsed server-side into tasks visible only to the workspace whose admin connected the account. Parsing extracts: a proposed task title, a short summary, the apparent sender/assignee, and any dates referenced. The extracted task is stored in your Postgres workspace. The original message body is fetched at parse time and is not retained beyond that operation.

What we don't do

We don't send, modify, archive, or delete email on your behalf.
We don't use Gmail data to train any AI model, ours or third-party. The Anthropic models we use for parsing operate under terms that forbid training on customer data.
We don't share Gmail data with any third party, including advertisers, analytics vendors, or data brokers, beyond the infrastructure providers listed above (Vercel, Neon, Anthropic) that are necessary to operate the service.
We don't read mail from any user other than the one who connected the account.
We don't aggregate Gmail content across organizations or users for analytics, ranking, recommendations, or any other product feature.
We don't sell or rent Gmail data. Ever.

How tokens are stored

OAuth refresh tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM using a per-deployment master key before being written to our Postgres database. They are scoped to your organization and only readable by the Auctores Helm process that needs them to refresh access tokens. The master key is rotatable.

How to revoke

You can revoke access at any time, two ways:

From Auctores Helm: Inbox → Email accounts → trash icon next to the connected account. This deletes our copy of the tokens and stops sync immediately.
From Google: visit your Google Account permissions page, find "Auctores Helm", and click Remove access. Google invalidates the tokens; our next refresh attempt fails and we mark the account inactive.

Limited Use compliance

Auctores Helm's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

How long we keep it

Active workspace data: until you delete it.
Soft-deleted workspace: 30 days, then erased.
AI call logs, raw captures: 30 days.
Activity log: 90 days (configurable).
Server logs (Vercel): 4-7 days.

Your rights (GDPR / CCPA)

If you're in a jurisdiction with data-protection laws, you have the right to:

Access: see what we have. Use Settings → Workspace → Export.
Rectify: correct it. Edit it in the dashboard.
Erase: delete your account. Settings → Workspace → Delete workspace.
Object: push back on a processing activity. Email privacy@theauctores.com.
Port: get a machine-readable copy. CSV export covers this.
Withdraw consent: for any optional processing (AI features, Gmail integration). Toggle them off in Settings.

We respond within 30 days. We may verify your identity before acting on a request.

Security

TLS 1.2+ everywhere. AES-256-GCM for the credential vault (with a per-deployment master key, rotatable). Bcrypt for passwords (10 rounds). Tenant data is scoped at the database layer, every relevant table carries an organizationId column and every query is filtered by it. We do internal security reviews of new code paths.

International transfers

Our infrastructure providers (Vercel, Neon, Resend, Anthropic) are based in the US. If you're in the EEA, your data may be transferred to the US under standard contractual clauses. PayPal handles its own cross-border transfer compliance.

Children

Auctores Helm is for businesses. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe we have, email privacy@theauctores.com and we'll delete it.

Changes

We'll email the workspace owner about material changes 30 days before they take effect. Minor clarifications get a "last updated" bump and no notice.

Contact

Privacy questions: privacy@theauctores.com. General support: connect@theauctores.in.