Privacy Policy

Who we are

Proto Project Management (ProtoPM) is a construction project management service for contractors and trades. It is operated by Crescenta Systems (crescentasystems.com). For privacy questions, contact us at [email protected].

Primary governing jurisdiction for this policy and the related Terms is Saskatchewan, Canada.

What we collect

• Account: name, email, hashed password, optional department, account role, and the companies you belong to.
• Security: email verification, password-reset, and optional MFA codes and tokens.
• Sign-in and signup records: when your account was created and how (for example by invite), the time and number of your sign-ins, and the IP address and browser of your most recent sign-in, used to keep accounts secure and understand usage. At signup we also note your browser time zone and approximate country (derived from your IP address).
• How you found us: on your first visit, your browser keeps the name of the website that sent you (for example google.com, not the full link), the first ProtoPM page you opened, and any campaign tags in the link (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign). If you create an account, we save these with it so we can see which places bring people to ProtoPM. This applies to every visitor and is never shared with ad or analytics providers.
• Work data: companies, projects, schedules, financials, field logs, documents/photos (links or uploads when storage is configured), change logs, risks, lessons, invites, notifications, and related records you or your team enter.
• Content you publish: optional firm name, description, website, public contact details, general location, firm logo, and selected project titles, summaries, general locations, photos, and captions used in a public firm showcase.
• Billing (add-ons): your company's add-on subscription status, license codes and provider identifiers (for example Stripe), plus the email address a license code is sent to. We do not store full card numbers in ProtoPM.
• Optional ads and analytics: only after you choose Accept all in the cookie banner (or enable them in Settings). Free accounts, and visitors to public guides, templates and blog posts, may see labeled advertisements when ads are configured; optional analytics measure product funnels.

Why we use it (PIPEDA purposes)

We use personal information to:

• Create and run your account and sign-in.
• Provide project tools, invites, and notifications.
• Publish the firm and project showcase content that an authorized company owner or admin chooses to make public.
• Send account/service email (verification, sign-in codes, password reset, invite links, billing notices such as payment failed, and optional account tip emails you can stop anytime) — not a marketing newsletter.
• Process company add-on billing and license codes when you buy them.
• Learn which websites and campaigns bring people to ProtoPM, so we know where to spend our time.
• Show Free-plan ads and run optional analytics only if you accept those cookies and those features are configured.
• Maintain security, prevent abuse, and improve reliability.

Guests only see and use what their project membership allows (for example Financials for their own invoices). ProtoPM is not directed at children under 13.

Consent and your choices

Creating an account requires agreeing to the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. Advertising and analytics cookies are off until you Accept all (or turn them on in Account settings). You can switch to Essential only anytime.

You can review and update your name, email, and password in Account settings. For access or correction requests beyond self-serve, email support.

A company owner or admin can keep a firm showcase as a private draft, publish or unpublish it, select the specific project photos shown, and separately choose whether search engines may index it. Published showcase pages can be viewed by anyone with the public link.

Access, export, and deletion

In Account settings (Danger zone) you can:

• Export a copy of your account data (profile, memberships, owned-project summary, guest invoices when applicable, and your notifications) as JSON.
• Delete your account after confirming your email. We remove your memberships, tokens, notifications, and subscription records; projects where you are the sole owner (and empty companies you solely own) are deleted. Platform admin accounts cannot self-delete.

Deleting your account is permanent. We cannot restore a deleted account or anything in it, including projects deleted along with it, and nothing is moved to a recycle bin. Before you confirm, we show you what will be deleted and what stays.

When you delete your account we may ask why you are leaving. Answering is optional. If you answer, we keep your chosen reason and any note you write, together with a few non-identifying details about the account (for example how long it existed, its role, trade, country and signup source, and whether a paid add-on was active) as an anonymous record to improve the product. This record has no name, email address, user ID, or other link back to you, so it is not kept as personal data and is not removed with your account. Please do not put personal details in the note; we remove email addresses and phone numbers we detect.

Copies may remain for a limited time in backups (managed by our database host) or logs needed for security and legal obligations, then are removed in the ordinary backup cycle.

Email (CASL)

We send commercial electronic messages as needed to operate your account: verification, MFA codes, password reset, invite emails, billing-related notices (for example payment failed), and optional short account tip emails (a first-job reminder). You can stop tip emails anytime from Settings → Privacy or the link in those emails. We do not run a separate newsletter or marketing blast from ProtoPM.

Cookies and similar technology

• Essential: sign-in session, your cookie preference, and theme or similar UI state needed for the app to work.
• First-visit source: one browser-storage entry (not a cookie) with the referring website, first page and campaign tags described above. It stays on your device unless you sign up, and you can remove it by clearing site data for protopm.app.
• Advertising: Google AdSense on Free placements and on public guides, templates and blog posts, when you accept advertising cookies and AdSense is configured. Ads are labeled “Advertisement”. Companies with any paid add-on see no ads. Google may set cookies and collect data about your visit under its own privacy policy.
• Analytics: optional Plausible or PostHog (when configured) only if you accept analytics cookies.

Service providers

We use processors to host and run the product, including database hosting (Neon), application hosting (Render), S3-compatible object storage for uploaded files and photos, transactional email (Resend, or Gmail SMTP when configured that way), and error monitoring (Sentry, when configured). When you search for or pick a site location on a map, your browser sends the search text and map requests (including your IP address) to OpenStreetMap and its Nominatim geocoder. When enabled and accepted, we also use Stripe for add-on billing, Google AdSense for Free ads, and Plausible or PostHog for analytics. They process data only to provide those services.

Where data is processed

ProtoPM is offered to users in Canada (and may be used from the United States). Our processors may store or process data in the United States and other countries where they operate (for example Neon, Render, Stripe, Resend, and Google). When data leaves Canada, it is protected by the contracts and safeguards those providers offer, and by the security measures described below. By using ProtoPM you understand that your information may be processed outside your province or country.

Retention and security

We keep account and project data while your account exists and as needed to provide the service, resolve disputes, and meet legal obligations. Passwords are stored hashed. Access to project data is limited by membership and role. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure; we take reasonable safeguards appropriate to the service. See Security and data protection for how we protect and back up your data.

Typical short-lived records:

• Email verification tokens — about 24 hours, then unused tokens expire.
• Password-reset tokens — about 60 minutes.
• MFA one-time codes — a few minutes; stored hashed with attempt limits.
• Project and guest invite tokens — until accepted, revoked, or expired per invite rules.
• Billing records — kept as long as needed for the subscription, tax, and accounting with Stripe.
• Account-deletion survey — an optional, anonymous record (see “Access, export, and deletion”) with no link to your identity.

United States / California notice

At collection we use the categories above for the purposes listed. We do not sell personal information for money. Sharing with ad or analytics providers happens only after you Accept all (or enable those categories in Settings). California residents may opt out of that sharing by choosing Essential only or changing preferences in Account settings. Contact us using the address above for questions about this notice.

Changes

We may update this policy when the product changes. The “Last updated” date at the top will change. Continued use after a material update means you should review the new version; significant changes may also be called out in the product when practical.