Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Hiveminded is operated by Hiveminded.io ("Hiveminded," "we," "us," or "our"). Contact for privacy matters: privacy@hiveminded.io. Our designated privacy contact acts as the point of contact for data subjects and supervisory authorities; we do not currently meet the threshold that requires a formal Data Protection Officer under GDPR Article 37.

This policy applies to the hiveminded.io website and account pages, the relay service, and hosted workspaces.

2. Alpha availability

The alpha is offered only to persons located in the United States. We apply the data protection practices described here, which are designed to meet the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as our baseline for everyone whose data we hold, including anyone outside the alpha region whose data reaches us incidentally.

3. What we collect, and why

We collect the minimum needed to run the service:

• Account data. Email address, display name, and password, when you create an account. Passwords are stored only as salted one way hashes. Lawful basis: performance of the contract.
• Two factor secrets. If you enable two factor authentication, the secret is stored sealed (encrypted) with a server side key held separately from the database. Lawful basis: contract and legitimate interests in account security.
• Key data. Licence and alpha keys are stored on the relay only as hashes. We keep the fact that a key exists, its plan, its seat count, and its status, never the key itself after issuance. Lawful basis: contract.
• Relay routing metadata. To move messages between workspaces, the relay handles sealed envelopes. It records the sending and receiving workspace identifiers, message sizes, and timestamps. It cannot read sealed content (Section 4). Lawful basis: contract.
• Mailbox data. Sealed envelopes waiting for delivery are held in the relay mailbox until picked up, subject to per workspace item and byte caps. Lawful basis: contract.
• Hosted workspace data. A hosted workspace runs in an isolated environment on our infrastructure, with its own data store. The workspace's own data (channels, tasks, files, member list) lives in that store. We access it only to operate, secure, back up, and support the service, and on your instruction. Lawful basis: contract.
• Usage counts (hosted workspaces only). Hosted workspaces send us one aggregate usage report a day (counts such as member numbers and message volume, never content). Any member of a hosted workspace can opt out in settings, which stops the reporting for that workspace. Lawful basis: legitimate interests in capacity planning and abuse prevention, balanced by the opt out.
• Payment data. Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. We keep the subscription status and the last administrative details Stripe gives us (such as plan and renewal date). Lawful basis: contract and legal obligation (tax records).
• Support correspondence. Emails you send us, kept while the conversation is relevant. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
• Server logs. Short lived technical logs for security and reliability, including IP addresses, retained for 30 days. Lawful basis: legitimate interests in security.

We do not sell personal data. We do not use workspace content to train models. We do not run advertising trackers on our site or in the product.

4. Encryption

Encryption is a design requirement of Hiveminded, not an option:

• All traffic between the software, the relay, and our site moves over TLS.
• Content exchanged between workspaces through Trusted Circles (circle messages, circle direct messages, and shared board events) travels as signed, sealed envelopes. The keys live in the workspaces, circle keys rotate on a schedule (every six hours), and the relay routes envelopes it cannot open.
• Relay mailbox items are sealed envelopes in the same way: the relay holds ciphertext and routing metadata, not readable content.
• Credentials are never stored in recoverable form: passwords and keys exist on the relay only as hashes, and two factor secrets are stored sealed with a key kept outside the database.

5. Who we share data with

Only the processors needed to run the service:

• Hetzner (Hetzner Online GmbH / Hetzner US): server hosting for the relay and for hosted workspaces.
• Stripe: payment processing.
• Resend: transactional email delivery (sign in and account mail).

Each processor acts on our instructions under a data processing agreement. We may disclose data where the law requires it, or to protect the service and its users from abuse, and we will say so here if that policy changes.

6. Retention

• Relay mailbox envelopes: until delivery, and never beyond 30 days undelivered.
• Routing metadata: 90 days.
• Account data: while the account exists, and for 12 months after closure for fraud prevention and legal records, then deleted or anonymised.
• Hosted workspace data: while the subscription is active. When a subscription ends, we keep the workspace and its data available for export for 30 days, then delete the workspace, its data store, and associated backups in the ordinary course, and will confirm deletion on request.
• Backups of the relay database: rolling 14 days, encrypted, then overwritten.

7. Your rights

Under the GDPR baseline we apply to everyone, you may:

• ask what personal data we hold about you and receive a copy (access);
• have inaccurate data corrected (rectification);
• have your data deleted (erasure), subject to legal retention duties;
• receive your data in a portable, machine readable form (portability);
• restrict or object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• withdraw consent where processing rests on consent, without affecting prior processing.

Write to privacy@hiveminded.io. We answer within one month, and sooner where we can. You may also complain to your local supervisory authority; in Utah that route runs through the Utah Attorney General for state law matters, and EU residents may use their member state authority.

Workspace members should note: data inside a workspace (your messages, tasks, and files there) is controlled by that workspace's owner. For a hosted workspace, we act as processor for that content; send workspace content requests to your workspace owner first, and we will assist them as our contract requires.

8. Security and breaches

We protect the service with encryption in transit and at rest as described above, hash only credential storage, least privilege access, signed software updates, and continuous patching. If a personal data breach occurs, we will notify the competent supervisory authority within 72 hours where the GDPR requires it, and we will notify affected users without undue delay when the breach is likely to result in a high risk to them.

9. Children

Hiveminded is not directed to children under 16, and accounts require the account holder to be at least 18. Workspace owners are responsible for the membership rules of their own workspaces.

10. Changes

We will announce changes to this policy on the account page and by email at least 14 days before they take effect, except changes the law requires sooner.