Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

ProtoFlow Inc. ("we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use our desktop application and website. We believe in data minimization and transparency.

2. Information We Collect

a. Account Information

When you sign up, we collect your email address and authentication credentials (via our auth provider, Firebase). We use this to identify you and manage your access to the service.

b. Payment & Subscription Data

When you purchase a subscription or credits, your payment is processed by Stripe. We do not store your full credit card number. We receive and store your subscription status, billing cycle dates, plan tier, and transaction history to manage your account and provide the appropriate level of service. Stripe may collect additional information as described in their privacy policy.

c. Usage Data

We collect anonymous telemetry data about how you use the application (e.g., "User clicked Export," "User generated a symbol"). We also track AI usage metrics including model usage, request frequency, and credit consumption to enforce rate limits, manage fair use policies, and improve our services. You can opt-out of non-essential telemetry in the application settings.

d. AI Prompts & Context

When you use AI features (e.g., "Generate a power supply circuit"), the text of your prompt and relevant context from your active schematic are sent to our cloud servers and third-party LLM providers (such as OpenAI or Google) to generate the response.We do not use your proprietary schematic data to train our foundational models without your explicit consent.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To provide and maintain the Service, including managing your subscription and feature access.
• To process payments, manage billing cycles, and handle credit transactions.
• To process your AI requests and return generated content.
• To enforce rate limits, fair use policies, and subscription tier restrictions.
• To notify you about changes to our Service, pricing, or Terms.
• To provide customer support.
• To monitor the usage of the Service and detect technical issues or abuse.

4. Data Storage & Security

Local First: Your schematic files (`.sch`, `.kicad_sch`) are stored locally on your device. We do not automatically upload your entire project files to our servers. Only the specific data needed for an AI request is transmitted when you actively use an AI feature.

Subscription and payment data is stored securely in Firebase (Google Cloud) and processed by Stripe. We use industry-standard encryption (TLS/SSL) for data in transit. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure.

5. Third-Party Services

We may employ third-party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service ("Service Providers"), such as:

• Firebase (Google): For authentication, database services, and storing subscription/usage data.
• Stripe: For processing subscription payments, one-off credit purchases, and managing billing.
• Vercel: For website hosting and serverless API functions.
• LLM Providers (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, xAI, and others): For processing AI queries. Your prompts and schematic context are sent to these providers to generate responses.

These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. Each third party has its own privacy policy governing their handling of your data.

6. Data Retention

We retain your account information, subscription data, and usage history for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal data within a reasonable timeframe, except where retention is required by law.

7. Your Data Rights

You have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you. You also have the right to request that we delete your account and associated data. Contact protoflowai@gmail.com to exercise these rights. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date. Material changes may also be communicated via email or in-app notification. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at protoflowai@gmail.com.