Privacy Policy
Last updated 14 August 2026. Plain-language summary first, the legal text after.
In plain language
The legal text
Hushward (“we”, “us”, “our”) operates the Hushward platform. For data-protection purposes, Hushward is the controller of personal information collected through this service. You can reach our team at Contact Us.
Account data. When you create an account, we collect your email address, display name, and authentication credentials. We also collect optional profile fields you choose to fill out, such as your organization name.
Scan inputs. To run a broker scan on your behalf, you provide the identifiers we need to look you up: name, aliases, prior locations, age range. We use these only to query broker sites and are deleted on request.
Service records.We log the actions the platform takes on your behalf — which DSAR was filed, when, under which statute, and the response or its absence — so you have a complete audit trail.
Billing. Paid accounts are billed through Stripe. We receive your billing email, plan tier, and invoice history; card numbers are held by Stripe and never touch our servers.
Operational telemetry. Standard server logs (IP address, user agent, request path) are kept for security and debugging. These are short-retention and never sold.
We process your information to operate the service, file requests on your behalf, maintain an accurate audit trail, send service notifications, and prevent abuse. Legal bases under GDPR Article 6 are performance of contract (Articles 6(1)(b)), legitimate interest in security and product improvement (6(1)(f)), and your consent where applicable (6(1)(a)).
We do not use your information for automated decision-making that produces legal effects on you.
The broker-scan feature uses an automated matching engine to compare the personal identifiers in your profile against listings on people-search and data-broker sites, so we can flag profiles that appear to be yours and submit removal requests on your behalf. The matching engine processes the profile data you provided: name, email addresses, phone numbers, past addresses, and aliases (including historical or alternative names), together with any age range you supplied.
We use this processing solely for the scan and removal workflow — finding broker listings that match you, surfacing the match in your scan results, dispatching opt-out or DSAR requests to the matching broker, and recording the result in your audit trail. The matching engine is operated by us as part of the service; it is not used to train any external model, sold, or licensed to a third party.
Listing data returned by the engine is shared with the broker that maintains the listing only as part of a removal request you (or our agent on your behalf) submit. We do not transfer your profile data to any other third party. Matches are stored only in the scan results visible to you and are subject to the retention and deletion rules in section 7.
The matching engine’s output is decision-support, not an automated decision that produces legal effects on you. You always review flagged listings before a removal request is dispatched, and you can reject a match or withdraw a request at any time.
We share data only with the subprocessors necessary to run the service: cloud hosting (database and compute), email delivery, payment processing, and authentication. A current list is available on request.
We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information to third parties for their own purposes. We disclose information to authorities only where compelled by valid legal process, and we will notify you before responding unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.
Hushward stores data in regions chosen to minimize transfer friction for our users. Where personal data is transferred outside your jurisdiction, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent mechanisms and apply additional safeguards (encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, subprocessors bound by data-processing agreements).
We keep your account data while your account is active. Scan inputs and per-request records are kept for the duration necessary to maintain an accurate audit trail, typically the lifetime of the account plus 24 months, unless a longer retention is required by law. On account deletion, we erase personal data within 30 days, except for records we must keep for legal or accounting reasons.
Where the broker has your record, the time it takes for the data to come down varies by broker and is not instant or guaranteed. GDPR Article 17 gives brokers one month to comply; the CCPA / CPRA gives 45 days; other US state acts give 30–60 days; brokers operating outside these regimes typically set their own timelines, and some do not respond at all. Hushward re-files automatically when a broker stalls and logs every confirmation, lapse, and re-issuance in your audit trail, but we do not promise a particular removal date and a successful removal from one broker does not remove the same data from a different broker or from the open web more broadly. Records of broker requests and outcomes are kept per section 7 (“Data retention”).
Strictly necessary. First-party session and CSRF cookies issued by our authentication library to keep you signed in and protect the site from cross-site request forgery. These are required for the service to function and cannot be disabled while you are signed in.
Functional.Preferences such as theme, language, and saved filters. Today Hushward stores these in the browser’s localStorage rather than cookies; the category is disclosed so the same consent control continues to cover them once cookies are introduced. You can clear them through your browser’s site-data settings at any time.
Analytics. Hushward currently sets no analytics cookies on this site. The category is disclosed in advance so a future consent-control toggle can be activated later without re-disclosure; when active, it will record only aggregate, non-personal usage and never bind data to a single user.
Marketing. Hushward does not advertise and does not set marketing cookies on its own domain. The only third-party cookies a visitor may encounter are set by Stripe on checkout.stripe.com during payments — specifically the __Host-stripe.*cookie family — and those are payment-domain only and are not used for advertising.
Depending on where you live, you have the right to access, correct, delete, or export your personal information; to object to or restrict certain processing; and to lodge a complaint with your data-protection authority. To exercise any of these rights, email Contact Us — we respond within 30 days.
We protect your data with encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access controls, per-user query scoping, and continuous monitoring. If a security incident affects your personal information, we notify you without undue delay.
Hushward is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
Disputes between you and Hushward regarding your personal information, this Privacy Policy, or your privacy rights under applicable law (including GDPR Chapter VIII, the CCPA / CPRA, and analogous US state acts) are subject to the binding arbitration and class-action-waiver provisions set out in section 14 of the Terms of Service. The carve-outs in section 14.4 of the Terms (small-claims forum, equitable relief, and administrative complaints to a data-protection authority) are not waived. You may opt out of arbitration following the procedure in section 14.5 of the Terms within 30 days of first accepting this Privacy Policy.
When we make material changes, we notify active account holders by email and post the new date at the top of this page. Non-material edits (typos, clarifications) are reflected in the last-updated date.