Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 3, 2026

Practical Business Machines, a DBA of Chris Clasby ("PBM," "we") builds local-first software. This policy explains what we collect and why. Our guiding principle: your business and ERP data stays on your hardware. We do not collect it except for the narrow, opt-in hosted features described below.

1. Data we collect

• Account & contact data: name, email, and company you provide when you buy, subscribe, or contact us.
• Payment data: processed by Stripe. We receive confirmation and limited metadata (e.g. last-4, plan); we do not store full card numbers.
• License activation telemetry: when a paid module validates its license, our license server records a per-instance identifier, the module name, and version, plus last-seen timestamps. This never includes your ERP records, ledgers, or business content.
• Hosted-service inputs (opt-in only): where you use a hosted feature (e.g. the Midas tax engine, hosted Books-Health, or OCR), the module sends the minimal, derived input needed for that computation (e.g. a state + product category for a tax lookup, or transaction summaries for an anomaly scan), never your full ledger. We do not retain these inputs beyond serving the request.
• Website analytics: we use Plausible, a privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics tool that collects aggregate, non-identifying usage (page views, referrers, UTM campaign tags). No cross-site tracking, no personal profiles.
• Advertising: if you arrive via a paid ad, ad platforms (e.g. Google, Meta) may receive a conversion signal via their tags where enabled; see their policies.

2. How we use it

To provide and secure the Services, process payments and licenses, respond to support, measure and improve our marketing, and meet legal obligations.

3. Who we share it with

Service providers acting on our behalf: Stripe (payments), Plausible (analytics), Mailgun (email), and our hosting provider. We do not sell your personal data. We may disclose data if required by law.

4. Retention

We keep account and transaction records as long as needed for the relationship and legal/accounting requirements, then delete or anonymize them. Hosted-service inputs are not retained after the request.

5. Your rights

Depending on your location, you may request access to, correction of, export of, or deletion of your personal data. Contact us to exercise these rights.

6. Cookies

Our site is largely cookieless. Plausible analytics sets no tracking cookies. Any cookies used by Stripe checkout or embedded third parties are governed by their policies.

7. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect data. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure.

8. International & children

We may process data in the United States and other countries. The Services are for businesses and are not directed to children under 16.

9. Changes & contact

We may update this policy; changes are posted here with a new date. Questions or requests: hello@practicalbusinessmachines.com.