Privacy Policy | Blue Crane Works

At Blue Crane Works ("Blue Crane", "we", "us", or "our"), we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring the security of your personal and business compliance information. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our web application and services.

This policy complies with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable Canadian provincial privacy laws.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information that you provide directly to us when using the Blue Crane Compliance Vault:

Account Information: Your name, business name, email address, and phone number provided during account creation.
Compliance Data: Documents, images, certificates, licenses, and receipts that you upload to the platform for processing and storage.
Usage Data: Information about how you interact with our platform, including access times, device information, and IP addresses, collected automatically for security and diagnostic purposes.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information exclusively to provide and improve our core services:

To extract structured data from your uploaded documents using secure AI parsing algorithms.
To safely store your compliance ledger and provide real-time status and expiry tracking.
To send automated notifications (email, SMS, push) regarding document renewals and expirations.
To authenticate your identity and protect against unauthorized access.
To provide read-only "Inspector Handoff" views when you explicitly request them.

3. AI Processing & Third-Party Services

Blue Crane uses enterprise-grade AI models on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to extract structured data from your document uploads. Your data is NOT used to train AI models — Azure OpenAI does not use customer data for model training. AI processing occurs in Microsoft Azure data centers in the United States (East US region).

We rely on Microsoft Azure as our infrastructure partner, which is independently audited for SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27018 compliance. Uploaded files and documents are stored in Azure's Canada Central region (Toronto, Ontario); application database records are stored in Azure's East US region (United States). Payment processing (if applicable) is handled securely by Stripe.

4. Website Analytics & Session Recording

This section is about bluecraneworks.ca, the public website, and is separate from how the Blue Crane app handles your account data above. Three tools run on the website. None of them run on the app's signed-in screens.

Microsoft Clarity. Clarity records how visitors move through the site: clicks, scrolling, and a replay of the pointer moving around the page. It is used to find pages that confuse people. Microsoft states that “Content in the input boxes is masked in all modes and can't be customized”, so anything you type into a form on this site, such as your name, phone number, email, or the description of your job, is never sent to Microsoft, and that is not a setting we are able to switch off. Clarity sets two cookies, _clck and _clsk, to tell one visit from another.
Our own visitor counter at metrics.bluecraneworks.ca. This is built and run by us, it sets no cookies, and it stores no personal information: visitors are counted as an anonymous daily code that cannot be traced back to a person or linked across days.
Google Ads tag. Used to measure whether an advertisement led to an enquiry. It is a standard Google tag and is subject to Google's own privacy terms.

None of these three record anything you type, and none of them are used on our error pages. If you would rather not be recorded at all, every current browser can block these scripts, and the website works normally with them blocked.

Embedded videos. A few pages on this website carry a YouTube video. When you scroll to one, your browser contacts Google’s servers to load the YouTube player, and Google can see that request. We use YouTube’s Privacy Enhanced Mode (the youtube-nocookie.com address). YouTube states that a view in this mode is not used to personalize your YouTube browsing, that any ads shown in the player are not personalized, and that the view is not used to personalize the advertising you are shown elsewhere. Once you press play, YouTube’s and Google’s own terms apply to that viewing. Pages without a video do not load the player, and the error pages never do. You can watch the same video from the YouTube link beside it, or block the player: the page reads the same without it.

5. Enquiries Sent by an AI Assistant

This website publishes an AI Business Card at bluecraneworks.ca/mcp, which lets an AI assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude read our published facts, search our pages, and, if you ask it to, send us an enquiry on your behalf.

It goes to the same place a form does. An enquiry sent this way reaches the same inbox, by the same route, as one you type yourself. It is clearly marked as having come from an assistant, because we have no way to verify details a program typed.
Only what you asked it to send. We receive the name, contact details, town and description the assistant passes on, and nothing else. We do not receive your conversation with the assistant, and we have no access to your account with that company.
We never email the address back. Because the address was supplied by a program rather than verified by a person, we do not send a confirmation to it. That prevents anyone using our mail server to message a stranger.
Everything it can read is already public. The facts file and the page index it searches contain only what is published on this website.

5a. Your Blue Crane Account

Anyone can create a free account at my.bluecraneworks.ca. It exists to give you analytics for your website, to show you how search engines and AI assistants see it, and to watch it for you. There is no password: you sign in with a link we email you, which works once and expires in 15 minutes.

What we store. Your email address; the business facts you type (name, phone, hours, area, what you do); the website addresses you add; and the result of every check we run on them, which is the public response your site gave to each crawler. Nothing is taken from your site beyond what any visitor or crawler can see.
What you tell us when you sign up, and the showroom. When you create an account we ask, if you want to say, your company name, its kind of business and what you are interested in; Settings changes or clears them. A signed-in account can open our showroom at showroom.bluecraneworks.ca. While you use it we record which of its pages you open and the app you put together on its builder, linked to your account, so we know what you are after. Deleting the account deletes both; the page records are otherwise purged after a year.
Where it lives. In a database on Cloudflare, separate from our website analytics, which hold no personal information. It is governed by Canadian privacy law.
What we send. Sign-in links when you ask for them; an email the day a weekly check of a verified site turns red, which you can switch off in Settings or with the link in the email; one reminder if you create an account and never add a site; and, for a site on a plan, a report email every four weeks with its visitor numbers, which the same switch turns off. Nothing else unless you asked for it.
Analytics for your website. You put one line of our code on your website; with your account’s code in it, the same line also proves the website is yours. Nothing is counted until it is proved. It counts the people who visit in a real browser: the page, the site they came from, their city and region from their network, phone or computer, how long they read, taps on your phone number or email, and that a form was sent (which form, never what was typed in it). It sets no cookies and stores no name, email or address of any visitor; a visitor is an anonymous code that changes every day. These numbers are kept in their own database, shown only to the accounts that verified the site, deleted when you stop watching the site or delete your account, and otherwise purged after 400 days, except for a site on the analytics plan, whose history is kept until you stop watching it or delete the account. Goals you set up are a page address or an action name, kept with the site. You decide whether to tell your own visitors about it in your site’s privacy notice; we act for you in collecting it.
What AI says about you. When you, or the monthly round on a plan, ask the AI engines about your business, the questions are sent to OpenAI's model through Microsoft Azure and to Google's Gemini API, each with web search on. A question holds what you see on the page: your business name, your trade and your town, never your email. The answers are kept with your site, shown only where its analytics are shown, and the last twelve rounds are kept.
Connect your AI. If you connect an AI app (Claude, ChatGPT or another) to your account, it receives a token that can read your analytics, AI answers, site checks and business facts, and nothing else. It can change your website’s wording only if your website supports it and you tick “Also let it change the wording” when connecting; then it changes words, never the layout or pictures, shows you the new wording first, and “Stop website changes” on that page turns it off. We keep tokens only as scrambled hashes, the app you connected and when it was last used. Disconnecting it, or deleting the account, stops it on its next request.
The analytics plan. It is bought through Stripe Checkout. So that the paid features switch on and off, we keep a copy of each Stripe subscription linked to your email: its id, status, renewal date and the website it is for, refreshed from Stripe when you open Billing and once a day. If you ask us to set the analytics up for you, we keep what you put in that form (what your website is built with, how we get in, a phone number or your web person’s email if you give one, and your notes) until the account is deleted, and email it to info@bluecraneworks.ca. We never ask for a password; you add us as a user and can remove us.
Billing. If you pay Blue Crane for a plan, the Billing page shows your plan and invoices, read from Stripe when you open it and not stored by us. Card details stay with Stripe; changing your card opens Stripe’s own page.
Who can see it. You, and Blue Crane staff when they help you. A client’s site report opens only for the email addresses that client has had granted. We do not sell or share account data.
Deleting it. Settings has a delete button. It removes your email, your facts, your sites, every check and your sites’ analytics at once, and cannot be undone. Sign-in tokens are purged after seven days whether or not they were used. A short activity log (sign-ins, sites added, checks run) records a scrambled code for the network you connected from, never the address itself; deleting the account removes your email from it, and the log is purged after a year.

5b. Office Apps We Run for a Business: Gmail

Blue Crane builds and runs office apps for individual trade businesses. In some of them the business owner can connect their own Gmail so the app can sort new mail into the app’s inbox. Nothing happens unless the owner connects it and approves Google’s consent screen.

Read only. The app asks Google for read-only access (the gmail.readonly permission). It never sends mail as the owner, and never moves, deletes, labels or marks a message read.
What it reads. For each new message (the first time, the last 30 days): the sender, the subject, the date and the short preview Gmail shows (its “snippet”). The full message stays in Gmail. Promotions and social mail are skipped.
How it is sorted. Interac e-Transfer notices, known customers and known suppliers are sorted by fixed rules. The rest is sent, sender, subject and preview only, to OpenAI’s model through Microsoft Azure, which labels each one a new customer enquiry, a customer reply, a supplier or other. Mail labelled other keeps only its subject line. The app’s assistant reads the sorted list when the owner asks it about their mail.
Where it is kept and who sees it. In that business’s app database on Microsoft Azure, shown only to that business’s signed-in users, and to Blue Crane staff when they help that business at its request. Google’s access token is stored encrypted.
What we never do. We do not sell Gmail data, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models (Microsoft Azure does not train OpenAI’s models on it). People read it only with the business’s permission, for security, or where the law requires.
Google’s rules. Blue Crane’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Stopping it. The owner can disconnect Gmail in the app (More, Connections) or at myaccount.google.com/permissions. The app then deletes its access token and reads nothing more. Mail it already sorted stays in the app until the business deletes it or asks us to; email info@bluecraneworks.ca and we delete it.

5b-2. Office Apps We Run for a Business: QuickBooks Online

In some of the office apps we run for trade businesses, the business owner can connect their own QuickBooks Online company so the app keeps their books up to date. Nothing happens unless the owner connects it and approves Intuit’s consent screen. How to connect and disconnect: bluecraneworks.ca/quickbooks.

What it reads. When the owner connects: the company name, its tax codes and its items (so the owner can pick the HST code and the items the app uses), and its customers (name, company, phone, email and billing address) so the app knows the people the business already works with. After that, every few minutes: payments recorded in QuickBooks, so an invoice paid there shows as paid in the app, and the invoices the app sent, to notice one changed in QuickBooks.
What it writes. Only what the business does in the app: a customer the first time they are invoiced, each invoice the business sends (its lines and tax code), each payment the app records against it, and a void when an invoice is voided. It never deletes anything in QuickBooks and never touches bank feeds, payroll or other records.
Where it is kept and who sees it. In that business’s app database on Microsoft Azure, shown only to that business’s signed-in users, and to Blue Crane staff when they help that business at its request. Intuit’s access tokens are stored encrypted. The app’s assistant can see which QuickBooks updates failed and why, when the owner asks it.
What we never do. We do not sell QuickBooks data, use it for advertising, share it with anyone else, or use it to train AI models.
Stopping it. The owner can disconnect QuickBooks in the app (More, Connections) or from the Apps page in QuickBooks. Either way the app’s access ends and it sends and reads nothing more; disconnecting in the app also deletes its stored tokens. Everything already in QuickBooks stays there. Customers and invoices already in the app stay until the business deletes them or asks us to; email info@bluecraneworks.ca and we delete them.

5c. Calls Answered by Our AI Receptionist

We set up an AI receptionist on businesses’ phone numbers, and one answers Blue Crane’s own private demo line. It tells you it is a virtual assistant when it answers.

How the call is handled. Twilio carries the call. The sound of the call is streamed live to Microsoft Azure AI Voice Live, which hears it and speaks the replies. That service runs in the United States (Microsoft’s East US 2 region), and the AI model behind it is a Microsoft Global deployment, which Microsoft says may be processed in any Azure region. Calls are not processed in Canada.
What is kept. The audio is not recorded. We keep a written transcript of the call, the message written from it (your name, number, what you need, the address and how urgent it is, if you said them), the number you called from and how long the call lasted, in a database on Cloudflare. It is governed by Canadian privacy law.
Where it goes. The message is texted to the business you called. If that business has an app we built, the message and the transcript are sent into it. On our own line, that business is Blue Crane.
One text to you. If you left a message, you get one thank-you text from the number you called. Reply STOP to opt out and we record that.
Deleting it. Email info@bluecraneworks.ca with the number you called from and we delete the transcript and the message. For a call to another business, they can ask us to do the same.

6. Data Security & Storage

Your trust is our priority. We implement robust security measures to protect your data:

Encryption: All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest using AES-256 bank-level encryption.
Access Control: Strict Firestore Security Rules ensure your data is isolated and only accessible by authorized users within your business vault.
Canadian Operations: While we leverage global cloud infrastructure, we configure our data processing with Canadian compliance in mind.

7. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain your compliance data only as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to close your account, you have the right to request the complete deletion of your data. Upon request, we will securely purge all uploaded documents and personal information from our active databases within 30 days.

8. Your Rights

Under PIPEDA, you have the right to:

Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
Request corrections to any inaccurate or incomplete data.
Withdraw consent for data processing (which may impact our ability to provide services).
Request the deletion of your account and associated data.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact our Privacy Officer at:

Email: info@bluecraneworks.ca
Location: Ontario, Canada