Privacy Policy

BridgeTrade Inc. is responsible for the personal information it holds and has designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable for our compliance with this policy and PIPEDA. Send privacy questions, requests or complaints to:

Information you give us

• Name, email address and phone number
• Property addresses, job and project details, and the photos, documents and voice recordings you upload
• For contractors: business name, trade, service area, and any licence, insurance or HST details you choose to add. Identity and bank details for payouts are collected by Stripe, not stored by us.
• Payment information, processed by Stripe — we do not store card numbers
• Messages between you and contractors, customers, landlords or tenants
• For landlords: tenant names and contact details, emergency contacts, lease terms, the names of other occupants listed on a lease, rent records, and condition reports
• Receipts, expenses and other financial records you add

Information collected automatically

• Device and browser type, and app version
• IP address and approximate location
• Pages viewed, features used and similar usage data
• Error reports when something goes wrong
• Cookies and similar technologies — see our Cookie Policy

Location in the mobile apps

The BridgeTrade contractor apps use your device's precise location only if you allow it in the permission prompt or your device settings. We use it to show jobs near you and travel times, and to record where job-completion photos were taken.

In the iOS app you can also choose to allow location access "Always". If you do, the app watches for your arrival at the address of a job you are scheduled for (geofencing) and marks you on-site automatically. It does not track your location continuously or in the background otherwise.

Location access is optional. You can refuse it or turn it off at any time in your device settings; the app still works, and you can mark yourself on-site by hand.

Enquiries and marketing forms

When you contact us or fill in a form on our website or in an ad (including Facebook and Instagram lead forms), we collect your name, contact details, your answers (for example, how many rental units you have) and where the enquiry came from (the campaign or referral) so we can follow up. We keep track of enquiries in Notion, our team is alerted in Slack (without your contact details), and if you book a call, Calendly handles the booking — see section 5.

Consent records

We record when and how you agreed to our terms and to marketing messages — for example the date, the version of the terms, and the form you used — so we can show what you agreed to.

We use personal information only for these purposes:

• Providing the service: connecting customers and landlords with independent local contractors, sending job details to contractors, handling quotes, scheduling and messages
• Payments: taking payments and deposits, paying contractors, refunds and invoicing, through Stripe
• Landlord tools: R-400 registration and M-200 maintenance plans, leases (Form P), notices, condition reports and tax summaries (T776)
• AI features: drafting job descriptions and quotes, transcribing voice notes, analysing job photos and answering questions in the in-app assistant
• Service messages: account, job, quote, payment and appointment updates by email, SMS, WhatsApp or push notification
• Enquiries and sales: responding to enquiries and following up about our services
• Marketing: promotional messages, only with your consent; you can opt out at any time
• Improving the platform: understanding how features are used and fixing errors
• Legal obligations: including tax record-keeping and responding to lawful requests

We will not use your personal information for other purposes without your consent, except where the law permits or requires it.

We ask for your consent before collecting, using or sharing your personal information, except where the law allows otherwise. When you create an account you agree to the uses described in this policy that are needed to provide the service.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer, subject to legal or contractual limits. Withdrawing consent may mean we can no longer provide some services.

We only send marketing messages if you have agreed to receive them. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any marketing email or by contacting us. Service messages about your account, jobs and payments are not marketing and continue while your account is open.

We share personal information only:

• With the people you work with on BridgeTrade: for example, the job details and contact information a contractor needs to quote and do the work, or the lease and property information shared between a landlord and tenant
• With service providers who process it on our behalf, listed below
• When required by law, or to protect the rights, safety or property of our users or others
• In a business transaction, such as a merger or sale, under an agreement that protects it

Service providers we use

We do not sell your personal information. We require our service providers to protect it and to use it only to provide their services to us.

Our main database and file storage are in Canada (AWS ca-central-1, Montreal). However, the following providers may store or process your information outside Canada, mostly in the United States: Amazon Bedrock (AWS), OpenAI, Stripe, Twilio, Meta Platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram), Google, Google Firebase, Apple, Esri (ArcGIS Online), PostHog, Slack, Notion, Calendly, Microsoft Clarity, Sentry, Grafana Cloud (Grafana Labs).

Information processed in another country is subject to that country's laws and may be accessible to its courts, law enforcement and national security authorities. We use contracts and other measures to require a comparable level of protection.

We protect personal information with safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity, including:

• Encryption in transit (TLS) for all connections to our website, apps and API
• Encryption at rest for our databases and file storage
• Access controls that limit who can see personal information
• Signed, expiring sign-in tokens that are revoked when you sign out
• Rate limiting to slow down automated attacks
• Card payments handled by Stripe, so card numbers never reach our servers

We use essential cookies and similar storage to keep you signed in and remember your choices. Analytics tools only store data on your device after you accept them. Our Cookie Policy lists what we use, and you can change your choice at any time with the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of our public pages and in your account settings.

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes above, or as long as the law requires. In particular:

• Your account: while your account is open. When you delete your account we deactivate it straight away, and within 30 days we remove your name, email address and phone number from your account record.
• Payment and tax records (invoices, payments, payouts): kept for as long as Canadian tax law requires — generally at least six years.
• Consent records: kept for as long as we need them to show that you agreed.
• Other information (for example job history and messages): we delete or anonymise it on request, unless we need to keep it for a legal reason or to resolve a dispute.

Under PIPEDA you can:

• Access the personal information we hold about you. You can download your account details from Account settings (contractors: Settings → Your data), or email us for a fuller copy.
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete
• Delete your account — see how to delete your account. Some records must be kept for legal reasons, as described above.
• Withdraw consent, including unsubscribing from marketing at any time
• Complain to our Privacy Officer or to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

To make a request, email support@bridgetrade.ca from the email address on your account. We respond within 30 days, as PIPEDA requires, and may need to confirm your identity first.

If a breach of our safeguards involving your personal information creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will report it to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, notify you as soon as feasible, and keep a record of it as the law requires.

BridgeTrade is for adults aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The only information about children we expect to hold is the names of occupants that a landlord lists on a lease. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the date at the top of this page. If we make significant changes, we will also tell you through the platform or by email before they take effect.