HOAChime Privacy Policy

1. Who decides what happens to the information

Our customers are community association management companies and associations ("Customers"). When a Customer uses HOAChime to receive and answer owners' records requests, the Customer and the association it acts for decide what is collected, what is released, what is withheld, and how long it is kept. We handle that information on the Customer's behalf and on its instructions. We call it "Association Records".

For account, billing, support and website information that we collect for our own business, PALDAM decides how it is used.

If you are an owner and have a question about a request or a record, contact the association or its management company. We will refer requests we receive about Association Records to the Customer.

2. What we collect

From Customers and their staff

• Account details: name, work email, phone number, company, job title, role, sign-in and two-step sign-in details, and account activity.
• Billing details: billing contact, plan, invoices, payment status and our payment provider's customer reference. Card details are entered on Stripe's pages and never reach us.
• Association details the Customer enters: association names, states, types and unit counts.

Association Records

• Requests: the owner's name, contact details, unit, the records asked for, how they want them, messages, and the dates the request was received and answered.
• Documents the Customer uploads, redaction work, released copies, checklists, cost quotes and charges recorded by the Customer, and the history of each request.
• Delivery information: when emails about a request were sent, delivered and first opened, and when released records were downloaded through an owner's link, with the time and IP address used.

From everyone

• Messages you send us by email or through in-app support tickets, with any attachments.
• Technical and security information: IP address, browser and device type, pages requested, timestamps, error logs and security events.

The hoachime.com website runs no analytics or advertising tags and sets no tracking cookies. The HOAChime app uses cookies needed to keep you signed in and to protect forms, and no advertising cookies.

3. How we use it

• To provide HOAChime: sign-in, storing and showing requests, counting deadlines, sending emails, scanning documents for personal details, building checklists and case files, exports and deletion.
• To run trials and subscriptions, send invoices and account notices, and answer support requests.
• To keep the service secure: detecting abuse, fraud and unauthorized access, and enforcing our Terms.
• To improve reliability, accessibility and ease of use, using operational data and aggregated figures.
• To meet legal obligations and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use Association Records for advertising, and we never send them to an AI service or use them to train an AI model.

4. Who we share it with

We share information only as needed to run HOAChime, with these service providers, each bound by contract to use it only for the service it provides to us:

• Microsoft Azure: Hosting, database, document storage, backups and logs (United States)
• Twilio SendGrid: Sending emails and reporting delivery (United States)
• Stripe: Subscription checkout, invoices and payment status for HOAChime itself (United States)
• Cloudflare: Website hosting, domain name service and network security for HOAChime's addresses (Global network; stored records stay in Azure)
• Google Workspace: Our own email, for messages sent to hoachime.com addresses (United States and other locations under Google's terms)
• Google reCAPTCHA: Checking that account sign-ups come from a person (United States and other locations under Google's terms)

We also share information when a Customer directs us to (for example, sending released records to an owner), with a Customer's authorized staff, to comply with law or valid legal process, to protect the rights and safety of people or the service, with professional advisers under a duty of confidentiality, or as part of a merger, financing or sale of our business, in which case this policy continues to apply.

If you choose to sign in with Microsoft or Google, that company confirms your identity to us under its own privacy policy.

5. How long we keep it

• Association Records are kept while the Customer's account is active. Within that time, the Customer's retention setting decides how long uploaded working files are kept after a request closes. Request records, released copies, checklists and request histories are kept for the life of the account.
• When an account ends, it is paused and its data kept unchanged for 90 days so the Customer can export it or return. We then delete it from our live systems within 30 days, or sooner on a verified request from the Customer's administrator. Backup copies expire as backups rotate, within 35 days.
• Billing and support records are kept as long as needed for tax, accounting, security and dispute purposes.

6. How we protect it

Records are stored in Microsoft Azure data centers in the United States and encrypted at rest and in transit over HTTPS. Each Customer's data is kept apart from every other Customer's. Staff access inside a Customer's account follows the roles the Customer sets, and every action on a request is recorded in its history. Our own access to Customer data is limited to what is needed to run and support the service. Customers are responsible for their staff's passwords and for who they give access to.

7. Your choices and requests

To ask about, correct or delete account, billing or support information we hold about you, email support@hoachime.com. We will confirm your identity before acting and answer within 30 days, or sooner where the law requires.

If the information is part of an Association Record, such as a records request you made, contact the association or its management company. We will pass on any such request we receive.

8. Children

HOAChime is a business service and is not meant for children. A minor's information can appear in an association's records; the Customer decides how those records are handled.

9. Changes

When we change this policy, we post the new version here with a new date. If a change materially affects how we handle Customer data, we tell Customers by email before it takes effect.

10. Contact

Privacy questions: support@hoachime.com

PALDAM LLC 2108 N Street #1668 Sacramento, CA 95816