Who we are
BuildThread is an iPhone app and website (buildthread.app) that home-improvement contractors and their clients use to share estimates, daily project updates, photos, and signed approvals for added work. BuildThread is based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA ("BuildThread", "we", "us").
This policy covers the BuildThread app, the buildthread.app website (including the estimate and approval pages), and the text messages we send. Questions? Email [email protected].
What we collect
Account information
- Your name and mobile phone number. You sign in with your phone number and a one-time code sent by text.
- Whether you use BuildThread as a contractor or a homeowner, and your app language.
Contractor business profile
- Business name, trade, state, license number, business phone and email, and logo, if you add them.
Project information
- What contractors enter about a job: the project name and address, and the client's name and mobile number.
- Estimates, prices, terms, daily logs, blocker posts, photos, and requests to approve added work.
- Decisions and signatures: who accepted, approved, or declined, the name they signed with, the signature image, and when.
Text-message records
- For each client number we text: who confirmed the client agreed to texts, when, and which version of the notice they saw.
- Delivery results from our text-message provider (for example, delivered, failed, or the number replied STOP).
Device information
- A push-notification token for your device, so we can notify you about your projects.
We don't use advertising or analytics tools, and we don't track you across other apps or websites.
How we use it
- To run BuildThread: sign you in, show each project to the people on it, and keep a record of estimates, approvals, and signatures.
- To send you text messages and push notifications about your projects (see "Text messages" below).
- To create the signed copy of an accepted estimate (a PDF) for the contractor's and client's records.
- To answer support requests, prevent fraud and abuse, keep the service secure, and meet legal obligations.
We don't sell your personal information, and we don't use it for advertising.
Who we share it with
- The other people on your project. A contractor and their client both see the project's estimates, posts, photos, approvals, and signatures. Clients see the contractor's business profile.
- Service providers that run BuildThread for us, only to provide the service: Google Firebase (sign-in, database, file storage, website hosting, push notifications), Apple (push notifications to iPhones), Twilio (text-message delivery), and Cloudflare (website delivery and email forwarding).
- When required by law, or to protect the rights and safety of our users or BuildThread.
- If BuildThread is sold or merged, to the new owner, who must keep honoring this policy.
Text messages and your mobile number
BuildThread texts homeowners about their own job on behalf of their contractor: an invitation to follow the project, an estimate, and requests to approve added work. We text a number only after the contractor confirms in the app that the client agreed. Agreeing is optional and isn't a condition of hiring the contractor or using BuildThread. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help at any time. Details are in our SMS terms.
No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text-messaging opt-in data and consent are never shared with any third parties, except the text-message provider that delivers the messages. All the sharing described in this policy excludes text-messaging originator opt-in data and consent.
How long we keep it
We keep your information while your account or the project it belongs to exists. Signed estimates and approvals are records of an agreement between a contractor and a client, so we keep them for both of them even if one stops using BuildThread, unless the law requires otherwise. Estimates a contractor deletes before they're accepted are deleted with their photos and files.
Your choices and rights
- Texts: reply STOP to any BuildThread text to stop them, and START to get them again.
- Push notifications: turn them off in your iPhone's Settings.
- Access, correction, deletion: email [email protected] and we'll respond within 30 days. We may ask you to confirm the request from the phone number on the account. Deleting your account removes your profile and sign-in; signed records may be kept for the other party as described above.
Depending on where you live (for example, California), you may have additional rights to know, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you. We honor those requests at the same address and won't treat you differently for making one.
Security
Information is encrypted in transit, stored with Google Firebase, and protected by access rules so that only the people on a project can see it. Signed records can't be changed after signing. No system is perfectly secure, so please tell us right away at [email protected] if you think your account has been misused.
Children
BuildThread is for adults managing home-improvement work. It isn't directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.
Changes and contact
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top, and tell you in the app for significant changes. Contact: BuildThread, Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA · [email protected].