Privacy Policy

Last updated: 11 April 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what personal data Business Card Scanner PRO ("BCS PRO", "we", "us", "our") collects from you, why we collect it, what we do with it, and what rights you have over it.

BCS PRO is operated by Glenn Bancroft trading as Arete AI, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom. Glenn Bancroft (Arete AI) is the data controller for all personal data processed through BCS PRO.

Contact: bcspro@areteai.co.uk
Website: areteai.co.uk

1. Who This Policy Is For

This policy covers anyone who signs up for or uses Business Card Scanner PRO — whether on the free trial or a paid subscription.

2. What Data We Collect

When you use BCS PRO, we collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Account and authentication data

  • Your email address (via Google sign-in)
  • Your Google account ID
  • OAuth authorisation tokens issued by Google that let BCS PRO save contacts and spreadsheet entries to your Google account on your behalf

Usage data

  • The number of scans you have used
  • Your subscription plan (free trial or paid)
  • A unique identifier linking your account to your scan form

Content data you upload

  • Photographs of business cards that you submit to the service
  • The contact information extracted from those photographs (names, job titles, company names, phone numbers, email addresses, website URLs, and any other details visible on the card)

Payment data (paid subscribers only)

  • A Stripe customer ID linking your BCS PRO account to your Stripe payment record
  • Subscription status

We do not collect or store your credit or debit card details. All payment information is handled directly by Stripe — we never see it.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal data only for the following purposes:

  • To provide the BCS PRO service — i.e. to extract contact details from the business cards you upload and save them to your own Google Contacts and Google Sheets
  • To authenticate you when you sign in
  • To count your scans and enforce free trial or paid plan limits
  • To process subscription payments and manage your plan
  • To contact you about your account, service changes, or important updates
  • To comply with our legal obligations

We do not sell your personal data, use it for advertising, train any AI models on it, or share it with third parties for marketing purposes.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (UK GDPR)

Under UK data protection law, we rely on the following legal bases:

  • Contract — processing necessary to deliver the service you've signed up for (scanning cards, saving contacts, running your subscription)
  • Consent — when you authorise BCS PRO to access your Google Contacts and Google Sheets via Google sign-in. You can withdraw this consent at any time by revoking access at myaccount.google.com/permissions
  • Legitimate interests — running and securing the service, preventing fraud and abuse, and keeping basic records of use
  • Legal obligation — where we have to retain certain records for tax or regulatory reasons

5. Who We Share Your Data With

BCS PRO relies on a small number of trusted third-party services to operate. These are:

Google (Google Ireland Ltd / Google LLC)

We use Google Sign-In for authentication and the Google People API and Google Sheets API to save scanned contacts into your own Google account. Your OAuth tokens are stored securely so that BCS PRO can continue to save contacts on your behalf.

Anthropic (Anthropic, PBC)

Business card images you upload are sent to Anthropic's Claude Haiku 4.5 model to extract the contact details. Anthropic processes these images as a data processor on our behalf. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, API submissions are not used to train their models. Claude is operated from infrastructure in the United States.

Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe Ltd)

We use Stripe to process subscription payments. Stripe handles all payment card details directly — we never see or store them.

Hostinger (Hostinger International Ltd)

We run our backend workflow automation on a self-hosted n8n instance deployed on a Hostinger VPS. The n8n instance is operated solely by us.

Netlify (Netlify, Inc.)

Our website and scanner interface (bcspro.app) are hosted on Netlify. Netlify processes standard web server logs (IP address, user agent, timestamp) as a necessary part of serving web pages. No personal data from scans passes through Netlify — scanning requests go directly to our n8n backend.

We do not sell or rent your data to anyone. We do not share your data with any other third parties except where required by law (for example, in response to a valid legal request from a UK authority).

6. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers (notably Anthropic and Google) are based in the United States. When your data is transferred outside the UK or EEA, we rely on appropriate safeguards, including the UK's International Data Transfer Agreement, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, and the standard contractual clauses published by the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

7. How Long We Keep Your Data

  • Account and usage data: for as long as your BCS PRO account is active, plus a reasonable period afterwards for record-keeping and tax purposes (typically up to 6 years for UK tax records)
  • Business card images: Business card images are processed in real time by the AI model and are not stored by BCS PRO. Images transit through our n8n workflow to Anthropic and are not persisted to disk on our servers or retained in our database. Extracted contact data is saved to your own Google account, which you control.
  • Payment records: retained for 6 years in line with UK tax requirements
  • OAuth tokens: held only while your account is active, and deleted if you revoke Google access or close your account

BCS PRO is currently in early access. We retain account data until you request deletion, and will remove it within 30 days of your request, except where we are required to keep it for legal or tax reasons.

8. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights over your personal data:

  • Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
  • Rectification — ask us to correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete
  • Erasure — ask us to delete your data ("right to be forgotten")
  • Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your data
  • Portability — ask for your data in a portable format
  • Objection — object to certain types of processing
  • Withdraw consent — at any time, including by revoking BCS PRO's Google access

To exercise any of these rights, email bcspro@areteai.co.uk. We will respond within one month.

If you believe we've mishandled your personal data, you have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

9. How We Keep Your Data Secure

We take data security seriously. The measures we use include:

  • Encrypted connections (HTTPS) for all data in transit
  • OAuth tokens stored in an access-controlled environment with encryption in transit and at rest, used only to perform the scanning and saving actions you explicitly initiate
  • Restricted access to backend systems
  • Regular review of third-party providers and their security practices

No system is 100% secure, but we do our best to protect your data and will notify you promptly if we become aware of any security incident that affects your information.

10. Cookies and Tracking

The BCS PRO website (bcspro.app) does not set any cookies or use any tracking technologies. No cookie banner is displayed because none are needed.

11. Children

BCS PRO is a professional tool intended for business use. It is not directed at anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we will notify you by email or through the service. The "last updated" date at the top of this policy will always reflect the most recent version.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact:

Glenn Bancroft (trading as Arete AI)
First Floor, Swan Buildings
20 Swan Street
Manchester
M4 5JW
United Kingdom
bcspro@areteai.co.uk