1. Who is responsible for your data
The data controller for this website and platform is The Freelancer Guide.
For any question about this policy or about your data, write to thefreelancerguide@protonmail.com. We answer data requests within 30 days.
2. What we collect
Information you give us
- Account: your e-mail address and a password, which is stored only as a cryptographic hash by our authentication provider. We never see your password.
- Profile: country, primary skill, experience level, hours per week, income goal, main challenge. All optional, all entered by you, all editable.
- Your work records: the clients, projects, prospects, invoices, earnings and tasks you enter into the tracker and workspace. This is your data — it exists so the product can show it back to you.
- Free-text you type into AI tools: job descriptions, negotiation replies, context notes. See section 6.
- Support correspondence: anything you send us by e-mail.
Information we record automatically
- Product analytics — only if you allow it. When you accept analytics, we record an event when you open a feature or click a button. Each event stores: the event name, a session identifier, the page path, your browser's user-agent string, and — if you are signed in — your account ID. If you do not accept, nothing is recorded and no session identifier is created.
- Server logs. Our hosting and database providers keep short-lived technical logs, which include IP addresses, for security and abuse prevention.
We do not buy data about you, we do not run advertising or advertising trackers, and we do not sell or share your data with anyone for their own purposes.
3. Why we use it, and on what legal basis
| What we do | Why | Legal basis (GDPR Art. 6) |
|---|---|---|
| Run your account and the platform's features | It is the service you signed up for | Performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Take payment and manage your subscription | To charge you and give you access | Performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Send transactional e-mail (confirmation, password reset, welcome, billing notices) | The account cannot work without it | Performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Product analytics | To see which features are worth building on | Your consent, Art. 6(1)(a) — withdrawable at any time |
| Keep the service secure, prevent abuse of AI quotas | To keep the platform working for everyone | Legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Keep invoices and payment records | Tax and accounting law requires it | Legal obligation, Art. 6(1)(c) |
4. Who else processes it
We use the following providers to run the service. Each processes data only on our instructions, under a data processing agreement.
| Provider | What it does | Where | Transfer safeguard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Authentication, database, server-side functions | Switzerland (EU region) | Adequacy decision |
| Cloudflare | Website hosting and delivery | Global, US-established | Standard Contractual Clauses |
| Stripe | Payments and subscription billing | Ireland / United States | Standard Contractual Clauses |
| Anthropic | The AI model behind every AI feature | United States | Standard Contractual Clauses |
| Resend | Sending transactional e-mail | United States | Standard Contractual Clauses |
| Google Cloud | Text-to-speech, when you play a coach message aloud | United States | Standard Contractual Clauses |
5. Where your data is stored
Your account, your work records and your AI history are stored in our Supabase database in Switzerland, which the European Commission recognises as providing an adequate level of data protection. The website itself is served from Cloudflare's global network.
Where a provider in the table above is established outside the EEA, your data reaches them only for the purpose described, and only under the safeguard named.
6. AI features
The Scam Analyzer, Proposal Workshop, Negotiation Rehearsal, Skill Gap Analyzer, Job Fit Scorer, Daily Coach, Weekly Review and Pipeline Assistant all work by sending your input to Anthropic's API and showing you what comes back.
What happens to what you type
- It is sent to Anthropic to generate the response. Anthropic does not use it to train their models. They retain it briefly for their own abuse monitoring.
- We store it. Negotiation Rehearsal saves the full conversation, and Skill Gap Analyzer saves your inputs and the analysis, so you can reopen a past session. This is stored against your account in our database.
- You can delete it. Deleting your account deletes all of it, immediately. To delete a single session without closing your account, write to us.
Please do not paste other people's details
These are free-text boxes, so you can type anything into them — including things about your clients. Your clients have not agreed to anything with us. Please describe situations without names, contact details, or anything that identifies a specific person. The tools work just as well with "a Lisbon restaurant owner" as with a real name.
AI output is not advice
AI output is generated text, not a professional opinion. It can be wrong. See the Terms of Service for what that means for decisions you make.
7. How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Account, profile, and your work records | For as long as your account exists, then deleted within 30 days of account deletion |
| AI transcripts and analyses | Until you delete the session, or until your account is deleted |
| Analytics events | 14 months |
| Invoices and payment records | As long as tax law requires, typically 5 to 10 years |
| Support e-mail | 24 months |
| Server and security logs | As set by our hosting providers, typically days to weeks |
8. Cookies and local storage
We use browser storage in two ways. You control the second one.
Essential — always on
These make the platform work. They are never used to profile you and there is no way to turn them off while using the service.
- Sign-in: authentication tokens that keep you signed in between visits.
- Your preferences: light or dark theme, English or Portuguese, and your cookie choice itself.
- Your work in progress: workspace layout, filters, and unsent drafts, kept in your browser so you do not lose them.
Analytics — only with your consent
If you accept analytics, we create a session identifier and record the events described in section 2. If you decline, or if you have not answered yet, no session identifier is created and no event is recorded. Nothing about the platform behaves differently either way.
Changing your mind
Click Cookies in the footer at any time. It opens a panel showing your current setting with a button to change it. Turning analytics off also deletes the session identifier from your browser.
9. Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- Access — get a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification — correct anything inaccurate. Most of it you can edit yourself in the app.
- Erasure — have your account and data deleted.
- Restriction — ask us to pause processing while a dispute is resolved.
- Portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent — for analytics, at any time, from the footer. Withdrawing does not affect what was lawfully collected before.
Doing it yourself
Two of these you can do without asking us, from the account menu at the top of the platform:
- Download my data gives you a JSON file with your account details, every row we hold about you in every table, and the working data kept in your browser. This covers access and portability.
- Delete account cancels any active membership immediately, deletes every row that belongs to you, deletes your login, and signs you out everywhere. You confirm by typing your e-mail address. It cannot be undone, so download first if you might want anything later.
For anything else — rectification we cannot handle in-app, restriction, objection, or if the self-service options fail — write to thefreelancerguide@protonmail.com from the address on your account. We respond within 30 days, free of charge.
Complaints
If you think we have handled your data badly, please tell us first — we would rather fix it. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, in the country where you live or work.
10. If you are in Brazil (LGPD)
Brazilian users are also protected by the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados. Everything above applies, with these additions:
- Your rights under the LGPD include confirmation that we process your data, access to it, correction, anonymisation or deletion of unnecessary data, portability, information about who we share it with, and the right to withdraw consent. They are exercised the same way — write to us.
- Contact channel for data protection matters: thefreelancerguide@protonmail.com. This is the channel required by LGPD Art. 41 for a small processing agent.
- International transfer: your data is stored outside Brazil, in the providers and countries named in section 4. The transfer is made on the basis of your data being necessary to perform the contract you entered into with us, and under the contractual safeguards named there.
- Complaints may be made to the Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados (ANPD).
A Portuguese-language version of this policy is available at Política de Privacidade.
11. Children
The platform is not for children. You must be at least 16 to create an account, and you confirm this when you sign up. If you believe a child has created an account, write to us and we will delete it.
12. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we update the version stamp at the top. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we will tell you by e-mail or in the platform before it takes effect. We keep a record of which version you accepted when you signed up.
This policy is also available in Portuguese. If the two versions ever differ, the version in the language you signed up in prevails.