How we handle personal information, and the terms that apply when your firm uses GuardDesk. Written to be read, not skimmed past.
GuardDesk Inc. (“GuardDesk”, “we”), a company established in Montréal, Québec, Canada, operates guarddesk.io and the GuardDesk service. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, and the choices you have.
The person in charge of the protection of personal information is our co-founder responsible for privacy and compliance. You can reach them at [email protected] or by mail at the address shown on our invoices.
For visitors to our website and the contacts at our customer firms, we decide how personal information is used and are responsible for it.
For the information a security firm puts into GuardDesk about its own employees and clients, the firm is responsible for it and we process it on the firm’s behalf, under our agreement with them. Guards and client contacts should first contact the firm that uses GuardDesk.
On the website: the information you enter in the pilot application form (name, role, firm, email, phone, firm size and message) or when you download a template (email, and optionally your name and firm); and, only if you accept measurement cookies, the visit information described under “Cookies and measurement”.
In the service: account details; schedules and shift assignments; clock-in and clock-out events; location during a shift, to verify clock-ins and checkpoint scans; checkpoint scans; incident reports, photos and logbook entries; timesheets; and technical information about the device running the guard app.
To provide and secure the service, verify the work recorded in it, support our customers, bill them, and meet our legal obligations. We don’t sell personal information, and we never use the information in the service (about guards, sites or your clients) for advertising.
When you download a template, we keep your email to tell you when that template is corrected or updated. We send you other emails, such as new guides, only if you tick the box asking for them, and every one of those emails has an unsubscribe link.
The web app uses only the cookies it needs to work, such as keeping you signed in. The website remembers your language choice and your cookie choice in your browser.
On the website, we may use Google Analytics, Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising to count visits and to know which ads lead to a pilot application or a template download. These tools set cookies and receive technical information such as your IP address, browser and the pages you visit. They stay off unless you click “Accept” in the cookie banner, and refusing changes nothing else on the site.
You can change your choice at any time with the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page. We don’t use these tools in the web app or the guard app, and we don’t use them to build profiles of guards or of our customers’ clients.
Google and Microsoft may process this information outside Québec and Canada, mainly in the United States. Before turning these tools on, we assessed this transfer as required by Québec law. We set Google Analytics to keep visit data for 14 months; Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising keep conversion data under their own retention rules.
The GuardDesk service stores its data in Canada. A small number of service providers help us run GuardDesk, and some of them are in the United States: for example, our website host, Netlify, receives the pilot application and template download forms. They are all listed, with where they store data, on our Security and data page. Before any personal information is transferred outside Québec, we assess the privacy risk and require by contract that it receives equivalent protection.
Pilot applications and template downloads: two years after our last contact. Customer data: for the duration of the subscription, then deleted within 30 days of cancellation, except records we must keep longer by law (for example, timesheet and billing records, which Canadian tax rules require us to keep for six years). Backups: automatically overwritten after 35 days. Location history: 90 days.
You can ask to access the personal information we hold about you, have it corrected, withdraw your consent, have it deleted where the law allows, and receive it in a structured, commonly used format. Write to [email protected]; we answer within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec or to the privacy authority where you live.
If an incident involving personal information creates a risk of serious injury, we notify the people affected and the competent authorities, and we keep a register of incidents.
We will post any update here with its date, and notify customers by email of material changes before they take effect.
These terms form the agreement between GuardDesk Inc. and the firm that signs up for GuardDesk (“you”). Signing up or using the service means you accept them on behalf of your firm.
GuardDesk is software for scheduling, patrol verification, incident reporting, timesheets and client reporting. During the pilot program, the service is free for three months; afterwards, the Starter price is guaranteed for 12 months. Pilot features may change, and no uptime commitment applies during the pilot.
You are responsible for the people you invite, for the accuracy of the information you enter, and for keeping access secure. You must inform your employees about the information GuardDesk collects, as employment and privacy laws require.
Fees are charged per active guard per month, subject to the monthly minimum of your plan, billed monthly in Canadian dollars, plus applicable taxes. Annual prepayment receives a 15% discount. Monthly fees are not refunded for a partial month. Annual prepayments are refunded for whole unused months if we discontinue the service or materially reduce it; otherwise they are non-refundable. Fees are not charged during the pilot program.
You own the data you put into GuardDesk. You give us the right to host and process it only to provide the service to you. When you cancel, you can export your data, and we delete it within 30 days unless the law requires otherwise.
Use GuardDesk lawfully. Don’t use it to monitor people outside their working time or beyond what the law allows, and don’t try to access other firms’ data or interfere with the service.
We work to keep GuardDesk available and secure, and we may change or improve features. We will give notice of changes that significantly reduce what you have paid for.
GuardDesk is a tool that records and reports the work of your guards; it does not provide security services and does not replace your own procedures. SOS alerts and welfare checks notify the people your firm designates; GuardDesk is not an emergency or alarm-monitoring service and does not contact emergency services. To the extent permitted by law, our total liability is limited to the fees you paid in the 12 months before the claim, and neither of us is liable to the other for indirect damages, loss of profit or loss of a contract. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited.
You may cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing month. We may suspend access for non-payment or misuse, after notice when possible.
These terms are governed by the laws of Québec and the applicable laws of Canada, and disputes are heard in the district of Montréal. The French version of these terms is the official version; this English version is provided for convenience.