Privacy

What Brief keeps

• Your Google account's email address, to know whose documents are whose.
• Your first and last name, which you give on the welcome page. People you share your dashboard with see it instead of your email address.
• Why you said you came (a lease, a loan, a job offer or just looking). It is optional, and it is only ever counted.
• The file you upload, in private storage, and its name and the kind you chose. A photo is kept as the photo.
• The text of the document split into clauses, and a numeric fingerprint of each clause used for search.
• What Brief worked out from it: the key terms, the dates, and the answers to the questions to ask before signing.
• How many questions, reads and overviews you used today, to apply a daily limit.
• How long Brief is open and in use for you each day, and how many visits that was. It is seconds and a count, with no page names and no content.
• For up to 30 days, a record of how each question was answered: when, how long it took, and the ids of the clauses used. It holds no question and no answer text.
• If you share your dashboard: who it is shared with, the name you gave the invitation, and when access ends. The link and the code are kept only as scrambled values that cannot be turned back into the originals.
• If you turn on two-step verification: your authenticator secret, kept encrypted, your recovery codes, kept only as scrambled values, and the browsers you chose to trust.

The questions you type and the answers you get are shown to you and are not saved by Brief.

Who else handles your document

Brief is built from services run by other companies, and your data passes through them. Its server and database are in the United States and your files are stored in North America. The website itself may be served to you from several places.

• Google provides sign in, and its Gemini service. To read your document and answer your questions, Brief sends the text of its clauses, and your question, to Gemini. Google's own terms for its paid Gemini service govern what it does with that.
• Cloudflare stores the files you upload, in a private bucket. A file can only be opened through a link that is made for you and works for five minutes.
• Neon holds the database: your account, the clauses, what was worked out, and the counts above.
• Render runs Brief's server, which reads documents and answers questions.
• Vercel serves the website you see and passes your requests on to the server.
• Upstash keeps a short counter, with your email address on it, for about a minute, to stop one person sending too many requests at once.

Nobody else is sent your document. Brief does not sell data and shows no advertising.

When you share your dashboard

Someone you invite sees your documents with their state, what was found in them, and the dates found, only after you approve them. They cannot open your files, ask questions, or change anything. You choose how long they can look, up to 90 days, and their access then stops by itself. You can give them more time or remove them at any time.

What the owner of Brief can see

The person who runs Brief has a page of totals: how many people signed up and were active, how long visits last on average, how many documents, questions, reads and overviews there are, and how many people came for each reason. These are counts. That page does not show anyone's name or email address, or any document, question or answer.

What the logs hold

The server's logs hold the time, how long something took, whether it worked, and ids. They are written so that they cannot hold the text of a document, a question, an answer or a file name, and a test checks that. The companies above also keep their own ordinary records of requests, such as the time and an internet address.

Cookies and storage in your browser

A few small cookies keep you signed in and protect the sign in. If you turn on two-step verification and choose to trust a browser, one more cookie remembers it for 30 days. Your choice of light or dark appearance is remembered in your browser. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.

Removing your data

Deleting a document moves it to the Bin, where it stays for 7 days so you can restore it, and is then removed with its file and everything Brief worked out from it. You can also delete it for good from the Bin at once. Deleting your account, from the bottom of your dashboard, removes every document and file you uploaded, your counts, your shares and your account, and it cannot be undone. The services above may keep a short recovery history of their databases for a while after that.

An upload that was started and never finished is removed after an hour.

Not legal advice

Brief explains what a document says. It is not a lawyer and does not give legal advice. Please do not upload a document you do not have the right to share, and test with made up contracts if you are unsure.

Questions

To ask what Brief holds about you, or to have something removed that you cannot remove yourself, write to Email.