Your books say a lot about you and your business. This policy explains, plainly, what personal information Penny holds, why, who can see it, and the control you keep over it. It meets Québec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (as updated by Law 25) and Canada's PIPEDA.
1. Who is responsible
ONS inc. (Montréal, Québec) is responsible for the personal information in Penny. The person in charge of the protection of personal information is Martial Hanna (owner). Write to martial.hanna@onsmkt.com for any question, request or complaint.
2. What we collect
- Your account: name, email, language, password (stored only as a one-way scrambled form we can't read), two-step sign-in settings.
- Your business: name, province, tax numbers, fiscal year and the other settings you enter.
- Your books: receipt photos, the details read from them, transactions, bank and card statements you import or connect, tax slips and notes. These can include information about other people, such as a supplier, contractor or client named on a receipt.
- Billing: your plan and payment history. Card details go directly to our payment provider; we never see the full number.
- Security and technical: sign-in times, IP address, browser type, and a log of important actions (for example a password change or a data download).
- Messages you send to our support.
We collect only what Penny needs. We don't use location tracking, and your phone's camera is used only when you choose to snap a receipt.
3. Why we use it
- to create your account, sign you in and keep it secure;
- to read your receipts, keep your books and prepare your reports and year-end package;
- to bill your plan;
- to send you service messages: security alerts, receipts for your payments, deadline reminders and important changes;
- to answer you when you contact us;
- to detect and prevent fraud, abuse and security incidents;
- to meet our legal obligations (for example keeping billing records for tax purposes).
We use your information only for these purposes, or for another purpose if you agree or the law allows it. We don't send marketing emails unless you opt in.
4. What we never do
- sell or rent your information;
- show you ads or share your data with advertisers;
- use your receipts or books to train artificial intelligence models;
- build a profile of you or make automated decisions about you that have legal or similar effects.
5. Automatic reading
Penny uses automated tools, including artificial intelligence, to read receipts and suggest categories and taxes. These suggestions concern your bookkeeping entries, not decisions about you. You can review and change every one, turn off automatic filing in Settings, or type receipts in yourself. You can ask us how a suggestion was produced.
6. Who can see it
Inside our company, only the people who need it for their job can access customer data, and only for that reason: for example to fix a problem you reported or investigate a security incident. Every access to customer data is logged. Everyone with access is bound by confidentiality.
Service providers who help us run Penny receive only what they need, under contracts that require them to protect it and use it only for us:
| Provider | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud (Cloud Run, Cloud Storage) and Neon (database) | Runs Penny and stores your books, receipts and backups (encrypted) | Canada |
| Anthropic, PBC | Reads receipt photos (not used to train models) | United States |
| [Email delivery provider] | Sends account and security emails | United States |
| Stripe | Processes subscription payments (holds your card details, not us) | Canada and United States |
| Plaid | Connects your bank account, only if you choose to | Canada and United States |
Other cases: we may disclose information when the law requires it (for example a court order), to protect someone's life or safety, or if Penny is sold or merged, in which case the buyer must respect this policy and we'll tell you first. People you invite into a business can see that business's books.
7. Information sent outside Québec
Your books are stored in United States. Some providers in the table above process information outside Québec, including in the United States. Before sending any information outside Québec, we assessed whether it would get adequate protection, considering its sensitivity, the purpose, the safeguards in place and the laws of that place, and we signed written agreements that require that protection. For receipt reading, the photo is sent encrypted, used only to return the reading to us, not used to train models, and deleted by the provider within about 30 days unless held for an abuse review. Information held in another country may be accessible to that country's authorities under its laws. If you prefer that receipts never leave Canada, turn off automatic reading in Settings and type them in.
8. Cookies and similar technology
Penny uses one cookie, needed to keep you signed in and protect your forms. It identifies your session only. We use no tracking, advertising or analytics cookies, and nothing that locates or profiles you.
9. How we protect it
- encryption of all traffic (HTTPS) and of stored data;
- passwords stored as one-way scrambled values, optional two-step sign-in, protection against password guessing;
- each business in its own separate database, and checks on every request that you belong to that business;
- secure password-reset links that expire quickly and work only once;
- alerts by email for sensitive changes to your account;
- daily backups, kept encrypted in Canada;
- a log of important actions and of staff access, regular security reviews and updates.
10. How long we keep it
- Your books and receipts: while your account is open. If you close it, we delete them within 90 days; backups expire within 30 days after that.
- Unused accounts: if a business stays unpaid or cancelled for 12 months, we warn you at least 30 days before deleting its data.
- Security logs: 12 months.
- Billing records: 6 years, as tax law requires.
When information is no longer needed, we destroy it securely or anonymize it as the law requires.
11. Your rights
You can, at no cost:
- see the personal information we hold about you and how it's used;
- correct it if it's wrong or incomplete;
- get a copy in a structured, commonly used format, or have it sent to another organization: Settings → Download all my data does this instantly;
- withdraw your consent to a use, and ask us to stop sharing or delete your information;
- know which information was used for an automated suggestion, and ask how it was produced;
- complain to us, and then, if you're not satisfied, to the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Write to martial.hanna@onsmkt.com. We may ask you to confirm your identity, then answer within 30 days. Some rights have limits set by law (for example, we must keep billing records).
12. If something goes wrong
If a confidentiality incident happens, we act right away to reduce the risk and stop it from happening again. If it creates a risk of serious harm, we notify you and the Commission d'accès à l'information promptly (and the federal Privacy Commissioner where required). We keep a register of all incidents.
13. Age
Penny is for adults running a business. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.
14. How we govern personal information
These are the rules we follow inside our company:
- Roles. The person in charge (section 1) approves our privacy practices, handles requests and complaints, keeps the incident register, and trains staff. Staff and contractors may only access customer data for the reasons in section 6, must keep it confidential, and are trained before getting access.
- Privacy by default. New features start with the most private settings. Before launching a project that involves personal information, or sending information outside Québec, we carry out a privacy impact assessment.
- Retention and destruction. We keep information only for the periods in section 10, then destroy it securely.
- Complaints. Write to martial.hanna@onsmkt.com. We acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days, look into it, and give you a written answer within 30 days explaining what we found and what we did. If you disagree, you can go to the authorities named in section 11.
- Incidents. We assess each incident, notify as described in section 12, and record it in our register.
15. Changes to this policy
We'll post any change here with a new date. For important changes, we'll email you before they take effect. If a change means using your information for a new purpose, we'll ask for your consent first.