Privacy Policy

1. Overview

This Privacy Policy explains how PathBuddy collects, uses, discloses, stores, and protects information when you use our website, account portal, desktop application, subscription services, licensing services, support services, and related features.

PathBuddy is designed to assist with forensic pathology, autopsy, external examination, and related documentation workflows. You are responsible for determining whether PathBuddy is appropriate for your organization, policies, confidentiality obligations, and applicable legal requirements.

2. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create or manage an account, we may collect your name, email address, password authentication data, account status, email verification status, login events, and session information. We do not store your password in plain text.

Billing Information

When you purchase or manage a subscription, payment information is processed by Stripe or another payment processor. We may receive and store limited billing-related information such as Stripe customer ID, subscription ID, plan type, subscription status, renewal date, payment status, invoice references, and billing email. We do not store your full credit card number.

Device, License, and Usage Information

To provide licensing, subscription enforcement, account security, troubleshooting, and usage limits, we may collect:

• License validation events and subscription checks
• Device or installation identifiers
• App version and device status
• Login timestamps, IP address, browser/user-agent data, and basic server logs
• Cloud dictation session status, heartbeat counts, and active usage duration
• Error logs or diagnostic information

Desktop App Case Data

PathBuddy desktop case files are generally intended to be stored locally on your computer or in locations you choose. We do not intentionally collect full case files, reports, or documentation unless you send them to us for support, a feature you enable requires transmission, you upload or submit them through a future service feature, or collection is required for security, troubleshooting, legal compliance, or account support.

Cloud Dictation and Soniox

PathBuddy may offer cloud dictation through Soniox or another speech-processing provider. If cloud dictation is enabled, audio, dictation snippets, transcript text, and related technical data may be transmitted to the transcription provider for processing. Soniox publishes its own privacy, terms, security, and compliance materials at Soniox Privacy Policy, Soniox Terms, and Soniox Security and Privacy Documentation.

Soniox currently states that it maintains security/compliance programs including SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, GDPR, and HIPAA-related materials, and that audio/transcripts are not used for model training. Soniox also states that it does not store audio or transcript data unless explicitly requested through a service that supports storage. These statements are provided by Soniox and may change. Your use of cloud dictation remains subject to your own authorization, your organization’s policies, and any required agreements with PathBuddy, Soniox, or other providers.

Support Communications

If you contact support, we may collect your email address, your message, screenshots or attachments you provide, troubleshooting details, logs or diagnostic information, and information needed to resolve your issue. Do not send confidential case records, protected health information, or sensitive agency information unless necessary, authorized, and specifically requested.

Website Information and Cookies

Our website may collect basic technical information, including IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, referring website, date and time of visit, and essential cookies or session cookies. We use cookies or similar technologies for login sessions, security, preferences, billing portal access, and website functionality.

3. How We Use Information

We use information to:

• Create and manage accounts
• Verify email addresses and authenticate users
• Validate licenses and subscriptions
• Provide access to the desktop application and account portal
• Process payments and manage billing through Stripe
• Provide support, troubleshooting, and security monitoring
• Monitor usage limits and service availability
• Prevent fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, or misuse
• Send transactional emails, including verification, password reset, billing, and account notices
• Comply with legal, tax, accounting, and security obligations
• Improve PathBuddy’s reliability and user experience

We do not sell your personal information.

4. How We Disclose Information

We may disclose information to service providers needed to operate PathBuddy, including payment processors, hosting providers, database providers, email delivery providers, transcription providers, security/logging providers, and support tools.

We may also disclose information when required by law, legal process, security needs, fraud prevention, enforcement of our Terms, or with your consent.

5. Method of Disclosure

Information may be disclosed through secure application programming interfaces, encrypted web connections, vendor dashboards, payment processor integrations, email systems, support systems, cloud infrastructure, or other technical methods needed to operate PathBuddy.

6. Security Practices

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information, which may include password hashing, access controls, HTTPS/TLS encryption, limited administrative access, server logging, payment processing through Stripe, cloud provider security controls, and routine operational monitoring.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Data Retention

We retain account, billing, device, license, email, and audit records for as long as needed to provide PathBuddy, comply with legal/accounting obligations, resolve disputes, prevent abuse, and enforce agreements. Support records may be retained as needed to troubleshoot and document support history. Locally stored desktop case files remain wherever you store them unless you choose to send them to us or a future feature transmits them.

8. Your Responsibilities

You are responsible for reviewing all documentation before relying on it, obtaining any required permissions before entering or dictating sensitive information, following employer/agency policy, maintaining your own backups, and determining whether cloud services are appropriate for your data.

9. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy can be sent to [email protected].