Privacy notice

Who we are

Boundsmap is made by Iain Barclay, who trades as Boundsmap. Iain is the controller of the personal data described here: the person responsible for it. You can contact him at hello@boundsmap.com.

The short version

• Your account is your email address. You sign in with a link we email you. There’s no password.
• Your maps are kept for your account. We store them so you can come back to them, and use them to provide the service to you. You can download them or delete them, with your account, at any time.
• You can map without an account. The map stays in your browser. We don’t keep it unless you choose Save this map.
• Your description goes to Anthropic. When Boundsmap reads your description, it’s sent to Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, which works out who is involved. Anthropic processes it in the United States, and may run the model elsewhere.
• Nothing is sent to us for review unless you choose. If you send feedback on a finding, you see what will be sent first, and it’s sent when you press Send.
• A copy of your map is kept only if you tick the box. On any map you can tick “Keep a copy of this map to help improve Boundsmap”. We then keep a copy, without your email address, for up to 6 months. Untick it and we delete the copy.
• One cookie keeps you signed in. We count page views without cookies. We don’t run advertising or track you across other sites.

What we handle, and why

Your email address and your account

Your account holds your email address, your plan, and the usage we need to apply the limits on the free plan. When you ask to sign in, we email you a link and keep a short-lived record of it, including a coded form of your internet address, to prevent abuse of the sign-in form.

Why: to give you an account, so your maps are there when you come back, and to keep the service secure and within its limits.

Lawful basis: the contract you make with us when you sign up, under our terms (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b)), for your email address and your account. For keeping the service secure, enforcing its limits and measuring its use, our legitimate interests in running it safely (Article 6(1)(f)).

Your maps, and the description you write

A map holds the description you wrote, what Boundsmap read from it, your answers to its questions, and any changes you made. Maps are stored for your account in a database in London. We use them to provide the service to you. We don’t use them to improve Boundsmap unless you choose to send one to us, or tick the box to keep a copy, described below.

When you map a system, or ask Boundsmap to read a map again, the text goes from your browser to our server and on to Anthropic’s API.

If you tick “Keep a copy of this map to help improve Boundsmap”

The box is on every map, and it starts unticked. If you tick it, we keep a copy of the map as it is at that moment: the description you wrote, what Boundsmap read from it, and your answers. We remove email addresses and phone numbers we find in the words before keeping it. That isn’t the same as making it anonymous: a description can still name people, companies and places. The copy doesn’t include your email address or your account. It works the same whether or not you have an account.

Why: so that we can see where Boundsmap misreads a description, asks the wrong question, or gets something wrong, and test changes against real maps. To test a change, we may send a copy’s description to Anthropic again. We don’t publish copies or use them to train an AI model.

Who sees it: Iain. Copies are held in our database in London.

How long: up to 6 months from when you ticked the box, then they’re deleted. If you tick it again later, a new copy is kept for up to another 6 months. If the map is in an account, deleting the map or the account deletes the copy.

How to take it back: untick the box on the same map and the copy is deleted. When you tick it, Boundsmap shows you a short reference for the copy. If you no longer have the map in your browser, send that reference to hello@boundsmap.com. Because a copy doesn’t carry your email address, we may not be able to tell which copy is yours without the reference.

If a description mentions you. A copy keeps the description as it was written, so it may mention people. Please describe roles rather than naming anyone. If you find you’ve been mentioned in a copy, write to hello@boundsmap.com.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in finding out where Boundsmap goes wrong and putting it right (Article 6(1)(f)). Nothing is kept unless you tick the box. You can object by writing to hello@boundsmap.com.

If you map without an account

You can map your system without an account. The description goes from your browser to our server and on to Anthropic’s API, as above, and the map that comes back is built and kept in your browser’s local storage. We don’t keep your description or your map. To stop the free readings being used up, we apply a daily limit to each browser and each network, using coded forms of a cookie value and your internet address, kept for a few days at most.

Why: so that anyone can try Boundsmap before deciding to sign up, without the free readings being used up by one person or one program.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in offering a free service that one visitor can’t use up (Article 6(1)(f)). The description itself is processed, and sent to Anthropic, because you asked Boundsmap to read it.

If you press Save this map

Saving needs an account. When you enter your email and press the button, we send you a sign-in link and hold your map, with that link, on our server. When you open the link, in any browser, the map becomes your account’s and the copy we held for the link is deleted. If you never open the link, the copy is deleted shortly after the link expires.

Lawful basis: taking steps at your request, before you have an account (Article 6(1)(b)), and your email address as described above.

Descriptions may mention people. A description of a system can name staff, customers or suppliers. Boundsmap doesn’t need personal details about anyone to map a system: please describe roles (“our HR team”, “the model supplier”) rather than naming individuals. If someone has mentioned you in a description, what this notice says about maps applies to you too. We have no way to find out who was mentioned, so we can’t tell you directly.

Why: to do what you asked, which is to read your description, turn it into a map, and keep it for you.

Lawful basis: for your own maps, the contract you make with us when you sign up (Article 6(1)(b)). For anyone your description mentions, and where you are here for an employer that hasn’t itself agreed to our terms, our legitimate interests in providing the service you asked for, and yours in getting it (Article 6(1)(f)).

If you send feedback on a finding

Each finding on your own maps has a “Send feedback” button. It shows you what will be sent: your map (the description, the parties at each layer and where they are, and your answers), the finding as you saw it with the law it cites, which version of Boundsmap’s rules produced it, and your comment. It’s sent when you press Send. It reaches Iain by email, with your email address so that he can reply. We keep it to look into the finding and answer you.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in finding out where Boundsmap’s findings are wrong, and yours in having a finding looked at (Article 6(1)(f)). You choose what to send: you see all of it first. You can object by writing to hello@boundsmap.com. A correction to Boundsmap’s rules that it has already led to stays, but your words don’t.

If you talk to us, or ask about a paid plan

The “Talk to us” button, the “Contact” form and the paid-plan form on the pricing page send Iain what you write, and the email address you give so that he can reply. The paid-plan form also sends your name, your company if you give it, and the plan. “Talk to us” sends the page you were on, and the map you are looking at only if you tick the box to send it. None of them takes card details. We keep these messages to answer you and to learn what people find confusing.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in hearing from the people who use Boundsmap, and yours in getting an answer (Article 6(1)(f)). You choose what to write. You can object by writing to hello@boundsmap.com.

How the service is used

Boundsmap records a few events, such as an account signing up, a map being made, or a description being read, each with the time and, where there’s an account, the account. It doesn’t record what you wrote. Why: to see how Boundsmap is used, and to apply the limits on the free plan and on the forms.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)).

The examples

Anyone can open the example maps without an account. They’re built from descriptions we wrote, not yours, and they run in your browser: nothing you change on one is saved or sent anywhere, and no AI model is involved.

Hosting logs

Like any web host, ours records technical details of each request, which include your IP address and browser type. Why: to deliver the site, to keep it secure and working, and to see which account is using the AI model.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)).

If you email us

If you write to us, we keep what you sent and our reply for about three months after the conversation ends. Email sent to our address is forwarded to a mailbox run by our email provider, where it is kept.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)).

You don’t have to give us any of this. Without an account you can read the landing page, the pricing page, this notice and the examples, and map your own system. The map stays in your browser; saving it needs an account.

When you delete your account

You can delete your account yourself, at any time, on your account page. That deletes your email address, your account, every map on it and any copy you chose to keep of them, your sign-ins and the sign-in links we sent you. Download your maps first if you want a copy. The counts described above stay, without anything that links them to you.

One thing is kept. If your account made its free Explorer map, we keep a coded form of your email address so that signing up again with the same address doesn’t give a second free map. It isn’t your address, but it’s still personal data, because we can tell from it that the same address has signed up before. We keep it while Boundsmap offers a free plan. If you’d rather we kept nothing, write to hello@boundsmap.com. The only effect is that signing up again would give you a second free map.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in offering a free plan that one person can’t claim again and again (Article 6(1)(f)).

Cookies and storage on your device

Boundsmap sets one cookie when you sign in. It keeps you signed in for 30 days, is only sent to Boundsmap, and scripts on the page can’t read it. Signing out deletes it. Without it you can’t use your account, so it’s strictly necessary and doesn’t need your consent. It’s used for nothing else.

If you read a description without an account, Boundsmap also sets a random value, kept for up to 30 days, only sent to Boundsmap, and unreadable by scripts on the page. It lets us apply the daily limit on free readings, and we keep only a coded form of it, for a few days at most. We treat it as strictly necessary to offer free readings without an account. You can block it, and then Boundsmap counts by your internet address alone. There are no other cookies: no advertising, and the page-view counts described below don’t use any.

A map you make without an account is kept in your browser’s local storage, so that it’s still there when you come back to the page. It’s the service you asked for, so it doesn’t need your consent, and it stays there until you delete the map, clear the browser’s data, or save the map to an account. If you keep a copy of the map, the browser also holds the code that lets you delete that copy, beside the map.

Boundsmap also keeps a record in your browser’s local storage of how long your recent readings took, so that it can show a realistic progress bar. It’s the one thing here Boundsmap could work without, so you can switch it off. That deletes what it has kept and keeps nothing more in this browser; the progress bar then shows time passing, without an estimate.

To see which pages are visited, Boundsmap counts page views with an analytics service. It records the page, the referring site, and the visitor’s country, browser and device type. It sets no cookie and stores nothing on your device, and it doesn’t follow you from one site to another or record who you are.

The fonts are served by Boundsmap itself, so loading a page doesn’t contact a font service.

Who else sees your data

We use a small number of service providers to run Boundsmap. For what we send them, each acts as our processor under a data processing agreement. We can give you the list at hello@boundsmap.com.

• Anthropic, which runs the Claude model that reads your description. It acts as our processor through its Irish company, Anthropic Ireland, Limited. Its terms don’t allow it to train its models on what we send it. How long it keeps what we send is set by its terms, which currently provide for deletion within 30 days, unless its automated safety systems flag the content as breaking its usage policy, or the law requires it to keep it longer. If you chose to keep a copy of a map, we may send its description to Anthropic again, on the same terms, to test a change to how Boundsmap reads descriptions.
• A database host, which stores your account and your maps in London. Its staff in other countries can reach the database to run it.
• A web host, which serves Boundsmap and keeps the technical logs described above. It also keeps some information about visits for its own purposes, which its own privacy notice covers.
• An email delivery service, which sends the emails Boundsmap sends, such as sign-in links, and delivers the messages you send us. It keeps a record of each email, including its content, for a short period.
• Domain and email providers, which run our domain, forward email sent to our address, and hold it in our mailbox.

We don’t sell your data or share it with advertisers.

Transfers outside the UK

Some of these providers process data in the United States, and Anthropic may run the model in other countries. Your maps are stored in London, but the people who run the database can reach it from elsewhere. Where a provider is certified under the UK Extension to the Data Privacy Framework, the UK treats a transfer to it as protected. Where it isn’t, or as a second safeguard, we rely on the standard contractual clauses with the ICO’s UK Addendum, which each provider includes in its terms. You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards at hello@boundsmap.com.

How long we keep it

Your rights

You can download your maps and delete your account yourself, on your account page. You can also ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to our using it, or ask us to restrict how we use it. Write to hello@boundsmap.com. We’ll reply within one month.

If we keep something that doesn’t carry your name or email address, such as a copy of a map, we may need its reference to find it. If we can’t tell which record is yours, we’ll tell you.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object at any time, on grounds relating to your situation, to our using your data. We’ll then stop, unless we have compelling grounds that override yours or we need the data for a legal claim.

If you think we’ve got something wrong with your personal data, tell us at hello@boundsmap.com. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113.

Changes

We update this notice when what Boundsmap collects changes, and the date at the top changes with it.