Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Vendor IQ™ is a vendor intelligence platform operated by Vendor Intel LLC ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"). We provide franchise operators, business owners, franchisors, trade associations, and vendor partners with vendor performance scoring, benchmarking, and cost analysis tools.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard information when you visit our website or use our platform. By using Vendor IQ™, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

2. Information We Collect

Information You Provide Directly

• Account information: Name, email address, company name, role, and password when you register.
• Vendor and financial data: Vendor names, monthly spend amounts, industry, employee count, and revenue figures you enter into the platform.
• Bank statement data: If you use our bank statement CSV upload feature, we process transaction data to identify vendor payments. This data is processed in your browser and stored in your account only.
• QuickBooks data: If you connect QuickBooks, we access vendor expense data from your QuickBooks account solely to power your vendor scoring.
• Payment information: Payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe. We do not store your credit card number. We receive confirmation of payment status and the plan you purchased.
• Support and feedback: Any messages, support tickets, chat messages, or feedback you submit through the platform.
• Lead form submissions: Name, email, company, and message if you submit a contact form on our website.

Information Collected Automatically

• Usage data: Pages visited, features used, scores generated, and actions taken within the platform.
• Session data: Login timestamps, session duration, and user role activity.
• Device information: Browser type, operating system, and screen resolution for compatibility purposes.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, operate, and maintain the Vendor IQ™ platform and your account
• Generate vendor risk scores, benchmarks, and cost analysis reports
• Process payments and manage your subscription via Stripe
• Send transactional emails (account confirmation, payment receipts, support replies)
• Respond to your support tickets, chat messages, and feedback
• Improve our scoring models, benchmarks, and platform features
• Generate anonymized, aggregated industry benchmarks (your specific data is never individually identifiable in these reports)
• Detect and prevent fraudulent or unauthorized account activity
• Comply with legal obligations

4. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information or your vendor/financial data. We share information only in the following limited circumstances:

Service Providers

We share data with trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating the platform, strictly for that purpose:

• Stripe — Payment processing. Subject to Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• Intuit / QuickBooks — If you connect your QuickBooks account. Subject to Intuit's Privacy Policy.
• Infrastructure providers — Cloud hosting and database services used to store and serve platform data.

Vendor Intelligence Product

Our Vendor Intelligence product (available to Vendor Partner subscribers) provides aggregated, anonymized signals about category-level spending patterns across our network. No individual business name, spend amount, or account data is ever shared with or visible to Vendor Partner subscribers. Only anonymized, aggregated benchmarks are used.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.

Business Transfers

If Vendor Intel LLC is acquired, merged, or sells substantially all of its assets, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email or prominent notice on the platform before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

5. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration. These include:

• HTTPS encryption for all data transmission
• Access controls limiting who can view your account data
• Session-based authentication with automatic expiration
• Payment data handled entirely by Stripe's PCI-DSS certified infrastructure — we never see or store your card details

6. Data Retention

We retain your account data and vendor scoring history for as long as your account is active. If you cancel your subscription, your data remains accessible on a free tier. If you request account deletion, we will delete your personal information and associated vendor data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal or financial compliance purposes (e.g., payment records).

Anonymized, aggregated benchmark data derived from your usage may be retained indefinitely as it cannot be used to identify you.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and associated personal data.
• Portability: Export your vendor scoring history as CSV from the Score History page at any time.
• Opt-out: Opt out of non-transactional communications at any time by contacting us or using the unsubscribe link in any email.
• Restriction: Request that we restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@vendorintel.ai. We will respond within 30 days.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, you have additional rights under GDPR/UK GDPR. If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

8. Cookies & Tracking

Vendor IQ™ uses the following types of storage:

• sessionStorage: Used to maintain your login session and page state within a single browser tab. Cleared when you close the tab.
• localStorage: Used to store your account credentials locally for login convenience. This data stays on your device and is not transmitted to our servers except during authentication.

We do not currently use third-party advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or behavioral analytics tools. If this changes, we will update this policy and notify you.

9. Third-Party Services

Our platform integrates with or links to the following third-party services. Their use of your data is governed by their own privacy policies:

• Stripe (stripe.com/privacy) — Payments
• Intuit QuickBooks (intuit.com/privacy) — Accounting sync (optional)
• Google Fonts — Typography (no personal data collected)
• Font Awesome — Icons via CDN (no personal data collected)

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties.

10. Children's Privacy

Vendor IQ™ is a business platform intended for adults operating businesses. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at hello@vendorintel.ai and we will promptly delete it.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. For material changes, we will notify registered users via email or a prominent notice within the platform at least 14 days before the change takes effect.

Your continued use of Vendor IQ™ after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us: