Retention Schedule
Effective date: [DATE]
This schedule says how long What If Studio, LLC keeps each kind of data for Design and Decide, and what happens next.
Our rule: during early access we delete by hand, following this schedule. Copies our providers keep for a limited time, and anything under legal hold, are kept as this schedule says. We never keep data hidden, "unindexed" or quietly set aside while telling you it is gone. Two kinds of data are kept longer on purpose, and are listed below: de-identified workflow data and de-identified Feedback. Neither contains your drawings, images or design.
Definitions
- Delivery is the day we email you the link to your finished tour.
- One-time purchase means a project bought for a single fee, with no active plan. For a one-time purchase, we keep your tour for at least [24] months after Delivery. Before moving it to the archive we email you at least [60] days ahead, and you can ask us for a copy of your Outputs first.
- Active plan means a paid option that keeps original files or your tour online longer. There is no subscription; you only have an active plan if you buy one.
- Archive means stored, not viewable, and restorable only at your request, for a fee.
- Outputs are what we make from your files: the 3D tour, progress page, What-if design layers, renders, cost reports, finish and product ideas, studies and lot report.
- Workflow data is data about our own work on a project: check results, pass or fail, error categories, timings, counts, and which step failed and why. It is non-expressive: it does not copy or describe the design in your drawings.
- Feedback is what you tell us: answers to our questions, corrections, ratings, request and comment text, and survey replies.
- De-identified means data that cannot reasonably be linked to you, a property or a person. It has no drawings, images, plan text, names, addresses, parcel numbers, license numbers, phone numbers, emails, attachments or measurements tied to a house.
- Early access is the period before we announce general launch by email to customers and on our website.
Schedule
| # | Data | Examples | How long we keep it | Then | Can you change it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Original uploads | Plan PDFs, CAD files, photos, surveys | [90] days after Delivery | Deleted | Yes: keep longer on an active plan; delete sooner at any time |
| 2 | Working copies | Page images, close-up tiles, extracted text, intermediate files, including local working copies on company computers | Same clock as row 1, or sooner | Deleted | Follows row 1 |
| 3 | Plan-sheet images in the tour | Images of your drawing sheets shown in the tour or the builder page | During early access, same clock as row 4; ask us and we remove them sooner | Deleted from the tour; the rest of the tour stays | Yes: ask us to remove them |
| 4 | Model and tour | 3D model, tour, progress page, What-if layers, renders, cost reports, finish and product ideas, studies, lot report | On an active plan, while the plan lasts. For a one-time purchase, at least [24] months after Delivery, with at least [60] days' email notice before archiving | Moves to the archive (row 5) | Yes: delete a project at any time |
| 5 | Archive | Everything in row 4 after it leaves the tour | [12] months | Deleted | Restore for a fee during the archive period |
| 6 | Backups | System backups | During early access, company computer backups follow the same clocks as the rows above | Deleted | No: deleted data leaves backups as they are deleted |
| 7 | Workflow data | Check results, pass or fail, error categories, timings, counts, which step failed and why. De-identified and non-expressive | Indefinitely | Kept | No (it is not linked to you or your design) |
| 8 | Feedback, de-identified | Your Feedback after we remove names, addresses, measurements tied to a house, attachments and any other personal or design detail | Indefinitely | Kept | No (it is not linked to you) |
| 9 | Feedback, original text | Your Feedback as you sent it, with any attachments | Same clock as row 10 | Deleted | Yes: ask us to delete it |
| 10 | Contact details | Name, email, firm, settings | While you have a tour or archive with us | Deleted | Yes: ask us to delete your projects |
| 11 | Payment and tax records | Orders, invoices, billing address | [7] years, as tax law requires | Deleted | No (legal requirement). Card data stays with Stripe |
| 12 | Support messages | Emails and chats with us | [24] months after the last message | Deleted | Yes, unless needed for a dispute |
| 13 | Server and security logs | IP address, requests, errors | [90] days | Deleted | No |
| 14 | Showcase materials | Images you released for marketing | Until you withdraw the release | Removed from our channels within [30] days | Yes: withdraw at any time |
| 15 | Acceptance records | Which terms you accepted, when, and your checkbox choices | Life of the account plus [6] years | Deleted | No (needed to prove consent) |
| 16 | Copyright notices | Notices, counter-notices, responses | [3] years | Deleted | No |
| 17 | Material on copyright legal hold | Files and Outputs disabled after a valid copyright notice. Not viewable and not processed | While any dispute about it is pending, and in any case 1 year after the notice | Deleted, or restored for the customer only after a valid counter-notice | No |
| 18 | Copies at AI providers | Files and prompts sent to Anthropic, Google and OpenAI | As long as the provider's own terms allow | Deleted by the provider | No |
| 19 | Copies at other providers | Data held by storage, hosting, email and payment providers | Same clock as the matching row above, plus the provider's own deletion period | Deleted by the provider | Follows the matching row |
| 20 | Early-access private links | Tours and pages hosted on claude.ai during early access | Same clock as row 4 | Deleted | Yes: ask us to take a link down |
| 21 | Public-records lookups | The property address sent to the US Census Bureau, and the property's map location sent to FEMA, the California Geological Survey, the US Department of Agriculture, CAL FIRE and Esri ArcGIS hosts | We do not control these public services' logs | Not controlled by us | No |
| 22 | Photos of your place | Photos of the house, yard and rooms as they are today, with location data and other hidden details removed when they arrive | Same clock as row 1 | Deleted | Yes: keep longer on an active plan; delete sooner at any time |
| 23 | Inspiration photos | Photos of houses or yards you like. Private reference only: never shown in Outputs, published or used in marketing | Same clock as row 1 | Deleted | Yes: delete sooner at any time |
| 24 | Pictures and notes made from photos | The "after" picture of a change shown on your photo, and written notes taken from photos: style notes, and things the plans do not show | Same clock as row 4. The "before" half of a before and after pair is your photo and follows row 22 | Moves to the archive (row 5) | Yes: delete a project at any time |
Legal hold
If we must keep data because of a lawsuit, investigation, subpoena, copyright dispute or similar legal duty, we suspend deletion for the data covered, only for as long as the duty lasts (for copyright notices, see row 17). Then the normal clock resumes or the data is deleted.
Deleting your projects
When you ask us to delete all your projects, rows 1 to 4 are deleted within [30] days instead of moving to the archive, unless you ask us to archive them.