Privacy Policy

1. Scope and who this policy covers

This Privacy Policy explains how Ruby Appraisals ("we," "us," "Ruby Appraisals"), a residential real-estate appraisal firm based in Colorado, USA, collects, uses, and protects information in connection with appraise-assist. It covers our marketing site at appraise-assist.com and our tool library service at mcp.appraise-assist.com. It applies to visitors to our website, people on our waitlist, and appraisers and staff who use appraise-assist ("you," "appraiser," "user").

2. The key point up front

appraise-assist is a tool library, not a filing service. It is a plugin for an AI assistant — Claude by Anthropic today, and ChatGPT by OpenAI where appraise-assist is supported there — that organizes a residential appraiser's workflow. It provides scripted steps, rules, playbooks, checklists, and scripts that your own AI assistant follows, step by step, on a guided path we call "the wheel." Ruby Appraisals runs no AI model of its own; the conversation, judgment, and narrative drafting happen in your own account with your AI provider.

Our server, mcp.appraise-assist.com, runs deterministic scripts one step at a time. To run a given step, it receives only the files and data that step needs, in one of three ways: a file your AI assistant attaches and passes to our tool for that call; your own Google Drive workfile folder, if you connect one and grant us access (we read what a step needs and write its results back into that folder, and nothing else in your Drive); or a small local helper you install, which sends that step's files from a folder on your computer and saves results back there.

We process those files only for the duration of the call. Temporary working copies are deleted when the call ends — we do not keep your workfiles, reports, MLS data, photos, outputs, or your private library/wiki afterward. Your own folder, on your computer or in your connected Drive, is the only place they are kept. That fact runs through everything else in this policy.

3. What we collect

• Account information. When you sign in with Google, we receive the email address Google verifies for you. Google's own tokens are discarded once your email is verified, except where you connect a Google Drive folder, in which case we use Google-issued access only to read and write files in the folder you chose, on your behalf, during your calls. We then issue appraise-assist's own sign-in token to your AI assistant and store only a hashed (one-way) copy of it — never your Google password, and no Google token other than the Drive access described above if you connect a folder. If your Google account is not yet on the beta list, the email you signed in with is added to our waitlist.
• Waitlist and early-access information. If you join our waitlist or request early access, we keep the email address you give us.
• Subscription status. Stripe, our payment processor, tells us your subscription status (for example, active, past due, or canceled) and whether a payment succeeded, failed, or was refunded. We never see your full card number.
• Request and security logs. Like almost every online service, we log basic information about requests to our service: the requesting IP address, the time of the request, which tool or step was requested, and any errors — together with any short parameters your assistant included in the request, such as a workfile name. Our request logs are designed not to record file contents, but we cannot control what your assistant includes in a request, so please do not put personal information in file or folder names. We use these logs to run and secure the service.

4. What we do not collect

• Your appraisal files, reports, workfiles, or export files, after the call that needed them ends.
• Your MLS exports or MLS data, beyond the call that processes them.
• Your photos.
• Your private appraiser wiki or knowledge library.
• The content of your conversation with your AI assistant.
• Full payment card numbers — Stripe handles your card directly on Stripe-hosted pages, and we never see the full card number.

5. How your AI provider handles your data

appraise-assist runs inside an AI assistant you already use and already have an account with — today that's Claude by Anthropic, and ChatGPT by OpenAI where appraise-assist is supported there. When you use appraise-assist, your conversation, and anything you choose to share with your assistant, is processed under your own account with that provider, under that provider's own terms and privacy policy. We do not control, see, or store that processing.

For details on how each provider handles your data, see Anthropic's privacy policy and OpenAI's privacy policy. appraise-assist is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic or OpenAI.

Our use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. This covers both the email address we receive at sign-in and, if you connect a Google Drive workfile folder, the Drive access you grant us. We do not use Google user data for advertising, do not sell it, do not let humans read it except with your consent, for security, or as required by law, and do not use it to train AI models. See Third-Party Services and Data & Personal Information Handling for how that Drive access works.

6. Personal information in appraisal files

Appraisal files often contain personal information about borrowers, lenders, property owners, and occupants. Because your files reach us only for the duration of a call and your own folder is where they're kept otherwise, you are the one who decides what goes into your AI assistant and into any tool.

Our scripted steps include logic that tries to find and mask or remove personal information before content is shared further — but this is best effort only. We do not guarantee that all personal information will be detected or removed, and we do not guarantee complete privacy. You are responsible for reviewing what you share and for complying with your own confidentiality obligations, including USPAP confidentiality, your lender and client agreements, and any privacy law that applies to you (for example, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act where it applies). See our Data & Personal Information Handling page for more detail on how our scripts approach this.

7. How we use what we collect

We use the information described in Section 3 to:

• operate and maintain the service and your account;
• sign you in and keep your session secure;
• process your subscription and billing through Stripe;
• manage our waitlist and early-access list, and contact you about it;
• maintain the security and integrity of the service, including detecting abuse;
• understand how the service is used so we can fix problems and improve it; and
• communicate with you about your account, service changes, or support requests.

8. Why we collect it

In plain terms: it's necessary to provide the service you've signed up for (your account, your subscription); it's in our legitimate business interest to keep the service secure and working (technical and security logs); you've given us permission (joining our waitlist, or email updates you've opted into); and in some cases we're required to keep records for tax, accounting, or legal reasons (Section 10).

9. Who we share information with

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising purposes. We do not use your data — including anything in your account, logs, or communications with us — to train AI models.

We share limited information with a small number of service providers who help us run appraise-assist (our "subprocessors"):

• Akamai Cloud (Linode) — hosts our servers in the United States.
• Google — provides sign-in (we receive the email address you sign in with), Drive access if you connect a workfile folder, and runs our business email (Google Workspace).
• Stripe — processes payments; Stripe sees your payment details directly, and we receive only your subscription and payment status.
• Data sources our scripted steps call on your behalf during a step — county assessor and public-record sites (property identifiers only), a construction-cost data service we license (property characteristics only, no names), and mapping/geocoding services. See Third-Party Services §6.

Each of these providers publishes its own privacy and security practices, which apply to the information they handle for us. We may also share information if required by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Ruby Appraisals, our users, or others.

10. Retention

We keep your account and log data for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period afterward to meet our security, tax, and legal record-keeping needs; request logs rotate automatically as part of normal server operation. If you ask us to delete your data, we will do so promptly, and within any deadline applicable law sets (45 days under the Colorado Privacy Act), except where we're required or permitted to keep certain records (for example, tax or accounting records).

If you email us a file to get help with a support question, we use it only to answer that question, treat it as confidential, and delete it once your question is resolved — please do not email us appraisal files unless we ask you to.

11. Security

We use HTTPS to encrypt traffic to and from our service, and we limit access to account and log data to the people who need it to run the service. Account and log data are stored on servers hosted by Akamai Cloud (Linode) in the United States. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee that information will never be accessed without authorization, but we work to keep it reasonably protected. See our Data & Personal Information Handling page for how we handle a security incident that affects your account data.

12. Your choices and rights

You can ask us, at any time, by emailing admin@appraise-assist.com, to:

• access the account and log information we hold about you;
• correct inaccurate information;
• delete your account and the data tied to it; or
• close your account outright.

If you are a resident of a state with its own privacy law — for example Colorado or California — you may have additional rights under that law, such as the right to opt out of certain kinds of processing. Email us and we will honor the rights that apply to you under your state's law.

Disconnecting, cancelling, and deleting are three separate steps: to disconnect appraise-assist from your AI assistant, remove the connector in your Claude or ChatGPT settings; to stop billing, cancel in the Stripe portal (see our Cancellation & Refund Policy); to delete your account information, email us as described above.

13. Children

appraise-assist is a professional tool for licensed appraisers and their staff. It is not directed to, and we do not knowingly collect information from, anyone under 18.

14. International users

appraise-assist is built for appraisers in the United States. Our service and the information described in this policy are processed in the United States. If you access appraise-assist from outside the United States, you do so understanding that your information will be processed here.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our service changes. If we make a material change, we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, let you know by email or a notice on our site. We encourage you to check back from time to time.

16. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Email us at admin@appraise-assist.com.