Privacy Policy
Effective Date: February 17, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how GovGuard LLC ("GovGuard," "we," "our," or "us") collects, uses, and safeguards information when you use our Government Defense platform and related services (the "Service").
Please note: GovGuard acts as a Data Processor for the municipalities and government agencies we serve. If you are using GovGuard as an employee of a City, Town, or Agency (the "Customer"), your use of the Service is also subject to your organization's internal data governance policies.
1. Information We Collect
Our Service is designed for government compliance. We collect the following types of information:
A. Government Account Information
- Identity Data: Name, official government email address, job title (e.g., "City Clerk"), and login credentials (managed via secure authentication providers).
- Organization Data: Information about the Municipality you represent, including billing address and tax-exempt status.
B. System Usage Data
- Audit Logs: IP address, time of access, and specific actions taken (e.g., "User X redacted Document Y"). These logs are immutable and available to the Customer for compliance auditing.
- Performance Metrics: Metadata regarding search latency and system uptime.
C. Municipal Data (Customer Data)
- Data uploaded by the Customer (e.g., city council meeting videos, PDF archives, emails, and public records). We process this data strictly to provide the Service (indexing, search, and redaction).
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following business purposes:
- To Provide the Service: Ingesting archives, running AI redaction models, and generating compliance reports.
- Security & Compliance: Monitoring for unauthorized access attempts and maintaining a chain of custody for evidence.
- Support: Responding to technical support tickets from city staff.
- Product Improvement: Using aggregated, anonymized usage patterns to improve our search algorithms. We do NOT train our public AI models on your private city data.
3. Cookies and Tracking
We utilize Essential Cookies solely for security and session management.
- Authentication: Keeping you logged in securely during your session.
- CSRF Protection: Preventing cross-site request forgery attacks.
We do not use advertising cookies or tracking pixels. We do not sell government user data to third parties.
4. Data Sharing and Disclosure
We disclose information only in the following circumstances:
- Service Providers: We use trusted vendors for hosting (AWS GovCloud or equivalent) and email delivery. These vendors are vetted for security compliance.
- The Customer: Your City Administrator or City Attorney has access to all data and audit logs associated with your organization's instance.
- Legal Requirements: If required by a valid court order or subpoena. We will attempt to notify the Customer of such requests unless prohibited by law.
5. Data Security & Retention
We employ enterprise-grade security measures, including AES-256 encryption for data at rest and TLS 1.3 for data in transit.
Retention: We retain Municipal Data for the duration of the subscription. Upon termination, data is either returned to the Customer or securely destroyed (sanitized) in accordance with NIST 800-88 standards.
6. Your Rights
For Government Employees: Because GovGuard processes data on behalf of your Municipality, please direct requests regarding your data (e.g., deletion of a user account) to your City Administrator. We will assist the Customer in fulfilling these requests.
7. Updates to This Policy
We may update this policy to reflect changes in law or our software. Significant changes will be communicated to the Customer via email.