Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 10, 2026

Trade Mechanics ("the app") is an end-to-end business system for the trades, operated by Innovation Mechanics, LLC, as Trade Mechanics, for its business customers (contractors). It has two parts: the business app, used in the office, and Trade Mechanics Field, the crew's app on their phones. This policy explains what data the app collects, how it is used, and who it is shared with.

Information we collect

Apart from what's needed to sign in, the customer decides what to enter. Most of what's below is optional and used only when the customer uses that feature.

• Signing in. If you sign in with Google or Microsoft, we receive your name, email address, and (from Google) your profile picture. If your company uses passwords, your password is held by Google Cloud Identity Platform, never by the app. Sign-in codes are sent to your email or, only if a mobile number is entered for you, by text message through Google. We use this only to check that you are an authorized user and to show who did what in the app. Each sign-in, and each try that doesn't work, is recorded with its time, the way in, the IP address it came from and the browser (just its name and system, such as "Chrome, Mac"), so a customer's administrators can see who signed in and help someone who can't. These records are deleted after 12 months.
• Information about the people who work for a customer. A customer's administrators enter each person's name, email, and role. A mobile number is entered only for texted sign-in codes or Trade Mechanics Field. A pay level and cost rate are entered only if the company tracks the cost of labor on jobs, and are visible only to its administrators.
• Time and location in Trade Mechanics Field. When a person clocks in or out, the app records the time and the job. Only if their company turns on saving locations, the app also records the phone's location at that moment, with the phone's permission. It records the location only at each clock tap or photo, never in between, and never tracks anyone in the background. A photo's file is kept without the location and other details a phone stores inside it, so a photo downloaded or forwarded carries only the picture.
• Photos and notes. Photos and notes are added only when people choose to, and are kept with their job. The people on the job and the company's office can see them.
• The customer's business records. The app keeps what a customer enters or brings in to run its business: its own customers and their contacts and addresses, jobs, estimates and proposals, schedules, hours worked, supplier invoices, and the invoices it sends its customers and the payments it records.
• Gmail (read-only). With the mailbox owner's authorization, the app reads messages in the customer's designated billing mailbox that come from configured suppliers, and downloads their PDF invoice attachments. It does not modify or delete any email.
• Email the app sends. The app sends email from mailboxes the customer or Trade Mechanics authorized: sign-in invitations, password resets, and sign-in codes, and notices to the people a customer's administrators choose (for example, when processing a supplier invoice fails or a weekly check finds something to review).
• When something goes wrong. If the app hits an error, on our servers or in your browser, it records what failed, the screen it happened on, and your browser's name and system (such as "Chrome, Mac"), so we can fix it. It never records what you typed. In Trade Mechanics Field, an error report waits on the phone until there's a signal.

How we use it

The data is used only to provide the app to the customer and its people. It is stored in a database and file storage hosted on Google Cloud in the United States, and shown only to the customer's authorized users, according to what each person's role allows.

Some features use Anthropic's Claude API: reading supplier invoice PDFs (supplier, invoice number, job name, line items, and totals), identifying the products on them, and suggesting products for estimate lines. What is sent is the invoice or the product descriptions, never a person's sign-in details, time, or location. Anthropic does not use this data to train its models.

We do not sell data, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone other than the service providers needed to run the app: Google Cloud (hosting, sign-in, text messages, and Gmail), Microsoft (only if you sign in with Microsoft), and Anthropic (the features above). We may disclose data if the law requires it.

Google API Services

The app's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Cookies and storage on your device

The app uses cookies to keep you signed in and, if you sign in with a password, to remember your device for 30 days. It keeps a few settings in your browser (such as a panel's size), and Trade Mechanics Field keeps clock taps and photos on the phone until it has a signal to send them. Google's reCAPTCHA checks that a sign-in by text code is from a real person. The app does not use tracking or advertising cookies.

Data retention and deletion

A customer's data is kept for as long as the customer uses the app. A customer may ask for its data to be exported or deleted. A person removed from a company can no longer sign in; the records of their work (such as hours and comments) stay with the company's records. A customer can revoke the app's Gmail access at any time from its Google Account's security settings.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest on Google Cloud. Access is limited to the customer's authorized users and, when needed to support the customer, Trade Mechanics staff.

Children

The app is for businesses and is not directed to children under 16.

Changes

When this policy changes, we update the date above and, for significant changes, tell customers in the app.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to steve@innovationmechanics.ai.