Privacy Policy
1. Controller
Philipp Spengler – Goldschmied
Kurt-Schumacher-Ring 55
65195 Wiesbaden, Germany
E-mail: support@benchtool.de
2. Two roles – worth reading once
BenchTool handles two very different kinds of data, and different rules apply to each:
- Your own data (account, payment, use of the app): we are the controller under the GDPR. This policy explains what happens to it.
- The data you enter into BenchTool — in particular your customer records and invoices: this is your customers' data. You are the controller for it; we process it solely on your behalf and on your instructions. This is governed by the Data Processing Agreement, which forms part of your contract.
3. Workshop team: who sees what
The workshop licence lets you invite other people into your workshop account. While someone is a member:
- Shared and editable: the planner projects and the workshop's customer records.
- Read-only: invoices created by another member. Nobody else can change or delete them — German bookkeeping rules (GoBD) require this.
- Private: the personal calculation history. Other members cannot see it.
- Members can see the e-mail addresses of the other members, so it is clear who has access.
The workshop owner is the controller for the shared customer records. Whoever invites members decides who gains access to customers' personal data and is responsible for that choice. We recommend obliging members to confidentiality in writing and removing departing staff without delay.
If a member is removed or leaves, access to the workshop's projects, customer records and invoices ends immediately. Invoices already issued remain with the workshop — they are subject to the statutory retention obligation of up to eight years and must not leave with the person who wrote them.
4. What we process
| Data | Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| E-mail address, password (stored only as a hash), time of registration | Account, sign-in, password reset | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) |
| Payment status, plan, term, Stripe identifiers. No card or bank details on our systems | Processing and managing access | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR |
| Device identifier (a random number, not a device fingerprint), number of devices used | Enforcing the licensed number of devices | Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR |
| Workshop profile: company name, address, contact details, VAT ID, tax number, bank details, logo | Producing quotes and invoices on your letterhead | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR |
| Job planner projects including notes, work steps, times and any photos | Storing and syncing your projects across your devices | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR |
| Plans and sketches for a job: title, type, notes, file name and the file itself (drawing, sketch, 3D model, technical drawing), where you assign it to a customer | Keeping designs and plans with the job — see section 2 | Art. 28 GDPR, you are the controller |
| Calculation history (inputs and results) | Reusing earlier calculations | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR |
| Customer records and invoices (your customers' data) | Processing on your behalf – see section 2 | Art. 28 GDPR, you are the controller |
| Business expenses: date, amount, tax rate, category, supplier, description, recurring cost items and uploaded receipts (photo or PDF) | Expense recording and reporting for your workshop – see section 2 | For your own details Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; where third-party data is included, Art. 28 GDPR – you are the controller |
| Details your customers enter themselves via the customer form: salutation, name, address, email, phone and optional notes on the piece (ring size, occasion, wishes). Access works through a random code that you hand out yourself; entries arrive in an inbox and only become part of your customer records once you accept them | Collection of your customer data by the data subjects themselves – see section 2 | Art. 28 GDPR, you are the controller |
| Bank transactions you upload yourself as a file from your online banking: booking date, amount, name of the payment party, payment reference. BenchTool does not connect to your bank and stores no credentials – only the file you upload is read | Matching transactions against expenses and invoices – see section 2 | Art. 28 GDPR, you are the controller |
| Workshop team: membership, role (owner or member), invitations including e-mail address, time of joining | Shared access to projects and customer records, traceability of access rights | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR |
| For discounted access: role, class, institution, uploaded proof | Verifying eligibility | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR |
| Repair jobs: details of the piece, description of the work, prices, dates and photos of its condition at intake, plus the name, address and contact details of the customer | Processing on your behalf – see section 2 | Art. 28 GDPR, you are the controller |
| Purchases: items bought in, material, weight, amounts, method of payment, photos of the items bought, and the seller's name and address | Processing on your behalf – see section 2 | Art. 28 GDPR, you are the controller |
| Identity document details of your customers: type and number of the document, name, date and place of birth, nationality, issuing authority, expiry date, address. No images or scans of the document – see section 4a | Meeting your obligations under German anti-money-laundering law when buying in; for repairs only where your customer has consented | Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR together with §§ 10, 11 GwG (purchases); Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (repairs). You are the controller |
| Messages sent through the contact form: name, email address, subject and text, plus a telephone number if you ask for a call back | Answering your enquiry | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where a contract is in prospect, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (answering enquiries) |
| Feedback you choose to send | Fixing bugs and improving the app | Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest) |
| Server logs of our hosting providers: IP address, time, resource requested | Operation, security, troubleshooting | Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR |
4a. Identity documents: what BenchTool deliberately does not do
When buying precious metal, dealers are required by law above certain amounts to identify the seller and record the details (§§ 10, 11 German Anti-Money-Laundering Act). BenchTool helps you do that — but stores no image of the document.
The camera serves only to put the document on screen large enough to read. The capture stays in the device's memory, is never transmitted, and is gone once the page is closed. Only the text fields are stored.
Important, so you are not caught out: Where an identification duty under the Money Laundering Act applies, § 8(2) of that Act additionally requires you to make a copy of the document relied upon, or to capture it in digitised form. Recording the details alone does not satisfy that duty. BenchTool deliberately does not keep such a copy — you must retain it outside the application, for example in your purchase file. The application helps you record the details; it replaces neither the copy nor your own assessment of whether an identification duty applies.
This restraint is deliberate: a collection of identity document images would be the most rewarding target in the whole system, and for a repair there would be no justification for it at all. For repairs the identity fields are therefore optional and available only with your customer's express consent; the time of that consent is stored alongside.
Records relating to purchases are automatically stripped of personal details five years after the end of the calendar year in which the purchase took place (§ 8(4) of the Act). The transaction itself remains as an accounting record, without the person.
5. Where the data is stored
The database and file storage run on Supabase in the eu-central-1 region (Frankfurt am Main, Germany). The provider, Supabase Inc., is based in the USA; EU Standard Contractual Clauses are in place for any third-country access.
Access is isolated per account at database level (row level security). Project photos are held in non-public storage and can only be retrieved through time-limited signed links.
6. Recipients and processors
| Service | Purpose | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase Inc. | Database, authentication, file storage | USA / servers in Frankfurt (EU) |
| Vercel Inc. | Hosting and delivery of the application | USA / delivered from EU locations |
| Stripe Payments Europe Ltd. | Payment processing incl. SEPA and PayPal | Ireland (EU) |
All typefaces and program libraries the application needs are served from our own server. No content is loaded from third-party networks such as Google Fonts, jsDelivr or Cloudflare, so no IP address is transmitted to those providers.
Precious metal rates are fetched by our server only. Your IP address is not passed to the rate providers.
7. Cookies and local storage
BenchTool uses no tracking or advertising cookies and no analytics. There is therefore no consent banner: everything we store is strictly necessary to operate the application and exempt from consent under § 25(2) of the German TDDDG (Austria: § 165 TKG 2021; Switzerland: Art. 45c FMG).
| What | Where | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authentication token (session) | Local storage | keeps you signed in between visits | until sign-out |
Device identifier benchtool_device_id | Local storage | counts devices against your licence. A random number, not a device fingerprint | until cleared |
Projects benchtool_planner | Local storage | keeps the job planner usable offline; basis for cloud sync | until cleared |
| Home favourites and recently used calculators | Local storage | your personal home screen layout | until cleared |
| Language and appearance (light/dark) | Local storage | displays the app as you last chose | until cleared |
| Custom work-step templates | Local storage | recurring steps in the job planner | until cleared |
Calculator inputs and results benchtool_state, benchtool_atelier, benchtool_buyin, benchtool_refining, benchtool_sellprice | Local storage | continue a calculation after changing pages | until cleared |
Scale for the 1:1 view benchtool_px_mm | Local storage | calibrate the screen once so a ring appears at true size | until cleared |
Sketchbook window layout bt_fenster | Local storage | layer and tool panels stay where you last put them | until cleared |
| Application files in offline storage (service worker) | Cache storage | use at the bench without an internet connection | until updated |
These entries live on your device, not on our servers, and are not shared with third parties. You can clear them in your browser settings at any time; unsynced content will be lost.
8. Retention
- Account and payment data: for the term of the contract, removed within 30 days of account deletion.
- Invoices, records and associated customer data: subject to statutory retention of up to eight years (§ 14b German VAT Act, § 147 Fiscal Code). These are not deleted early but retained in blocked form until the period expires.
- Calculation history: unpinned entries are removed automatically after 180 days and beyond 500 entries.
- Projects and project photos: until you delete them, at the latest on account deletion.
- Plans, sketches and 3D files: until you delete them, at the latest on account deletion. Deleting also removes the file from storage.
- Customer form entries: until you accept or discard them; you can delete discarded and accepted entries at any time. Switch the code off when you no longer use the form.
- Business expenses, receipts and uploaded bank transactions: until you delete them, at the latest on account deletion. Note that receipts may be subject to the same statutory retention periods on your side as invoices – delete them only once you keep them elsewhere.
- Proof of study: until eligibility has been verified, then without delay.
- Messages from the contact form: twelve months once answered, twenty-four months if unanswered, then deleted. Where the enquiry leads to a contract, commercial and tax retention periods apply to the correspondence.
- Photos from repair intake: one year after collection. File and reference are then removed automatically; the job itself remains as a business record.
- Photos of items bought in: five years after the end of the calendar year of the purchase, together with the other anti-money-laundering records. They evidence which goods were actually bought – for example if the authorities enquire about missing items.
- Purchases subject to identification: the seller's identity details and address for five years from the end of the calendar year (§ 8(4) GwG), then removed automatically. The record itself remains subject to tax retention.
- Server logs: per our providers' retention periods, typically a few weeks.
9. Your rights
You have the right of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR). Any consent given may be withdrawn at any time with future effect.
Please contact support@benchtool.de. You can export your data yourself in the app at any time.
10. Right to lodge a complaint
You may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular the Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Postfach 3163, 65021 Wiesbaden, Germany – datenschutz.hessen.de.
11. No automated decision-making
There is no automated decision-making or profiling within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR. The calculators process only the values you enter and make no decisions about people.
12. Provision of data
An e-mail address and, outside the test phase, a valid payment are required to use BenchTool. Without these no account can be provided. All other details are optional.
13. Changes to this policy
We update this policy when our processing changes. The version published here with the date shown above applies. We will notify you by e-mail of any material change.