We collect only what we need to run the Service:
We do not collect your PDF drawings, except the specific content you choose to send when you turn on an optional cloud feature or create a share link (see section 2).
Markup, measurement, takeoff, and on-device AI estimating run locally. By default, your PDF drawings are processed on your own machine and are not uploaded to TRACEBUILD to run these features. (If you choose to create a share link, only the specific document you share is uploaded, for that purpose.)
Optional cloud features (browser edition, off until you turn them on): two features in TRACEBUILD Lite can send parts of your drawing to TRACEBUILD's servers, which pass them to an AI provider and return the result. Cloud OCR sends images of the drawing pages you read, so scanned sheets become searchable text (processed by Microsoft Azure; the provider deletes the images and results automatically, within 24 hours). Cloud symbol verification sends small cropped images of candidate symbol matches for a yes or no check (processed by Anthropic; the provider may retain the request briefly for abuse prevention and does not use it to train its models). Both features ask for your permission before anything is sent, both are metered with a monthly allowance, nothing else from your project is included, and you can withdraw consent at any time in the app. The desktop edition runs these features entirely on your own machine.
With your permission (granted in the Terms of Service), TRACEBUILD aggregates and anonymizes the pricing figures you enter to build and improve a shared construction cost dataset. This is designed to protect you:
Every published figure carries a record of where its component facts came from (your aggregate contributions, public wage or index data, or a licensed feed served under a subscription). We never ingest an export of a licensed third-party cost database.
We use a signed, HTTP-only session cookie to keep you logged in after you sign in. It is not used for advertising, and we do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. You can log out at any time to clear the session, and you can block cookies in your browser, though the Service needs the session cookie to sign you in.
If you choose “Allow analytics,” we use a random visit cookie shared between tracebuild.biz and app.tracebuild.biz to understand which sources and landing pages lead to account creation. The visit expires after 30 minutes of inactivity; your allow/decline preference lasts 180 days. We store the referring hostname, public landing-page path, short campaign labels, signup-link and form visits, and a link to your account when you successfully sign up. We do not collect drawings, form contents, full referrer URLs or URL query strings in analytics. We do not send this information to an external analytics service; it is stored on our Cloudflare infrastructure and visible only to TraceBuild admins.
You can decline and use the service normally, or withdraw permission through “Analytics choices” on the website or sign-in page. We honor browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals. Withdrawing stops future collection and clears the visit cookie. Visit records and conversion links older than 90 days are removed on the next analytics collection or report request. Deleting your account removes its conversion link; contact us for other data requests. A missing or declined source is reported as unavailable.
We retain your account information and contributed pricing data while your account is active and as needed to operate the Service and the aggregated dataset. Aggregated, anonymized figures that no longer identify you may be retained after your account closes.
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your account data by contacting us, and we will respond within a reasonable time and in accordance with applicable law. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights (for example, under the GDPR or CCPA) to access, correct, delete, or port your personal data, or to object to certain processing.
Privacy questions: support@tracebuild.biz.