Privacy notice history

Last updated: 6 October 2026

Read the wording that applied at each published version. The general policy and the inspector notice have their own permanent links.

This public archive starts on 22 September 2026. Earlier website and app notices were not published in this versioned archive.

Version 2026-10-06 · Current

Effective 6 October 2026

Adds the free website templates: what we keep when you download a template (email address, optional first name and role, which templates and when, website attribution), the record of your choice to hear when a template changes, and expiry reminders. These records are kept in the website database.
Adds the free template library: what a free account created from a template holds, the template update emails we send and our record of each, and the lawful basis for each.
Adds the record of your agreement to the Free template library terms: kept while your account is open and for six years after it closes, with the IP address and device or browser details removed twelve months after you agree.
Adds retention for template records: download records up to 24 months, update-choice records while subscribed and 24 months after unsubscribing, reminders until their date passes, and closure of template-only accounts unused for 24 months, 30 days after an email warning.
These are new optional features and nothing about existing account holders' or organisations' information changes, so this version takes effect on publication without advance notice. No organisation, owner, admin or member of staff needs to accept anything. Everything else is unchanged from version 2026-09-28.

Effective 28 September 2026

Complete-document analysis, which sends the extracted text of every page with the filename to OpenAI for the same purpose as the other document calls, is now part of how Wardcote processes documents for every organisation. The previous version applied it only to an organisation created on or after 24 September 2026 that accepted the Wardcote Terms of Service and Customer Data Processing Agreement dated 24 September 2026.
Says that Wardcote asks OpenAI to handle this analysis, and the classification, dates and names and records check calls, on its priority service tier, OpenAI's faster processing option, which does not change what is sent or why.
Says that this analysis is not made for a photograph or a scan, or for a document with more than 342,000 characters of text.
Explains holds: when this analysis finds that a document does not show what its requirement needs, the document does not count for that requirement while the hold stands, each kind of hold is resolved in its own way, and the finding stays recorded.
No organisation, owner, admin or member of staff needs to accept anything because of this change. A version dated 14 October 2026, published in advance for the same change, was withdrawn before it took effect. Everything else is unchanged from version 2026-09-24.

Effective 24 September 2026

Describes complete-document analysis, which sends the extracted text of every page with the filename, for an organisation that has accepted the Wardcote Terms of Service and Customer Data Processing Agreement dated 24 September 2026, and only once Wardcote switches it on for that organisation. An organisation that signed up earlier is included only after it accepts those documents.
Says that when an owner or admin accepts our Terms of Service and Customer Data Processing Agreement, we keep a record of the acceptance, with their name, email address and role, the IP address and the device or browser used, as records of the contract.
Keeps the description of what each kind of AI call sends, and its own limit, from version 2026-09-23 unchanged.
Names ngrok, the tunnel that carries internal account alerts to our self-hosted WhatsApp gateway, and Resend as the provider that receives documents emailed to your Wardcote address.
Removes statements about provider agreements and the application database region that are not yet verified.
Renames this notice from Privacy Policy to Privacy Notice, the name the signup checkbox uses.

Effective 23 September 2026

Corrects the description of what is sent to our AI provider: each kind of AI call is now described with the information it sends and its own limit, including the up to 10,000 characters used to read dates and names from a long document.
Corrects how scans and photographs are read: the image or PDF file itself is sent, up to 12 MB and 20 pages per call, and longer scans are read in parts of up to 20 pages, to a maximum of 60 pages.
Corrects the descriptions of Ask Wardcote, reports, chase email drafts and projects; chase email drafts do not send due dates.
This update introduces no new processing.

Effective 22 September 2026

One notice for the website and app, with permanent versions and a public history.
Clarifies website forms and free scans, controller and processor roles, actual Google Drive access, AI processing and international transfers.
Preserves privacy rights and corrects obsolete website descriptions; this update introduces no new processing.