Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Invention Space (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our platform at inventionspace.com (the “Service”).

Invention Space is operated from the United States. By using our Service, you consent to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

2. Information We Collect

Account Information: When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and authentication credentials (via Google sign-in or email/password).

Profile Information: You may optionally provide additional details such as phone number, company name, job title, website, bio, skills, and a profile photo.

Idea Submissions: Information you provide about your inventions through our questionnaire, intake forms, and idea submission process, including descriptions, categories, supporting documents, and uploaded files.

Chat Messages: Messages sent through our AI chat and consultant messaging features, including conversation history and attachments.

Payment Information: Payment processing is handled by Stripe. We do not store your credit card details directly. We receive confirmation of payment status, transaction IDs, subscription details, and billing history.

Usage Data: We collect information about how you interact with our platform, including pages visited, features used, browser type, device information, IP address, and referring URLs.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve our services
• Process your invention analyses using AI technology
• Generate business tools (lean canvases, business plans, pitch decks)
• Facilitate AI chat and consultant messaging
• Process payments and manage subscriptions
• Send you account notifications and service updates
• Monitor and analyze usage trends to improve user experience
• Detect, prevent, and address technical issues and fraud
• Comply with legal obligations

4. Confidentiality of Your Ideas

We treat all invention submissions as strictly confidential. Your idea details are only accessible to you and any consultant you are explicitly assigned to. We do not share, sell, or use your invention ideas for any purpose other than providing our analysis services. Our AI analysis processes your data to generate reports but does not use it to train third-party models.

5. Data Security

We use industry-standard security measures including encryption in transit (TLS/SSL) and at rest, Firebase security rules for granular data access control, role-based access controls, and regular security reviews. While no system is completely secure, we take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

6. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate our platform. Each service has its own privacy policy governing its handling of data:

• Google Firebase — Hosting, database (Cloud Firestore), authentication, cloud storage, and cloud functions. Firebase Privacy Policy
• Stripe — Payment processing and subscription management. Stripe Privacy Policy
• Google Gemini AI — AI-powered invention analysis, business tool generation, and chat assistance. Gemini API Terms
• Google Imagen — AI image generation for pitch deck illustrations.
• PostHog — Product analytics and usage tracking. PostHog Privacy Policy
• Sentry — Error monitoring and performance tracking. Sentry Privacy Policy

7. Cookie Policy

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to operate and improve our Service:

• Essential Cookies: Required for authentication, session management, and security. These cannot be disabled as the Service cannot function without them.
• Analytics Cookies: Used by PostHog to understand how users interact with our platform, helping us improve features and user experience.
• Preference Cookies: Store your settings such as theme preference and notification choices.

You can manage your cookie preferences through the cookie consent banner displayed on your first visit, or through your browser settings. Note that disabling essential cookies may prevent parts of the Service from functioning properly.

8. Data Retention

We retain your data for the following periods:

• Active Accounts: Your profile, ideas, analyses, and associated data are retained for as long as your account is active.
• After Account Deletion: Upon account deletion, your personal data is soft-deleted and purged within 30 days. Anonymized analytics data may be retained.
• Payment Records: Transaction and billing records are retained for up to 7 years to comply with tax and financial regulations.
• Chat History: AI chat and consultant message history is retained for 1 year from the date of the last message, then automatically archived.
• Contact Inquiries: Messages submitted through our contact form are retained for 2 years.

9. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access, correct, or delete your personal information
• Export your data in a portable format
• Opt out of marketing communications
• Restrict or object to certain processing activities
• Close your account at any time

To exercise these rights, contact us at privacy@inventionspace.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

10. California Privacy Rights (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

• Right to Know: You may request details about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
• Right to Delete: You may request deletion of personal information we have collected, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale: We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not share your data for cross-context behavioral advertising.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.

To exercise your CCPA rights, email us at privacy@inventionspace.com or use the contact form on our website. We will verify your identity before processing your request.

11. European Privacy Rights (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

Legal Basis for Processing: We process your personal data on the following legal bases: (a) your consent (e.g., analytics cookies); (b) performance of a contract (e.g., providing our services); (c) legitimate interests (e.g., fraud prevention, service improvement); and (d) compliance with legal obligations.

Data Subject Rights: In addition to the rights listed in Section 9, you have the right to data portability, the right to restrict processing, and the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

International Transfers: Your data may be transferred to and processed in the United States, where our servers and service providers are located. We rely on standard contractual clauses and other approved transfer mechanisms to protect your data during international transfers.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will notify you of material changes by posting the new policy on this page, updating the “Last updated” date, and, where appropriate, sending you an email notification.