Privacy Notice
What personal data we handle
- Account data: name/display name, email address, password (hashed), role, login and audit records.
- Case material you or your practitioner upload: documents, messages, chronologies and drafts within your matter workspace. This can include special-category data (for example health or family proceedings information) because that is the nature of court preparation.
- Service records: billing status, credit consumption, support and complaint records, security events.
- McKenzie friend enquiries: what you send through the enquiry form on our homepage (see McKenzie friend enquiry form).
- Referral and partner records: the invite or partner code you signed up with, referral credits awarded, and, if you join the partner programme, the amounts paid by accounts you referred, the revenue share calculated on them, any reversals and the payouts made to you. A partner sees a summary of their referrals and the amounts earned, not who the referred accounts belong to or anything about their cases.
Children. Accounts are only for people aged 18 or over. Do not enter children into accounts, and do not include more personal information about a child in case material than your proceedings require — case material about children is processed only as part of your matter and is not used for profiling or marketing. If we learn that account registration data describes a child under 18, we close the account and delete its data.
Family shared records. On the Family plan, the subscriber names the members of a shared record (for example a co-parent). Everyone in a record can see its messages and integrity-check exports, and the subscriber confirms members have consented to that sharing. Membership changes and exports are audit-logged.
Why we process it (lawful bases)
- Providing and securing the service you signed up to — contract and legitimate interests (service integrity, fraud prevention).
- Case preparation processing — in most cases necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; where you are a direct consumer, contract and legal claims bases apply together.
- Special-category data in case material (for example health information) — the condition we rely on is UK GDPR Article 9(2)(f): processing necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
- Criminal-allegation data in case material (allegations or details of offences) — the condition we rely on is Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, paragraph 33 (legal claims).
- Replying to a McKenzie friend enquiry — steps you ask us to take before any agreement (contract), and your agreement to be contacted about your enquiry.
- Marketing emails — only with your consent (opt-in), separate from service messages, withdrawable at any time.
Automated processing and AI
Automated steps help organise, extract and draft material. Before any text is sent to an AI model provider, names, addresses and contact details are replaced with placeholders, and material is minimised where the task allows. AI model providers carry out these steps (see International transfers); we do not sell your data or use case material for advertising. Drafts are released to you automatically; nobody at EvidenceCanvas reviews them first. Check every draft before relying on it. We do not make solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on you: a draft is a suggestion, and you decide whether to use it.
Who we share with
Our website
Our public website (evidencecanvas.co.uk) loads no analytics or advertising trackers and sets no analytics or advertising cookies. It uses only storage that is strictly necessary for what you ask it to do (our hosting provider, Cloudflare, may also set a strictly necessary security cookie), so it does not ask for cookie consent. In detail:
- Campaign tags. If you arrive through a link that carries a campaign tag (such as
utm_source), the tag is copied from the page address onto the sign-up links on that page, so the portal can count sign-ups by channel. It is not stored on your device. It names the campaign, not you. - Invite and partner codes. If you arrive through a friend's invite link or a partner link (a
refcode beginning REF- or AFF-), that code is kept in your browser's sessionStorage so the referral you followed is credited when you sign up. This is strictly necessary for the sign-up you asked for. It is deleted when you close the tab and is not used for anything else. - Fonts. Pages load typefaces from Google Fonts, so your browser sends your IP address to Google when it fetches them; Google Fonts does not set cookies.
McKenzie friend enquiry form
The founder of EvidenceCanvas offers a separate, personal McKenzie friend service. The enquiry form on our homepage collects your name, email address, phone number (optional), the type of case, the date of your next hearing (optional), your message and your agreement to be contacted. We use it only to reply to your enquiry and, if you go ahead, to arrange the help you ask for.
- The form is sent by email, through our edge network provider (Cloudflare), to the founder's own mailbox. The website does not store it and it is not added to your EvidenceCanvas account or to any mailing list.
- Your IP address is used for a few minutes to stop repeated or automated submissions. It is not included in the email.
- Please do not include children's names, case numbers or case papers in the form.
- Enquiries that do not lead to the service are deleted within 12 months of our last contact with you.
Payments (Stripe)
Card payments are processed by Stripe Payments UK Ltd, which acts as an independent controller for the payment data it processes (including fraud prevention and its own legal and regulatory obligations). You enter your card details on Stripe's hosted checkout: your card data is held by Stripe, not by us, and we never see or store full card numbers. We receive only limited billing information from Stripe, such as your name, email address, billing country, the last four digits and expiry of your card, and payment and subscription status. Stripe's own privacy policy (stripe.com/gb/privacy) explains how it uses your data.
Infrastructure and specialist suppliers (cloud hosting and storage in the UK, in the AWS London region; edge and identity services; email delivery) act under contract for the purposes set out in this notice. AI model providers carry out the automated steps described above; see International transfers below. A current supplier list is available on request.
International transfers
Your account and case material are hosted and stored in the UK. To produce drafts, pseudonymised extracts of case material are sent to AI model providers, and to their hosting sub-processors, whose servers are outside the UK, including in Singapore and the United States. Before any text is sent, names, addresses and contact details are replaced with placeholders. Requests go to our primary model provider; if it fails, to a router restricted to zero-data-retention endpoints. Requests our privacy checks block are never retried elsewhere. Other suppliers, such as our edge network and email provider, may also process some data outside the UK. For details of these transfers, email privacy@evidencecanvas.co.uk.
How long we keep it
- Case material (documents, messages, chronologies and drafts): the life of your matter plus 12 months, so you can collect or transfer your papers.
- Audit logs: 24 months.
- Billing and payment records (invoices, receipts, refunds and subscription history): 6 years, because accounting law requires it.
- Complaint records: 7 years.
- McKenzie friend enquiries that do not lead to the service: 12 months from our last contact.
- Encrypted backups: up to 400 days.
If you ask us to delete your data, we delete it within one month, except records the law requires us to keep, such as billing records. Deleted data then leaves our encrypted backups as they expire, within 400 days. Legal holds can extend retention where the law requires it. Our retention schedule is available on request.
People named in case material
Case material that users upload often names other people: the other party, children, and professionals such as social workers, teachers or doctors. We receive their information from the user who uploads it, not from them. It can include names, contact details, what they said or did, health information and allegations. We process it only for that user's legal claim, under the bases and conditions set out above. It is visible to that user and to anyone they invite into the matter, it is handled by the suppliers and transfers described above, and it is kept for the periods above; it is not used for marketing or profiling. If you think you are named in someone's case material, email privacy@evidencecanvas.co.uk to ask about it or to use your rights. Some rights can be limited where information is needed for legal proceedings; if that applies, we will tell you.
Your rights
You can ask for access to your personal data, correction, deletion where applicable, restriction, portability, and you can object to processing based on legitimate interests. Email privacy@evidencecanvas.co.uk — this route does not require a paid account. We respond within one month of a valid request (extendable in defined circumstances, which we will explain).
Complaints
Complain to us first via support@evidencecanvas.co.uk or the in-app Support & feedback section. Sean McNamara is the named support and safeguarding contact; standard support hours are 09:00–17:00 UK time. See our Support and safeguarding page for the route and urgent-situation information. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
Accountability
We maintain a Data Protection Impact Assessment for this service, a purpose/lawful-basis register, a supplier list and a retention schedule. Practitioner subscribers and data subjects may request a current summary of these records from privacy@evidencecanvas.co.uk. Our Data Protection Impact Assessment is maintained and reviewed on defined triggers (new suppliers, new processing, incidents) and at least annually; it was last reviewed in October 2026.
Security
See our Security page for the controls we use. No system is absolutely secure; we design against realistic threats and say what we do not claim.