Privacy policy.

August Engine designs and builds websites, AI and automation for businesses. It is run by Augustine G. Osei, with offices in Accra, Ghana and Virginia, USA. In this policy, “we” and “us” mean August Engine.

This policy covers augustengine.com and the automations that support it. For any question about your information, email hello@augustengine.com.

We only collect what you choose to give us, plus the little technical information needed to run the site:

• Forms. When you contact us, ask to partner with us or send a client request, we collect your name, email address, WhatsApp number, business or organisation, the service you're interested in and your message.
• Client area. If you are a client, we use your email address to send you a sign-in link.
• Chat assistant. The messages you type into the chat on our site, and your WhatsApp number if you choose to leave it so we can follow up. When the assistant can't answer something, we keep a short note of what was asked, without your name or contact details, so we can improve it.
• Technical information. Your IP address is briefly used to stop the chat assistant from being misused, and our host keeps standard server logs.

We don't use advertising or analytics cookies. The only cookies we set keep clients signed in to the client area.

We use your information to:

• reply to your enquiry and send you a confirmation email
• prepare quotes, deliver projects and support our clients
• keep a record of enquiries so none are missed
• keep the site and our services secure

We never sell your information, and we won't send you marketing emails unless you've asked for them.

A small number of trusted services process information for us. Each receives only what it needs to do its job:

• Vercel hosts the website.
• Resend sends our emails, such as form confirmations.
• Supabase handles sign-in to the client area.
• Anthropic generates the chat assistant's replies.
• Upstash limits how many chat messages can be sent, using your IP address.
• Our automation server, which we run ourselves on Hetzner, receives form entries and notes of questions the chat assistant couldn't answer, logs them to a Google Sheet and emails us through Gmail.
• Cal.com handles call bookings, under its own privacy policy.
• WhatsApp carries any messages you send us there, under Meta's privacy policy.

Our automation server connects to August Engine's own Google account, and only that account. It uses Google Sheets to record enquiries and Gmail to send us alerts and send emails on our behalf. We never ask visitors or clients to sign in with Google, and we don't access anyone else's Google account.

Information received from Google APIs is used only to run these automations. It is not sold, not used for advertising and not used to train AI models, and people only read it when that's needed to run the service, keep it secure or meet a legal obligation.

August Engine's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

• Enquiries: for as long as we're in touch, and no longer than 3 years after we last hear from you.
• Client records: for the length of our work together, and afterwards only as long as the law requires, for example for tax.
• Chat messages: we don't keep them, except the summary sent to us when you leave your details.
• Notes of questions the chat assistant couldn't answer: up to 12 months.
• IP addresses used to limit the chat assistant: about a day.

The services above may store and process your information outside Ghana, including in the United States and the European Union. We choose providers that protect it with appropriate safeguards.

You can ask us to show you the information we hold about you, correct it, delete it, or stop using it. These rights come from Ghana's Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), and, depending on where you live, from the UK and EU GDPR or US state laws such as Virginia's Consumer Data Protection Act.

Email hello@augustengine.com and we'll respond within 30 days. If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to Ghana's Data Protection Commission or your local data protection authority.

The site runs over an encrypted connection, access to your information is limited to the people who need it, and passwords and keys for the services we use are stored encrypted. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect what you share with us.

Our services are for businesses. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 16.

If we change this policy, we'll update it here and change the date at the top. For significant changes that affect clients, we'll let them know directly.