Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how Interesting Bids Inc., a Canadian corporation doing business as BiddingSimple (“BiddingSimple,” “we,” “us”), collects, uses, discloses, and protects information in connection with biddingsimple.com, our applications, emails, and related services (the “Service”). Interesting Bids Inc. is the controller of personal information processed through the Service. This policy applies to visitors, vendors, buyers, and anyone who interacts with the Service. It does not apply to third-party websites we link to (such as government procurement portals), which have their own policies.

Using the Service means this policy applies to you. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the Service.

Information you provide

• Account data: name, email address, password (stored hashed), and organization or company details.
• Vendor profile data: capability descriptions, services, regions, keywords, websites you ask us to read, and documents you upload (such as capability statements) to power matching.
• Buyer/agency data:agency profile details (name, type, state, logo, public contact information), team member invitations, solicitations, documents, addenda, Q&A answers, and evaluation activity.
• Submissions: sealed bid submissions are encrypted in your browser before upload — we receive and store only ciphertext and cannot read sealed contents. Related metadata (timestamps, file hashes, confirmation codes) is processed to operate the sealed-bid process.
• Communications: support requests, questions on postings, feedback, and correspondence with us.
• Payment data: processed by our payment processor (currently Stripe). We receive limited information (such as card brand, last four digits, and transaction status) — never full card numbers.

Information collected automatically

• Usage and log data: pages viewed, searches, saves, follows, clicks, referring pages, timestamps, IP address, browser and device information, and similar diagnostics.
• Cookies and similar technologies: strictly necessary cookies for sign-in sessions and security (for example, session and CSRF cookies), and functional storage such as remembering bids you marked as viewed. We do not use third-party advertising cookies.
• Email interaction data: delivery, bounce, open, and click events for emails we send, via our email provider, to keep deliverability healthy and honor unsubscribes.

Information from other sources

• Public procurement sources: the bid listings in our index are collected from publicly available sources and may include business contact details published by agencies.
• Service providers: payment status from our payment processor, delivery events from our email provider, and security signals from our infrastructure providers.

We use information to:

• provide, operate, secure, and maintain the Service and your account;
• index, classify, summarize, and search bid listings, and match opportunities to vendor capability profiles;
• operate the posting platform and sealed e-bidding, including notifications to followers (addenda, answers, deadline changes, reminders) and submission receipts;
• process payments, manage subscriptions, and prevent fraud and abuse;
• send transactional and service emails, and — with your settings — digest emails like the daily brief (you can turn these off anytime);
• respond to support requests and communicate with you about the Service;
• analyze usage to improve features, relevance, performance, and user experience;
• comply with law, enforce our Terms, and protect the rights, safety, and property of BiddingSimple, our users, and the public — including screening against applicable sanctions lists.

Parts of the Service use automated and artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies. For example, we may use AI to: classify bids into categories; generate plain-language summaries of solicitations; extract structured fields from source documents; build capability profiles from websites or documents you provide; match opportunities to vendor profiles; rank and enhance search results; and otherwise improve the quality of the Service and user experience.

• Some of this processing is performed by vetted third-party AI service providers acting as our processors. Our agreements restrict their use of the content to providing services to us.
• We do not use your private content to train publicly available AI models, and we do not permit our AI providers to do so under our service agreements.
• Sealed bid submissions are encrypted before they reach us and are never processed by AI.
• We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you. AI outputs (like summaries and matches) are informational aids — always verify against the official source.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share information only:

• With service providers (processors) who help us operate — hosting and infrastructure, content delivery and security, email delivery, payment processing, and AI processing — under contracts limiting their use of the data to providing services to us;
• Between users, as the product requires:buyers receive vendor submissions and questions on their solicitations (questions are shown to other vendors without the asker's identity until answered, per the product design); vendors see information buyers publish; team and agency members see shared workspace data;
• Publicly, when you publish it: public solicitations, agency profiles, addenda, and published answers are visible to anyone and may be indexed by search engines;
• For legal reasons: to comply with law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable government request; to enforce our Terms; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of BiddingSimple, our users, or the public;
• In a business transfer: in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, in which case this policy will continue to apply to the transferred information; and
• With your direction or consent.

We retain information for as long as your account is active and as needed for the purposes described in this policy, and afterward as necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, maintain security, and preserve the integrity of completed procurements. Records of sealed-bid processes (such as audit trails, receipts, and published solicitations) may be retained after account closure because they document a public process involving other parties. Where deletion is requested, we delete or de-identify data unless retention is required for these purposes.

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect information, including encryption in transit (TLS), hashed passwords, access controls, and network protections. Sealed bid submissions are encrypted in your browser before upload; we store only ciphertext and do not hold plaintext private keys.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your credentials confidential and for the security of your own devices. If we learn of a breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and authorities as required by applicable law.

• Email:digest and alert emails can be configured or turned off in your dashboard settings; marketing emails include an unsubscribe link. Transactional emails (receipts, security notices, procurement notifications you're a party to) are part of the Service.
• Profile and content: you can view and edit your account, capability profile, and agency profile in the product, and delete saved bids, follows, and other content you control.
• Cookies: you can control cookies through your browser settings; blocking strictly necessary cookies may break sign-in.
• Account deletion: email [email protected] to close your account and request deletion, subject to the retention section above.

Depending on your jurisdiction (including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and other US states with privacy laws, and, if applicable to you, the EEA/UK), you may have rights to: know/access the personal information we hold about you; correct inaccuracies; delete personal information; obtain a portable copy; and opt out of sale, sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising, and certain profiling. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not use sensitive personal information for purposes requiring a right to limit.

To exercise rights, email [email protected] with the request and the account email. We will verify your request (typically by confirming control of the account email), respond within the time required by law, and will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. Authorized agents may submit requests with proof of authorization. If we decline a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision, and, where applicable, contact your state attorney general or supervisory authority.

California notice:in the last 12 months we have collected the categories described in Section 2 (identifiers, commercial information, internet activity, professional information, and user content), for the purposes in Section 3, disclosed only as described in Section 5 (service providers and product-required disclosures), and have not sold or shared personal information. We honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals where legally required; because we don't sell or share data, there is nothing further to opt out of.

The Service is not directed to children and may not be used by anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or the age required by your jurisdiction). If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

BiddingSimple is operated by Interesting Bids Inc., a Canadian corporation, and the Service is intended for US public procurement. Our infrastructure and service providers are primarily located in the United States, so information is transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States (and may be accessed from Canada), where privacy laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for such transfers.

As a Canadian organization, we handle personal information in a manner consistent with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and its fair-information principles, including accountability, limiting collection, and safeguards. Canadian users may direct questions or complaints to us at the contact below and, if unresolved, to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date above reflects the current version. For material changes we will provide reasonable notice (such as email or an in-product notice). Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

For privacy questions or requests: Interesting Bids Inc. (doing business as BiddingSimple) — [email protected], or via the support page.