Wie wir Ihre personenbezogenen Daten erheben, verwenden und schützen
Version: 30 September 2026
This privacy policy explains which personal data we process when you use Proposal Expert, why we do so, how long we keep it and what rights you have. We have tried to describe it as precisely as possible. If something you want to know is not covered, please ask your question via the contact form.
1. Who we are
Proposal Expert is the trade name under which this service is offered. In this policy we call that "we". You can reach us via the contact form at proposal.expert/contact.
We do not have a data protection officer, because this is not mandatory for an organisation like ours. We handle privacy questions ourselves.
The service is currently offered as a free beta.
2. Two roles: controller and processor
We process personal data in two roles. The difference determines who you should contact.
We are the controller for the data we process for ourselves. That covers your account, logging in, the security of the service, payments, our own e-mails, contact with us and the use of our website. This privacy policy applies in full to that data.
We are a processor for the data that customers put into Proposal Expert themselves. Think of the content of proposals, the details of their clients and contacts, and the details of people who view or sign a proposal. For that data, the customer who sends the proposal is the controller. We only process it on their instructions, in accordance with Part C of our terms and conditions. Section 4 describes what we do in that role.
If you have received a proposal and want to know what happens to your data, please contact the sender first. If a request reaches us, we forward it to the sender.
3. What data we process as controller
For each topic you can read which data is involved, what we use it for and on which legal basis under the GDPR this happens. How long we keep it is set out in section 8.
3.1 Your account
Data: name, e-mail address, a hash of your password, company name, profile photo if you add one, language, time zone and your settings. If you have two-step verification switched on, we store the secret of your authenticator app in encrypted form, and your backup codes as a hash.
Purpose: to create your account, let you log in and provide the service.
Legal basis: the contract with you.
3.2 The questions when you sign up
Data: your answers to the questions when you sign up, such as your role, the size of your team, how often you create proposals, what problems you run into and how you found us.
Purpose: to tailor the service to your situation and to understand who uses Proposal Expert.
Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a service that meets what users need.
3.3 Your acceptance of the terms
Data: the version of the terms you accepted, the time, your IP address, your browser and the place where you gave your acceptance (when signing up, with an invitation or after a new version).
Purpose: to be able to prove that and when you accepted our terms and this privacy policy.
Legal basis: our legitimate interest in being able to prove an agreement if a dispute about it arises later.
3.4 Security and preventing abuse
A service that processes proposals and signatures must be well secured. For that purpose we process the following.
Logging in: each time you log in, we store the time, your IP address, your browser, the country that belongs to your IP address and an identifier of your device. That identifier is a hash of a combination of your browser type, your operating system, part of your network address and your language setting. If someone logs in from a new device or country, we send you an e-mail to ask whether that was you.
Security events: failed login attempts, blocked requests and other suspicious activity, with IP address, browser and time. In the case of repeated suspicious activity we block an IP address automatically, temporarily or permanently. For this we also use public lists of known malicious addresses. We refuse requests from countries subject to sanctions, based on the country of the IP address.
Checks when you sign up: to prevent someone from creating new free accounts over and over, we check when you sign up whether an e-mail address is a disposable address. We store a normalised form of the e-mail address, the IP address and a hash of an identifier of your browser, which your browser calculates itself. For free e-mail addresses there is a limit of two accounts per IP address per 30 days.
Passwords: when you choose a password, we check whether it appears in known data breaches. For this we send only the first five characters of a hash of your password to the Have I Been Pwned service. Your password itself never leaves our server.
Log: important actions, such as changes to security and permissions, are recorded in a log that cannot be changed unnoticed, together with who performed the action, the IP address and the browser.
Error reports: if something goes wrong in the app or on the server, we store the error message, the page and your browser. We remove e-mail addresses, tokens and other sensitive data from the report before we store it.
Alerts to our team: security alerts may contain an IP address, e-mail address or user ID. We receive them by e-mail and via Slack.
Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a secure service and in preventing fraud and abuse. In part it is also a legal obligation, because the GDPR requires us to secure personal data properly.
3.5 Payments
Data: your name or the name of your workspace, your e-mail address, your billing address and, where applicable, your VAT number. Payments are handled by Stripe. Your card details never reach us. We only store the Stripe references, the subscription and the amounts.
Purpose: to charge for your subscription and to keep proper accounts.
Legal basis: the contract with you, and our legal obligation to keep accounting records.
During the beta, payment is still switched off.
3.6 Contact with us
Contact form: your name, your e-mail address and your message end up in our mailbox. You receive a confirmation by e-mail. We do not store the message in the database of the service.
Chat in the app: we store messages, attachments and the status of the conversation. If you write in a language other than Dutch or English, we have your message translated automatically by an AI service, so that our team can read it.
Reports of illegal content: if you report content, we use your name, e-mail address and report to handle the report and to inform you of our decision.
Legal basis: our legitimate interest in answering questions, the contract where it concerns your account, and a legal obligation for reports of illegal content.
3.7 E-mails from us
Service e-mails: such as confirming your e-mail address, codes for two-step verification, password recovery, notifications about your proposals and the alert about a new device. Legal basis: the contract with you, and our legitimate interest in security.
E-mails with tips after signing up: in the first two weeks after you sign up, we may send you a few e-mails about using Proposal Expert. We tell you this when you sign up, and you can already refuse it there. Every e-mail contains a link to unsubscribe. Legal basis: our legitimate interest, within the rules for e-mail to existing customers (the soft opt-in).
What we keep track of: for each e-mail we store whether it was delivered, whether a link was clicked, the subject and the type of e-mail. Your e-mail address is only included as a hash and in masked form. E-mails sent since 26 September 2026 do not contain an invisible image to measure whether they were opened.
Addresses that do not work: an address to which an e-mail cannot be delivered, or that marks us as spam, is put on a list so that we no longer send e-mail to it.
3.8 Downloading examples and templates
Data: if you download an example or template as a Word file, we store your e-mail address, your consent together with the text you saw, your language, which file you downloaded and from which page, your browser and a hash of your IP address.
Purpose: to send you the link to the file and then to send you no more than three e-mails with tips. Every e-mail contains a link to unsubscribe.
Legal basis: your consent. Without consent we do not send the file. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
3.9 Usage statistics
In the app: which pages and features you use, and how quickly the app loads. We only record this if you gave consent for it via the cookie banner or your profile settings. Legal basis: your consent.
How you found us: when you create an account, we store through which campaign, referring website or search ad you arrived, which page you landed on and whether you downloaded something earlier. Your browser keeps track of this data during your visit, only in the tab you have open. We do not share it with anyone. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in knowing which channels work.
Academy: we count how often an article is read. This happens without recognising you.
We do not use third-party analytics services or advertising trackers, such as Google Analytics or an advertising pixel.
3.10 AI features
Data: if you use an AI feature, for example to write, improve or translate a text or to assess a proposal, we send the text needed for that to Google Gemini. We use the paid version. Google does not use the data from it to improve its models and keeps it only for a short time to detect abuse.
Own AI key: a workspace can also connect its own key from Google, OpenAI or Anthropic. The text then goes to that provider, under the agreements the workspace itself has with that provider.
Security: we check what you ask an AI feature for attempts to misuse the AI. If we find such an attempt, we store a snippet of the text, with your user ID, IP address and browser.
We do not use your data to train AI models.
Legal basis: the contract with you, and for security our legitimate interest.
3.11 Logging in through your organisation and integrations
Single sign-on: if your organisation logs in via SAML, we store the user ID that your organisation sends along and the details that were provided with the most recent login.
Integrations: a workspace can connect Proposal Expert to, for example, a CRM, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zapier or Make. Which data goes there is decided by the workspace itself by switching that integration on. This falls under section 4.
Legal basis: the contract with you or with your organisation.
4. Data in proposals, from recipients and from signers
For this data we are a processor. The customer who creates and sends the proposal is the controller. We only process the data to provide the service to that customer, in accordance with Part C of our terms and conditions.
Content of proposals: texts, prices, attachments, images and comments, and the details of clients and contacts that the customer enters.
Sharing: name, e-mail address and company of the recipient. If the recipient has still not opened a proposal after a few days, the sender can have no more than two reminders sent to them. A recipient can unsubscribe from these.
Viewing: if you open a proposal that has been shared with you personally, the sender can see when you viewed it, for how long, which parts you read and how far you scrolled. We only store your IP address, your browser and an identifier of your visit if you gave consent for this. On a shared proposal we do not set cookies and we do not store anything permanently in your browser. This is also stated on the page itself.
Comments: if you post a comment on a proposal, we store your name, your e-mail address and your comment.
Signing: if you sign a proposal, we record evidence. That consists of your name, e-mail address, company and job title if you fill them in, your signature, a hash of the verification code you received by e-mail, your IP address, your browser, the city and country that belong to your IP address, the time, a hash of the signed document and a timestamp from an independent service. We determine the city on our own server, without giving your IP address to another party.
Integrations: data goes to a CRM, Slack, Teams or a webhook if the customer has switched that integration on. Think of the name of a signer in a notification.
How long this data is kept is mainly decided by the customer. Proposals and signatures remain in place as long as the customer does not delete them and their account or workspace exists. Statistics and logs are cleaned up after the periods in section 8.
If you have a question or a request about this data, please contact the sender of the proposal. We help the sender to handle your request.
5. Cookies and storage in your browser
Cookies
pe_consent: your choice in the cookie banner. Kept for 1 year. This cookie is needed to remember your choice.
pe_visitor_id: a random code to count visits. Only if you gave consent for statistics. Kept for 1 year.
pe_oauth_state: a temporary check code while a CRM is being connected. Needed for the security of that connection.
Storage in your browser
To keep you logged in, we store your login token in your browser's local storage. We also store your language choice, your settings, display preferences and drafts you are working on there. This is needed to make the app work as you expect.
During your visit, your browser keeps track in the current tab of how you arrived (see 3.9), and of the password of a protected shared proposal, so that you do not have to enter it again and again. This data disappears when you close the tab.
From third parties
If a customer embeds a video from YouTube, Vimeo or Loom in a proposal, your browser loads that video from that party. For YouTube we use the version without cookies. For Vimeo and Loom their own rules apply.
We do not load advertising tags or analytics services from third parties.
You can always change your cookie choice via the cookie banner or your profile settings.
6. Who we share data with
We do not sell personal data and do not use it for advertising.
We work with the following sub-processors. They process data on our instructions and are bound by agreements that are at least as strict as this policy.
Railway: Hosting der Anwendung, der Hintergrundjobs und der Datenbank.
Cloudflare: Content Delivery, DDoS-Schutz und Web-Firewall vor der Website sowie Speicherung unserer externen Datenbank-Backups. Wir verschlüsseln die Backups vor dem Hochladen, daher kann Cloudflare sie nicht lesen.
Resend: Versand von E-Mails: Anmeldecodes, geteilte Angebote, Signaturanfragen und Benachrichtigungen.
Google (Gemini API): KI-Funktionen: Schreiben, Entwürfe, Bewertung, Analyse und Übersetzung von Support-Chat-Nachrichten.
Stripe: Abonnementabrechnung und Rechnungen. Kartendaten gehen direkt an Stripe und erreichen nie unsere Server.
Slack: Sicherheits- und Betriebswarnungen an unser eigenes Team.
KI-Funktionen wie AI Write, KI-Entwürfe, Bewertung und Analyse senden den Text, mit dem sie arbeiten, an die Gemini API von Google. Dieser Text kann personenbezogene Daten aus Ihrem Angebot enthalten, etwa Namen und Kontaktdaten von Kunden. Es wird nichts gesendet, solange niemand eine KI-Funktion nutzt. Google verarbeitet den Text als unser Unterauftragsverarbeiter. Wir nutzen die kostenpflichtige Gemini API. Nach deren Bedingungen verwendet Google Prompts und Antworten nicht zur Verbesserung seiner Produkte und speichert sie nur für begrenzte Zeit, um Missbrauch zu erkennen. Wir verwenden Ihre Inhalte nicht zum Training von KI-Modellen. Wenn Ihr Workspace einen eigenen KI-Schlüssel verwendet, geht das Schreiben mit KI an den von Ihnen gewählten Anbieter. Bewertung und Chat-Übersetzung nutzen weiterhin Gemini.
The full list, showing for each party which data it receives, where it is processed and which safeguard applies, is available at proposal.expert/subprocessors.
Apart from that, we only share data:
With services that a workspace connects itself, such as a CRM or a payment service.
With an authority or a court if the law requires us to do so.
With a party that takes over and continues the service. We will let you know in advance if that happens.
7. Data outside the European Union
The service and the database run in the European Union, in a data centre in Amsterdam. Some sub-processors also process data outside the European Economic Area, such as Resend for e-mail in the United States. This only happens with an appropriate safeguard: an adequacy decision of the European Commission, such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or the Standard Contractual Clauses of the European Commission. The safeguard for each sub-processor is listed at proposal.expert/subprocessors.
8. How long we keep data
We do not keep data longer than necessary. These are the retention periods:
Account: as long as your account exists. If you request deletion, you have a 30-day cooling-off period. After that we delete your data or make it anonymous.
Payment details and invoices: 7 years, because the law requires us to keep our accounting records for that long.
Proof of your acceptance of the terms: 5 years after acceptance, even if you delete your account earlier. That is the statutory limitation period under Dutch law within which a claim relating to a contract can still be brought against us.
Checks when you sign up: 12 months, also after an account is deleted, to prevent abuse through new free accounts.
Sign-ups that were not completed: 90 days.
Login sessions: 90 days.
Security events: 180 days.
Temporary IP blocks: up to 7 days. Permanent in the case of serious abuse.
Log of important actions: IP address, browser and e-mail address deleted after 1 year, the entire log after 2 years.
Error reports: 90 days after an error last occurred.
Use of the app: made anonymous after 90 days, deleted after 180 days.
Statistics on viewing proposals: made anonymous or deleted after 180 days.
Chat conversations: 1 year. Attachments 90 days after a conversation is closed, otherwise 180 days.
E-mail log: stripped of data that can be traced back to you after 13 months, deleted after 25 months.
Downloads of examples and templates: 24 months, or shorter if you unsubscribe. If you create an account, the data becomes part of your account.
Record of your cookie choice: your choice for as long as it applies. IP address and browser deleted after 1 year.
Security checks of AI features: 180 days.
Messages sent through an integration (webhooks): 30 days.
Export files you request: 7 days.
Backups: we keep backups of the database for no more than 30 days. Deleted data may therefore still be in a backup for up to 30 days.
Workspace administrators can adjust a number of these periods in their organisation's settings, with a minimum of 30 days. If a free account has been inactive for 12 months, our terms allow us to delete it, after a warning by e-mail.
9. Security
We protect personal data with appropriate measures. A few examples:
All connections are encrypted. Integration credentials, secrets for two-step verification and backups are stored in encrypted form.
We only store passwords as a hash. Two-step verification is switched on by default.
Workspaces are separated from each other, and within a workspace roles determine who can do what.
Important actions are recorded in a log that cannot be changed unnoticed.
No security is completely watertight. If you discover a weakness, please report it via the contact form.
10. Automated decisions
We do not make decisions about you that are taken solely by a computer and that have legal effects or similarly significant effects for you. We do take security measures automatically. We block an IP address after suspicious activity, we refuse a sign-up that looks like abuse, and we refuse requests from countries subject to sanctions. If you are wrongly blocked as a result, please let us know via the contact form. Someone from our team will then look into it.
11. Your rights
You have the following rights:
Access: you can download a copy of your data via your profile settings. You receive an Excel file with your profile, settings, proposals, clients, login sessions, chats, consents, your acceptance of the terms and more. If you want to see data that is not in that file, please ask us.
Rectification: you can change most data yourself in your profile. If that does not work, please ask us.
Erasure: you can delete your account via your profile settings. After that you have a 30-day cooling-off period. Some data we are required or allowed to keep for longer, for example for our accounting records or as evidence. That data is listed in section 8.
Restriction: you can ask us not to use your data for a while, for example while we investigate a complaint.
Objection: if we process data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can object to this. You can always object to e-mails with tips, using the unsubscribe link in every e-mail.
Portability: the Excel file from your profile settings is a common format that you can take with you to another service.
Withdrawing consent: you withdraw consent for cookies and statistics via the cookie banner or your profile settings, and consent for e-mails via the unsubscribe link. What we did before you withdrew it remains lawful.
For the rights you cannot exercise yourself in the app, please use the contact form. We respond within one month. To prevent someone else from requesting your data, we may ask you to confirm your identity, for example with a code we send to the e-mail address of your account.
If it concerns data in a proposal you have received, the sender is your first point of contact. See section 4.
If you do not agree with how we handle your data, you can lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens), via autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl. If you live in another country of the European Union, you can also do so with the supervisory authority in that country. We would appreciate it if you contacted us first.
12. What you need to provide
We cannot create an account without a name, e-mail address and password. For a paid subscription we also need billing details. Other data is not mandatory. If you do not provide it, some features will not work or will work less well.
13. Age
Proposal Expert is intended for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly process data of children.
14. Changes
We update this policy when our service or the law changes. The date of the version that applies is shown at the top. If there is an important change, we will let you know in the app.
15. Open-source components
Proposal Expert uses open-source software. You can obtain a list of the components and their licences on request via the contact form.
16. Contact
For questions about privacy and to exercise your rights, please use the contact form at proposal.expert/contact.