Privacy Policy · Briefly

Briefly ("Briefly," "we," "us," or "our") is operated by Colton McKinney. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect through our website at brieflyforbusiness.com (the "Site") and through the Briefly Shift Line text-message service (the "Service"), how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have.

This policy covers three groups of people:

Visitors and applicants: people who visit the Site, apply for the Briefly beta, or email us.
Businesses: owners and managers of businesses that use Briefly.
Team members: employees of a Business who receive texts from, or send texts to, that Business's Briefly Shift Line.

When a Business gives us information about its team members, we process that information on the Business's behalf and only to provide the Service to that Business.

1. Information we collect

Information you give us

When you apply for the beta, we collect your name, email address, and mobile phone number, and, if you choose to provide them, your shop name, team size, and how you handle callouts today. When you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write.

When a team member signs up for a Shift Line on the Site, we collect their name, mobile number, and workplace, along with a record of their consent: the exact wording they agreed to, the page they used, and when.

Information a Business gives us

To set up the Service, a Business provides its business name and time zone, the owner's name and mobile number, each participating team member's name and mobile number, weekly shift schedules, and settings such as how long to wait before notifying the owner.

Information created when the Service runs

When people text a Briefly Shift Line, we collect and store:

The content of text messages sent to and from the line.
The phone numbers involved, timestamps, and delivery status or errors.
Shift activity, such as who called out of which shift, who was asked to cover it, how each person replied, and who ended up covering it.
Opt-out and opt-in requests, and when they were made.
Message identifiers from our text message provider, which we use to avoid processing the same message twice.

If someone who isn't on a Business's team texts a Briefly Shift Line, we store their number and message and reply to say the number isn't registered.

Information collected automatically

Our providers log technical information, such as IP address, browser type, and request times, to deliver the Site and Service and keep them secure. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies. Our hosting provider may set strictly necessary cookies that protect the Site from abuse. The Site loads fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address and browser information when a page loads.

2. Sensitive information

Briefly never asks why someone can't make a shift, and team members don't need to say. If a text includes health or other sensitive details (for example, "I'm sick"), we store it only as part of the message log and use it only to run and troubleshoot the Service. We never pass the reason on: coworkers and the owner are told only that the person can't make the shift. The optional AI wording feature described below never receives it either.

3. How we use information

To run the Service: recognizing who is texting, finding the right shift, asking available team members to cover it, telling everyone involved the outcome, notifying the owner, and honoring opt-outs.
To run the beta: reviewing applications, contacting you by email, phone call, or a personal text about your application, scheduling demos, and setting up your Business.
To keep things reliable and secure: troubleshooting, preventing duplicate or forged messages, and detecting misuse.
To improve the Service: understanding how Briefly is working for beta Businesses, including reviewing message logs to find and fix problems.
To comply with the law and enforce our Terms of Service.

We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use team member information for advertising, to build profiles, or for any business other than the one that provided it.

4. Optional AI message wording

Briefly can optionally use an AI model provided by Anthropic to reword our outgoing text messages so they read more naturally. When this feature is on, we send only the text of our own outgoing message to Anthropic, under Anthropic's commercial terms. That text may include first names and shift times. We never send Anthropic the messages people text to Briefly, and never the reason someone gave for a callout. Welcome and opt-out messages are never reworded.

AI never decides who is asked to cover a shift, who gets it, or when an owner is notified. Those decisions follow fixed rules. If a reworded message leaves out a required detail, we send our original wording instead.

5. How we share information

We share information only as described here.

With the Business you work with

Shift activity involving a team member is shared with that team member's Business. For example, the owner is told who called out and who is covering. The reason a team member gives for a callout is not shared.

With service providers

We use service providers that handle information for us so we can run the Site and Service:

Provider	What they do for us
Twilio	Sends and receives text messages, and processes STOP and START requests
Render	Hosts the Service and its database
Cloudflare	Hosts and protects the Site, and forwards email sent to our address
Google	Receives email forwarded from our address (Gmail), and delivers the Site's fonts (Google Fonts)
Formspree	Receives beta applications and team member sign-ups submitted on the Site
Anthropic	Optional rewording of our outgoing messages, as described above

For legal reasons and business transfers

We may disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Briefly, our users, or others. If Briefly is transferred to a company we form to run it, or is part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that, and this policy will continue to apply to it.

Text messaging. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties, excluding aggregators and providers of the text message services we use to deliver messages.

6. How long we keep information

Beta applications are kept while we evaluate applications and run the beta, then deleted within 12 months after the beta ends, or sooner if you ask.
Service data, including message history and shift activity, is kept while the Business uses Briefly and deleted within 90 days after the Business stops using Briefly, unless the law requires us to keep it longer. Our hosting provider's short-term backups may keep a copy for a short time after that before it is overwritten.
Consent records (sign-ups and copies of consent forms) are kept while the person is on a Shift Line and for four years after, as proof of consent.
Opt-out records (a phone number and the date it opted out) are kept even after other data is deleted, so we can keep honoring them.
Emails are kept as long as needed to respond and for our business records.

7. Security

We use reasonable safeguards to protect information, including encrypted connections to the Site and Service, verifying that incoming text messages are signed by our text message provider, and limiting who can access stored data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Your choices and rights

Stop text messages: reply STOP to any message from a Briefly Shift Line, or tell us in your own words, for example "please stop texting me." See our SMS Terms.
Access, correct, or delete your information: email us at hello@brieflyforbusiness.com. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we will respond within 45 days. If we hold your information on behalf of a Business, we may work with that Business to respond. Deleting a team member's number means that person won't receive coverage requests.
State privacy rights: depending on where you live, including California, you may have rights to know what personal information we collect, to request its deletion or correction, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. We honor these requests from anyone, whether or not a particular law requires it of a business our size. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
Do Not Track: we don't track visitors over time or across other websites, so we don't respond differently to Do Not Track signals. We don't allow third parties to collect information about your activity across other websites through our Site. The only third parties that receive information when you visit are the providers that deliver the Site and its fonts (Cloudflare and Google), as described above.

9. Children

The Site and Service are meant for businesses and their team members. They are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Some team members may be minors of legal working age. We collect only the information their employer provides to run the Service. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Where information is processed

Briefly is operated from the United States, and we store information in the United States. Some of our providers may process information in other countries while delivering their services. For example, Cloudflare delivers the Site from locations around the world.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date above. If the changes are significant, we will let Businesses and applicants know by email before they take effect.

12. Contact us

Colton McKinney
hello@brieflyforbusiness.com