Draft: this text is still being reviewed by a lawyer.
Privacy statement
Cadence helps teams rate and improve their ceremonies, with privacy as its starting point. This statement explains which data Cadence processes, why, for how long, and which rights you have. Cadence is provided by legal name, trading as TimeInvest, KvK KvK number, address (TimeInvest, we). This is a translation of the Dutch version; if the two differ, the Dutch version prevails.
1. Who is responsible?
That depends on the data.
- Data in Cadence. Your employer or client uses Cadence for its teams. That organisation decides what Cadence is used for and is the controller. TimeInvest is the processor: we process the data only on that organisation’s behalf, according to our data processing agreement. If you have a question about your data in Cadence, or want to exercise a right, it is best to go to your own organisation first. We help that organisation with it.
- Our own data. For data we process for ourselves, such as customers’ contact details and invoices and the messages you send us, TimeInvest is the controller.
2. How Cadence handles privacy
Cadence is built to need to know as little as possible about people.
- Ratings of ceremonies are anonymous. Cadence records *that* you rated a ceremony, but stores your score without your name and without a time. While a ceremony is still collecting ratings, your score is kept apart from your name; after that it can no longer be traced to you.
- Results only for groups. A score is shown only once at least 5 people have answered, and stored only once at least 3 have. Teams are never ranked against each other.
- Notes without an author. A note with a rating is stored with the team and the ceremony, not with you.
- Optional functions are off. AI assistance, the analysis of meeting transcripts and the Meeting Persona Assessment work only if your organisation switches them on.
- Data stays in the EU. Cadence runs in data centres in the European Union. The exceptions are in section 6.
On the Your data page in Cadence you see exactly what is recorded about you.
3. Which data Cadence processes
| Data | Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Name, work email address, language, teams and role | Your account, signing in, making your teams work | Legitimate interest of your organisation; performance of the agreement |
| Sign-in details: the link with your Microsoft or Google account, or an encrypted hash of your password and your two-step sign-in settings | Signing in securely | As above |
| That you rated a ceremony (without the score) | Calculating the response rate | Legitimate interest of your organisation |
| Notes, impediments, actions and their owners | Following up retrospectives and improvements | Legitimate interest of your organisation |
| Personal notes your Scrum Master or coach keeps about you | Coaching | Legitimate interest of your organisation; you can see them |
| Answers to pulse checks (anonymous by default) | Gauging how the team is doing | Legitimate interest of your organisation |
| Absence dates (never a reason) | Planning the team’s capacity | Legitimate interest of your organisation |
| Data from connected services, such as sprints and work items from Jira or Azure DevOps (no titles or descriptions) | The team’s delivery figures | Legitimate interest of your organisation |
| An audit log of important actions, such as who viewed which team data | Security and accountability | Legitimate interest; legal obligation |
| Optional: your Meeting Persona Assessment result | Insight into your own meeting style; only you see your result | Your choice to take part |
| Optional: features of meeting transcripts, without names | Summaries, decisions and suggested actions | Legitimate interest; only if your organisation switches it on, with the works council’s consent |
For our own customer relationship we process the name, email address and billing details of the customer’s contact person (basis: performance of the agreement and the legal retention obligation), and the messages you send us (basis: legitimate interest, so that we can help you).
4. How long data is kept
Cadence deletes data automatically according to these periods. Your organisation can have data deleted earlier.
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| A score awaiting release (apart from your name) | at most 2 days |
| Anonymous ratings of ceremonies | 5 years |
| Notes with ceremonies | 3 years |
| Personal and coaching notes | 1 year |
| Impediments and actions | 3 years |
| Response records (that you answered) | 3 years |
| Absence dates | 1 year |
| Delivery data from connected services | 3 years (raw synchronised data: 90 days) |
| Anonymous answers to pulse checks | 3 years |
| Named answers to pulse checks | 90 days |
| Meeting Persona Assessment result | 12 months |
| Team persona overviews (counts only) | 3 years |
| Features of meeting transcripts | 2 years (the transcript text itself: at most 4 hours) |
| Team memberships and the audit log | 7 years |
| Encrypted backups | 14 days |
| Invoices and billing details (TimeInvest) | 7 years, because of the tax retention obligation |
When an organisation stops using Cadence, all its data is deleted 30 days after the request. After that, only a record of the deletion remains: the organisation’s name, the dates and the number of deleted records.
5. Who can see the data
- In your organisation: what you see depends on your role. Your Scrum Master sees your team’s results, never who gave which score. Administrators manage accounts and privacy requests.
- At TimeInvest: in our admin console our staff see, per organisation, only settings and counts, never the people or the content. Access to the servers is limited to a few administrators, with a personal key, and only when needed for management or security.
- Sub-processors: parties that help us provide Cadence, such as our hosting provider. You find them on the Sub-processors page.
We do not sell data, do not use it for advertising and do not train AI models with it.
6. Data outside the EU
Cadence itself runs in the EU. Two exceptions:
- Payments go through our payment provider, listed on the Sub-processors page. Where that provider can transfer the billing contact’s data outside the EU, it does so on the basis of the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
- Connections your organisation switches on itself, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams or an AI provider, send data to that service. Your organisation chooses those services and has its own agreement with them. Cadence only suggests an AI provider that is hosted in the EU.
7. Security
Among other things, we protect data with encrypted connections (https), passwords stored only as a strong hash, two-step sign-in, strict separation of organisations in the database, encrypted backups also kept at a second location, automatic security updates, an audit log, and as few people with access as possible. More detail is in the annex to the data processing agreement.
8. Cookies and storage in your browser
Cadence uses only functional cookies: to keep you signed in, to protect forms against misuse, and temporarily while signing in. There are no cookies for statistics or advertising, and no trackers of others. That is why we do not ask for cookie consent.
In your browser, Cadence also keeps a few preferences, such as your theme and language, and the Your notes list, with which you follow your own anonymous notes. That list is only on your device. You receive push notifications only if you switch them on yourself.
9. Your rights
You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection. For your data in Cadence, you make a request to your own organisation, for example through Your data in Cadence. Your organisation answers within 30 days; we help with that. We cannot link ratings to you, not even on request: they were never stored linked to you.
For data TimeInvest itself is responsible for, contact us at email address.
If you disagree with how we handle your data, you can lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, or with the authority in your own country. We would like to hear it first, so that we can solve it.
10. Changes
We update this statement when Cadence or the law changes. For important changes, we tell the administrators of customer organisations in advance. The date of the latest version is at the bottom.
11. Contact
TimeInvest · address · email address · KvK KvK number
Version 1.0 · effective date