Who we are
FormsBat is a service for building forms and surveys, turning answers into documents and collecting e-signatures. It is run by FormsBat ("we", "us" or "our") at formsbat.com.
This policy explains what personal data we handle, why, who helps us and the choices and rights you have. It applies to our website, the FormsBat app, our API and MCP server, and the forms and signing pages we host for our customers.
Our two roles
For account holders, we are the controller. When you create an account, use the app or contact us, we decide how that data is used, and this policy describes it.
For form respondents and signers, the form owner is the controller. When someone fills in a form or signs a document that a FormsBat customer created, the customer (the "form owner") decides what is collected and why. We act as their processor (a "service provider" under California law) and handle that data only to provide the service to them, under our Terms of service. If you filled in a form, see If you filled in a form or signed a document below.
What we collect
Account data
Your username, name and email address, your password (stored only as a salted hash, never in readable form), your plan, settings, workspaces and the people you invite to them, and API keys (stored only as hashes). If you turn on two-factor sign in, we store the secret it needs and hashes of your recovery codes.
Content you create
Forms, questions, themes, document templates, files in your Drive, generated documents, envelopes you send for signature and the settings that go with them.
Form responses
The answers, files, photos, payments and signatures that respondents send through forms, together with the technical details we need to deliver the response and to protect forms from spam and abuse, such as the time, the network (IP) address and the browser. This data belongs to the form owner and we process it on their behalf.
Uploaded files and photos
Files are kept in private storage that only the owner and the people they share with can open. Before a photo uploaded to a form is stored, we remove its hidden metadata, including GPS location, camera details and dates (EXIF, XMP and IPTC). SVG images are cleaned of scripts.
Signatures and audit trails
When a document is signed, we record each signer's name and email address, their signature (drawn, typed or uploaded), the network (IP) address and browser (user agent) they used, the time of each step, and cryptographic hashes (SHA-256) of the document. This audit trail is sealed into the signed PDF so the signature can be checked later.
Payment data
Payments for FormsBat plans and payments collected through forms are handled by Stripe. Card details go directly to Stripe; FormsBat never receives or stores full card numbers. We keep the Stripe customer and subscription references, your plan, and the status and amounts of invoices.
Analytics and logs
We count form statistics (views, starts and completions) on our own servers, without cookies and without third party scripts. Public forms, embedded forms and forms on custom domains never load any analytics or advertising scripts.
On our own website and app (formsbat.com), we use Google Analytics through Google Tag Manager to understand how FormsBat is used and to improve it, but only if you accept analytics cookies in the cookie banner. It collects the pages you visit, how you got there, your device, browser and screen size, and your approximate location (country or city, from a shortened network address). It never sees the contents of your forms, the answers to them, your files or your documents. If you decline, or never choose, it does not load. You can change your choice at any time with "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page. Your choice is remembered for 12 months.
Our servers also keep technical logs (requests, network addresses and errors) to keep the service secure and working.
Messages
When you email us or use support, we keep the messages and what is needed to answer them.
How we use data
- To provide FormsBat: hosting forms, saving responses, building documents, running e-signatures, storing files and sending the emails the service needs (verification, password reset, signature requests, reminders and notifications).
- To keep the service safe: preventing spam, fraud and abuse, enforcing our Terms, and investigating security issues.
- To handle plans, billing, taxes and refunds.
- To answer questions and give support.
- To understand how FormsBat is used in aggregate and to improve it.
- To comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.
Optional AI features (for example creating a form from a description, or asking questions about a document) send only the content you give that feature to AI service providers so they can produce the result. We do not use your content or your respondents' data to train AI models.
We do not sell personal data, we do not share it for cross context behavioural advertising, and we do not use it for profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects.
Legal bases
Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on these legal bases for the data we control:
- Contract: to provide the account and the service you signed up for.
- Legitimate interests: to keep FormsBat secure, prevent spam and abuse, and improve the service. We balance these interests against your rights, and you can object.
- Consent: where we ask for it, for example for optional emails. You can withdraw consent at any time.
- Legal obligation: for example keeping invoices for tax law.
For form responses, the form owner is responsible for having a legal basis to collect them.
Subprocessors
We use a small number of trusted providers to run FormsBat. Each one only receives the data it needs for its job and is bound by a contract that protects it.
| Provider | Purpose | Data involved |
|---|---|---|
| Fly.io | Hosting of the application servers | All data the app handles, while it is processed |
| MongoDB Atlas | Database | Accounts, forms, responses, envelopes and audit records |
| Cloudflare R2 | File storage | Uploaded files, generated documents and signed PDFs |
| Resend | Email delivery | Recipient addresses and the content of service emails |
| Stripe | Payments and billing | Billing details, card data (collected by Stripe directly) and invoices |
| Google (Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager) | Website analytics, only after you accept analytics cookies; never on public forms | Pages visited, device and browser details, approximate location and a random analytics id |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Spam protection on forms that turn it on | Browser signals and network address of the visitor |
| AI service providers | Optional AI features | Only the text or files you send to an AI feature |
We will update this list before we add or replace a subprocessor. Customers who have a data processing agreement with us can ask to be told about changes in advance.
International transfers
We are based in Ontario, Canada. Our providers may store or process data in the United States, Canada, the European Union and other countries. When personal data from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland is transferred to a country without an adequacy decision, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK addendum) or the provider's certification under the EU and US Data Privacy Framework.
Retention and deletion
- Your account: kept until you delete it. Deleting your account in Account settings cancels any subscription and removes your forms and their responses, files, envelopes, templates, API keys, webhooks, custom domains and sessions.
- Form responses: kept until the form owner deletes them, the form, or their account.
- Drive trash: files you move to the trash are deleted for good after 30 days.
- Form analytics events: deleted automatically after about 400 days.
- Sessions: expire after 14 days or when you sign out. Changing or resetting your password ends every session.
- Signed documents and audit trails: kept in the owner's Drive until they delete them, because they are evidence of the signature.
- Billing records: kept as long as tax and accounting laws require (in Canada, generally six years).
- Logs: kept for a short time for security and troubleshooting, then deleted.
- Backups: deleted data can stay in encrypted backups until the backup cycle replaces them. Backups are only used to restore the service.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you have rights over your personal data. We honour the following for everyone, wherever the law allows:
- GDPR and UK GDPR (Europe and the UK): access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, objection to processing based on legitimate interests, withdrawal of consent, and the right to complain to your data protection authority.
- CCPA and CPRA (California): to know what we collect and why, to access, correct and delete it, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. We do not sell or share personal data for advertising and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics, so there is nothing to opt out of. You can use an authorized agent.
- PIPEDA (Canada): access and correction, withdrawal of consent, and the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
You can see, change, export and delete most of your data yourself in the app. For anything else, email [email protected]. We may need to confirm who you are before we act, and we reply within 30 days (or sooner where the law requires).
If you filled in a form or signed a document
The organization or person who owns the form or sent the document decides what happens to your answers. To access, correct or delete them, please contact them directly; their name and contact details are usually on the form, in the email you received or on your confirmation. If you cannot reach them, email [email protected] with the form's address and we will pass your request on and help the form owner respond. We cannot change a form owner's data without their instruction, except where the law requires it.
Security
All traffic uses TLS (HTTPS). Data is encrypted at rest by our database and storage providers. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes, two-factor sign in is available, and signed PDFs are sealed so any later change can be detected. Read more on our Security page.
Children
FormsBat is not meant for people under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data for our own purposes. If you think a child has given us personal data, email [email protected] and we will delete it. Form owners who collect data about children through their forms are responsible for getting any parental consent the law requires.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as FormsBat changes or the law changes. We will post the new version here and update the effective date. If a change is significant, we will tell account holders by email or in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Questions or requests about privacy: [email protected].
FormsBat