Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

SheltrIQ ("we," "us," or "our") is a product of Avion LLC, doing business as Avion Technologies, a California limited liability company (Filing Number B20250439205). SheltrIQ provides AI-powered rental property tax intelligence and property management software at sheltriq.com and app.sheltriq.com (the "Service").

For privacy questions, contact us at: [email protected]

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account Information

• Name and email address (required for registration)
• Password (stored as a bcrypt hash — we never store plaintext passwords)
• Tax filing status and W-2 income information (optional, for tax calculations)
• Language and display preferences

2.2 Property & Financial Data

• Rental property details (addresses, purchase prices, valuations, units)
• Financial transactions imported via OFX/CSV upload or SimpleFIN bank sync
• Expense classifications and Schedule E categorizations
• Depreciation schedules, mileage logs, and tax form data
• Rent payment records and collection data
• Insurance policy information
• Property photos and document uploads

2.3 Sensitive Financial Data

• Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs/SSNs/EINs) — Collected only for 1099 generation purposes. Encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM encryption with a dedicated encryption key. TINs are never stored in plaintext, never logged, and never transmitted to third parties except as required for tax filing.
• Bank account credentials — We do not store bank login credentials. Bank connections are made through SimpleFIN, a third-party aggregator that uses tokenized access. We only receive transaction data, not login credentials.
• Payment card data — We do not store credit card or bank account numbers. All payment processing is handled by Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 certified processor. Card data never touches our servers.

2.4 Tenant Information

If you use SheltrIQ to manage tenants, we store tenant data you provide:

• Tenant names, email addresses, phone numbers
• Lease terms and payment history
• Maintenance request details and communications
• Screening request metadata (actual screening is performed by TransUnion SmartMove — we do not receive or store credit reports, criminal records, or eviction history)

2.5 Automatically Collected Data

• IP address and approximate geolocation (for rate limiting and security)
• Browser type and device information
• Pages visited and feature usage patterns
• GPS location data (only when you explicitly enable GPS mileage tracking in the mobile app — never collected in the background)

3. How We Use Your Information

• Core service delivery: Expense classification, tax calculations, Schedule E reports, depreciation tracking, and all other product features
• AI-powered classification: Transaction descriptions and amounts are processed by our AI models (running on our own servers — see Section 5) to categorize expenses to IRS Schedule E lines and determine repair vs. capital improvement status
• Tax calculations: Your financial data is used to compute QBI deductions, quarterly estimates, tax health scores, audit risk assessments, and other tax intelligence features
• Email notifications: Lease renewal reminders, maintenance escalations, tax deadline alerts, monthly digests, and account communications
• Payment processing: Rent collection via Stripe Connect ACH transfers between your tenants and your connected bank account
• CPA collaboration: When you create a CPA share link, the designated CPA can view (read-only) your Schedule E data, properties, transactions, and depreciation schedules for the duration you specify
• Service improvement: Anonymized, aggregated usage patterns to improve classification accuracy and product features (we never sell individual user data)

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal or financial data to third parties.

We share data only in these limited circumstances. Most of our service providers process data on our behalf under their terms with us; Anthropic and Google Fonts handle the data they receive under their own terms and privacy policies.

5. AI Processing & Data Handling

SheltrIQ uses artificial intelligence to classify expenses and analyze documents. Important details about our AI:

• Self-hosted models: All in-app AI processing runs on our own servers using open-source models (Qwen3 for text analysis, LLaVA for image analysis). Your data is never sent to OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, or any third-party AI provider for these in-app features.
• Support: Support emails are read and answered by our team. We sometimes use an AI assistant (currently Anthropic’s Claude) to help us read your message or draft a reply. A person reviews every reply before it is sent, and we do not run automated AI triage. Please don’t include tax IDs or bank details in emails.
• No training on your data: We do not use your personal financial data to train or fine-tune AI models, and our in-app AI never sends it to an outside AI provider. For support emails we handle with Claude, we have turned off Anthropic’s setting that lets it use conversations to train its models. Under Anthropic’s privacy policy, it may still keep them for a limited time, and may still use them to improve its models if they are flagged for safety review or reported to Anthropic through its feedback tools. Classification improvements come from rule updates, not your data.
• Human override always available: Every AI classification can be corrected by you. AI suggestions are advisory — you retain full control over all categorizations and tax decisions.
• Deterministic first: Our classification engine uses a rules-based approach first (keyword matching, user-learned patterns, IRS safe harbor rules). AI is only consulted for ambiguous transactions that rules cannot classify.
• Input sanitization: All user-provided text is sanitized before AI processing to prevent prompt injection attacks.

6. Data Security

• Encryption in transit: All connections use TLS 1.2+ (HTTPS) via Cloudflare and Caddy auto-SSL
• Encryption at rest: TINs/SSNs are encrypted using AES-256-GCM. Uploaded documents are encrypted at rest by our storage provider (Backblaze B2, AES-256). Our database and server disks are not encrypted at rest, and we do not encrypt our hosting provider’s server backups.
• Authentication: JWT tokens with httpOnly cookies, bcrypt password hashing, rate limiting on all endpoints
• Access control: Row-level security (RLS) policies ensure users can only access their own data. Multi-tenant isolation at the database level.
• Infrastructure: Hosted on Hetzner Cloud (datacenter in Germany), firewalled with UFW, fail2ban for brute-force protection, automated daily database backups (encrypted, stored offsite on Backblaze B2 in the United States) and automated server backups made by our hosting provider (Hetzner). Backups are kept for up to 35 days.
• Monitoring: Automated health checks, error tracking, and uptime monitoring
• Incident response: If a security incident affects your personal information in a way that legally requires notice, we will notify you without unreasonable delay and within any deadline the law sets.

7. Data Retention

• Active accounts: We retain your data for as long as your account is active
• Account deletion: Upon account deletion request, we permanently delete all your personal data, property data, transactions, classifications, and documents within 30 days. Anonymized aggregate data may be retained.
• Tax records: We recommend you export and retain your tax data before deleting your account. The IRS recommends keeping tax records for at least 3-7 years.
• Backups: Deleted data may persist in backups for up to 35 days before being permanently purged, including our encrypted offsite database backups (Backblaze B2) and our hosting provider's server backups (Hetzner). Deleted uploaded documents are purged from our document storage within 32 days after deletion. Backups are used only for disaster recovery.
• Legal holds: We may retain data longer if required by law or legal proceedings

8. Your Rights

8.1 All Users

• Access: Request a copy of all data we hold about you
• Correction: Update or correct inaccurate personal information
• Deletion: Request permanent deletion of your account and all associated data
• Export: Download your data in standard formats (PDF reports, CSV exports)
• Opt-out of emails: Unsubscribe from digest emails via account settings (you will still receive critical security and account notifications)

8.2 California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

• Right to Know: You may request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the sources, the business purpose, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it
• Right to Delete: You may request deletion of personal information we have collected from you
• Right to Correct: You may request correction of inaccurate personal information
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale: We do not sell personal information. There is nothing to opt out of.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any CCPA/CPRA right
• Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: We use sensitive personal information (TINs/SSNs) only for the disclosed purpose of 1099 tax form generation

To exercise these rights, email [email protected] with the subject "CCPA Request." We will verify your identity and respond within 45 days.

8.3 EU/EEA, UK and Swiss Residents (GDPR)

While SheltrIQ primarily serves US landlords, if you are an EU/EEA, UK or Swiss resident:

• Our legal basis for processing is performance of a contract (providing the Service) and legitimate interest (product improvement, and answering your support requests efficiently)
• You have rights to access, rectification, erasure, data portability, restriction of processing, and objection
• Our primary servers and database are in Germany (Hetzner, Falkenstein datacenter). Uploaded documents and encrypted offsite database backups are stored with Backblaze B2 in the United States, so this data is transferred outside the EU/EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Backblaze has self-certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (including the UK Extension and the Swiss-U.S. framework), and our agreement with Backblaze includes the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (Module Two). Other recipients listed in Section 4 (Cloudflare, Stripe, Resend, SimpleFIN, TransUnion SmartMove, Google Workspace, Google Fonts and Anthropic) are based in, or process data in, the United States. Where we have a data-processing agreement with a provider, a copy of the relevant transfer safeguards is available on request at [email protected]. We use Anthropic and Google Fonts under their standard terms, without such an agreement.
• Contact [email protected] for GDPR requests

9. Cookies & Tracking

• Authentication cookie: We use an httpOnly, secure, SameSite cookie containing your signed session token (the tenant portal uses a separate httpOnly, secure, SameSite cookie containing a random access token). This is essential for the Service to function.
• No advertising cookies or browser trackers: We do not run advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or third-party analytics cookies in your browser — no Google Analytics, and no Meta/Facebook browser pixel.
• Privacy-friendly analytics: We measure aggregate, anonymous site usage with Plausible Community Edition, self-hosted on our own infrastructure. It sets no cookies, collects no personal information, and does not track you across websites.
• Ad conversion measurement (server-side only): If you subscribe after clicking one of our ads, we report that single conversion to Meta from our server (the Meta Conversions API) so we can measure our advertising. This uses a hashed, irreversible version of your email — no browser pixel and no tracking cookie is involved, and we never share your financial data. This applies only to paid subscriptions, not to browsing or free use.
• Local storage: We store your theme preference (dark/light mode) and language selection in browser localStorage. This data never leaves your device.

10. Children's Privacy

SheltrIQ is not intended for use by individuals under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that a child under 18 has provided us with personal information, we will promptly delete it.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by email and/or a prominent notice on the Service at least 30 days before the change takes effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

For privacy-related questions, data requests, or concerns:

• Email: [email protected]
• Company: Avion LLC, doing business as Avion Technologies
• State: California, USA