Privacy Policy
Your exact equipment configuration is yours. We collect the minimum we need to build your recipe, we never sell or share your data, we run no third-party trackers, and the chamber details you send us are treated as your confidential trade secret — used for one thing only: your recipe.
1. Who we are
LabForge is a product of ProtoDynamics LLC ("LabForge," "we," "us"). We operate the labforge.us website and the recipe service described on it. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who processes it on our behalf, and the rights you have over it.
Privacy contact: our contact form
2. Information we collect
Account and contact details
Your name, email address, and company name — provided when you buy a recipe, apply to the partner program, or contact us.
Payment information
Payments are processed by Stripe. When you buy, we email you a secure Stripe-hosted payment link — you enter your card details on Stripe’s page, not ours. We receive only payment identifiers (a transaction reference, the card brand, and the last four digits), enough to match a payment to your order. We never see or store full card numbers; card data goes to Stripe directly, under Stripe’s own security and compliance program.
Recipe inputs — your chamber and process details
To build your recipe we ask what the film must do and what hardware you run: chamber, source, power supply, gas lines, target film and function, and — during revisions — your measured run results. Section 7 covers how strictly this data is handled.
Usage and analytics
Aggregate, privacy-preserving usage statistics about the website — which pages are visited and how often. No advertising profiles, no cross-site tracking.
Technical data
IP address, browser type, and request logs, collected automatically by our hosting infrastructure for security, abuse prevention, and diagnostics.
We do not collect sensitive personal information as defined by the CCPA/CPRA, so there is no sensitive-data use for you to limit.
3. How we use it
- To deliver what you bought — computing, delivering, and revising your recipe.
- To process payments and maintain required financial records.
- To respond when you contact us and to send service messages about your order.
- To operate, secure, and improve the website and service.
- To comply with legal obligations.
We do not use your information for third-party advertising, and we do not build advertising profiles.
4. Where it comes from
Almost everything we hold comes directly from you — your order, your hardware description, your run reports, your messages. Payment status information comes from Stripe. Technical logs are generated by our own infrastructure. We do not buy personal information from data brokers or enrich your records from outside sources.
5. Service providers (subprocessors)
A small number of providers process limited data on our behalf, each restricted to its function:
- Stripe — payment processing. When you buy, we send you a Stripe-hosted payment link; Stripe receives the card details you enter on its secure page. We never receive full card numbers.
- A hosting provider — serves this website and stores service data. Receives technical request data, including IP addresses.
Each provider is bound by its own data-processing terms and may not use your information for its own purposes.
6. We do not sell or share your personal information
We do not sell personal information, and we do not "share" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act. This has been true for as long as LabForge has existed, and this policy is our commitment that it stays true.
Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information: because we do not sell or share personal information, there is nothing to opt out of. If you would like us to record a formal opt-out preference anyway, submit a request through our contact form and we will honor it.
7. Your equipment configuration is confidential — we treat it as your trade secret
The details you give us to build a recipe — your chamber make and model, sources, power supplies, gas lines, materials, target-film properties, bias and thermal setup, and your measured run results — describe the exact rig you compete with. That configuration is a trade secret, not marketing data, and we handle it that way. In plain terms:
- Used for one thing only — building and revising your recipe. Nothing else.
- Never sold. Not to anyone, for any price, ever.
- Never shared with another customer, a competitor, a partner, or any third party — except the Section 5 providers, and then only the minimum needed to store or transmit it in order to serve you.
- Never published, and never used as a case study, testimonial, or marketing example without your specific written permission.
- Never aggregated, "anonymized," or benchmarked in any way that could reveal, reconstruct, or hint at your specific setup. Your configuration does not become a data point in anyone else's dataset.
- Never used to train any model — not a public model, and not any shared or internal system beyond the private computation of your own recipe.
- Computed offline. The engine that builds your recipe runs privately and air-gapped. Your configuration is never sent to a public, internet-facing service or to any third-party AI. Only your finished recipe ships back to you.
- Access is limited to the people who need it to build and deliver your recipe — in practice, whoever computes your configuration into a recipe, and no one else.
- Sent over secure connections. Connections we control use TLS; email you send us travels through your own mail provider. Your configuration is held on access-controlled systems and kept no longer than needed (Section 8).
- Yours to delete. Ask us to delete or return your configuration and run data at any time — including immediately on delivery — and we will, promptly.
- Your relationship with us is confidential too. We will not disclose that you are a customer, or what you asked us to build, to any third party.
These are not just promises on a web page — they are mutual and contractual, written into the confidentiality section of our Terms of Service and the concept-access agreement. If a commitment here ever conflicts with something we have signed with you, the stricter protection wins.
8. How long we keep it
- Account and order records — for as long as you have an active relationship with us, and afterward as required for tax, accounting, and legal purposes.
- Chamber and process inputs — kept for the life of your recipe engagement and its revision window, and by default no longer than 24 months afterward (so we can support a re-order on the same tool), then purged. We delete or return them sooner on request — promptly, at any time (Section 9), and we will purge them immediately on delivery if you ask.
- Lead and contact records — the email you send us, and the IP recorded with it for security — kept until we have followed up on your inquiry or you ask us to delete them, then removed. Deleted on request at any time.
- Payment records — retained by Stripe and in our financial records for the periods required by law.
- Technical logs — kept briefly for security and diagnostics, then deleted or aggregated.
9. Your rights
Depending on where you live — including under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correction — have inaccurate information corrected.
- Deletion — have your personal information deleted, subject to legal retention requirements.
- Portability — receive your information in a portable, machine-readable format.
- Opt out — of the sale or sharing of personal information (we do neither) and of any processing based on consent.
Under the GDPR you may also object to or restrict certain processing, and you may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. Our legal bases for processing are performance of a contract (delivering your recipe), legitimate interests (securing and operating the service), and legal obligation (financial records).
International data transfers
LabForge is operated from the United States, and the providers we use process data in the United States, so personal data — including data of EU/UK residents — is processed in the United States. Where that changes, we update this policy. Where we transfer personal data from the EEA or UK, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum. A copy of the relevant transfer safeguards is available on request through our contact form.
To exercise any right: submit a request through our contact form from the address associated with your account, or describe the account so we can verify you. We will confirm receipt, verify your identity, and respond within the timeframe the applicable law requires (45 days under the CCPA; one month under the GDPR, extendable where the law allows). We will never discriminate against you — in price or service — for exercising a privacy right.
11. Security
We keep the attack surface small on purpose. Data you send us travels over TLS-encrypted connections. Access to customer data is limited to the people who need it to build and deliver your recipe. Card details are handled entirely by Stripe and never touch our systems. The recipe engine runs privately and offline, so your process details are never exposed to a public, internet-facing computation service or a third-party AI. We retain only what we need, for only as long as we need it (Section 8). No system is perfectly secure; if a breach ever affects your personal information, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities without undue delay, as the law requires.
12. Children
LabForge is a business-to-business service for engineers and companies. It is not directed to anyone under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a minor has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
13. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we will post the revised version here and update the Last-Updated date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle your personal information, we will notify you by email before it takes effect. Last updated: July 20, 2026.
14. How to reach us
Reach us through our contact form — for general questions, privacy questions, and rights requests alike. It routes straight to us; we don't publish an email or postal address.