Privacy & email.

Ricardo is provided by Developing Trade LLC. Your verified email address, account identifier, plan, email preferences, and any request for Pro information are stored to operate your account.

Beta access requests

If you request beta access, we store your email, optional name and work description, submission time, and separate optional marketing preference to review and respond to your request. This does not create an account or paid subscription. Requests are accessible only to authorized administrators. Contact ben@developing-trade.com to withdraw your request or marketing preference, or ask us to delete these details. Unverified submissions do not authorize bulk marketing; email ownership must be confirmed before adding anyone to a marketing list.

Sign-in and security

We use an essential session cookie to keep you signed in for up to seven days. Verification and recovery links expire after 15 minutes and can be used only once. Passwords are stored as salted, computationally expensive hashes. One browser session is allowed at a time; signing in elsewhere can revoke the earlier session. We retain a hashed representation of the last sign-in network address to request email confirmation when the network changes. Security records include sign-ins and account changes. Short-lived request records help limit abuse.

Payments

Stripe processes Pro payments and stores payment details. Ricardo stores your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, subscription status, and billing period to manage access. Card details are not stored by Ricardo. Use Manage billing in your account to view invoices, update payment details, or cancel renewal.

Product usage and beta feedback

We record account-linked module visits, analysis response outcomes and timing, download requests and initiated file sizes, and use of comparisons, custom groups, and Research Builder. Authorized administrators can associate this activity with your account to understand adoption and investigate problems. We do not collect analytical request bodies, product selections, filenames, or payment details in usage events. Download initiation does not establish that a file was saved or opened. Feedback includes your account, module, and an error reference when available. Usage events and feedback are retained for up to 180 days, with scheduled deletion on the production service.

For Free monthly allowances, we retain an account-linked hash of each analytical selection and whether it completed. The allowance ledger does not contain the selection itself; records from prior months are removed by daily maintenance. Pro has no monthly analysis cap.

Service providers

DigitalOcean hosts the application and account backups, Cloudflare provides DNS and public-site delivery, and Postmark delivers transactional account email. Authorized administrators access these systems to operate Ricardo.

Your research workspace

Saved custom groups and research selections are stored in this browser under your account identifier. They do not currently sync across devices. Signing out ends your session; it does not erase your saved browser library.

Email choices

Account sign-in emails are necessary to use the service. Occasional product updates and Pro offers are optional, off by default, and controlled in account settings. A request for Pro information is recorded separately so we can respond to that request.

Questions or deletion requests

Contact ben@developing-trade.com to ask about your information or request account deletion. Account information is retained while your account remains active unless you request deletion.