Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

PayGuard is an independent payroll assurance platform that helps payroll teams identify, explain, and document unexpected payroll variances before funds are released. PayGuard is operated by PayGuard ("PayGuard", "we", "us", "our").

Contact: hello@payguardapp.com

PayGuard operates as a data processor on behalf of its customers. Customers (payroll providers, HR teams, and payroll professionals) are the data controllers responsible for the payroll data they upload to the platform.

2. What Data PayGuard Processes

Payroll register data (uploaded by you)

When you run a payroll comparison, you upload payroll register files (CSV or Excel format). These files may contain:

• Employee identifiers — employee ID, name, department, pay group
• Payroll values — gross pay, net pay, deductions, tax, pay components
• Period identifiers — pay period dates

Original uploaded files are processed in memory only and are not written to persistent storage. They are discarded after the comparison run completes.

Audit results (retained)

PayGuard retains structured audit results derived from your payroll data. Retained data includes:

• Employee identifiers (ID, name, department) associated with variance findings
• Pay values at the time of the audit (prior net pay, current net pay, variance amounts)
• Variance classifications, severity ratings, and AI-generated explanations
• Run-level summary metrics (employee counts, flagged counts, confidence score)
• Timestamps and company identifier

Audit results are retained to support audit history, trend analysis, and historical reconciliation features.

Account and usage data

• Account credentials (email address, hashed password) for authenticated users
• Company identifier used to scope your data
• API usage logs for operational purposes
• Google Analytics data (anonymised page-level analytics — see Section 8)

3. Purpose of Processing

PayGuard processes payroll data solely to provide the payroll assurance service you have engaged us to deliver. Specific purposes include:

• Comparing payroll outputs to identify variances (recurring payroll, implementation validation, parallel-run reconciliation)
• Generating AI-assisted plain-English explanations of identified variances
• Retaining audit results to support historical audit review and trend identification
• Providing confidence scores and recommended actions to support payroll decision-making

PayGuard does not use your payroll data for any purpose beyond providing the contracted service. We do not sell, licence, or share customer payroll data with third parties for marketing or commercial purposes.

4. AI Processing and Anthropic

PayGuard uses Claude (an AI model provided by Anthropic PBC) to generate plain-English explanations of payroll variances. When a variance requires explanation, PayGuard sends structured context to the Anthropic API, including:

• Employee identifier and name
• Pay component values (prior and current amounts)
• Variance amounts and classifications

Raw payroll register files are not sent to Anthropic. Only the structured variance context necessary to generate the explanation is transmitted.

Anthropic acts as a sub-processor under PayGuard's data processing arrangements. Anthropic's data handling and retention practices are governed by their API terms and privacy policy, available at trust.anthropic.com.

Important: AI-generated explanations support payroll review. They do not authorise payroll. The payroll professional remains responsible for all payroll decisions.

5. Infrastructure and Hosting

PayGuard's application and database are hosted on Render (Render Services, Inc.). Render holds SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR-DPA certifications. These certifications apply to Render's infrastructure — they do not constitute PayGuard's own certifications.

PayGuard's application database is currently SQLite hosted on Render. Data is processed and stored within Render's infrastructure.

PayGuard does not currently hold its own SOC 2, ISO 27001, or GDPR certification. We are transparent about this and will update this policy when that changes.

6. Data Retention and Deletion

PayGuard retains audit results (including employee-level variance findings) for as long as your account is active or as required to provide the service.

PayGuard does not currently implement automatic data deletion schedules. We do not claim zero-retention or automatic deletion. If you wish to request deletion of your company's audit data, contact us at hello@payguardapp.com.

Original uploaded payroll files are processed in memory and are not retained after each comparison run.

7. Data Security

PayGuard implements the following security controls:

• HTTPS/TLS in transit: All data transmitted between your browser or system and the PayGuard API is encrypted in transit using HTTPS/TLS.
• Tenant isolation: Each customer's data is scoped to their company identifier. Comparison runs, audit results, and findings are isolated per customer.
• Authentication: Access to the PayGuard application requires authenticated credentials.
• Render infrastructure security: Physical security, network security, and data centre controls are provided by Render. See render.com/security.

PayGuard does not currently claim encryption at rest as a verified PayGuard-layer control. Render's infrastructure provides storage-level controls; we do not independently verify or certify these at this time.

For a more detailed view of our data handling, see our Security & Data page.

8. Subprocessors

PayGuard uses the following third-party subprocessors:

PayGuard will notify customers of material changes to this subprocessor list before those changes take effect.

9. International Data Transfers

PayGuard's infrastructure is hosted in the United States via Render. If you are based in the UK, EEA, or another jurisdiction with data transfer restrictions, payroll data you upload to PayGuard will be transferred to and processed in the United States.

PayGuard relies on Render's and Anthropic's respective data transfer mechanisms for international transfers. Customers with specific international transfer requirements (UK GDPR, GDPR SCCs) should contact us at hello@payguardapp.com to discuss their requirements.

10. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you or the data subjects whose data you upload may have rights including:

• Right to access — to obtain a copy of personal data held
• Right to erasure — to request deletion of personal data
• Right to rectification — to correct inaccurate data
• Right to restriction — to restrict processing in certain circumstances
• Right to data portability — to receive data in a structured format

As PayGuard operates as a data processor, requests from individual data subjects (employees whose payroll data appears in uploaded registers) should typically be directed to the data controller — i.e., the payroll provider or employer who holds the primary data relationship with those employees.

To exercise rights or raise a data concern, contact: hello@payguardapp.com

11. Data Ownership

Customers retain ownership and control of their payroll data. PayGuard processes customer data to provide payroll assurance services and does not claim ownership of customer payroll data.

PayGuard does not sell, transfer, or exploit customer payroll data for any purpose outside the contracted service.

12. Changes to This Policy

PayGuard may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and notify active customers by email where appropriate.

Continued use of the PayGuard platform after a policy update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

13. Contact

For privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, contact PayGuard at:

hello@payguardapp.com