Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Barcode Safe is a product developed and operated by Click Ahead Ltd, a company incorporated in the Republic of Ireland.

For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and applicable Irish data protection law, Click Ahead Ltd is generally the data controller for personal data described in this Privacy Policy.

In some circumstances, particularly where an organisation uses Barcode Safe to store information about its own staff, customers, suppliers, products, or other individuals, that organisation may be the data controller and Click Ahead Ltd may process the data on its behalf.

References to “Barcode Safe”, “we”,“us”, or “our” in this policy mean Click Ahead Ltd.

2. Who this policy applies to

This Privacy Policy applies to:

• visitors to the Barcode Safe website;
• users of the free barcode generator;
• people who create a Barcode Safe account;
• organisation owners, administrators, members, and invited users;
• people who contact us for support or other enquiries; and
• customers and prospective customers who interact with our sales, billing, or product communications.

3. Personal data we collect

3.1 Account and identity information

We may collect:

• your name;
• email address;
• organisation or business name;
• account role and permissions;
• authentication and account security information;
• email verification status; and
• information associated with invitations to an organisation workspace.

Passwords should be stored only in a cryptographically protected form. We do not need access to your plain-text password.

3.2 Barcode, product, and workspace information

We collect information that you create, enter, upload, import, organise, or store through the Service, which may include:

• barcode values and formats;
• barcode names, descriptions, SKUs, categories, groups, and metadata;
• imported spreadsheet or CSV content;
• organisation settings and workspace configuration;
• records of files or data exported through the Service; and
• other information you choose to associate with a barcode record.

Barcode records will not normally identify an individual. However, you should avoid entering personal data into barcode records unless it is necessary, lawful, and appropriate for your use of the Service.

3.3 Billing and subscription information

Payments are processed by Stripe. We may receive and store limited billing and subscription information, such as:

• your selected plan and billing interval;
• subscription status and renewal dates;
• billing country, currency, and tax-related information;
• Stripe customer, subscription, invoice, and transaction references;
• payment success, failure, refund, and cancellation status; and
• limited payment-method information such as card type and last four digits.

We do not ordinarily receive or store your complete payment-card number or security code.

3.4 Usage, technical, and device information

When you use the website or application, we may collect:

• IP address;
• browser type and version;
• device and operating-system information;
• pages, screens, and features used;
• referring pages, traffic sources, and campaign information;
• dates, times, and duration of activity;
• request identifiers, server logs, security events, and error information;
• approximate location derived from an IP address; and
• cookie and consent preferences.

3.5 Communications and support information

If you contact us, we may collect your contact details, the contents of your message, attachments you provide, support history, and any other information needed to respond.

3.6 Information received from other people

An organisation owner or administrator may provide your email address when inviting you to a Barcode Safe workspace. We may also receive information from service providers such as Stripe when they process a subscription or payment event.

4. How we use personal data

We use personal data to:

• provide, operate, and maintain Barcode Safe;
• create and secure accounts;
• verify email addresses and authenticate users;
• provide barcode generation, storage, import, export, and organisation features;
• manage organisations, roles, invitations, and permissions;
• process subscriptions, invoices, payments, cancellations, and refunds;
• provide customer support and respond to enquiries;
• send service, security, billing, and account notices;
• detect, prevent, and investigate fraud, misuse, attacks, and security incidents;
• monitor availability, diagnose errors, and improve performance;
• measure website and product usage;
• understand marketing attribution and campaign performance where permitted;
• enforce our Terms of Service and protect our legal rights;
• comply with tax, accounting, legal, and regulatory obligations; and
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

5. Our legal bases for processing

Under the GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following:

5.1 Performance of a contract

We process personal data where necessary to provide the Service, administer an account, manage a subscription, process a requested transaction, or otherwise perform our agreement with you.

5.2 Legitimate interests

We process personal data where necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights. These interests may include:

• operating and improving the Service;
• securing accounts and infrastructure;
• preventing fraud and misuse;
• understanding product performance;
• responding to business enquiries;
• maintaining appropriate business records; and
• protecting our legal rights.

5.3 Legal obligations

We process personal data where required to comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, regulatory, law-enforcement, and court requirements.

5.4 Consent

Where required, we rely on consent for non-essential cookies, analytics, advertising measurement, or direct marketing. You may withdraw consent at any time, although this will not affect processing that took place before withdrawal.

6. Cookies and analytics

Barcode Safe uses cookies and similar technologies for essential functionality, authentication, security, user preferences, analytics, and campaign measurement.

Essential cookies may be set where necessary for the website or application to function. Where required by law, non-essential analytics or advertising technologies will not be activated until you provide consent.

We may use Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors find and use the website and free barcode generator. Analytics information may include page views, traffic sources, device information, approximate location, and interactions with the website.

More information about the cookies and similar technologies we use is available in ourCookie Policy.

6.1 First-party generator usage telemetry

Separately from Google Analytics, Barcode Safe collects limited first-party, aggregate product-usage telemetry for the free barcode generator. This telemetry measures generator activity to help us understand and improve the service.

The telemetry records:

• generator page views;
• barcode render outcomes (success or failure category);
• barcode formats and output formats used;
• download events;
• broad error categories for validation failures; and
• a broad device category (desktop, tablet, or mobile) and a coarse traffic-source category (direct, organic, referral, etc.) where these can be determined without storing identifying information.

The telemetry does not:

• record barcode values or any other generator input you provide;
• use cookies, browser storage, or any persistent identifier;
• attempt to identify, count, or track individual visitors across requests;
• record IP addresses, user-agent strings, full referrer URLs, full page URLs, or query strings in the telemetry records;
• send data to third-party analytics providers; or
• depend on or interact with your cookie-consent choices for Google Analytics.

Event timestamps and identifiers are generated by our servers. This telemetry is used only for aggregate product analysis and is stored on our own infrastructure.

7. How we share personal data

We do not sell your personal data. We may share personal data with the following categories of recipients where necessary:

7.1 Service providers

We use suppliers that support hosting, storage, security, payments, analytics, email, monitoring, support, and other business operations. These may include:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud infrastructure, hosting, storage, databases, backups, content delivery, logging, and email delivery;
• Stripe for checkout, subscription billing, payment processing, invoices, refunds, and billing management; and
• Google Analytics for website analytics and attribution where enabled and permitted.

These providers process information under their own terms and privacy commitments and, where applicable, under data-processing agreements.

7.2 Organisation users

If you join an organisation workspace, information about your account, role, activity, and content may be visible to that organisation’s owners, administrators, or other authorised users, depending on the Service’s permissions.

7.3 Professional advisers

We may share information with accountants, lawyers, insurers, auditors, consultants, and other professional advisers where reasonably necessary.

7.4 Legal and safety disclosures

We may disclose information where we reasonably believe it is necessary to comply with law, regulation, legal process, or a valid request from a competent authority, or to protect the rights, safety, property, and security of Barcode Safe, Click Ahead Ltd, our users, or others.

7.5 Business transfers

Personal data may be disclosed or transferred as part of a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganisation, sale of assets, or transfer of all or part of our business. Where required, we will take reasonable steps to ensure continued protection of the data.

8. International data transfers

Some of our service providers may process personal data outside Ireland or the European Economic Area (“EEA”), including in the United States or other countries where they operate.

Where personal data is transferred outside the EEA to a country that has not been recognised as providing an adequate level of protection, we use or rely on appropriate safeguards where required. These may include:

• European Commission adequacy decisions;
• the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses;
• supplementary contractual, organisational, or technical safeguards; or
• another lawful transfer mechanism available under data protection law.

9. Data retention

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including providing the Service, complying with legal obligations, resolving disputes, preventing fraud, and enforcing our agreements.

Retention periods may vary according to the type of information:

• Account and workspace data: generally retained while the account or organisation remains active and for a limited period after deletion or termination to complete deletion processes, resolve support issues, prevent fraud, or comply with law.
• Barcode and uploaded data: generally retained while stored in an active account and deleted or anonymised following account deletion, subject to backup cycles and legal requirements.
• Backups: deleted data may remain in encrypted or access-controlled backups until those backups are overwritten or expire under our normal backup schedule. Backup data is not ordinarily restored except for disaster recovery or security purposes.
• Billing, invoice, tax, and transaction records: retained for the period required under applicable tax, accounting, and company law.
• Security and server logs: retained for a limited period appropriate to security monitoring, abuse prevention, debugging, and incident investigation.
• Support communications: retained for as long as reasonably necessary to manage the enquiry, maintain support history, and protect legal rights.
• Analytics information: retained according to the configured retention period in the relevant analytics service and your consent choices.

We may retain anonymised or aggregated information that no longer identifies an individual.

10. Account deletion and data export

Where available, you can export barcode data through the export features in the application. You should export any information you wish to retain before requesting account deletion or before your access ends.

Account owners may request or initiate account deletion through the controls provided in the Service or by contacting us. Some deletion requests may be subject to a short cancellation or recovery period before permanent deletion begins.

Cancelling a paid subscription does not necessarily delete the related account or workspace. Subscription cancellation and account deletion are separate actions.

We may retain limited information after deletion where necessary for legal compliance, billing records, fraud prevention, security, dispute resolution, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

11. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful loss, alteration, disclosure, destruction, or unauthorised access.

Depending on the relevant system, these measures may include:

• encrypted network connections;
• access controls and role-based permissions;
• protected password storage;
• environment and secret separation;
• logging and monitoring;
• backups and recovery controls;
• software updates and vulnerability management; and
• restricted access to production systems and customer data.

No online service can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You are responsible for using a strong, unique password, protecting your credentials, and notifying us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

12. Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, you may have the right to:

• request access to personal data we hold about you;
• request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data;
• request deletion of personal data;
• request restriction of processing;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive certain personal data in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• object to direct marketing at any time; and
• make a complaint to a data protection supervisory authority.

These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal conditions, exemptions, or competing obligations.

To exercise a right, contactsupport@barcodesafe.com. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request.

If Barcode Safe processes personal data on behalf of your organisation, you may need to direct your request to that organisation as the relevant data controller. We will assist our customer where required by applicable law and our agreement with them.

13. Complaints

Please contact us first if you have concerns about how we handle personal data so that we can try to resolve the issue.

You also have the right to complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission or, where applicable, another competent supervisory authority in the country where you live or work.

Information about the Irish Data Protection Commission is available atdataprotection.ie.

14. Direct marketing

We may send product news, offers, or other marketing communications where you have consented or where another lawful basis permits us to do so.

You can unsubscribe using the link in a marketing email or by contacting us. You may still receive essential service communications, such as account, security, billing, or legal notices.

15. Automated decision-making

We do not currently use personal data to make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.

We may use automated systems to detect suspicious activity, enforce rate limits, or identify potential fraud or misuse. Where such systems materially affect account access, the decision may be reviewed where appropriate.

16. Children’s privacy

Barcode Safe is intended for business and professional use and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children through individual accounts.

If you believe a child has provided personal data to us without appropriate authorisation, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

17. Links and third-party services

The website or application may link to third-party websites or services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, and we are not responsible for services we do not control.

18. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to the Service, our suppliers, technology, legal requirements, or data-processing activities.

We will publish the updated policy on this page and revise the “Last updated” date. Where a change materially affects how we use personal data, we will provide additional notice where required or appropriate.

19. Contact us

For questions, requests, or complaints relating to privacy or personal data, contact:

Barcode Safe is a product developed and operated by Click Ahead Ltd.