Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Bud Technology, LLC, doing business as Bud Technology ("Bud Technology", "we", "us"), collects, uses, shares, and retains information when you use portal.budtechnology.com and the services offered through it (the "Services").

Bud Technology is a cannabis distributor licensed by the California Department of Cannabis Control, license number C11-0001413-LIC. The Services are for licensed cannabis businesses and their staff, not for consumers.

If you use the Network or send direct messages, read section 3. Direct messages are not private from Bud Technology.

1. Who this policy covers

This policy covers people who use the Services: client account holders, their team members, staff of retailers and vendors whose contact details appear in the platform, and visitors to the public pages. Much of the information we hold is business information, but some of it also identifies individuals, and California law treats information about individuals acting in a business capacity as personal information. This policy applies to that information.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you give us

• Account and contact details. Name, work email address, phone number, job title, company name, and password credentials managed by our authentication provider.
• Business and licensing documents. Documents uploaded during onboarding and compliance exchange, including state cannabis licenses, seller permits, formation documents, insurance certificates, W-9 forms, bank and remittance details, and any personal information contained in them, such as the name and signature of an officer or an owner.
• Order and payment history. Orders, deliveries, invoices, payment status, aging, credits, and disputes.
• Invoices submitted for factoring. Invoice documents, amounts, terms, retailer identity, supporting proof of delivery, and the correspondence around each submission.
• Support tickets and chat. Messages, attachments, and the history of your conversations with our team.
• Community posts and direct messages. Posts in channels, comments, files you share, and direct messages between users.
• Academy activity. Enrollment, module progress, submissions, and subscription status.

2.2 Information we collect automatically

• Usage data. Pages viewed, features used, actions taken, timestamps, and referring pages.
• Device and connection data. IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, and general location inferred from IP address.
• Cookies and similar technologies. We use cookies that are necessary to run the Services, including session and authentication cookies set by our authentication provider, and cookies that remember preferences such as your theme. We also use logs and infrastructure telemetry from our hosting provider to keep the Services secure and available. We do not use advertising cookies or third party advertising trackers.

2.3 Information from other sources

We receive information about your business from our own distribution operations, from retailers we deliver to, and from payment activity processed through our payment processor. If your company invites you to the platform, we receive your contact details from that company.

2.4 Sensitive personal information

We do not seek sensitive personal information as that term is defined by California law. Account credentials are treated as sensitive personal information, and we use them only to authenticate you and secure the Services. If a document you upload contains a government identifier such as a driver license number or a social security number on a tax form, we use it only for the purpose you supplied it, such as onboarding, compliance, or payment.

3. Direct messages are not private from Bud Technology

Direct messages between users on the Network are stored on our systems and Bud Technology administrators can read them.

Administrators may access direct messages and channel content for moderation, to investigate reports of abuse or misuse, to protect the safety of users, to protect the security and integrity of the Services, to resolve disputes, and to meet legal, regulatory, or law enforcement obligations.

Do not treat a direct message on the Network as a private or privileged channel. Do not use it for anything you would not want Bud Technology to read. If you need a confidential channel, use one outside the platform.

4. How we use information

We use the information described above to do the following.

• Create and manage accounts, authenticate users, and administer team access and permissions.
• Provide the Services, including onboarding and document exchange, the knowledge base, order status, disputes, support, the Academy, and the Network.
• Operate distribution, including processing orders, planning delivery routes, and applying order cutoffs.
• Review invoices submitted for factoring, verify them, decide whether to fund, and administer funding.
• Produce and improve retailer payment ratings graded A through F. These ratings are derived from order and payment history, and from aggregated and de-identified data generated by platform activity.
• Provide knowledge base search. Content in the knowledge base, and the text of a search query you type, are sent to OpenAI to generate vector embeddings that power semantic search. Do not enter information into search that you do not want processed this way.
• Moderate the Network and community channels, including reviewing direct messages as described in section 3.
• Send transactional and service email, such as invitations, account notices, order and funding updates, ticket replies, and billing notices.
• Bill subscriptions and process payments through our payment processor.
• Secure the Services, detect and prevent fraud and abuse, and debug problems.
• Meet legal, regulatory, tax, and cannabis record keeping obligations, and respond to lawful requests.
• Analyze usage to understand which features are used and to improve them.

We do not use personal information to train general purpose machine learning models of our own, and we do not permit our processors to use it to train their models.

5. Who we share information with

We do not sell personal information. We use the following service providers, each of which processes information only to provide its service to us.

We may also disclose information in these situations.

• Within your organization. Account administrators can see the activity, documents, and orders of the users on their account.
• To other users, where you direct it. Posts in channels are visible to the members of that channel, and direct messages are delivered to the user you send them to.
• To regulators and law enforcement. Where required by law, subpoena, warrant, or other lawful process, or where a state cannabis regulator has a right of access to records.
• To professional advisers. Lawyers, accountants, and auditors, under a duty of confidence.
• In a business transaction. If Bud Technology is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.
• To protect rights and safety. Where we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to prevent harm, fraud, or a violation of our terms.

5.1 No sale and no cross-context behavioral advertising

Bud Technology does not sell personal information, and does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act. We have not done so in the preceding 12 months. We do not use personal information for targeted advertising and we do not disclose it to advertising networks or data brokers.

6. Aggregated and de-identified data

We create aggregated and de-identified data from activity on the platform, including order and payment history, and we use it to produce and improve retailer payment ratings, benchmarks, and product analytics. We maintain that data in de-identified form, we do not attempt to re-identify it, and we require the same of anyone we allow to use it.

7. Your California privacy rights

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act gives you the following rights.

• Right to know. To request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources, the purposes for collecting it, and the categories of third parties we disclose it to.
• Right to access. To obtain a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to delete. To request deletion of personal information we collected from you, subject to the exceptions in the law, including records we must keep for legal, regulatory, tax, security, or fraud prevention reasons.
• Right to correct. To request correction of inaccurate personal information.
• Right to data portability. To receive your personal information in a portable and, where technically feasible, readily usable format.
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. If that ever changes we will update this policy and provide an opt out mechanism before the change takes effect.
• Right to limit use of sensitive personal information. We use sensitive personal information only for purposes the law allows without a separate limitation right, such as authenticating you and securing the Services, so there is no further use to limit. If that changes we will provide a limitation mechanism.
• Right to non-discrimination. We will not deny you service, charge you a different price, or give you a lower quality of service because you exercised a privacy right.

7.1 How to make a request

Send your request to dylan@budtechnology.com, or open a support ticket in the portal, or write to Bud Technology, 411 E Alton Avenue, Santa Ana, CA 92707. Tell us which right you are exercising and give us enough detail to find your records.

We must verify your identity before we act on a request to know, access, delete, or correct. We normally do this by confirming that the request comes from the email address on your account, and we may ask for additional information matching what we already hold. We will not use that information for any other purpose.

An authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf with written permission signed by you. We may still contact you to confirm the authorization.

7.2 Timing

We will acknowledge a request within 10 business days and respond within 45 calendar days. If we need more time we will tell you within that period and may take up to another 45 calendar days, for a total of 90 days. If we decline a request we will explain why.

8. Retention

We keep information for as long as your account is active and afterwards for as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected. How long that is depends on the type of record.

• Account and contact details are kept while the account is active and for a period afterwards for security and dispute resolution.
• Order, delivery, invoice, payment, and factoring records are kept for the periods required by tax, accounting, and cannabis regulations.
• Licensing and compliance documents are kept for the periods required by California cannabis regulations.
• Support tickets, chat, community posts, and direct messages are kept while they are needed for support, moderation, safety, and legal purposes.
• Logs and usage data are kept for shorter periods, for security, debugging, and analytics.

When information is no longer needed we delete it or de-identify it. Backups are overwritten on a rolling cycle, so deleted data can persist in backups for a short period after deletion from the live systems.

8.1 Cannabis record keeping

California cannabis regulations require licensees to create and keep commercial cannabis records, including sales, delivery, and track and trace records, and to make them available to the Department of Cannabis Control and other authorities on request. That means some records connected to your activity must be retained and may have to be disclosed even if you ask us to delete them. We will keep only what is required and will explain the basis if we decline a deletion request for this reason.

9. Security

We take reasonable measures to protect information. Access to the platform requires authentication through our authentication provider. Data is transmitted over encrypted connections and stored with our hosting and database providers, which encrypt data at rest. Access to production data by staff is limited to those who need it for their role. Card details are handled by our payment processor and are not stored on our systems.

No system is completely secure. We cannot guarantee that information will never be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. You are responsible for keeping your own credentials secure and for the actions of users you invite.

10. Where information is processed

We and our service providers process information in the United States. Some providers may process or store information, or provide support, from other countries. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your location.

11. No users under 21

The Services are for licensed cannabis businesses and are not directed to anyone under 21. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 21, and we do not knowingly collect information from children. If we learn that we hold information from someone under 21, we will delete it and close any related account.

12. Third party links

The Services may link to sites and tools we do not operate, including vendors in the vendor directory. We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Read their policies before you share information with them.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The current version is always posted at portal.budtechnology.com/privacy with its effective date. If we make a material change to how we handle personal information, we will notify you by email to the address on your account or by a notice in the portal before the change takes effect.

14. Contact us

Bud Technology, operated by Bud Technology, LLC.

• Privacy requests and legal notices: dylan@budtechnology.com
• Support: through the portal, or scheduling@budtechnology.com
• Business address: 2312 Park Avenue #126, Tustin, CA 92782
• Mailing address: 411 E Alton Avenue, Santa Ana, CA 92707
• DCC license: C11-0001413-LIC

See also our Terms of Service.