SoftwareExplained is a product of Cloudline Software Ltd. (formerly ReviewTec Software Ltd.), an Alberta corporation. Cloudline Software Ltd. owns and operates SoftwareExplained and is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. References to “we”, “us” and “our” in this policy mean Cloudline Software Ltd.
What we collect
- Account details: your name, email address, a protected password hash, email-verification state and account security records.
- Contributions: the software and sources you submit, your explanation, any excerpts, your stated relationship to the software, and the history of replies and review decisions.
- Owner listing drafts: proposed product details, supporting links, reviewer notes and any logo, product image or screenshots you upload. Drafts stay private; submitting one creates a contribution for review.
- Company requests: information you provide to support a relationship with a software company. A request does not automatically grant control over a listing.
- Contact messages: your name, email address, topic, subject and message, together with the responses and handling history.
- Technical and security information: session identifiers, login attempts and request information that our hosting systems may log, such as IP addresses and browser details. The contact form uses a keyed representation of the network address to limit repeated submissions.
How we use information
We use this information to operate your account, verify email ownership, protect the service, review contributions, research software, respond to enquiries and keep a record of changes and decisions. Account and contribution emails relate to actions you take or submissions you make. Signing up does not subscribe you to a marketing mailing list.
Useful software information from a contribution may become part of a public listing after review. The normal public listing does not display your account email or private contact message. Please keep passwords, payment details, sensitive personal information and confidential business material out of submissions and messages.
Services and research tools
We use Microsoft Azure for hosting and database services and Twilio SendGrid to send email. These providers process information needed to perform those services. Hosting, email processing and support access may involve countries other than your own.
Our email signup and confirmation-link request forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to check for automated requests. The check runs in your browser and our server sends its response token to Cloudflare for verification before it queues an email. Cloudflare processes information needed for that security check under its privacy policy; we do not send the signup form's name, email address or password in the verification request.
We also use AI-assisted tools to research software and assess source material. The contribution review export removes the account email field, but software explanations, source excerpts and any personal information you include in free text may still be present in research material. Contact messages are handled through our staff inbox rather than automatically submitted to the research workflow.
We do not sell account or contact information. We may disclose information when required by law, to protect people or the service, or as part of a business transfer with appropriate handling of the affected information.
Essential cookies and anonymous counts
The site uses cookies for signed-in account sessions, secure form submissions and temporary email-confirmation or password-reset sessions. These functions help protect your account and allow the site to remember the relevant action. Essential cookies are separate from optional analytics. Your browser can block cookies, but account and form functions may then stop working.
We count public page views and clicks through to a software company's website in daily totals. These totals do not store your IP address, account identity, browser identifier or search query, and do not identify unique visitors. A listing's representatives can see its totals. Known automated user agents and prefetch requests are filtered where possible.
Google Analytics: we use the standard Google tag to understand website traffic and interactions. Google Analytics receives page addresses and titles, referring information, a browser-generated analytics identifier, browser/device information and an approximate location derived by Google from the connection. It uses analytics cookies to measure visits and engagement. The tag runs automatically without a question popup. We do not configure it to receive passwords, payment details, email addresses, account user IDs or form-field contents. Google processes analytics information under its privacy policy, potentially outside your country.
Your browser’s cookie controls or content blockers can restrict Analytics. Google manages its analytics cookies under its published policies. The separate daily aggregate counts described above continue without analytics cookies.
Account emails are sent with open tracking and click tracking disabled. Links to software companies lead to external sites whose own privacy practices apply.
Retention and protection
We retain account information while it is needed to provide and secure the service. Contact handling, contribution history, source evidence and review records may need to remain available to explain decisions, prevent abuse or meet legal obligations. Expiry of a login or reset token does not by itself erase every related audit record or backup.
Passwords are stored as salted hashes. Live account-email payloads are encrypted while queued, and sensitive payloads are cleared after an attempted send or cancellation of an obsolete link. Staff access to private pages requires authentication. We use these safeguards to reduce risk; no internet service can guarantee absolute security.
Your choices and requests
You can ask us to access, correct or delete personal information associated with your account or an enquiry. Use the privacy topic on the contact form or email us. We may need to confirm your identity before acting. Some evidence, audit records, backups or legally required information may need to be retained; we will explain relevant limits when responding to a request.
The service is intended for adults researching or representing business software. Please do not create an account if you are under 18.
Contact and policy changes
For questions about this policy or a privacy request, contact the SoftwareExplained team at mail@softwareexplained.com or use Contact & help. We will update this page when our practices change and identify the date above. Where a change requires additional notice or consent, we will address that before using information for the new purpose.