Adze is a software product operated by AltaCoda LLC (“AltaCoda”), a Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business at 1111 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607. This Data Processing Addendum (“DPA”) forms part of the Terms and Conditions (“Agreement”) between AltaCoda (“Processor,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) and the entity agreeing to the Agreement (“Controller,” “you,” or “your”), collectively referred to as the “Parties.”
This DPA applies to the extent that we process Personal Data on your behalf in connection with the provision of the Adze platform (the “Service”), as described in the Agreement.
1. Definitions
Capitalized terms not defined in this DPA have the meanings given to them in the Agreement. In addition:
“Applicable Data Protection Law” means all applicable laws and regulations relating to the processing of Personal Data, including (a) the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”); (b) the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 (“UK GDPR”); (c) the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (“FADP”); (d) the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CCPA/CPRA”); and (e) any other applicable data protection or privacy legislation, in each case as amended, superseded, or replaced from time to time.
“Controller” means the entity that determines the purposes and means of the processing of Personal Data, as defined under Applicable Data Protection Law. For the purposes of this DPA, the Controller is the customer.
“Data Subject” means an identified or identifiable natural person to whom Personal Data relates.
“EEA” means the European Economic Area.
“Personal Data” means any information relating to a Data Subject that is processed by the Processor on behalf of the Controller in connection with the Service, as further described in Annex 1.
“Personal Data Breach” means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, Personal Data transmitted, stored, or otherwise processed.
“Processor” means the entity that processes Personal Data on behalf of the Controller, as defined under Applicable Data Protection Law. For the purposes of this DPA, the Processor is AltaCoda LLC.
“Processing” (and “process,” “processed”) means any operation or set of operations performed on Personal Data, whether or not by automated means, including collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation, alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination, or otherwise making available, alignment, combination, restriction, erasure, or destruction.
“Standard Contractual Clauses” or “SCCs” means the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission for the transfer of Personal Data to processors established in third countries, as set out in Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914, or any successor clauses adopted by the European Commission.
“Sub-Processor” means a third party engaged by the Processor to process Personal Data on behalf of the Controller in connection with the Service.
“Supervisory Authority” means an independent public authority responsible for monitoring the application of Applicable Data Protection Law.
“UK Addendum” means the International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Commission Standard Contractual Clauses issued by the UK Information Commissioner under Section 119A of the Data Protection Act 2018, as may be revised from time to time.
2. Scope and Applicability
2.1 Scope
This DPA applies to the Processing of Personal Data by the Processor on behalf of the Controller in connection with the provision of the Service.
2.2 Nature of the Service
The Parties acknowledge that the Service is an AI-powered marketing platform that (a) builds a structured understanding of the Controller’s business, (b) collects and analyzes publicly available content from third-party community and social platforms to surface marketing opportunities, and (c) uses third-party large language models to generate content for the Controller’s review and use. The categories of Personal Data processed under this DPA are described in Annex 1.
2.3 Roles
The Controller is the data controller with respect to the Personal Data. The Processor processes Personal Data solely on behalf of the Controller and in accordance with the Controller’s documented instructions as set forth in the Agreement, this DPA, and the Controller’s use and configuration of the Service. With respect to its own account, billing, and operational records, the Processor acts as an independent controller, as described in the Privacy Policy.
2.4 Precedence
In the event of a conflict between this DPA and the Agreement, this DPA shall prevail with respect to the Processing of Personal Data.
3. Controller Obligations
3.1 Compliance
The Controller shall comply with its obligations under Applicable Data Protection Law, including ensuring that it has a lawful basis for the Processing of Personal Data and for instructing the Processor to process Personal Data on its behalf. This includes establishing a lawful basis for processing the Personal Data of third parties (such as authors of public community posts) that the Controller directs the Service to process, and for any content the Controller publishes through the Service.
3.2 Instructions
The Controller’s instructions to the Processor regarding the Processing of Personal Data are set forth in the Agreement, this DPA, and the Controller’s use and configuration of the Service. The Controller may issue additional written instructions consistent with the Agreement; however, any instructions that fall outside the scope of the Agreement will require a separate written agreement between the Parties.
3.3 Data Subject Communications
The Controller is responsible for responding to requests from Data Subjects and Supervisory Authorities regarding the Processing of Personal Data, except to the extent the Processor is required to respond directly under Applicable Data Protection Law.
4. Processor Obligations
4.1 Processing Instructions
The Processor shall process Personal Data only in accordance with the Controller’s documented instructions, except where required to do so by applicable law to which the Processor is subject. In such a case, the Processor shall inform the Controller of that legal requirement before processing, unless prohibited by law from doing so.
4.2 Confidentiality
The Processor shall ensure that persons authorized to process Personal Data have committed themselves to confidentiality obligations or are under an appropriate statutory obligation of confidentiality.
4.3 Security
The Processor shall implement and maintain appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect Personal Data against unauthorized or unlawful Processing, accidental loss, destruction, or damage, as further described in Annex 2. These measures shall take into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation, the nature, scope, context, and purposes of Processing, and the risks to Data Subjects.
4.4 Sub-Processing
The Processor shall not engage a Sub-Processor without the prior general written authorization of the Controller, which is hereby granted subject to the conditions set out in Section 5 of this DPA.
4.5 No Model Training
The Processor shall not use Personal Data, Business Knowledge, or content submitted by the Controller to train foundation machine-learning models. The Processor engages large language model Sub-Processors that are contractually prohibited from using data submitted through their APIs to train their models.
4.6 Data Subject Rights
Taking into account the nature of the Processing, the Processor shall assist the Controller, by appropriate technical and organizational measures and insofar as possible, in fulfilling the Controller’s obligation to respond to requests from Data Subjects exercising their rights under Applicable Data Protection Law. Such assistance may include providing access to, rectification of, or deletion of Personal Data, to the extent such data is within the Processor’s systems.
4.7 Assistance with Compliance
The Processor shall assist the Controller in ensuring compliance with its obligations under Applicable Data Protection Law with respect to security, breach notification, data protection impact assessments, and prior consultation with Supervisory Authorities, taking into account the nature of the Processing and the information available to the Processor.
4.8 Deletion and Return
Upon termination of the Agreement, the Processor shall, at the Controller’s election, delete or return all Personal Data and delete existing copies, unless applicable law requires retention. The Controller may request return or deletion by contacting the Processor at hello@altacoda.io. If the Controller does not make an election within thirty (30) days of termination, the Processor shall delete the Personal Data in accordance with its standard data deletion procedures.
4.9 Audit
The Processor shall make available to the Controller all information reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance with this DPA and shall allow for and contribute to audits, including inspections, conducted by the Controller or a third-party auditor mandated by the Controller (provided such auditor is not a competitor of the Processor and is bound by appropriate confidentiality obligations).
Audits shall be subject to the following conditions:
- The Controller shall provide at least thirty (30) days’ prior written notice of an audit request.
- Audits shall be conducted during normal business hours and shall not unreasonably interfere with the Processor’s operations.
- The Controller shall bear the costs of any audit, unless the audit reveals a material breach of this DPA by the Processor.
- Audits shall be limited to once per twelve (12) month period, unless required by a Supervisory Authority or following a Personal Data Breach.
- Where the Processor can demonstrate compliance through an independent third-party audit report or certification (such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001), the Processor may provide such report in lieu of an on-site audit, provided the Controller has no reasonable objection.
5. Sub-Processors
5.1 Authorized Sub-Processors
The Controller provides general written authorization for the Processor to engage Sub-Processors to assist in providing the Service, including the large language model providers used to generate content. A current list of authorized Sub-Processors is maintained at adze.cloud/subprocessors.
5.2 Obligations
The Processor shall impose on each Sub-Processor, by way of a written contract, data protection obligations that are no less protective than those set out in this DPA. The Processor shall remain fully liable to the Controller for the acts and omissions of its Sub-Processors.
5.3 Changes to Sub-Processors
The Processor shall notify the Controller at least thirty (30) days in advance of any intended addition or replacement of a Sub-Processor, including the Sub-Processor’s name, location, and purpose. Notification will be provided by email to the address associated with the Controller’s Account or through the Service.
5.4 Objections
The Controller may object to a new or replacement Sub-Processor by providing written notice to the Processor within fifteen (15) days of receiving notification. The objection must state reasonable grounds related to data protection. Upon receipt of an objection, the Processor shall use commercially reasonable efforts to:
- Make available to the Controller a change in the Service or recommend a commercially reasonable change to the Controller’s use of the Service to avoid Processing by the objected-to Sub-Processor; or
- Cease use of the objected-to Sub-Processor with respect to the Controller’s Personal Data within a reasonable period.
If the Processor is unable to accommodate the objection within thirty (30) days, either Party may terminate the Agreement (or the affected portion of the Service) by providing written notice. Upon such termination, the Processor shall refund any prepaid fees for the period following the effective date of termination.
6. International Data Transfers
6.1 Transfer Mechanisms
To the extent that the Processing of Personal Data involves a transfer of Personal Data from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland to a country that has not been recognized as providing an adequate level of data protection, the Parties shall ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, including:
- Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): The SCCs (Module Two: Controller to Processor) are hereby incorporated by reference into this DPA. For transfers subject to the GDPR, the Parties agree to be bound by the SCCs as set out in Annex 3.
- UK Addendum: For transfers subject to the UK GDPR, the UK Addendum to the SCCs is incorporated by reference into this DPA.
- Swiss Transfers: For transfers subject to the FADP, the SCCs apply with the modifications necessary to comply with the FADP, including treating the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner as the competent Supervisory Authority.
6.2 Alternative Transfer Mechanisms
If a transfer mechanism described in Section 6.1 is invalidated, replaced, or superseded by Applicable Data Protection Law, the Parties shall cooperate in good faith to implement a replacement transfer mechanism that provides adequate safeguards in compliance with Applicable Data Protection Law.
6.3 Disclosure Requests
If the Processor receives a request from a public authority for disclosure of Personal Data transferred under this DPA, the Processor shall:
- Promptly notify the Controller, unless prohibited by law.
- Challenge the request if there are reasonable grounds to consider it unlawful.
- Provide only the minimum amount of Personal Data necessary to comply with the request.
7. Personal Data Breach
7.1 Notification
The Processor shall notify the Controller without undue delay and in any event within seventy-two (72) hours of becoming aware of a Personal Data Breach affecting the Controller’s Personal Data. Notification shall be provided by email to the address associated with the Controller’s Account.
7.2 Content of Notification
The notification shall, to the extent reasonably possible, include:
- A description of the nature of the Personal Data Breach, including the categories and approximate number of Data Subjects and Personal Data records concerned.
- The name and contact details of the Processor’s point of contact for further information.
- A description of the likely consequences of the Personal Data Breach.
- A description of the measures taken or proposed to be taken to address the Personal Data Breach, including measures to mitigate its adverse effects.
7.3 Ongoing Cooperation
If it is not possible to provide all required information at the time of initial notification, the Processor shall provide the information in phases without further undue delay. The Processor shall cooperate with the Controller and take reasonable steps to assist in the investigation, mitigation, and remediation of the Personal Data Breach.
7.4 Notification Not an Acknowledgment
The Processor’s obligation to notify or respond to a Personal Data Breach under this Section shall not be construed as an acknowledgment of fault or liability.
8. CCPA/CPRA Provisions
To the extent that the CCPA/CPRA applies to the Processing of Personal Data under this DPA:
- The Processor is a “service provider” as defined under the CCPA/CPRA. The Processor shall not sell or share (as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA) any Personal Data received from the Controller.
- The Processor shall not retain, use, or disclose Personal Data for any purpose other than the business purposes specified in the Agreement, or as otherwise permitted by the CCPA/CPRA.
- The Processor shall not combine Personal Data received from the Controller with Personal Data received from or on behalf of another person or collected from its own interactions with Data Subjects, except as permitted by the CCPA/CPRA.
- The Processor certifies that it understands and will comply with the obligations set forth in this Section.
- The Controller may take reasonable steps to ensure that the Processor uses Personal Data in a manner consistent with the Controller’s obligations under the CCPA/CPRA.
- The Processor shall notify the Controller if it determines that it can no longer meet its obligations under the CCPA/CPRA.
9. Term
This DPA shall remain in effect for the duration of the Agreement. Sections 4.8, 4.9, 7, and any provisions that by their nature should survive termination shall survive the termination or expiration of this DPA.
10. Limitation of Liability
Each Party’s total aggregate liability arising out of or related to this DPA shall be subject to the limitations of liability set forth in the Agreement. Nothing in this DPA shall be construed to limit either Party’s liability with respect to the rights of Data Subjects under Applicable Data Protection Law.
11. General
11.1 Governing Law
This DPA shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, except to the extent that Applicable Data Protection Law requires the application of the law of another jurisdiction.
11.2 Severability
If any provision of this DPA is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.
11.3 Modifications
This DPA may be modified by the Processor to reflect changes in Applicable Data Protection Law by providing at least thirty (30) days’ prior notice to the Controller.
11.4 Entire Agreement
This DPA, together with the Agreement, Annexes, and any SCCs incorporated by reference, constitutes the entire agreement between the Parties with respect to the Processing of Personal Data in connection with the Service.
Annex 1: Details of Processing
This Annex describes the Processing of Personal Data carried out in connection with the Service.
Categories of Data Subjects
- Employees, contractors, and agents of the Controller who are Authorized Users of the Service.
- Individuals whose publicly available posts, comments, or profiles on third-party community and social platforms are collected and analyzed at the Controller’s direction to surface marketing opportunities.
- Individuals referenced within the Controller’s Business Knowledge or content (such as named contacts or competitors).
Categories of Personal Data
- Account data: Name, email address, password (stored as a bcrypt hash), organization name and role.
- Authentication data: Session identifiers, multi-factor authentication secrets (encrypted), IP addresses, user-agent strings, login timestamps.
- Business Knowledge and content: Free-form business descriptions, prompts, chat messages, and generated drafts, which may incidentally contain Personal Data the Controller chooses to include.
- Connected-account data: OAuth tokens and data accessed within the scope the Controller authorizes (such as search-analytics metrics or content destinations).
- Public community/social content: Author handles, post and comment text, and associated public metadata collected from third-party platforms.
- Usage data: Pages viewed, features used, actions taken, session duration, credit consumption, and device/browser information.
- Billing data: Limited payment card information (card brand, last four digits, expiration date) and billing address, as received from Stripe.
- Support data: Email addresses, message content, and attachments submitted in the course of support communications.
Sensitive Data
No special categories of Personal Data (as defined in Article 9 GDPR) are intentionally processed under this DPA. The Controller is responsible for not submitting special-category data through free-form fields.
Processing Activities
- Providing and operating the Service, including user authentication, session management, and role-based access control.
- Crawling the Controller’s website and synthesizing a structured business profile.
- Collecting and analyzing publicly available community and social content, and search/SEO data, to surface marketing opportunities.
- Transmitting Business Knowledge, prompts, and content to large language model Sub-Processors to generate and analyze content.
- Storing chat content encrypted at rest.
- Generating content and learning from the Controller’s feedback to improve output for the Controller’s organization.
- Publishing content to destinations the Controller connects and configures.
- Processing payments and managing subscriptions and credits through Stripe.
- Delivering notifications (in-app, email, Slack, webhook) as configured by the Controller.
- Product analytics and error monitoring through Mixpanel and Sentry.
Retention
Personal Data is retained in accordance with the data retention periods set forth in the Privacy Policy:
- Account and Business-Knowledge data: Duration of the Account, followed by a 30-day soft-delete grace period, plus any legally required retention period.
- Chat content: Life of the Account unless deleted earlier by the Controller.
- Raw collected community/website content: Approximately 30 days (rolling).
- Usage and analytics time-series: Up to 12 months.
- Billing records: Up to 7 years, as required by tax and accounting obligations.
Location of Processing
Personal Data is processed in the United States and the European Union. Infrastructure hosting is provided by Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany) and Amazon Web Services (United States and EU). A full list of Sub-Processors and their locations is available at adze.cloud/subprocessors.
Annex 2: Technical and Organizational Security Measures
The Processor implements and maintains the following technical and organizational measures to protect Personal Data:
Access Control
- Role-based access controls for all internal systems.
- Multi-factor authentication for administrative access to production systems.
- Principle of least privilege applied to all system and database access.
- Unique user accounts for all personnel; no shared credentials.
Encryption
- Encryption of data in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher for all external communications.
- Encryption of data at rest for databases, backups, and object storage.
- Field-level application encryption (AES-256-GCM) for sensitive data, including chat content, connected-account credentials, multi-factor authentication secrets, and stored IP/user-agent values.
- User passwords stored only as salted bcrypt hashes.
Data Minimization
- Personal Data collection is limited to what is necessary for the provision of the Service.
- Collection of public community content is filtered through a relevance pipeline; raw artifacts are retained only transiently.
- A PII denylist is applied to the internal business-event/analytics fan-out to avoid propagating Personal Data into analytics stores.
Infrastructure Security
- Production infrastructure hosted in professionally managed data centers with physical access controls.
- Network-level firewalls and security group rules restricting access to production systems.
- Regular patching and updates to operating systems and application dependencies.
Monitoring and Logging
- Centralized logging and audit trails for access to production systems and databases.
- Error monitoring and alerting for anomalous activity and system errors.
- Log retention consistent with the retention periods described in Annex 1.
Incident Response
- Documented incident response procedures for identifying, containing, and remediating security incidents.
- Defined escalation paths and notification procedures for Personal Data Breaches, as described in Section 7 of this DPA.
Business Continuity
- Regular backups of databases and critical systems.
- Backup integrity verification and restoration testing.
- Disaster recovery procedures documented and periodically reviewed.
Personnel
- Confidentiality obligations for all personnel with access to Personal Data.
- Security awareness practices for personnel involved in the Processing of Personal Data.
Vendor Management
- Due diligence assessments conducted on Sub-Processors prior to engagement.
- Written agreements with Sub-Processors imposing data protection obligations no less protective than those in this DPA.
Annex 3: Standard Contractual Clauses
To the extent that the Processing of Personal Data involves a transfer of Personal Data from the EEA to the United States or another country without an adequacy decision, the Parties agree to be bound by the Standard Contractual Clauses (Module Two: Controller to Processor) as approved by the European Commission in Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914.
The SCCs are completed as follows:
Clause 7 — Docking Clause
The optional docking clause is included, permitting additional parties to accede to the SCCs.
Clause 9 — Use of Sub-Processors
Option 2 (General written authorization) is selected. The Processor shall inform the Controller of any intended changes to the list of Sub-Processors, giving the Controller the opportunity to object in accordance with Section 5 of this DPA.
Clause 11 — Redress
The optional clause on independent dispute resolution is not included.
Clause 13 — Supervision
Where the data exporter is established in an EU Member State, the Supervisory Authority of that Member State shall act as the competent Supervisory Authority. Where the data exporter is not established in an EU Member State but falls within the territorial scope of the GDPR, the Supervisory Authority of the Member State where the data exporter’s EU representative is established shall act as the competent Supervisory Authority. Where the data exporter is not established in the EU and has not appointed an EU representative, the Irish Data Protection Commission shall act as the competent Supervisory Authority.
Clause 17 — Governing Law
Option 1 is selected. The SCCs shall be governed by the law of Ireland.
Clause 18 — Choice of Forum and Jurisdiction
Disputes arising from the SCCs shall be resolved by the courts of Ireland.
Annex I to the SCCs
Annex I.A (List of Parties):
- Data exporter: The Controller (as identified in the Agreement).
- Data importer: AltaCoda LLC, 1111 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607. Contact: hello@altacoda.io. Role: Processor.
Annex I.B (Description of Transfer): As set forth in Annex 1 of this DPA.
Annex I.C (Competent Supervisory Authority): As determined in accordance with Clause 13 above.
Annex II to the SCCs
The technical and organizational measures implemented by the data importer are as set forth in Annex 2 of this DPA.
Annex III to the SCCs
The current list of Sub-Processors is maintained at adze.cloud/subprocessors.
Contact: AltaCoda LLC 1111 Broadway Oakland, CA 94607 Email: hello@altacoda.io
Last updated: June 2, 2026