Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective date: March 21, 2026

Your privacy matters to us. This policy explains what personal information Portloft collects, why we collect it, how we use it, and what rights you have — in plain language.

1. Who We Are

Portloft ("we", "us", "our") is a federally incorporated Canadian company that operates the Portloft portfolio hosting platform at portloft.com and its subdomains (the "Service").

We are the "organization" responsible for the personal information we collect and hold, as defined under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices can be directed to us at hello@portloft.com.

2. Information We Collect

We collect personal information only to the extent necessary to provide the Service. The categories of information we collect are:

Account information

When you create an account, we collect your email address, full name, and a hashed version of your password (we never store your password in plain text). If you sign in via Google OAuth, we receive your name and email address from Google.

Portfolio content

We store the content you choose to add to your portfolio — including your display name, bio, location, profile photo, social media links, project titles and descriptions, and any images or media files you upload.

Payment information

Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store your credit card number or full payment details on our servers. We retain the Stripe Customer ID and subscription status associated with your account.

Usage and technical data

We collect aggregate view counts on portfolio pages. We also use Google Analytics (see Section 5) to collect information about how visitors interact with the Service, including approximate location, browser type, device type, pages visited, and time spent.

Communications

If you contact us by email, we retain the content of that communication and your email address in order to respond.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:

  • To create and manage your account
  • To provide, operate, and maintain the Service
  • To process payments and manage your subscription
  • To send transactional communications — including account verification, password resets, billing receipts, and service notifications
  • To send marketing and promotional communications, where you have given your express consent (see Section 6)
  • To measure and analyse how the Service is used, in order to improve it
  • To detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent or unauthorised activity
  • To comply with our legal obligations under Canadian federal and applicable law

We will not use your personal information for purposes other than those listed above without obtaining your consent first.

5. Cookies & Tracking

We use a small number of cookies to operate the Service:

Session cookies (essential)

We set a secure, HTTP-only session cookie to keep you logged in. This cookie is strictly necessary for the Service to function and cannot be opted out of while using the Service.

Google Analytics (analytics)

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use Portloft. Google Analytics sets cookies (such as _ga and _gid) that collect anonymised information including your approximate location, browser, device, and pages visited. This data is sent to Google's servers, which may be located in the United States. Google's use of this data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy (policies.google.com/privacy). You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout) or by using your browser's do-not-track settings.

Beyond the above, we do not set advertising, retargeting, or social media tracking cookies.

6. Marketing Communications

We will only send you marketing or promotional emails if you have provided your express consent, as required under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

You may withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or by emailing us at hello@portloft.com. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of any communications sent before the withdrawal.

We will always send transactional emails (such as receipts, account notices, and security alerts) regardless of your marketing preferences, as these are necessary to operate the Service.

7. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your personal information with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

We share personal information only with the following categories of service providers, who process it on our behalf and under our instruction:

Stripe (payment processing)

We share billing-related information with Stripe, Inc. to process subscription payments. Stripe is PCI-DSS compliant. Data may be processed in the United States. Stripe's privacy policy is available at stripe.com/privacy.

Cloudinary / AWS S3 (media storage)

Media files you upload (project images, profile photos) are stored with our cloud storage provider. We use Canadian or North American data centres where available.

Resend (transactional & marketing email)

We use Resend to send emails on our behalf. Resend receives your email address and the content of communications sent to you.

Google Analytics (analytics)

As described in Section 5, anonymised usage data is shared with Google LLC for analytics purposes.

Legal and regulatory disclosure

We may disclose personal information if required by law, court order, or a valid request from a government or regulatory authority. Where permitted, we will notify you before disclosing.

All third-party service providers are contractually required to protect your information and use it only for the purposes we specify.

8. Data Location & International Transfers

Portloft is a Canadian company and we store personal information in Canada where possible. Our primary database uses Canadian data centres through our hosting provider.

Some of our third-party service providers — including Stripe and Google — process data in the United States. By using the Service and consenting to this Privacy Policy, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your personal information to these jurisdictions, which may have different privacy laws than Canada.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information transferred outside of Canada is afforded a comparable level of protection, including contractual safeguards with our service providers.

9. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service.

If you delete your account, we will delete your personal information — including your profile, portfolio content, and uploaded media — within 90 days. Some information may be retained for a longer period where required by law (for example, billing records for tax compliance purposes) or for legitimate business purposes such as fraud prevention.

Anonymised or aggregated data that cannot identify you may be retained indefinitely for analytics and service improvement purposes.

10. Your Rights

Under PIPEDA, you have the right to:

  • Access the personal information we hold about you
  • Request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal information
  • Withdraw consent to our use of your personal information (subject to legal or contractual restrictions)
  • Request deletion of your personal information (subject to our retention obligations)
  • Be informed of any automated decision-making that significantly affects you
  • File a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) if you believe we have violated your privacy rights

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@portloft.com. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

11. Minimum Age

The Service is not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at hello@portloft.com and we will delete it promptly.

12. Security

We implement industry-standard technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These include encrypted data transmission (TLS), hashed password storage, and access controls limiting who within our organisation can access personal information.

No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we are committed to promptly notifying affected users and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in the event of a material data breach, as required under PIPEDA's mandatory breach reporting rules.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. If the changes are material, we will notify you by email or through a prominent notice in your account dashboard.

Your continued use of the Service after any update constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

14. Contact & Complaints

If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

hello@portloft.com

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

https://www.priv.gc.ca

1-800-282-1376