Privacy Policy

Busy Skipper Bot LLC operates the service at busyskipper.bot. You can reach us at support@mail.busyskipper.bot.

Skipper account data

• Your name and email address, from your Google sign-in.
• Google OAuth tokens that let us call the Google Calendar and Google Sheets APIs on your behalf.
• The ID of the Busy Skipper workbook we create in your Google Drive, and the ID of the Google Calendar we create for your boat.
• Operational logs of events the agent processes (e.g., emails received, calendar events written, errors).

Crew data (provided by the skipper)

Your Google workbook is the readable source of truth for your crew list (names, emails, phone numbers, roles). The central database stores anonymous matching tokens so the bot can recognize returning crew messages without keeping readable crew names or contact details alongside race data. The exception is SMS: when a crew member is enabled for SMS, their phone number is additionally stored in encrypted form so the bot can send and receive text messages. Those encrypted numbers are not readable from the database alone and are only used by the bot's server processes.

What the central database holds for crew:

• Anonymous matching tokens derived from crew email addresses and phone numbers (one-way fingerprints, not the addresses themselves).
• For crew enabled for SMS: the phone number in encrypted form, so the bot can send and receive their messages.
• SMS consent record: the timestamp of opt-in, opt-out events (STOP), the disclosure copy shown at opt-in, and an anonymous fingerprint of the phone number.
• Crew member replies to bot messages, parsed for availability (e.g., YES / NO / MAYBE) and routed to the skipper's calendar.

What we do not collect

• We do not read your other Google Drive files, Gmail, Contacts, or anything outside the workbook we create.
• We do not sell, rent, or share data with third parties for advertising.
• We do not track you across other sites.

• Run the scheduling agent: parse skipper input, project events to Google Calendar, send crew communications, route replies back to the skipper.
• Operate the service: error monitoring, abuse prevention, message de-duplication.
• Improve the service: diagnose failure modes and improve our LLM prompts. By design, crew identifiers are scoped per skipper and are not pooled across skippers.

• Google — Calendar and Sheets APIs. We act on your behalf under your OAuth grant.
• Cloud infrastructure and database hosting (US region) — a third-party provider runs the application database, website and webhook hosting, and request processing.
• SMS provider — a third-party provider for delivery and receipt of text messages.
• Email provider — a third-party provider for inbound and outbound email delivery.
• AI/LLM provider— a third-party provider for the language-model calls used to parse skipper input and crew replies. Each call is scoped to a single skipper's context and is not pooled with other skippers' data.

• Skipper account data: kept while your account is active. On account deletion we remove skipper-scoped data within 30 days, except where retention is required for operational integrity or by law.
• Crew encrypted phone numbers (SMS-enabled crew): kept in encrypted form for the duration of the SMS relationship, so the bot can send and receive messages to that number. Tied to the consent record below.
• Crew SMS consent records: kept for the duration of the SMS relationship and for up to 2 years after the last interaction or STOP, for compliance and audit purposes.
• Crew message content: retained while operationally needed (open race events, recent replies); older content is purged on a rolling schedule.
• Operational and LLM audit logs: retained for diagnostic purposes with personal identifiers minimized.

Crew members

• Reply STOP (or QUIT, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, END) to any SMS to opt out. Effect is immediate.
• Reply HELP for more info and a contact channel.
• Email support@mail.busyskipper.bot to request deletion or correction of your data. We act on requests within 30 days. (The skipper who added you also has direct control over your roster entry.)

Skippers

• Delete your account at any time by emailing us. We purge skipper-scoped data within 30 days.
• Withdraw Busy Skipper Bot's access to your Google account at any time at https://myaccount.google.com/connections.
• Request a copy of your data by emailing us.

California, EU, and UK residents

You have additional rights under applicable law, including the right to know what data we hold, the right to delete it, and the right to correct it. Email us at support@mail.busyskipper.bot to exercise these rights.

Crew members do not sign up for Busy Skipper Bot directly, and the bot never texts a crew member out of the blue. A skipper adds a crew member to their own private roster and lets them know they can text JOIN to the bot to start receiving race and crew-coordination messages. The crew member texts JOIN first; the bot replies and asks them to confirm. No messages are sent to a phone number until that person has texted in and replied YES.

The flow

1. A skipper adds a crew member — including their phone number — to the skipper's own private roster, and shares the bot's number and opt-in keyword with them (for example: “Text JOIN to +1 464-262-8268 to get on my race texts”).
2. The crew member texts JOIN to the bot's number. Because the skipper has already added them to the roster, the bot recognizes the number and knows which boat it belongs to.
3. The bot replies with its introduction and a TCPA-compliant consent prompt (with the skipper and boat names filled in):

   Hi, it's Busy Skipper Bot. I help [Skipper Name] keep track of [Boat Name]'s crew line-up. Reply YES to agree to receive my messages. Msg freq varies; msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for more info. Privacy: busyskipper.bot/privacy

4. If the crew member replies YES, we record their consent (timestamp, phone number, and the disclosure copy shown). After that, the crew member may receive that skipper's race and crew-coordination messages (availability checks, schedule updates, and similar), and may text the bot directly with commands like GET LINK MY RACES to fetch a link to their personal race schedule.
5. If the crew member does not reply YES, the bot sends them nothing further. We do not nag and we do not re-prompt.
6. Replying STOP (or QUIT, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, END) at any time immediately stops further messages. To resume, the crew member texts START.
7. Replying HELP at any time returns business identification, a support contact, and an opt-out reminder.

This is the only way a phone number receives SMS from Busy Skipper Bot. We do not buy lists, accept opt-ins from third parties, or text any number whose owner has not texted the bot and replied YES. A skipper can only add crew to their own roster; the crew member's own YES is what authorizes messages.

Saving the bot's contact

The bot uses one shared number across all the skippers who run Busy Skipper Bot. If you sail on more than one boat that uses the bot, the same number will text you in each skipper's context. The bot always identifies itself as “Busy Skipper Bot” and names the skipper/boat at the start of any message it sends you directly, so the conversation context is clear from the message itself — you don't need to maintain separate contacts. Saving the number as “Busy Skipper Bot” is the simplest convention.

Estimated frequency is 1–10 messages per week per crew member during the racing season, depending on how active the season is. Standard message and data rates apply per the recipient's mobile carrier.

Busy Skipper Bot's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

In practice: we use your Google Calendar and Google Sheets access only to run the scheduling agent on your behalf. We do not use Google user data for advertising, do not share it with third parties outside the operational sub-processors listed above, and do not allow humans to read it except where you have asked us to debug an issue or where required by law.

Busy Skipper Bot is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided us information, email us and we will delete it.

We may update this policy as the service evolves. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent change. Material changes (for example, new sub-processors or new categories of data) will be communicated to active skippers by email.

For privacy questions, deletion requests, or any other concern, email support@mail.busyskipper.bot.