Privacy Policy
Cove Collect, Inc. ("Cove," "we," "us") provides a managed collection service for private collectors and institutions. This policy describes what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to www.covecollect.com and to the Cove service.
Our starting principle is simple: your collection record is yours. We collect what the service requires, we share it only at your direction or as the law requires, and we do not sell it to anyone.
Information we collect
Information you provide. When you contact us or become a client, we collect contact details (name, email, phone), information about your role (collector, advisor, institution), and the information the engagement requires.
Collection records. The heart of the service is your collection record: descriptions of works, images, provenance and purchase documents, condition reports, valuations and their supporting evidence, location information, and recordings you choose to make, including voice recordings attached to works. This information is provided by you, gathered with your permission, or researched on your behalf as part of the engagement.
Information collected automatically. Like most websites, we collect standard technical information when you visit: IP address, browser type, pages viewed, and similar log data.
How we use information
- To provide the service: building and maintaining your collection record, preparing appraisals, monitoring values, and delivering reports.
- To communicate with you about your engagement and respond to your requests.
- To operate, secure, and improve the service.
- To comply with legal obligations, including those that apply to professional appraisal work.
We do not sell your personal information or your collection records, and we do not share them with third parties for their own marketing.
How information is shared
At your direction. Sharing is the point of a permissioned record: your advisor, insurer, attorney, family members, and guests see what you have granted them and nothing more. Every grant is set by you and revocable by you.
Service providers. We use a small number of vendors to operate the service (such as cloud hosting and communications). They process information only on our instructions and are bound by confidentiality obligations.
Professional requirements. Appraisal work is subject to professional standards (USPAP) that include recordkeeping requirements. Workfiles are retained as those standards require and are held in confidence.
Legal requirements. We may disclose information when compelled by law, subpoena, or court order. Where we are legally permitted to notify you and it is practicable to do so, we will, and we will give you a reasonable opportunity to object.
Corporate events. If Cove is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy's commitments.
Advisors who connect Gmail
Advisors can connect their Google account so that Cove can send email as them and keep their client conversations together in Cove. When an advisor connects Gmail, Cove requests two permissions from Google, and uses them only as described here.
- Send email on your behalf. When you send works, documents, or a message to a client from Cove, it is sent from your own Gmail address, appears in your Sent mail, and reaches your client the way your email always does. Cove sends only messages you write or approve in Cove.
- Read your email messages and settings. Cove reads messages sent to you by the clients you work with in Cove, so their replies appear alongside the works and documents they are about. Cove searches only for messages from those clients' email addresses and does not read, index, or store the rest of your mailbox. Cove may also read your Gmail settings, such as your email signature and display name, so the messages you send from Cove look like the ones you send from Gmail.
What Cove stores: your Gmail address, an access token that lets Cove act on the permissions you granted, and the client replies (with their attachments) that Cove brings into your Messages. These are stored encrypted and visible only to you and anyone you have added to your advisory team in Cove.
Cove does not use Gmail data for advertising, does not sell it, does not use it to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models, and does not allow any person at Cove to read it except with your permission, where needed for security or to comply with the law. You can disconnect Gmail at any time in Cove or in your Google account settings; Cove then stops accessing your mailbox, and you can ask us to delete the replies Cove stored.
Cove's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Security
Your records are encrypted in transit and at rest. Access within Cove is limited to the people serving your engagement. Cove's infrastructure providers maintain SOC 2 Type II attestation reports for the services they provide to us. Cove has not yet completed a SOC 2 examination of its own; we are happy to walk any security reviewer through our current controls. More on our approach is on the Security page. Voice recordings you add to your record are stored as media; we do not use them to create voiceprints or for identification.
Retention
We retain your information for as long as you are a client and as long afterward as the law and professional appraisal standards require. When retention is no longer required, information is deleted or de-identified in accordance with our retention schedule; copies held in backups are purged on our ordinary backup cycle. You may request deletion at any time, subject to those same legal and professional obligations.
Your rights and choices
- Access and export. You can export your collection record at any time, in a commonly used, structured format, organized as it is kept in the service, at no additional charge.
- Correction. Tell us about anything inaccurate in your record and we will correct it promptly. Completed appraisal reports and their workfiles cannot be altered after issuance, because professional standards require them to be retained as issued; where a report needs revising, that is a new assignment.
- Deletion. Ask us to delete your information, and we will, subject to the retention obligations above.
- Marketing. You can opt out of any marketing communications at any time; service communications about an active engagement will continue.
Guests and shared access
When a collector shares part of a record with you as a guest, family member, or advisor, your access is governed by the grants the collector set. We collect minimal information about grantees (such as an email address for authenticated access) and use it only to operate the sharing feature.
Children
The service is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their information. Access grants to family members under 16 are made by the collector, who is responsible for them.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will post the new version here and update the date above. For material changes affecting active clients, we will tell you directly.
Contact
Questions, requests, or concerns: hello@covecollect.com, or Cove Collect, Inc., c/o A Registered Agent, Inc., 8 The Green, Suite A, Dover, Delaware 19901.