JHBridge Translation Services ("JHBridge," "we," "us," or "our") retains personal information and business records for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which they were collected, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and meet legitimate business needs. We do not retain data longer than necessary, and we periodically review our retention practices to ensure they remain appropriate and proportionate.

Retention periods vary by data category and are determined based on the nature of the data, the purpose for which it was collected, applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and our legitimate business needs. This policy outlines the retention periods for each major category of data we collect and process. Where specific retention periods have not yet been finalized, we have noted this and will update this policy as those decisions are confirmed.

This Data Retention & Deletion Policy supplements our Privacy Policy and should be read together with our Terms of Service and other legal documents. If you have questions about how long we retain a specific type of data or wish to request deletion of your personal information, please contact us at contact@jhbridgetranslation.com.

Account information, including your name, email address, login credentials, profile details, language preferences, and communication preferences, is retained for the duration of your active account. This data is necessary for us to provide you with access to our platform, manage your service requests, communicate with you about your projects, and maintain the security of your account.

After account closure, whether initiated by you or by JHBridge, we retain account information for a reasonable period to handle any outstanding billing inquiries, support requests, disputes, or legal obligations. This post-closure retention period allows us to respond to questions about past services, process any remaining financial transactions, and comply with applicable record-keeping requirements.

Login credentials are securely hashed and are not stored in plain text. Upon account closure, your login credentials are deactivated immediately, and the hashed credentials are retained only as long as necessary for the purposes described above. If you wish to have your account data deleted, you may submit a deletion request as described in the Deletion Requests section of this policy.

Quote requests, interpreter booking records, and related communications are retained for a reasonable period after the request is fulfilled or closed, typically for business records and potential follow-up services. These records include the details of your service request (such as language pair, subject matter, date, and location), any quotes provided, scheduling information, and communications between you and JHBridge related to the engagement.

We retain these records because clients frequently return for additional services, request follow-up work related to previous engagements, or need documentation of past services for their own records. Retaining booking and quote records also allows us to improve our service delivery, analyze demand patterns, and provide better service to returning clients. (Note: The specific retention period for quote requests and booking records is under review and will be confirmed in a future update to this policy, anticipated to be approximately three years.)

If you wish to have your quote or booking records deleted before the standard retention period expires, you may submit a deletion request. We will evaluate your request in light of any applicable legal or business retention requirements and process the deletion where permitted.

Uploaded source documents and translated deliverables may be retained for a period after project completion for quality assurance, revision requests, and dispute resolution. Retaining these files allows us to fulfill revision requests, address quality concerns, and resolve any disputes about the accuracy or completeness of delivered translations. Documents are stored securely using encrypted cloud storage services (such as AWS S3) with access controls that limit access to authorized personnel only.

The specific retention period for source documents and translated deliverables is under review and will be confirmed in a future update to this policy. We anticipate that the standard retention period will be approximately ninety (90) days after project completion, after which files will be securely deleted from our active systems. Clients who need documents retained for a longer period should maintain their own copies.

Earlier deletion of source documents and translated deliverables may be requested at any time by contacting us at contact@jhbridgetranslation.com. We will process early deletion requests subject to any operational and legal requirements that may require continued retention, such as ongoing disputes, outstanding payments, or active quality assurance reviews. We recommend that clients download and save their own copies of all deliverables promptly upon receipt.

Financial records including invoices, payment receipts, billing history, Stripe transaction records, and related financial documentation are retained as required by applicable tax and accounting laws. In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) generally requires businesses to retain financial records for a minimum of seven (7) years. JHBridge retains financial records for at least this minimum period to ensure compliance with federal and state tax obligations.

Payment records may include your name, billing address, payment method details (note: full payment card numbers are not stored by JHBridge, as payment processing is handled by Stripe), transaction amounts, dates, invoice numbers, and descriptions of services rendered. These records are necessary for tax reporting, financial auditing, and accounting purposes and cannot be deleted prior to the expiration of the applicable legal retention period.

If you have questions about your invoices or payment history, please contact us at contact@jhbridgetranslation.com. We can provide copies of past invoices and payment receipts upon request. Please note that deletion requests for financial records cannot be honored until the applicable legal retention period has expired.

Signed contracts, service agreements, and e-signature audit records are retained for the duration of the contractual relationship and for a reasonable period thereafter as required by law and for dispute resolution. E-signature audit records include the signer's identity, timestamp of signature, IP address from which the document was signed, document hash (a digital fingerprint that verifies the document has not been altered), and any other metadata captured during the signing process.

These records serve as legal evidence that a contract was executed by the identified parties at the recorded time. Retaining complete and unaltered e-signature audit trails is essential for enforcing contractual obligations, defending against claims that a contract was not properly executed, and complying with electronic signature laws such as the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN Act) and applicable state laws.

Contract and e-signature records are stored securely with access controls that restrict access to authorized personnel. These records are not deleted upon account closure or in response to general deletion requests, as they may be needed for legal purposes long after the contractual relationship has ended. If you have questions about a specific contract or e-signature record, please contact us.

Contractor engagement records, including applications, resumes, credentials, certifications, language proficiency assessments, assignment history, performance evaluations, and payment records, are retained as required by tax, employment, and business record-keeping obligations. These records are necessary for IRS reporting requirements (including 1099 forms), verification of contractor qualifications, quality assurance, and compliance with applicable labor and business regulations.

Assignment history and performance records are retained to ensure that JHBridge can make informed decisions about future assignments, track interpreter qualifications and specializations, respond to client inquiries about past services, and maintain accountability for the quality of services delivered. These records may also be relevant in the event of disputes, complaints, or legal proceedings related to interpretation services.

Contractors who wish to have their records deleted after the conclusion of their engagement with JHBridge may submit a deletion request. However, certain records, particularly those related to tax reporting and payment history, must be retained for the legally required period regardless of the contractor's request. We will inform the contractor of which records can and cannot be deleted and the applicable retention timelines.

System logs, access logs, audit trails, and security records are retained for a reasonable period for security monitoring, incident investigation, and compliance purposes. These records include information such as IP addresses, timestamps, user actions, authentication events, file access records, and system error logs. They are essential for detecting unauthorized access, investigating security incidents, troubleshooting technical issues, and maintaining the overall security and integrity of our systems.

The specific retention period for logs and security records is under review and will be confirmed in a future update to this policy. We anticipate that the standard retention period will be in the range of twelve (12) to twenty-four (24) months, depending on the type of log and its relevance to security and compliance. Security-critical logs, such as authentication logs and access control logs, may be retained for longer periods than general system logs.

Logs and security records are stored securely and access is restricted to authorized personnel with a legitimate need to review them, such as system administrators, security analysts, and authorized management. These records are not generally available to users upon request, as they may contain information about other users and system operations. However, if you have a specific concern about your data within our logs, please contact us to discuss your request.

Backup copies of data may be retained on a rotating schedule as part of our disaster recovery and business continuity practices. Backups ensure that we can recover data and restore services in the event of hardware failure, software errors, data corruption, cyberattacks, natural disasters, or other events that could result in data loss. Backups are an essential component of responsible data management and system reliability.

Data deleted from active systems may persist in backups for a limited period until the backup rotation completes. This means that when data is deleted from our primary systems in response to a deletion request or retention schedule expiration, copies of that data may continue to exist in backup archives for a period of time. We do not actively restore data from backups except in the event of a system recovery, and data that exists only in backups is not accessible through normal system operations.

JHBridge makes reasonable efforts to ensure that backup retention periods are as short as practicable while still providing adequate disaster recovery protection. We do not mine, search, or use backup data for any purpose other than disaster recovery and system restoration. If data subject to a deletion request persists in backups, it will be deleted when the backup containing that data is rotated out in the normal course of operations.

JHBridge may preserve records beyond normal retention periods when required by law, litigation, regulatory investigation, or legal hold notice. A legal hold is a directive to preserve all data and records that may be relevant to a pending or reasonably anticipated legal matter, regulatory inquiry, or government investigation. When a legal hold is in effect, the normal retention and deletion schedules for affected data are suspended.

Data subject to a legal hold will not be deleted until the hold is released, regardless of whether the normal retention period has expired or a deletion request has been received. JHBridge takes legal hold obligations seriously and implements procedures to ensure that relevant data is identified, preserved, and protected from modification or destruction during the hold period.

If your data is subject to a legal hold, we may not be able to fulfill a deletion request for that data until the hold is released. In such cases, we will inform you that your request cannot be processed at the current time due to legal obligations, although we may not be able to disclose the specific reason for the hold. Once the legal hold is released, we will process any pending deletion requests in accordance with this policy.

Users may request deletion of their personal information by contacting contact@jhbridgetranslation.com. When we receive a deletion request, we will verify your identity to ensure that the request is legitimate and that we are deleting the correct data. We may ask you to provide identifying information or to submit your request from the email address associated with your JHBridge account.

Deletion requests are processed in accordance with applicable law, including any state privacy laws that may grant you specific deletion rights. We aim to process deletion requests within a reasonable timeframe, typically within thirty (30) days of verifying the request. If we need additional time to process your request, we will notify you of the expected timeline and the reason for the delay.

Certain data may not be eligible for deletion due to legal retention requirements, active disputes, outstanding payments, legal holds, or other legitimate business purposes as described in this policy. When a deletion request cannot be fully honored, we will inform you of which data has been deleted and which data must be retained, along with the reason for continued retention. We will delete the retained data as soon as the applicable retention requirement expires.

Data may be retained longer than the standard periods described in this policy for the following reasons: compliance with legal, tax, or regulatory obligations that require longer retention; defense of legal claims or anticipated litigation where the data may be relevant; fraud prevention and detection activities; audit requirements imposed by regulatory authorities, clients, or industry standards; and backup rotation schedules as described in the Backups section above.

When data is retained beyond its standard retention period due to an exception, the data is still subject to appropriate security safeguards and access controls. We do not use data retained under an exception for purposes other than the specific purpose justifying the extended retention. For example, data retained for tax compliance purposes will not be used for marketing or other unrelated purposes.

JHBridge periodically reviews data retained under exceptions to determine whether the basis for extended retention still applies. When the reason for extended retention no longer exists, the data is deleted in accordance with our standard procedures. We are committed to minimizing the amount of personal data we retain and to deleting data when it is no longer needed for any lawful purpose.