In effect September 28, 2026. This is our interim policy, published while our lawyers review it. It will be updated when their review is done, and the date above will change.
This policy explains what personal information BDM3d collects, why, where it goes, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it. It covers our website (bdm3d.com and its city editions), our client platform StudioLink, our rep and studio programmes, and the emails we send.
BDM3d Studios is the business name of Blatchford Dahl Media Inc., a British Columbia company based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. When this policy says "we" or "us", it means that company.
The short version
- We collect what we need to answer you and to do the work you order. Nothing more.
- We never sell or rent your information, and we never share it for anyone else's advertising.
- Our website has no advertising trackers. We count visits with Google Analytics only if you press Allow on the banner, and never if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal.
- We do not use your information or your files to train artificial intelligence.
- You can ask us for a copy of what we hold, to correct it, or to delete it, wherever you live. We answer within 30 days.
- We send marketing email only to people who said yes.
- Our servers are currently in the United States. We tell you so below, and we plan to move them to Canada.
1. What we collect, and why
| When you... | We collect | Why | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Send an enquiry (the Start form, contact pages) | Your name, email, company, phone (optional), your answers about the project, and the rep code if you arrived through a rep | To reply, quote and, if you go ahead, do the work | 24 months after our last contact, unless you become a client |
| Apply to join us as a rep, studio or drone pilot | Your contact details, your answers, and our review notes and decision | To assess your application | 12 months after the decision; if you join, it moves to your agreement file |
| Are suggested to us as a studio or pilot | Your business name, website and the business contact details you publish | To invite you to apply | Until you say no, or 12 months with no reply |
| Become a client | Names, emails and roles of your team; your projects, drawings and files; orders, estimates, invoices and payments | To do the work and bill for it | For the relationship, then 7 years for financial records (tax law) |
| Sign in to StudioLink | Your name, email and profile picture from Google (we ask Google for those three and nothing else), or your email for a sign-in link | To let you in and show you your own work | While your account is open, then 90 days |
| Use the AI assistant in StudioLink | What you type, and a short summary of what is on your screen | To answer you | Until you delete it, or 12 months |
| Record meeting notes (only if the person running the meeting turns it on, and only after everyone is told) | A written transcript and summary. The audio is converted to text and discarded, never stored | So the meeting has notes | 24 months, or with the project |
| Work as a rep | Your name, email, regions, rep code, the clients you introduced, and your commission | To pay you | For the agreement, then 7 years |
| Receive an email from us | Whether you agreed to marketing email, and when | To prove consent and honour an unsubscribe | While you are subscribed, then the record of your choice for 3 years |
| Visit the website | A security log kept by our host (page, time, approximate location); a referral cookie if you followed a rep's link; and, only if you press Allow, Google Analytics visit statistics (see §8) | To keep the site running and safe; to credit the right rep; to see which pages help | Host logs: our host's short schedule. Referral cookie: 90 days. Analytics: 14 months |
We are automating the deletions in the last column. Until that is finished we delete on request and at our regular review.
We do not ask for, and ask you not to send us, sensitive information such as health details, government ID numbers or financial account numbers. If a client's documents contain them, they stay in that client's private workspace.
If you give us someone else's details (a colleague, your realtor, a consultant on your project), please make sure they know. We use them only for that project.
2. Artificial intelligence
StudioLink includes an AI assistant, and we use AI tools in our production work (for example, generating images from our own renderings). Here is exactly what happens:
- The assistant sees what you type and a short summary of the page you are on. It cannot read your email. It cannot see your Google Drive unless you choose specific files for it.
- To answer, that text is sent to one of these providers, under our paid business account: Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini) or OpenAI (ChatGPT). Under their business terms for paid use, these providers state that they do not use it to train their models.
- The assistant is an AI, not a person. It never makes a final decision about you. If an automated step in one of our forms (such as an application) affects you, you can ask for a person to review it.
- We do not use your information, your files or your project to train any AI model.
3. Who we share it with
We share personal information only in these cases.
Service providers who run parts of our business for us, under contract, and only for that job:
| Provider | What they do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Hosts the website and platform | United States |
| MongoDB Atlas | Stores our database | United States (Oregon) |
| Cloudflare | Stores files (R2) | Cloudflare data centres |
| Sign-in, company email, AI (Gemini), maps, fonts, and website analytics only if you allow it | Global | |
| Anthropic | AI assistant (Claude) | United States |
| OpenAI | AI assistant (ChatGPT) | United States |
| Resend | Sends our emails | United States |
| Stripe | Takes card payments. We never see your card number | Global |
| LiveKit | Live video calls inside the platform | LiveKit cloud |
| ElevenLabs | Generated voice for our videos (no customer data) | United States / EU |
Our reps. If you send an enquiry from a city where we have a rep, that rep receives your enquiry so they can help you. Reps are bound to keep it confidential.
Our production studios. For an order, the studio producing your work receives the project files it needs, under the same obligation.
The law. When we are legally required to (for example, a court order), and then only what is required.
If the business is sold or merged. The buyer would receive the information needed to carry on the business, bound by this policy. We would tell you before your information became subject to a different policy.
That is the complete list.
4. Where your information is stored
Our database, our website and our files are hosted by the providers above, currently in the United States. Information stored outside Canada is subject to the laws of that country, including lawful access by its courts and authorities. We remain responsible for your information wherever it sits. We plan to move our database to Canada, and will update this section when we do.
5. How we protect it
Sign-in cookies are secure and cannot be read by page scripts. Access keys for connected services are encrypted. Each client's workspace is kept apart from every other client's. Access by our own team is limited to the people who need it, and we are turning on two-step sign-in for every company account. No system is perfectly secure; §10 says what we do if something goes wrong.
6. Your rights, wherever you live
You can ask us, free of charge:
- for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, in a common format you can take elsewhere;
- to correct it;
- to delete it (we will, unless the law makes us keep a record, such as an invoice, and we will tell you which);
- to stop a particular use of it, or withdraw a consent you gave;
- for a person to review any automated step that affected you;
- what we did with it and who we gave it to.
Write to daniel@bdm3d.com. We answer within 30 days. We may ask you to confirm who you are. We will never treat you differently for asking.
7. Marketing email
We send marketing email only to people who said yes. Every message says who it is from, gives our mailing address, and has an unsubscribe link, and we honour it straight away. Messages about work you have ordered (quotes, invoices, delivery) are not marketing and are not affected by unsubscribing.
8. Cookies and similar
| Name | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-in cookie | Keeps you signed in to StudioLink | Until you sign out, at most 30 days |
bdm_rep |
Remembers which rep's link brought you here, so the right rep is credited | 90 days |
bdm-analytics (stored in your browser) |
Remembers whether you pressed Allow or No thanks on the analytics banner | Until you clear it |
_ga, _ga_* (Google Analytics) |
Counts visits and pages, only after you press Allow. Google signals and ad personalisation are off | Up to 14 months |
bdm-theme (stored in your browser) |
Remembers light or dark mode | Until you clear it |
No advertising cookies and no tracking pixels. Google Analytics is not loaded at all unless you press Allow, and never if your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal. You can change your answer at any time with the Analytics choices link at the bottom of each page. Our typefaces come from Google Fonts, so your browser asks Google's servers for the font files. If we ever add any other kind of cookie, we will ask you first.
9. Children
Our website and StudioLink are for adults in business: you must be 18 or older to send us an enquiry, apply, or open an account. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has sent us information, tell us and we will delete it.
10. If something goes wrong
If personal information is lost, or accessed by someone who should not have it, and there is a real risk of significant harm, we will tell the people affected and the Privacy Commissioner as soon as we can. We keep a record of every incident for at least two years, including the ones that turn out to be nothing.
11. Changes to this policy
The date at the top changes with every revision. If a change affects what we collect or who we share it with, we will tell account holders directly before it applies.
12. Contact, and where to complain
Privacy officer: Daniel Blatchford · daniel@bdm3d.com · Blatchford Dahl Media Inc., Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. If you live elsewhere, your own data protection authority.