1. Who we are
AdvancingBud is a tour advancing application operated by Digibuds (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our”). We build tools for bands, crew, tour managers and agencies to keep their shows and tours organised.
If you have questions about this privacy information or how we handle data, you can reach us via the contact form on /contact.php.
2. What this covers
This privacy information applies to:
- The public website at advancingbud.com.
- The AdvancingBud Backoffice (management / admin area).
- The AdvancingBud Portal (for band, crew, drivers and support acts).
3. Data we collect
Depending on how you use AdvancingBud, we may process the following categories of data:
- Account details – such as your name, username, email address, role and the bands or organisations you have access to. These are needed to create and manage user accounts and permissions.
- Tour- and show-related data – such as tours, shows, advances, schedules, rooming lists, guestlists and notes. This data usually relates to your work as a band member, crew member, driver, support act or promoter contact.
- Contact data – information you provide when you use the contact form (name, email address, band or company, phone number, and the contents of your message).
- Help chat data – the question you submit to the in-app Help assistant and the current page path used to find product guidance. Help uses short-lived topic memory to understand follow-up questions, but does not accept browser-supplied chat history or read live artist records. Never enter names, contact details, passport or ID data, passwords, API keys, or private band or tour information.
- Log & security data – such as IP address excerpts, login attempts, remember-me tokens, session IDs and basic server logs. We use these for security, abuse prevention and troubleshooting.
4. Why we process this data
We use your data for the following purposes:
- To create and manage user accounts and band / tour access.
- To provide the Backoffice and Portal functionality your band or organisation is using.
- To secure the application, detect abuse and keep tour data properly scoped to the correct band.
- To respond to questions and technical issues you send us.
- To provide product guidance and conversational assistance in the in-app Help assistant.
- To improve AdvancingBud based on real-world usage and feedback.
Where European data protection law applies, we rely on the following legal bases: performance of a contract (providing the service to you or your organisation), legitimate interests (security, abuse prevention, product improvement) and, where required, your consent (for example when you actively submit a contact request).
5. Cookies and preferences
AdvancingBud uses a small number of cookies and local storage keys that are necessary for the service to function, including:
- Session cookies – used to keep you logged in while you move between pages.
- “Remember me” tokens (for Backoffice) – only when you explicitly choose to stay signed in.
- UI preferences – your signed-in light/dark theme is stored with your account so it follows you between devices. Some non-account interface settings may remain in local storage on the device where you set them.
At the moment we do not use third-party tracking cookies or advertising cookies on the AdvancingBud application or this website.
6. Third-party services
We work with a small number of infrastructure and service providers to run AdvancingBud. Examples include:
- Hosting and server infrastructure providers.
- Email delivery providers for transactional email (such as login and access messages).
- Google reCAPTCHA on the contact form, to protect against automated spam submissions.
- When enabled by an administrator, the in-app Help assistant sends your question, the current page path without record identifiers, server-owned topic context, and permitted product guides to OpenAI to generate an answer. Requests use store:false and a pseudonymous abuse-prevention identifier. When AI is disabled or unavailable, local guidance remains available. Help cannot inspect or return live application records.
These providers only process data on our behalf for the purposes described above and under appropriate data processing terms.
7. How long we keep data
We keep personal data for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose it was collected, for example:
- User account data – for as long as the account is active, or as needed to maintain records for your band or organisation.
- Tour and advancing data – for the lifetime of the tours and shows your organisation keeps inside AdvancingBud.
- Security logs – for a limited period to detect and investigate suspicious activity.
- Help chat – after a successful non-private response, your checked question and the reviewed answer are visible only in the current browser conversation. They are not restored or saved as chat history. Server-side topic memory contains only canonical feature labels, intent, and guide identifiers, expires after 30 minutes of inactivity, and is scoped to your signed-in account and active artist. AI answers may be saved with canonical topics and supporting guide identifiers as drafts for administrator review; approved answers become reusable local guides. Your original question wording is not saved. Unanswered topics and answers marked unhelpful may keep an aggregated server-owned topic pattern, occurrence count, and day-level first/last-seen dates for review. That queue does not contain your wording, account or artist identifier, IP address, page path, or conversation. Private and rejected questions are not displayed or added to the queue.
If you need specific data removed or anonymised earlier and your band / organisation agrees, you can contact us and we’ll review what is technically and legally possible.
8. Sharing with others
Within a band or organisation, tour data is shared with the people who need to see it (for example band members, crew, drivers and support acts) according to the roles and permissions your tour management sets up in AdvancingBud.
We do not sell your personal data. We only share data with third parties where it is necessary to provide the service, comply with the law, or protect our rights and the rights of others.
9. Your rights
Depending on your location and local law, you may have the right to:
- Request access to the personal data we hold about you.
- Ask for corrections if you believe your data is inaccurate or incomplete.
- Request deletion of certain data, where it is no longer needed and there is no legal reason for us to keep it.
- Object to or ask us to restrict certain types of processing.
In many cases your tour manager or organisation will be the first point of contact to change your details or remove your access. For anything you cannot resolve through your organisation, you can contact us directly via the contact form on /contact.php.
10. Changes to this page
We may update this privacy information when we add new features or change how the service works. When we make significant changes, we’ll highlight this inside the app or on this page.