Sigil R&D · Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective October 11, 2026

Sigil R&D Inc. (“we”, “us”) is a corporation incorporated in Ontario, Canada. We make Sous, software that businesses use to run hourly-workforce operations such as covering shifts. This policy explains what personal information we handle, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It covers this website, the Sous service, and the text messages sent through it.

01 Our role

For employee information, we act for the employer. Businesses that use Sous (“customers”) decide which of their employees' information goes into it and how it is used. We process that information on their behalf and under their instructions, under a written agreement that includes data-protection terms. Each customer is responsible for its own privacy practices toward its employees. If you are an employee, your employer is usually the best first contact for questions about your information. We help them answer, and you can also contact us.

For our own business, we decide. We are responsible for the information we collect about customer contacts and account users, website visitors, and people who contact us.

02 Information we collect

From customers and their systems

Account users (owners and managers): name, work e-mail address, role, the locations they manage, and sign-in activity.
Employees: name, mobile number, preferred language, job roles, the locations they work at, employment status, employee number, schedules, shifts, availability, hours worked and, where the customer uses tip distribution, tip and sales figures. The customer enters it or connects a scheduling, point-of-sale or HR system.
Minor status: for employees under 18, the date they turn 18, so that the customer's labor-law limits for minors can be applied. When a connected system provides a birth date, we convert it to that date and do not keep the birth date. We do not collect Social Security numbers, social insurance numbers or home addresses.
Food-quality photos (food-service customers using inspection): photos of plated dishes taken at a kitchen station. The camera is framed on the plate, not on people, and we never use biometric identification.

From employees directly

Text-message consent: the number you confirmed, when you agreed, and the statement you saw.
Messages: the texts sent to you, your replies, their delivery status, and your answers to shift offers.

Automatically

Service and security logs: IP address, browser type, the pages and actions requested, and timestamps. We use them to run the service and to protect it, for example to limit sign-in attempts.
Cookies: the Sous app uses one essential cookie that keeps you signed in. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. This website sets no cookies and loads nothing from third parties.

From people who contact us

Your name, contact details and what you tell us.

03 How we use information

To provide Sous to customers: finding and contacting replacements for open shifts, recording answers and approvals, calculating tips, and running food-quality checks.
To send the text messages and e-mails you agreed to or asked for, such as shift offers, confirmations and sign-in links.
To secure the service, prevent fraud and abuse, and keep an audit history of changes.
To support customers and answer questions.
To bill customers, which concerns business contacts only.
To maintain and improve Sous, using aggregated or de-identified information where we can.
To meet legal obligations and enforce our agreements.

We do not sell personal information, use it for targeted advertising, or use employees' information to market to them.

04 Text messages

We send shift text messages only to employees who opted in as described in our SMS Terms, and we stop when you reply STOP or opt out another reasonable way.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging opt-in data and consent will not be shared with any third parties. Mobile numbers and message content go only to the providers that deliver the messages, under contracts that limit their use to delivery.

05 Automated processing and AI

Sous ranks who to offer an open shift to, using rules and ranking preferences the customer sets. Managers can see why each person was or wasn't asked, and they can step in, choose someone else or require approval. Food-quality checks use an AI model to compare a photo with the kitchen's written standards, and they are reviewed by the kitchen's own staff. We use AI providers under commercial terms that do not allow them to use the data to train their models.

07 Where information is stored

Sous stores service data in the United States. Sigil R&D Inc. is based in Canada, and our staff and service providers may access information from Canada, the United States and other countries where they operate. Information stored in another country is subject to that country's laws, which may allow its authorities to access it.

08 How long we keep information

Customer and employee information is kept while the customer uses Sous. When a customer leaves, we give it an export, then delete its data from the service. Backups expire on their normal schedule.
Text-message consent and opt-out records are kept for as long as needed to show that messages were sent with consent, and for at least four years.
Food-quality photos are deleted on a schedule the customer chooses within our limits, by default 60 days for checks that passed and 12 months for those that failed or were reviewed. The written results are kept.
Security logs are kept for a limited period, then deleted.

Customers may have their own legal duties to keep records, such as payroll and tip records, and they keep their exports for that.

09 How we protect information

Information is encrypted in transit and at rest. Each customer's data is kept separate from every other customer's at the database level. Access by our staff is limited to what their job needs; support access to a customer's data is time-limited, recorded and visible to that customer. Sign-in uses single-use links instead of passwords. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you, the customer or the authorities as the law requires.

10 Your choices and rights

Text messages: reply STOP to stop shift texts from an employer's number, or HELP for help.
Access and correction: you may ask for access to the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct it. Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to deletion or portability, or to object to or limit certain uses. We will not treat you differently for using them.
Withdrawing consent: where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it, subject to legal or contractual limits. We will explain what that changes.
Employees: because your employer controls your employee information, we will usually pass your request to them and help them respond.

To make a request, e-mail [email protected]. We may need to confirm your identity, and we respond within 30 days, or tell you if we need more time and why. If you are in Canada and are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. In the United States, you may contact your state's privacy regulator or attorney general.

11 Children

This website and Sous are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. Some customers employ workers aged 14 to 17. For them we process only the information their employer provides for work purposes, as described above, and never use it for marketing.

12 Contact and changes

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for our compliance with this policy. Contact: [email protected].

We may update this policy. The effective date above changes when we do, and we tell customers before material changes take effect.