Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 17, 2026

1. Introduction

Visual Decisions Inc. ("we," "our," or "us") operates the Smart Manufacturing Survey Platform at mfg-surveys.com (the "Platform"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our Platform.

By using the Platform, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Platform.

2. Information We Collect

Account Information: When you sign in via Google or Microsoft OAuth, we receive your name, email address, and profile picture from those providers. If you create an account with email and password, we store your email, name, and a bcrypt-hashed password. We do not receive or store OAuth passwords.

Company & Profile Information: To provide department-relevant assessments, we collect your department, role level, and company affiliation (company name, industry segment, plant size, and location). This information is provided voluntarily during onboarding.

Assessment Data: We collect your responses to survey questions — maturity scores (1–5) and importance ratings (1–5) for each process area. Your individual responses are used to generate your personalized results. They are also rolled up into aggregated views for your company, but never shown to your company in individually identifiable form — see "Anonymity & aggregation" below.

Usage Data: We automatically collect information about how you interact with the Platform, including pages visited, assessments completed, browser type, operating system, device type, and approximate geographic location (country, region, city) derived from your IP address.

Cookies: We use cookies to maintain your session and an anonymous session identifier for analytics purposes.

3. How We Use Your Information

  • To provide and maintain the Platform
  • To authenticate your identity and manage your account
  • To generate personalized assessment results and recommendations
  • To create curated use case lists on mfgusecases.com that address your identified gaps
  • To produce anonymized, aggregated industry benchmarks (no individual responses are ever shared)
  • To understand how the Platform is used and improve it
  • To communicate with you about your account or assessments
  • To enforce our Terms of Service

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only with:

  • mfgusecases.com: A sister platform operated by Visual Decisions Inc. that shares a database with mfg-surveys.com. When you complete an assessment, we create a curated list of relevant use cases on mfgusecases.com associated with your account.
  • Google / Microsoft: For authentication. Governed by their respective privacy policies.
  • Resend: For transactional emails such as email verification and password resets.
  • Anthropic: If you opt in to AI-generated executive summaries, your aggregate assessment scores (process area names and numeric ratings) are sent to Anthropic's Claude API. No personally identifying information is included.
  • Vercel: Our hosting provider, which processes request data to serve the Platform.
  • Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to understand site traffic. Data is anonymized where required by law.
  • Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law or to protect our rights.

5. Anonymity & Aggregation

A core platform commitment: your company never sees your individual survey responses. Every customer-facing breakdown by department, role, plant, or any other dimension is aggregated and gated by a k-anonymity threshold.

By default, any group with fewer than 5 respondents is hidden from aggregated views — those respondents are folded into a generic "Other" bucket. If "Other" itself doesn't reach the threshold, the singletons are absorbed into the smallest qualifying group, which is then renamed "Other" so no group of identifiable size is ever shown by name. The same protection applies to combinations of dimensions (for example, "VPs at the Detroit Plant" is treated with the same rule as "VPs" or "Detroit Plant" alone).

Company administrators may configure the minimum group size N (3, 5, or 10) — they can make the protection stronger but never weaker than the 3-respondent floor. Your individual responses are never available to your company regardless of N.

6. Controller / Processor Model

For B2B engagements where your employer manages your platform access, your employer is the data controller of your responses (they determine what is collected and why). Visual Decisions Inc. is the data processor (we provide the technical platform). A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is available on request from enterprise customers.

For individuals using the platform without an employer relationship, Visual Decisions Inc. is the controller for your account and assessment data.

7. Data Retention & Erasure

We retain your account and assessment information for as long as your account is active. Usage and analytics data is retained for up to 24 months.

You may permanently delete your account at any time from the Account page. Deletion is immediate and irreversible — it removes your authentication identity, all survey responses, AI-generated summaries, saved lists, company memberships, and assignments. Aggregated views in your company's report automatically recompute to exclude your contributions.

A small number of incidental records (feedback submissions, group ownership history) are unlinked rather than deleted — the content survives but is no longer associated with you. If you authored public blog content, contact privacy@mfg-surveys.com to coordinate authorship transition before deletion.

8. International Transfers

Our Platform is operated from the United States. If you access the Platform from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country.

For users in the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom, we rely on legitimate interests and, where required, consent as our legal basis for processing personal data.

9. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to:

  • Access the personal information we hold about you
  • Request correction of inaccurate data
  • Request deletion of your personal data — self-serve via the Account page (see Section 7)
  • Object to or restrict processing of your data
  • Data portability (EEA/UK users)
  • Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent

For any right not covered by self-serve options, contact us at privacy@mfg-surveys.com.

10. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including HTTPS encryption, secure database hosting, OAuth-based authentication, and bcrypt password hashing. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Children's Privacy

The Platform is not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you believe we have collected such information, please contact us immediately.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by posting the new policy on this page with an updated date. Continued use of the Platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Visual Decisions Inc.
privacy@mfg-surveys.com
www.mfg-surveys.com