AI Usage and Data Commitment
Our commitment never to sell your data, what limited masked data we use for internal AI training, and how to opt out
AI Usage and Data Commitment
Last Updated: May 18, 2026 | Effective Date: May 18, 2026 | Version: 1.1
THE SHORT VERSION
We do not sell your data. We never will. We do use limited, masked data internally to improve our own AI features (docs chatbot, pricing recommendations, fraud detection, support routing). You can opt out at any time by emailing privacy@rentaltide.com with the subject "AI training opt-out."
1. Our commitment: we do not sell your data
This is the simplest and most important commitment we make to you and your customers.
- We do not sell customer lists, booking history, payment data, or any other information you put into RentalTide.
- We do not share your data with advertisers, marketers, or data brokers for their own commercial purposes.
- We do not allow third parties to use your data to train their own AI or machine-learning models.
- We will not do these things in the future. If our business model ever changes, this page changes first, and you will be notified directly.
Why we can promise this
RentalTide makes money from a transparent platform fee on rentals and from credit card processing. As long as you are running rentals and accepting payments through us, our interests are aligned with yours. There is no incentive for us to monetize your data on the side, and we have explicitly chosen a business model that keeps it that way.
We believe that businesses that sell their customers' data lose the trust of those customers, eventually lose the customers themselves, and ultimately damage the entire industry. That is not a tradeoff we are willing to make.
2. AI features we operate
We are an AI-forward platform. We use machine learning internally to make the product better, including:
- The docs AI chatbot available on every page of docs.rentaltide.com.
- Smart pricing recommendations and demand forecasting on the analytics page.
- Anomaly detection that flags unusual patterns indicating fraud or operational problems.
- Auto-categorization and routing of support requests.
- Embedded AI assistants throughout the operator dashboard.
To deliver and continuously improve these features, we sometimes use limited, masked data from the platform to train, evaluate, and tune our internal models.
3. Automated decision-making
We disclose every place RentalTide uses automated decision-making (ADM), meaning every place a software system reaches a conclusion that affects you or your customers without a human reviewing each individual decision. This section satisfies our obligations under the Australian Privacy Act reforms (effective December 2026), under Article 22 of the EU GDPR, and reflects our broader commitment to transparency wherever AI touches a customer outcome.
3.1 What counts as an automated decision
We treat a decision as "automated" when both of the following apply:
- A software or machine-learning system produces a determination, score, or recommendation, AND
- That output is acted on by the platform without a human reviewing it for the specific individual case.
If a human reviews every output before it affects an individual (for example, a support agent reviewing an AI-routed ticket before responding), we consider that human-in-the-loop and not "automated" for these purposes.
3.2 Where RentalTide uses ADM today
The table below identifies every feature that produces or could produce an automated decision affecting an individual, and our current human-review posture for each.
| Feature | Category | Effect on individuals | Human review? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Docs AI chatbot | Information retrieval | Surfaces documentation and answers operator or customer questions. Does not approve, deny, or price anything. | Not required. Answers are advisory; the user can escalate to human support at any time. |
| Pricing recommendations | Recommendation | Suggests rental prices to the operator. | Always human-in-the-loop. The operator chooses whether to accept, modify, or reject every suggested price before it is published to customers. |
| Demand forecasting | Analytics | Predicts demand to inform staffing and inventory. | Advisory only. Does not directly affect any individual end-customer. |
| Fraud and anomaly detection | Risk flagging | Flags bookings or transactions for review (for example, unusual card behaviour or mismatched identity). Does not block a booking outright; flags it for operator attention. | Human review required before any action is taken against a customer (refund, cancellation, account hold). |
| Support request routing | Workflow | Routes incoming support messages to the most relevant team or queue. | The customer-facing response is always written or approved by a human. |
| Waitlist matching | Recommendation | Suggests which waitlisted customer should be offered a newly-available rental. | The operator selects which offer to send. Customers are not auto-charged or auto-booked. |
| AI assistants in the operator dashboard | Assistive | Draft messages, summarise data, suggest next steps. | The operator chooses whether to send or act on every suggestion. |
We will update this table as we add or change AI-driven features. If a feature is not listed above, it does not use ADM.
3.3 Features that do NOT use automated decision-making
For clarity, the following customer outcomes are NOT decided by an automated system on RentalTide:
- Approval or denial of a booking.
- Final pricing charged to a customer (the operator's published price is what is charged).
- Refund, dispute, and chargeback outcomes.
- Waiver and liability decisions.
- Account suspension or termination for end-customers.
3.4 No solely-automated decisions with significant effect
RentalTide does not use ADM in a way that, on its own and without human involvement, produces a legal or similarly significant effect on an individual. Where automated outputs are used (for example, fraud flagging), a human reviews them before any action is taken.
3.5 Your right to ask for human review
If you believe an automated decision (or a recommendation that drove a human decision) on the RentalTide platform has affected you, you have the right to:
- Ask which features described above influenced the decision.
- Request a plain-language explanation of the inputs and outputs used.
- Request human review of the outcome.
- Provide context or correcting information for reconsideration.
To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@rentaltide.com (or privacy-au@rentaltide.com for Australian residents). We will respond within two business days and resolve substantive requests within thirty days.
3.6 Notice at the point of decision
Where the operator dashboard surfaces an AI-driven suggestion (for example, a pricing recommendation), the interface labels it as such so the operator knows the source. Where end-customers may be affected by a flag (for example, fraud review), the operator receives the notice and is responsible for downstream communication with the customer in line with these principles.
4. What "limited and masked" means
When we use platform data for internal AI training or evaluation, all of the following apply:
4.1 PII redaction
Personally identifiable information is removed or redacted before data reaches any training pipeline. This includes:
- Customer and operator names
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Physical and mailing addresses
- Payment card numbers and bank account details
- Waiver signatures and identity verification documents
- Government identifiers (driver's licence numbers, passport numbers, tax IDs)
- IP addresses and device identifiers
4.2 Free-text review
Free-text fields (notes, messages, descriptions, support transcripts) are reviewed and redacted of any identifying detail before use.
4.3 Aggregated financials
Financial figures may be used in aggregate or scaled form but are never tied back to a specific customer or operator.
4.4 Minimum data principle
We use only the smallest subset of data needed to accomplish a specific improvement. We do not perform bulk training dumps.
4.5 No third-party AI training
Masked or unmasked, your data is never sold, licensed, or shared with third-party AI providers for them to train their own models. When we use foundation-model APIs (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic) to power product features, we do so under enterprise agreements that prohibit those providers from using your data to train their own models.
5. Your right to opt out
If you would prefer that none of your business's data — masked or otherwise — be used for our internal AI training or evaluation, you can opt out at any time.
How to opt out
Email privacy@rentaltide.com with:
- Subject: "AI training opt-out"
- Body: Include the email address associated with your RentalTide account.
What happens next
- We will confirm receipt within two business days.
- We will exclude your data from all future internal AI training and evaluation runs within thirty (30) days.
- We will confirm the change in writing once the exclusion is in effect.
Effect on service
Opting out has no effect on the quality of service you receive. The platform behaves identically whether you opt in or out. You will continue to have access to all AI-powered features.
6. Operator vs. end-customer data
RentalTide is the data processor for the personal data of your customers (the people who book rentals through you). You are the data controller for that data. As such:
- Your customers' end-user requests for AI-training opt-out should be directed to you in the first instance.
- If your customer contacts us directly, we will route them back to you and confirm the route in writing.
- Your decision to opt your business out of AI training extends to your customers' data as well — we do not use your customer data for AI training if you have opted out, even if the individual customer has not contacted us.
7. Audit and verification
If you require additional assurance for compliance or contractual purposes, we offer the following on request:
- A written attestation describing our current AI training pipeline and the masking measures in place.
- A summary of which internal AI features are active and what categories of data they consume.
- Confirmation of your opt-out status.
Email privacy@rentaltide.com to request any of the above.
8. Changes to this policy
This is a forward-looking commitment. If we ever materially change how we use your data — particularly if we ever consider sharing or selling data for purposes outside the strict operation of the platform — we will:
- Update this page first, with a clearly dated revision.
- Notify you by email at the address on your RentalTide account.
- Give you no less than thirty (30) days' notice before the change takes effect.
- Honour your right to terminate your account with full data export if you do not wish to continue under the revised terms.
9. Contact
For all AI- and data-related questions:
Privacy and AI questions: privacy@rentaltide.com Security issues: security@rentaltide.com General legal: legal@rentaltide.com
A real human reads every message sent to privacy@rentaltide.com. We aim to respond within two business days and resolve substantive requests within thirty days.