Privacy Statement

Cairn is a federal capture platform for contractors and grant seekers. This statement explains what information we collect when you use Cairn, why we collect it, who it is shared with, and the choices you have. It applies to the Cairn web and mobile applications and the services behind them.

Information we collect

Account information

When you register, we collect your name, email address, and the credentials needed to sign you in. Authentication is handled by our identity provider; if you sign in with a social or single sign-on provider, we receive only the profile fields that provider releases to us. If you enable two-factor authentication or a passkey, we store the data needed to verify it — never a reusable secret you have given us in plain text.

Company and capability profile

Cairn scores opportunities against your organization, so we store what you tell us about it: company name, UEI and CAGE identifiers, NAICS and PSC codes, set-aside eligibility, certifications, past performance, capability statements, and the teammates you invite.

Content you create or upload

Pursuits, proposals and their sections, review comments, scorecards, library content, and any documents you upload (solicitations, attachments, past proposals, and similar working files). This content is yours; we process it to operate the product for you.

Usage and technical data

Log and diagnostic data such as IP address, browser and device type, pages and features used, timestamps, and error reports. We use it to keep the service running, secure, and measurably usable — not to build an advertising profile of you.

Federal data sources

Cairn retrieves opportunity, award, and entity information from public U.S. Government systems including SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and USAspending.gov. That information is public record and is not derived from your account. Cairn is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government or any federal agency. When you connect a Grants.gov account for submission, we store only the credentials or tokens required to submit on your behalf, and we use them for that purpose alone.

How we use your information

• To provide the product: matching opportunities, scoring fit, drafting and managing proposals, and preparing submission packages.
• To operate your account: authentication, team membership and roles, subscription tier and billing.
• To communicate with you: service notifications, alerts you have subscribed to, and support responses.
• To improve and secure the service: diagnosing failures, preventing abuse, and understanding which features are actually used.
• To meet legal obligations and enforce our terms.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing.

AI processing

Cairn uses AI models to draft, summarize, and analyze content. When you use an AI feature, the relevant content — your prompt, the pursuit context, and the documents you have grounded the work on — is sent to the AI provider serving that feature so it can generate a response. We select providers whose terms prohibit using content submitted through our account to train their general-purpose models. AI output can be wrong or incomplete; it is a drafting aid, and every submission remains yours to review, correct, and approve.

Cookies and local storage

We use cookies and browser storage that are strictly necessary to sign you in, keep your session alive, and remember interface preferences. Any non-essential category is governed by the consent banner, where you can review and change your choices at any time. We honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals sent by your browser.

Sharing and service providers

We share information only with the service providers that make Cairn work, and only to the extent they need it: cloud hosting and storage, our identity and application platform, AI model providers, email and notification delivery, and our payment processor for subscriptions (card details go to the processor and are never stored by Cairn). We may also disclose information when required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of our users and the service. If Cairn is ever part of a merger or acquisition, we will tell you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy statement.

Data retention

We keep your account and content for as long as your account is active. When you delete content it is removed from the product, and it ages out of routine backups on our normal backup cycle. When you close your account we delete or de-identify your information within a reasonable period, except where we must keep records to comply with legal, tax, or audit obligations, or to resolve a dispute.

Security

Information is encrypted in transit, access is limited to the people who need it to run the service, and each organization's data is separated by tenant. The credentials you store with us — your EIN, your SAM.gov API key, and your Grants.gov submission certificate — are encrypted in our database; other content, such as your pursuits, proposals, and uploaded documents, is held on access-controlled servers rather than encrypted field by field. No system is perfectly secure, so we also ask you to help: use a strong, unique password, turn on two-factor authentication, and remove teammates who no longer need access.

Your choices and rights

• Access, correct, or export the information in your account.
• Delete content, or ask us to delete your account and the information in it.
• Change your notification and consent preferences at any time.
• Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights — including, for California residents, the right to know, delete, correct, and to opt out of sale or sharing (we do neither).

Exercise any of these by contacting us; we will not treat you differently for doing so. If your account was created by an organization you belong to, that organization administers it and we may direct your request to them.

Children

Cairn is a business tool intended for use by adults acting for an organization. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Changes to this statement

We will update this page when our practices change, and we will revise the “last updated” date above. Material changes will also be surfaced in the product so you are not expected to re-read this page to notice them.

Contact us

Questions about privacy, or a request about your information? Email [email protected].