How to read the status tagsLive Running in production todayIn progress Partly in place, or being set upNot yet Not in place. Listed so you know
Four things we get right first
If a broker asks one question, it is usually one of these.
Encrypted
Every connection to Trail Vault is HTTPS, and our database provider encrypts stored data.
Live
Only your people
Each person sees only what their role and permissions allow. Two-factor sign-in is available on every account.
Live
Kept in Sydney
Your book's database and the servers that handle your requests run in Sydney, Australia.
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Traceable
Downloads, exports, sign-ins and changes to access are recorded, so owners and admins can see who did what.
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The full list of controls
Each line is one control, in plain words, with its status.
Data protection
Encryption in transit
Every connection uses HTTPS, and browsers are told never to fall back to plain HTTP (HSTS). Connections to the database are encrypted too.
Encryption at rest
The database and its backups are stored encrypted by our database provider, Neon.
Backups and recovery
Neon keeps a point-in-time restore history, and a copy of the database is taken automatically before every production update that changes its structure.
Data location
The database (Neon) and the application servers (Vercel) run in Sydney, Australia (ap-southeast-2).
Private client documents
An uploaded document that turns out to be publicly readable is deleted rather than saved, and every download checks that you belong to that book. Private document storage for production is still being set up.
Access and identity
Two-factor sign-in
Available on every account with an authenticator app. It is optional today: switch it on in your account’s security settings.
Roles and permissions
Owners, admins and members. An owner can switch whole sections off for a member, hide commission and income figures from anyone who is not an owner, and hide client names and contact details, client addresses, or both from a member, who then sees initials and loan references in place of names.
Confirm it is you, per book
Opening a book asks for your password or an authenticator code, and asks again once the book has gone 15 minutes without use. Accounts that sign in only with Google or Microsoft and have no two-factor set up have nothing to re-enter, so they are not asked.
Audit trail
A record of document downloads, exports, sign-ins, permission changes, uploads and support access, naming who did it and when. Owners and admins read it on the Audit page. It is kept for as long as the book exists, and still names a person after their account is deleted.
Trail Vault staff access
Our support team cannot open your book unless they ask and an owner or admin approves. Access is read-only, ends by itself after two hours, can be revoked at any time, and keeps commission figures hidden unless you choose otherwise.
Testing and monitoring
Unusual activity alerts
Owners and admins are alerted to repeated failed sign-ins, repeated access denials, bulk exports, mass document downloads, new API keys, widened permissions, revenue access being granted, ownership transfers and support access being approved.
Browser security headers
Pages refuse to be framed by other sites, block content-type sniffing and switch off browser features the app does not use. A Content Security Policy runs in report-only mode: it reports problems but does not block them yet.
Independent penetration test
No outside firm has tested Trail Vault yet.
Security update timeframe
We do not yet publish a committed timeframe for applying security fixes.
Service providers
Vercel
Runs the application (Sydney) and stores uploaded files.
Neon
Hosts the database (Sydney).
Stripe
Handles subscription billing. Card details go to Stripe, never to us.
Resend
Sends account emails: email verification, password resets and invitations.
Google and Microsoft
Sign-in, only if you choose to sign in with them.
Amazon Web Services
AI reading through Amazon Bedrock, in Australia only, when it is switched on.
AI FEATURES
What happens to your data when AI is used
Set up from contracts reads the loan contracts and spreadsheets you upload, so it can suggest loan details for you to approve. Whether it is available in your book depends on your plan.
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- What is sentOnly the files you upload to it: a contract’s page text, or an image of a page that is scanned; for a spreadsheet, its first 12 rows so the AI can map the columns. Every row is then read by our own code, not the AI.
- Where it goesClaude, through Amazon Bedrock, in Australian AWS regions only. The app refuses any model setting or region that could route outside Australia.
- What is keptWhat the AI read is cleared when you finish the set-up. We will quote Amazon Bedrock’s data-use terms for our account here once we have confirmed them.
- Who decidesThe AI only suggests. A person in your book approves every change, it only fills fields that are empty, and each approval is recorded in the audit trail. Only people who can upload and edit clients see the suggestions.
- The set-up help chatAnswers from a fixed guide only. It cannot see your book, and your questions are not stored.
Your privacy duties, and our part in them
Brokers carry privacy duties under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles. Trail Vault is built to help you meet them. Read our privacy policy.
Export your data
Export your client book to Excel at any time, or read it through the API with a key.
Deleting data
An owner can delete a whole book, and deleting a statement upload removes the clients and loans it brought in. There is no single-client delete yet. Deleted data can remain in database backups for a period afterwards.
Breach notification
A written breach-notification process with a committed timeframe is not published yet.
Independent certification
Trail Vault does not hold ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification.