This Privacy Policy explains how the SimpleGantt add-in for Microsoft Excel ("the Add-in"), published by Bosau Digital LLC ("we", "us", or "our"), which operates Python & VBA at pythonandvba.com, handles your data. It applies specifically to the Add-in. Our general website Privacy Policy continues to apply to your use of our website.

1. In Short

• The Add-in draws every Gantt chart and every export locally, inside Microsoft Excel on your own device.
• Your plan never leaves Excel. We do not receive, process, store, or have any access to your workbook contents, such as task names, dates, owners or notes.
• Like any add-in, the Add-in loads its program code from addins.pythonandvba.com and Microsoft's office.js. Beyond that, its only network requests concern a license key: checking it, and freeing a device when you remove it. They happen only when someone who uses a license key opens the chart editor, applies a chart, or adds or removes the key. People who only open a workbook containing SimpleGantt charts, or who edit the data of such a chart, make no license call.
• Each chart is a live chart in your workbook, linked to its table. What the chart needs (its settings and a snapshot image) is stored inside your workbook file and never contains a license key.
• Files you export (PowerPoint, PDF, PNG and HTML files, pictures placed in the sheet) and snapshot links you create contain the plan they show, by design; you decide where they go, and they are never sent to us.
• The Add-in contains no advertising, no cookies, no telemetry, and no third-party analytics or tracking.

2. Who We Are

The Add-in is published and operated by Bosau Digital LLC, the company behind Python & VBA (pythonandvba.com), founded by Sven Bosau. For any privacy-related questions, please contact us at contact@pythonandvba.com.

3. What Data the Add-in Processes

Your Spreadsheet Data

Everything the Add-in does (reading the table or range you link to a chart, following changes to it, calculating dates and the critical path, drawing the chart, exporting files) happens locally, inside Excel, on your device. The Add-in reads only the data you use for a chart. We do not receive, process, store, or have any access to your workbook contents.

The Add-in writes to your workbook in these cases only, each one started by you: when you start from a sample plan or a blank plan, it writes a small table into empty cells of the sheet (or a new sheet when there is no room); when you confirm "Write calculated dates to the table", it fills calculated dates into empty cells of your table and never overwrites a value; and when you choose to place the chart in the sheet, it inserts a picture of the chart next to it.

Data Stored Inside Your Workbook

Each chart is an Office content add-in in your workbook. Microsoft Office stores the following in the file:

• The chart's settings: which table or range it is linked to, how its columns are mapped, its timeline, look and schedule options, its title, and data that helps it appear quickly and consistently, such as a small copy of the most recently drawn plan;
• A baseline, if you save one: the start and end date of each task at that moment, so the chart can show slippage later;
• A short list of the charts in the workbook, used for the free version's chart limit;
• A snapshot image of the chart.

None of this ever contains a license key. It travels with your workbook like any other workbook content: anyone you send the file to receives it together with the cells themselves. It is never sent to us.

Outputs You Create (Exports and Snapshot Links)

A Gantt chart is only useful if it shows your plan, so outputs you deliberately create contain it:

• Exported files (PowerPoint decks, PDF files, PNG images, copied images, interactive HTML files, and pictures placed in the sheet) are generated on your device and saved or pasted where you choose. They include the task names, dates and other values shown in the chart. HTML files carry everything they need inside them, so opening one loads nothing from us or anyone else.
• Snapshot links encode the chart's settings and plan, compressed, in the link itself (the part after the #). This part of the link is never transmitted to our server: when someone opens the link, their browser loads our viewer page from addins.pythonandvba.com and rebuilds the chart locally. Treat a snapshot link like the chart itself: anyone you give the link to can see the plan.

All of these are created only when you trigger them, and none of them are sent to us.

License Validation Data

To confirm that you hold a valid license, the Add-in sends the following to our license server (api.pythonandvba.com) over an encrypted connection. It never sends any workbook content:

• Your license key;
• A random installation identifier generated on your device. It contains no name, email, or hardware information, but it is tied to your license, so it is not anonymous. It is used only to enforce the per-installation activation limit of your license;
• The Add-in version;
• A short platform label, such as "Excel for Windows" or "Excel on the web · Chrome", so the device list in your account is readable. It never contains a user name, a computer name or the full browser identification.

The check runs only on author actions: opening the chart editor, applying changes to a chart, and adding a license key. When you remove a key, the Add-in sends the key and the installation identifier once more, so the device's slot is freed. Opening, viewing or recalculating a workbook that contains SimpleGantt charts never triggers these requests, and neither does editing the data of a chart. If you never enter a license key, they are never made. A record of your last successful check is stored on your device so licensed features keep working for a short offline grace period (currently 7 days) if the license server cannot be reached, and then re-verify once you are back online.

Like any web server, our license server also receives your IP address with each check. It appears in our server logs, which are deleted after 14 days (90 days for warnings and errors). The installation identifiers registered to your license are kept with your license record (when each was first seen and last used) for as long as the license exists. If a check fails, we keep the license key, IP address, approximate country, installation identifier and Add-in version for up to 90 days to detect misuse of keys.

Loading the Add-in

Like every Office add-in, the Add-in loads its program code when a chart or the chart editor starts: the SimpleGantt code from our server addins.pythonandvba.com, and Microsoft's standard add-in library (office.js) from Microsoft. These are ordinary web requests for code. They carry no workbook content, and we do not use them to track you.

Data Stored Locally on Your Device

The following are saved only in the Add-in's local storage on your device (under keys that start with sg.): your license key, the random installation identifier, the date of your first use (which anchors the 14-day free trial), the record of your last successful license check, your brand colors and logo, a note of a data selection you started but did not finish, and a picture of each chart's last drawing, including its task names and dates, so a chart shows at once when Excel reloads it. You can remove your license key in the Add-in at any time; the rest stays on your device until you remove the Add-in and clear its Office add-in storage.

Purchases

Licenses are bought on our own checkout at buy.pythonandvba.com (payments by Stripe or PayPal; older purchase links may use Pabbly). Your license key is sent to you by email. We receive your name, email address, billing country, and order details from the checkout, and a VAT ID if you enter one. We never see your full card details. This is covered in more detail by our general website Privacy Policy.

Data Handled by Microsoft Excel

The Add-in runs inside Microsoft Excel on Windows, Mac and the web. Microsoft's handling of your Office documents and account data is governed by Microsoft's own privacy terms. See the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

4. Third-Party Services

• Microsoft Excel / Microsoft 365: the host application in which the Add-in runs, and the source of office.js.
• Our license server (api.pythonandvba.com, operated by us): checks license keys as described in Section 3.
• Stripe and PayPal: payment processing when you buy a license (and Pabbly, for older purchase links).

No other third parties receive any data through the Add-in. We do not sell your personal data.

5. What the Add-in Does Not Do

• It does not include advertising, cookies, telemetry, or third-party analytics or tracking.
• It does not send your plan, your charts, or your exports to us or to anyone else.
• It does not send automatic error reports. Error messages are shown in the Add-in only; if you contact support, you can choose to copy the diagnostic details from the Add-in and include them yourself. Those details never contain cell contents.
• It does not change values in your table. It only fills empty cells when you confirm it, and writes samples and blank plans into empty cells.
• It does not access hardware identifiers, your contacts, Microsoft Graph, SharePoint, OneDrive, or files outside the workbook you are working in.

6. How We Use Data

• To validate and manage your license and enforce its device limit.
• To show your devices in your account, so you can free a device yourself.
• To let licensed features keep working during a short offline grace period after a successful license check.
• To deliver your license key and handle purchases and support requests.

That is the complete list: the Add-in's charting and export features themselves require no data to be sent to us, and viewing a workbook with SimpleGantt charts sends us nothing.

7. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, we process the limited license and purchase data described above under the following legal bases:

• Contract performance: Verifying your license and delivering your purchase so we can provide the licensed features.
• Legitimate interests: Enforcing license limits and preventing misuse of our software.
• Legal obligation: Keeping purchase records as tax and accounting law requires.

8. International Data Transfers

Bosau Digital LLC and our license server are located in the United States or process data there. If you use the Add-in from outside the United States, the license validation data described above is transferred to the United States. Your workbook contents are never transferred, because they never leave your device. Where personal data of EEA or UK residents is transferred internationally, we and our service providers rely on appropriate safeguards such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and/or Standard Contractual Clauses.

9. Data Retention

• License records: Retained for as long as necessary to support your license and comply with legal obligations.
• Server logs: Deleted after 14 days (90 days for warnings and errors).
• Failed license checks: Deleted after 90 days.
• Locally stored keys, settings, brand colors and chart pictures: Remain on your device until you remove them or the Add-in.
• Chart information stored in your workbook (settings, baselines and snapshot images): Remains in the file until you delete the chart or the file; it is under your control like the rest of the workbook.
• Worksheet contents: Not retained, received, or seen by us at all.

10. Your Rights

If you are located in the EEA or UK, you have the following rights under GDPR in respect of the personal data we hold (essentially, your license record and your purchase details):

• Access: Request a copy of the data we hold about you
• Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate data
• Erasure: Request deletion of your data ("right to be forgotten")
• Restriction: Request that we limit how we use your data
• Portability: Request your data in a machine-readable format
• Objection: Object to processing based on legitimate interests

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at contact@pythonandvba.com. We will respond within 30 days. Because your workbook data never reaches us, there is no workbook data of yours for us to return or delete.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk); in the EEA you can find your national authority through the European Data Protection Board (edpb.europa.eu). We would welcome the chance to resolve your concern first, so please consider contacting us before you do.

11. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure. The Add-in's program code and the license check are transmitted over encrypted (HTTPS) connections. Everything else stays on your device, in your workbook, or in the files and links you choose to create and share. How the Add-in is built is described on the SimpleGantt security page.

12. Children's Privacy

The Add-in is not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any changes. Continued use of the Add-in after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

14. Contact

For any privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, please contact:

Related documents: SimpleGantt Terms of Use · SimpleGantt Security and Architecture · Website Privacy Policy · Refund Policy · Terms & Conditions