Privacy

How Winston Intelligence handles site and Scout data.

This page explains the data practices visible in the current Winston Intelligence website and Winston Scout product. It covers the public site, Scout account data, public procurement records, billing references, e-mail alerts and cookies.

Last updated: 25 July 2026

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Public websiteThe marketing website is static and uses Plausible Analytics when production analytics is configured. Its Winston launch-notification form sends an e-mail address and page source to a narrowly scoped public Scout API endpoint; Cloudflare Turnstile checks that form for automated abuse. It does not share Scout sign-in or session data.

Scout accountsScout stores account and user records such as e-mail address, display name, account membership, role, settings and, for local accounts, a password hash.

Procurement recordsScout stores public procurement records from active sources, keeps raw payloads, and normalises notices, buyers, suppliers, contracts and related source identifiers.

What Scout may hold

Personal and account data comes from using the product.

Scout stores the data it needs to provide accounts, authentication, billing, entitlements and supplier workflow. Public procurement records are kept separately from user and customer-account records.

Your e-mail address, display name, sign-in status, last sign-in timestamp and account settings.
Local-account password hashes, or Microsoft Entra provider identifiers when that sign-in path is used.
Customer account name, billing e-mail where set, account membership, role and subscription state.
Saved searches, buyer follows, favourite state, account profile industries, tags, notes and notice activity that members create in Scout.
CSV export usage records used to enforce monthly export limits.
Billing customer and subscription references returned by Stripe for paid subscriptions.
Alert and contact e-mail content needed to send messages you request or receive through Scout and the public contact route.
A Winston launch-notification e-mail address, signup source, confirmation and withdrawal timestamps, delivery timestamp and opaque management token. No IP address or user-agent is stored with this request.

How it is used

The use cases are product operation, billing, e-mail and evidence.

Winston Intelligence uses the data described here to run Scout, communicate about Scout and keep procurement evidence inspectable. The public site does not share Scout authentication; only the launch-notification form calls its dedicated public API endpoint.

Measure the public website

Plausible provides aggregate page-view, referral, campaign, conversion-click and yes-or-no usefulness reporting so Winston Intelligence can see which public pages help people and lead them towards Scout, pricing or contact.

Provide Scout

Account, membership, saved-search, buyer-follow, export and workflow records let Scout sign users in, show the right account context and enforce plan limits.

Protect public forms

Cloudflare Turnstile runs on the Winston launch-notification and Scout registration forms. It evaluates browser and network signals, returns a short-lived single-use token, and tells Winston only whether that token is valid for the expected hostname and action. Winston does not store the token, enable Turnstile pre-clearance or use it for advertising.

Send account e-mail

Scout Free alert digests are sent by Azure Communication Services Email when the worker is configured. Contact messages use the public e-mail address rather than an in-site form.

Send one Winston launch message

If you make and confirm the separate request, Azure Communication Services Email sends the confirmation and the one eventual Winston launch message. This consent is not used for a newsletter, Scout alerts or account registration.

Operate billing

Scout has no checkout at launch. Stripe infrastructure and provider references are retained for historical subscriptions and future paid Winston capabilities.

Keep procurement evidence separate

Raw source payloads, normalised fields and generated summaries are stored separately. AI-generated summaries are labelled and kept as generated insight.

Cookies and analytics

Public-site measurement does not use analytics cookies.

Analytics is enabled only for a deliberately configured site hostname. It measures aggregate traffic and conversion clicks without sharing Scout authentication or session data.

Marketing website

When configured, the public site sends page paths, event times, referral and supported campaign information, browser and device categories, approximate location, named conversion clicks, and whether a visitor marked a page useful or not useful to Plausible Analytics. The prompt sends no free text or contact details and stores no response in the browser. Plausible does not set cookies or persistent identifiers, stores no raw IP address or full user-agent value, and processes visitor data in the EU. The public site has no contact-form cookie.

Public-form security

Cloudflare Turnstile is loaded only on the public forms it protects. Cloudflare processes technical browser and network signals, including the connecting IP address, to distinguish automated abuse. Winston does not enable Turnstile pre-clearance, so it does not ask Turnstile to set a cf_clearance cookie on Winston domains. See Cloudflare's Turnstile Privacy Addendum for Cloudflare's processing terms.

Scout session

Scout uses a necessary HTTP-only session cookie named ws_session after sign-in. In production it is secure, SameSite=Lax and expires with the one-hour API token. If you explicitly choose “Keep me signed in on this device”, Scout also stores a purpose-limited HTTP-only ws_remember cookie for up to 30 days. It contains an opaque secret used only to renew the short session; Winston stores only its hash, and sign-out, password change, expiry or account suspension revokes it. Scout does not use either cookie for analytics or advertising.

Browser storage

Scout uses local browser storage for interface preferences such as recent searches, page size and table column choices. These help the product remember your view on the same device.

Questions and rights

Contact Winston Intelligence about access, correction or deletion questions.

Contact Winston Intelligence if you want to ask what account data is held about you, correct your e-mail or display name, discuss deletion, or raise a privacy concern. Some public procurement records come from public source services and may remain visible in those services even if Scout account data changes.

An unconfirmed launch request and its unusable token are deleted after 30 days. A confirmed record is kept until the launch message is sent and operational follow-up is complete. Withdrawing keeps a minimal suppression record so the address is not mailed; the link on the withdrawal page can erase that record too. Confirmation links expire after seven days. Page-usefulness feedback is held with aggregate Plausible analytics for up to three years and is reviewed as page-level trend data, not an individual record.