Legal
Sub-processors
Last updated October 2, 2026
This is the canonical, version-controlled list of sub-processors that Hovermarks (operated by BrainBoxIT Limited, company number 11703272) engages to deliver the platform. The same list is mirrored in our Data Processing Agreement under §3 and in our Privacy Notice under "Sharing".
Notification policy
Per the DPA §3, we will notify customers of any addition or replacement of a sub-processor at least 30 days in advance by email to your TenantAdmins. You have the right to object during that window; if we cannot accommodate the objection, the customer may terminate the affected service without penalty.
To subscribe to sub-processor change notifications, ensure that the TenantAdmin email on your account is monitored, or email [email protected] with an alternative contact.
Current sub-processors
Last updated: 2 October 2026.
| # | Sub-processor | Purpose | Region | Added on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft Azure | Hosting, storage, identity (Azure Postgres Flexible Server, Blob Storage, Container Apps). Primary region UK South; database backups and blob storage geo-replicated to UK West for regional disaster recovery. | UK South + UK West | 2026-04-26 |
| 2 | Microsoft Entra External ID | Customer authentication / SSO (CIAM tenant) | UK / EU | 2026-04-26 |
| 3 | Microsoft Entra ID | Platform-admin authentication / SSO | UK / EU | 2026-04-26 |
| 4 | Microsoft Graph | Transactional + notification email via Microsoft 365 | UK / EU | 2026-04-26 |
| 5 | Azure AI Vision | Inspection photo quality gate and serial-plate reading (opt-in AI features) | UK South | 2026-05-04 |
| 6 | Azure AI Document Intelligence | Certificate text extraction (opt-in AI feature) | UK South | 2026-05-04 |
| 7 | Azure OpenAI Service | Serial-plate reading, certificate text extraction, natural-language asset search, AI report summary and checklist generator (opt-in AI features). Microsoft's standard abuse monitoring applies; prompts and outputs are never used to train models. | Resource in UK South; Global Standard deployment, so processing may take place in other Azure regions | 2026-05-04 |
| 8 | Cloudflare, Inc. | DNS, edge proxy, Turnstile bot-protection on public fault-report form | EU / US | 2026-04-26 |
| 9 | Plausible Analytics | Marketing-site analytics ONLY (the in-app dashboard does not run Plausible) | EU | 2026-04-26 |
| 10 | Stripe, Inc. | Payment processing (PCI-DSS Level 1 certified). Live for all paying customers. | US / EU | 2026-05-09 |
Notes on each sub-processor
- Microsoft Azure (Azure Postgres Flexible Server, Blob Storage, Container Apps, Static Web Apps, Front Door, Key Vault, Application Insights). Primary customer-data plane in Azure UK South. Postgres point-in-time-restore backups (7-day window) are geo-redundant, copied to Azure UK West for regional disaster recovery. Blob storage (inspection photos, tenant logos, certificate attachments) uses Standard GRS in production, also geo-replicated to Azure UK West. Both regions are UK-sovereign Microsoft datacentres, and customer data is stored only in the UK (see the Azure AI services note below for the one processing exception). Microsoft is the data processor; we are a sub-controller for our own corporate data.
- Microsoft Entra External ID. Customer-facing authentication. Microsoft holds the user account record (email, display name, authentication factors); Hovermarks holds the tenant-membership link.
- Microsoft Entra ID. Platform-admin authentication only. Hovermarks platform-admin team members sign in via Microsoft Entra ID in the BrainBoxIT tenant.
- Microsoft Graph (Microsoft 365). Transactional email, invite emails, password-reset emails, fault-report acknowledgements, marketing-form contact-us responses.
- Azure AI services (Vision, Document Intelligence, OpenAI). Used for the opt-in AI features. All resources are in the UK South region. Azure AI Vision and Document Intelligence process photos and documents in UK South. Azure OpenAI uses Microsoft's Global Standard deployment type, so the text sent to it (never the photos themselves) may be processed in any Azure region where the model runs; nothing is stored outside the UK. Microsoft's standard abuse monitoring applies to Azure OpenAI; prompts and outputs are never used to train models.
- Cloudflare, Inc.. DNS for hovermarks.com and hovermarks.co.uk
(and the legacy hovermark.co.uk that 301-redirects to them); edge
proxy with Universal SSL on
www; Turnstile bot-protection on the anonymous public fault-report endpoint. - Plausible Analytics. Cookieless aggregate analytics on the marketing site only. Does not run inside the dashboard or the API. EU-hosted (Frankfurt).
- Stripe, Inc. Payment card processing. Hovermarks never sees raw card numbers: cards are entered on Stripe's own hosted Checkout and customer-portal pages, and Hovermarks holds only the Stripe customer/subscription identifiers. Stripe is PCI-DSS Level 1 certified.
International transfers
Where a sub-processor processes data outside the UK or EU, the transfer is governed by:
- The UK International Data Transfer Agreement (where the UK is the source jurisdiction); or
- EU Standard Contractual Clauses (where an EU member-state is the source); or
- An adequacy decision by the UK / EU where one applies (e.g., the UK-US Data Bridge for transfers to certified US recipients).
Each Microsoft sub-processor is contracted under Microsoft's Data Protection Addendum, which incorporates SCCs / IDTA as applicable. Cloudflare and Stripe operate under their own published Data Processing Addenda referencing SCCs.
Historical changes
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-02 | Azure AI Speech removed: the voice-to-text feature is not offered. |
| 2026-05-17 | Stripe activated for live billing |
| 2026-05-09 | Added Stripe (payment processing) ahead of billing activation |
| 2026-05-04 | Added Azure AI Vision / Document Intelligence / OpenAI / Speech (Tier 1 AI features) |
| 2026-04-26 | Initial sub-processor list published |
We re-publish this page on every change so the change history is visible. The DPA cites this page as the canonical sub-processor register.