Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 November 2026

This policy explains how Michael Anees / PV Solve handles personal information in connection with PV Solve software licensing, this website, and related sales and support communications.

Your privacy choices: software licensing information is used to administer and protect licenses. Optional website analytics and marketing are separate and depend on your consent. Rejecting optional website tracking does not prevent you from reading this website or submitting an inquiry.

1. Who is responsible for your information?

Michael Anees / PV Solve (“we,” “us,” or “our”) is the controller responsible for the processing described in this policy, except where a third-party provider processes information for its own purposes as explained below.

For privacy questions or requests, email [email protected].

2. Information processed for software licensing

When you install and use PV Solve, the software collects and transmits the following information to our license server:

Your Autodesk User ID, as reported by the ONLINEUSERID system variable in AutoCAD or Civil 3D.
Your operating system username.
Your machine name.
A one-way hardware fingerprint derived from your computer's hardware identifiers.

The hardware fingerprint distinguishes machines for licensing purposes. A one-way fingerprint is not necessarily anonymous: it may still be personal information when linked to an account, device or license.

Our license-server infrastructure is hosted in Western Europe. This location does not describe the processing locations of every website, email, analytics or advertising provider; international processing is addressed in Section 7.

This licensing process is separate from the optional Google Analytics and LinkedIn website tracking described in Section 5.

3. Why we process licensing information

We use licensing information to:

Validate licenses and subscriptions and manage software activation.
Enforce applicable license conditions and purchased seat limits.
Prevent unauthorized use and trial-license abuse.

For trials, this includes enforcing the restriction of one unique machine per Autodesk account and identifying activations that exceed the permitted limit.

Where the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, the legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) where processing is necessary to provide or administer a license under a contract with you. Where you act for a business customer, or processing is necessary to prevent licensing abuse, we rely on Article 6(1)(f): our legitimate interests in administering business licenses, protecting the software and preventing unauthorized use, balanced against your rights and interests. Article 6(1)(c) applies where retention or disclosure is required by law.

Information necessary to validate a license is required to activate or continue providing that license. Rejecting optional website cookies does not opt you out of this separate licensing process.

5. Website visits, cookies and communications

5.1 Hosting, downloads and essential technical processing

The website uses Netlify hosting and Netlify Forms. Loading pages or downloading an installer necessarily sends technical information to the hosting infrastructure, including your IP address and the requested resource. Hosting and security systems may also process request times, browser and device information, referring pages, response codes and error or security logs.

This processing supports delivery, reliability, troubleshooting and protection against abuse. Where the GDPR applies, the basis is Article 6(1)(f), our legitimate interests in operating a secure, functioning website. Technologies strictly necessary to deliver a service you request or remember a privacy choice are treated separately from optional tracking, subject to applicable law.

See Netlify's privacy information. When Netlify processes site-visitor information on our behalf, its role is also governed by the applicable data-processing arrangements rather than only its own website privacy notice.

5.2 Contact forms and email

When you request a demo or contact us, we receive your name, company, email address, and any message or project details you provide. Netlify processes form submissions, and email providers process messages and notifications. Please do not include sensitive personal information or confidential project files unless we have agreed on an appropriate way to share them.

We use this information to answer your inquiry, arrange a demo, discuss a possible license, and provide related support. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) for steps you request before entering a contract or for contractual support, or Article 6(1)(f) for business correspondence and handling inquiries from representatives of organizations. Submitting an inquiry is not consent to optional analytics or advertising.

5.3 Consent management with Secure Privacy

We use Secure Privacy to present privacy choices and manage consent for optional website technologies. Its script is loaded to provide those controls. This involves communicating with Secure Privacy's servers and may involve technical information such as your IP address and browser information, preference identifiers, your choices and associated timestamps, and cookies or local storage used to remember those choices and maintain consent records.

Consent-management processing is used to respect your choices and demonstrate consent where required. The legal bases are Article 6(1)(c) where necessary to meet legal obligations, and Article 6(1)(f) for operating and documenting privacy controls. Necessary storage of your preference is distinct from optional analytics or marketing cookies. See Secure Privacy's privacy information.

Google Tag Manager loads on website visits to deliver the consent platform and manage configured tags. Our website sets Google analytics and advertising consent signals to denied by default before loading that container. Secure Privacy and the container's tag rules must then apply your choices to optional analytics and marketing. A denied Google consent signal alone does not prevent every tag from making network requests; blocking optional tracking until consent depends on those rules being correctly configured.

5.4 Google Analytics 4 — optional analytics

With your analytics consent, we load the Google tag for Google Analytics 4. It helps us understand website use and improve the site.

Depending on the Analytics configuration and your interactions, information may include pages and URLs visited, referring sources, visit times, browser and device characteristics, approximate location, cookie or browser identifiers, and enabled interaction events. Google receives technical request information, including an IP address. Google states that Analytics does not log or store individual IP addresses from EU, Swiss or UK users and uses them to derive approximate location before discarding them; this does not mean all Analytics information is anonymous.

Google Analytics can use first-party cookies such as _ga and _ga_<identifier> to distinguish browsers and sessions. Google documents a default expiry of two years for these cookies, but actual lifetimes can differ because of account settings, updates on later visits, browser restrictions or deletion. Cookie expiry is separate from retention of information already transmitted to Google.

The legal basis for our optional analytics processing is your consent under Article 6(1)(a), together with consent to device storage or access where required by applicable law. Relevant Google entities include Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC, depending on the service and processing involved.

Further information: how Google uses information from partner sites, Google Analytics cookies, and Google's EU-focused Analytics privacy information.

5.5 Google Tag Manager and LinkedIn — optional marketing

Google Tag Manager loads before a tracking choice to deliver Secure Privacy and manage analytics and marketing tags, including the LinkedIn Insight Tag when enabled in the published container. Optional marketing tags require the relevant marketing consent. Google Tag Manager is a delivery mechanism, not a separate grant of permission for every possible tag. Downloading its script communicates technical request information, including your IP address, to Google even before optional tracking is accepted. We use it to deliver and manage the website's consent controls and tags on the basis of Article 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in operating those controls; optional tracking has the separate consent basis described below.

The LinkedIn Insight Tag supports measurement of advertising effectiveness and website audiences and, where configured, conversion measurement and retargeting. LinkedIn may receive the page URL and referrer, IP address, device and browser characteristics, timestamps, cookie or other identifiers, and configured event information. It may associate website activity with a LinkedIn member account and use information for advertising purposes as described in its notices. We may receive campaign results and aggregated audience reports rather than the identity of each visitor.

LinkedIn may set or read cookies, including the first-party identifier li_fat_id and cookies on LinkedIn domains. The cookies used and their lifetimes depend on LinkedIn's configuration, your account status and browser restrictions; LinkedIn publishes the purposes and expiry periods in its cookie table.

Our legal basis for optional marketing tracking is consent under Article 6(1)(a), together with consent to device storage or access where required. For EU/EEA visitors, LinkedIn identifies LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company as its controller; LinkedIn Corporation and other recipients may also process information as described in LinkedIn's notices.

Further information: LinkedIn's Privacy Policy, European Regional Privacy Notice, and Cookie Policy.

This policy does not provide blanket consent for additional advertising vendors. Before introducing a new provider or a materially different tracking purpose, the disclosures and consent configuration need to reflect that change.

5.6 Accepting, rejecting and withdrawing consent

You can accept or reject optional cookies through the banner and review available choices using Cookie settings in the footer or the button below. Analytics consent and marketing consent are separate. Optional tracking is not required to browse the site, download the available installers or submit an inquiry.

Choices are normally remembered for the same browser and domain. You may be asked again when using another browser or device, clearing browser storage, or when renewed consent is needed. Browser settings can also restrict or delete cookies.

Changes and withdrawal of consent are handled by Secure Privacy and the consent rules configured in Google Tag Manager. Those rules must stop optional tracking when the relevant consent is withdrawn; merely updating a Google consent signal does not necessarily stop an already loaded third-party script such as LinkedIn. We cannot directly delete cookies belonging to another provider's domain. Withdrawal does not invalidate earlier lawful processing or automatically delete information already held by a provider; deletion requests are handled separately.

6. Retention

We have not yet established a formal retention and deletion schedule for licensing records, correspondence and website records. These records do not currently have a defined routine deletion date. The purposes and factors relevant to assessing how long information is needed include:

Licensing and activation records: The duration needed to administer a license or subscription, resolve activation or seat-limit issues, and meet applicable legal or claims-related requirements. Limited trial-account and machine identifiers may remain necessary after a trial ends to enforce trial eligibility; that purpose must be balanced against keeping no more information than necessary.
Correspondence and form submissions: The time needed to address an inquiry, manage the resulting customer or support relationship, and meet any applicable documentation, statutory retention or legal-claims requirements. Retaining information in an email inbox and in the form-processing service are separate parts of that assessment.
Hosting and security information: The period needed for delivery, security investigations and troubleshooting, subject to the hosting provider's relevant service settings and retention arrangements.
Consent records: The time needed to remember a choice and demonstrate compliance, taking account of the consent's validity and applicable accountability or claims-related requirements.
Analytics and advertising information: The applicable Google Analytics property and LinkedIn campaign or service retention settings, the purposes described above, and the providers' relevant retention rules. Browser-cookie lifetimes do not determine how long a provider keeps all associated server-side information or aggregated reports.

Where the GDPR applies, personal information must not be kept longer than necessary for its purposes, except where further retention is permitted or required by law. The absence of a fixed schedule does not remove that obligation. You can contact us to ask about your records or request deletion. We assess requests against applicable rights, licensing needs, legal obligations and any justified need to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. Withdrawing optional cookie consent does not automatically erase existing licensing records or correspondence.

7. International transfers

Our technical, analytics and marketing providers operate internationally. Personal information may be processed outside your country, including outside the European Economic Area and in the United States. An EU-based provider does not necessarily mean that all processing takes place in the EU.

Where the GDPR applies, a transfer outside the EEA requires an applicable legal transfer mechanism. Depending on the provider and recipient, this may be an adequacy decision, including the EU–US Data Privacy Framework for a certified recipient and covered processing, or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses with any necessary supplementary measures. Consent to a website cookie is not, by itself, a substitute for assessing these requirements.

Google describes its mechanisms in its data-transfer frameworks notice. LinkedIn describes international processing and safeguards in its Privacy Policy and European Regional Privacy Notice. Hosting and consent-service arrangements are covered by the relevant provider agreements. Contact us to request information about the locations, recipients and safeguards applicable to your information, including a copy or explanation of relevant safeguards where available.

8. Your privacy rights

Depending on applicable law and the circumstances, you may have the right to:

Access your personal information and obtain information about its processing.
Correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Request deletion or restriction of processing.
Receive eligible information in a portable format.
Object, on grounds relating to your situation, to processing based on legitimate interests, and object to direct marketing, including related profiling.
Withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

These rights are subject to applicable conditions and exceptions. Deleting information needed to validate a license may affect our ability to activate or continue providing that license.

To make a request, email [email protected]. We may request information reasonably necessary to verify your identity. Where the GDPR applies, we normally respond within one month; a permitted extension may apply to complex or numerous requests, in which case we will inform you.

You may also complain to a competent data protection supervisory authority, including the authority in the EU/EEA country where you live or work or where an alleged infringement occurred.

9. Third-party services and external data

PV Solve operates within Autodesk software and may offer optional workflows that access third-party data, including Copernicus digital elevation data. When you use those services, the relevant providers' privacy notices govern information they process independently. Their data-use and licensing terms are separate from this policy.

This website links to YouTube tutorials and other external resources. These are links, not embedded video players. Following a link takes you to the third party's service, where its own privacy and cookie practices apply. A choice made in our cookie banner does not control processing on another website.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy to reflect changes in our practices, services or legal obligations. The latest version will be published here with a revised “Last updated” date. Where required, we will provide additional notice or request renewed consent.

11. Contact

For privacy questions, information about processing arrangements, or requests to exercise your rights, contact:

Michael Anees / PV Solve
Email: [email protected]