Security and trust
Your data, your renters' data, handled carefully.
Here's how Yardstick protects your business, in plain language. No certifications are claimed on this page; only what the software actually does.
Commitments
What we do
Each business's data is isolated
Your bookings, customers, equipment and documents belong to your business and are kept separate from every other business using Yardstick. Every request is checked against the business it belongs to.
Secure, expiring links for renters
Quotes, agreements, invoices and Manage Rental pages are reached through links that are unique to that rental and expire. Renters don't need to create accounts. An unknown link simply doesn't resolve.
Role-based access
Owner, Manager and Staff roles decide who can do what, and those rules are enforced on the server, not just hidden in the interface. Staff can't change billing, override prices, issue refunds or waivers, or bypass an identity gate.
Encrypted connections
Traffic between your browser, your renters' browsers and Yardstick is encrypted in transit. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes.
Identity verification by Stripe
When you require an ID check, the renter's photo ID and selfie are handled by Stripe Identity. Stripe handles the ID photo and selfie; Yardstick never receives them.
An activity log
Key actions in your account are recorded, so you can see who did what and when, including price overrides and identity-gate overrides with their reasons.
Specifics
Identity checks, condition photos and AI-assisted review
Three parts of Yardstick touch sensitive information or make suggestions. Here's exactly how each one works.
Identity verification
You decide when a rental needs an ID check: always, above a rental amount, or for certain equipment categories. The check itself is run by Stripe Identity, which asks the renter for a photo of their ID and a selfie. Yardstick receives and shows you only the result and the verified name, never the ID photo or selfie from the check. A result is one input to your decision, not a guarantee about a person.
Condition photos
Photos taken at pickup and at return, by your staff or by the renter through a self-service return, are stored with that booking and visible only to your business. Manage Rental links stop working 30 days after the rental ends.
AI-assisted damage review
AI Damage Check compares pickup and return photos and flags possible new damage for your team to review. You make every decision; nothing is charged automatically. The suggestion is advisory: it can miss damage or flag damage that isn't there, and we make no claim about its accuracy. Your own decision is recorded separately, so the original suggestion stays visible beside it. To run a check, the photos are sent to our AI provider for analysis; see the Privacy Policy draft for details.
What we don't do
Lines we don't cross.
- We don't receive renters' ID photos or selfies from ID checks. Stripe handles verification and we keep the result. (An ID photo your own staff choose to take at the counter is stored in your account, visible to owners and managers only.)
- We don't let the AI make financial decisions. A person reviews every flagged finding, and the decision is recorded separately.
- We don't show a payment, deposit or charge as collected unless it has actually been recorded or confirmed.
- We don't expose internal notes, cost basis, maintenance records or your activity log on any renter-facing page.
- We don't mix one business's data into another's, and we don't claim certifications we don't hold.
Agreements you can rely on
A rental agreement is frozen at the moment it's sent to a renter. Later edits to your template never change a document that's already out, so what the renter signed is what you can point to.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are published as drafts under review while they're finalised; they aren't yet in effect.
Questions or concerns
If you have a security question, or believe you've found a problem, email support@getyardstick.co with "Security" in the subject line. We'd rather hear about it early.
Run your rentals on a system that takes this seriously.
Create your account, or talk to us about your requirements first.