Security Questionnaire

Vendor assessment,
answered honestly.

We've prepared straightforward answers to common security assessment questions. No marketing language — just an honest picture of where we are today and where we're headed.

01 — Company Overview

Who we are.

What does pace do?

pace is an AI-powered interview copilot that helps organisations conduct structured, evidence-based interviews. It provides real-time guidance to interviewers, generates competency-based scoring, and aggregates panel evaluations to support better hiring decisions. The AI assists — it never makes hiring decisions.

How long has the company been operating?

pace is an early-stage product. We are transparent about our maturity level — we are building our security, compliance, and operational practices as we grow. We prioritise honesty about our current state over aspirational claims.

How many employees have access to production systems?

As an early-stage company, our engineering team is small. Production access is limited to essential personnel. We do not currently have formal access review processes, but plan to implement them as we scale.

Do you carry cyber insurance?

We do not currently carry cyber liability insurance. This is on our roadmap as we scale enterprise operations.

02 — Data Handling

How we handle your data.

What types of data do you collect and process?

We process: candidate names and identifiers provided by the employer, interview transcripts (generated via speech-to-text), competency scores and interviewer observations, panel evaluation aggregations, and user account information (name, email, hashed password). We follow data minimisation principles — we do not collect data beyond what is needed to deliver the service.

Where is data stored?

Application data is stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted on our cloud platform (Replit). File uploads and documents are stored in Google Cloud Storage. All infrastructure is located in the United States.

How long do you retain data?

Data is currently retained until the customer deletes it or requests deletion. We are developing configurable retention policies and automated deletion workflows, but these are not yet operational. Customers can request data deletion through our support process.

Can customers export their data?

Data export is currently handled through our support process on request. Self-service data export functionality is on our product roadmap.

Do you use customer data to train AI models?

No. We use Anthropic's API for AI processing. Customer interview data is sent to Anthropic for real-time analysis and is subject to Anthropic's data use policies. We do not use customer data to train our own models. We recommend reviewing Anthropic's commercial API data use policy for details on their data handling.

03 — Encryption

How we protect data.

How is data encrypted in transit?

All client-to-server communication is encrypted via TLS, managed and terminated by our hosting platform (Replit). We do not self-manage TLS certificates or configure cipher suites — this is handled at the platform level.

How is data encrypted at rest?

Sensitive fields such as TOTP secrets and two-factor authentication tokens are encrypted using AES-256-GCM with authenticated encryption. Passwords are hashed using bcrypt with appropriate salt rounds. General database contents rely on the hosting platform's storage-level encryption. We do not operate a dedicated key management service (KMS) or implement automated key rotation — encryption keys are stored as environment variables.

Do you use a key management service?

No. Encryption keys are currently managed as environment variables on our hosting platform. We do not use a dedicated KMS (e.g., AWS KMS, HashiCorp Vault) or have automated key rotation. Implementing a dedicated key management solution is on our security roadmap.

04 — Authentication & Access Control

How we manage access.

How do users authenticate?

Users authenticate with email and password. Passwords are hashed using bcrypt. Sessions are managed using cryptographically random session IDs (32 bytes) stored in the database with configurable expiry (7 days default, 30 days with "remember me"). Session cookies are set with httpOnly, secure, and sameSite=lax flags.

Do you support multi-factor authentication (MFA)?

Yes. We support TOTP-based two-factor authentication (compatible with apps like Google Authenticator and Authy). TOTP secrets are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage. We also generate backup recovery codes, which are individually hashed with bcrypt. MFA is available but not mandatory for all users.

How is authorization handled?

We implement role-based access control (RBAC) with two roles: manager and interviewer. Every authenticated request is scoped to a specific company through middleware that verifies the user's company membership before processing. Managers have additional permissions (team management, settings). Interviewers can only access interview-related functionality within their assigned company.

How is tenant isolation enforced?

Tenant isolation is enforced at the application middleware layer. Every request that accesses company data passes through middleware that verifies the authenticated user's membership in the requested company. All database queries are scoped by company ID. This is middleware-enforced isolation using a shared database — not architectural separation (e.g., separate databases per tenant).

Do you implement rate limiting?

We implement rate limiting on sensitive operations such as two-factor authentication verification (5 attempts per 15-minute window). General API rate limiting is handled at the platform level.

05 — Infrastructure

How we run our systems.

Where is the application hosted?

pace is hosted on Replit, a managed cloud platform. Infrastructure provisioning, OS-level patching, and networking are handled by the platform. We do not manage our own servers, VPCs, load balancers, or availability zones.

Do you have a WAF or DDoS protection?

We do not configure our own Web Application Firewall or DDoS mitigation. Any network-level protections are provided by the hosting platform. We do not have visibility into or control over these platform-level protections.

Have you conducted penetration testing?

No. We have not yet engaged a third-party firm for penetration testing or vulnerability assessment. This is planned as we mature our security programme.

Do you have CI/CD security gates?

No. We do not currently have automated security scanning (SAST, DAST, SCA) integrated into our deployment pipeline. We monitor dependencies for known vulnerabilities using standard tooling, but deployments are not blocked by automated security gates. This is an area we plan to strengthen.

Do you have backup and disaster recovery procedures?

Database backups are managed by the hosting platform. We do not currently have documented disaster recovery procedures or tested recovery time objectives (RTOs). Developing formal backup and DR procedures is on our roadmap.

06 — Incident Response

How we handle incidents.

Do you have an incident response plan?

We are developing formal incident response procedures. We do not currently have a documented, tested incident response plan with defined roles, escalation paths, and communication templates. This is an active area of development.

Do you have 24/7 monitoring or on-call?

No. We do not currently have automated monitoring, SIEM, or a 24/7 on-call rotation. Incidents are detected and responded to by the engineering team during business hours. Implementing automated monitoring and alerting is on our roadmap.

How would you notify customers of a security incident?

In the event of a confirmed data breach affecting customer data, we are committed to notifying affected customers within 72 hours, in line with GDPR Article 33 requirements. Notification would include the scope and nature of the breach, data categories affected, and steps taken to mitigate impact. Our notification processes are being formalised.

07 — Compliance Status

Where we stand on compliance.

Are you SOC 2 certified?

No. SOC 2 Type II certification is planned but we have not begun a formal audit engagement. We are building foundational controls (access management, session handling, audit logging) that will support a future SOC 2 effort.

Are you GDPR compliant?

We are partially aligned with GDPR requirements. Our data processing follows data minimisation principles, we document lawful bases for processing, and we are committed to honouring data subject rights. However, self-service GDPR rights workflows (data export, automated erasure), automated data retention policies, and deletion certificates are still under development. Current GDPR requests are handled manually.

What is your EU AI Act compliance status?

We proactively self-classify as a high-risk AI system under Annex III of the EU AI Act. Our product is designed with human-in-the-loop principles, score isolation to prevent bias, and explainable AI outputs. However, formal conformity assessment, EU database registration, and comprehensive Article 11 technical documentation are planned future milestones, not yet completed.

Are you ISO 27001 certified?

No. ISO 27001 certification is on our long-term roadmap as we scale enterprise operations.

Do you conduct regular security audits?

We do not currently conduct regular formal security audits, penetration tests, or third-party assessments. These are planned as part of our security maturation roadmap.

08 — Sub-Processors

Third parties who process data.

Anthropic

AI-powered interview analysis and competency evaluation via API

Data types: Interview transcripts, competency frameworks

United States

Resend

Transactional email delivery

Data types: Email addresses, notification content

United States

Google Cloud Storage

File and document storage

Data types: Uploaded files and documents

United States

Replit

Application hosting, database, and infrastructure

Data types: All application data

United States

Need more detail?

If your security assessment requires additional information beyond what's covered here, we're happy to discuss. We believe in being straightforward about our current capabilities and roadmap.

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