Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

Your account. Your email address. If you sign in with Google, your name and profile picture from Google. Your first name, last initial and, if you give it, your town, which show with your reviews.

When you post. Your reviews, star ratings, the job you hired for, and your questions and answers, with the date. We also record the IP address each one was sent from, to help us spot fake reviews and spam.

When you run a listing. The business details you give us. To confirm you own the business, we send a code to the business phone through our text and call provider, or by email: to the business address we hold (from open map data, and never shown on the site) or to your work address at the business's own website. Documents you send us instead are kept only while we check them. Licence numbers you give us are checked against state lists.

When you send a request. Your name, ZIP, phone or email, the job and your message. These go to that one business and to its dashboard.

When you pay for Verified. Our payment provider handles your card. We get your name, email and whether payments went through, not your full card number.

When you browse. We count page views and taps to call or visit a business website. These counts don't identify you. A ZIP you type into the finder is used to find your county and isn't stored. We briefly use your IP address to limit repeated sign-in emails and code requests.

2. How we use it

To run your account; show listings, reviews and questions; confirm business owners and check licences; send requests to the business they're for; take payments; send emails you need, like sign-in links and notices about your listing; and stop spam and abuse. We don't send marketing emails without asking first.

3. What's public

Reviews and questions show your display name, your town if you gave it, the date and what you wrote. Business listings are public. Your email address is never shown on the site.

4. Who we share it with

We don't sell your personal information. We share it only with the business you send a request to; service providers that run the site for us (our web host, email delivery, our text and call provider, our payment provider, and Google if you use Google sign-in), who may only use it to provide their service; and authorities, where the law requires it or to protect someone's safety.

5. Cookies

Only what the site needs: sign-in cookies, a view-count cookie so one visit isn't counted twice, and payment cookies during checkout. No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. If we add website analytics, we'll update this page first.

6. How long we keep it

• Your account and posts: until you delete your account or ask us to.
• Requests: 90 days, then deleted automatically.
• Ownership documents and claim disputes: 90 days, then deleted automatically.
• Payment records: as long as tax law requires.

7. Your choices

Owners can change business details from My business. To get a copy of your information, correct it, remove a review or question, or delete your account, contact us and we'll reply within 30 days. Maryland residents may have further rights under the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, and we'll honour them.

8. Children

The site isn't meant for children. You must be 18 or older to create an account, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.

9. Changes and contact

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll say so on the site before the change takes effect.

Privacy questions: our contact form.