Privacy Policy

• We never sell or share your personal information. There is no advertising network here and no data broker.
• Your precise location is never stored. If you tap "Use my location", the coordinates are used to answer that one search and are then discarded.
• You can browse the entire directory without an account and without giving us anything.
• California residents have specific rights, and the mechanism to use them is on the contact page.

The detail follows.

If you only browse: we receive the ordinary technical data any web server does — IP address, browser and device type, pages requested, timestamps — in server logs. We use it to run and secure the site.

If you create an account: your email address, a display name, and whether your email is confirmed. Sign-in itself is handled by Clerk (see processors) — passwords and any social-login credentials are held by Clerk, never by us. We store your account identifier, your reward point balances, and the record of what you contributed.

If you contribute: the listings, corrections, reviews, ratings and photos you submit, plus the moderation outcome. Reviews are published with the display name on your account, not your email address.

If you subscribe to the newsletter: your email address, optionally a ZIP code for regional content, the exact consent wording you agreed to, a hashed record of the IP that consented, and where you signed up from. We store the consent text verbatim because consent is only meaningful against what was actually shown to you.

If you contact us: your message, your email address, and the topic you selected.

If you request a payout: identity and tax information is collected and held by the payment provider, not in our database. We store a reference to the transaction and the number of points redeemed.

The directory is geographic, so location is central — and it is the data we are most careful with.

• The browser location prompt appears only when you tap "Use my location". It never fires on page load.
• If you allow it, your coordinates are sent to our server, converted to a city and state, and used for that search. They are not written to any database, and not attached to your account. The response is marked not-cacheable.
• The resolved city and state — not your coordinates — is saved in your browser's local storage so you are not asked again. It never leaves your device except as an ordinary search term. Clearing your browser data removes it.
• If you decline the prompt, we record that refusal in your browser for the session so we do not ask again, and fall back to manual entry.
• Typing a city or ZIP into the search box is just a search. It is handled like any other query.

Operational note for launch: database slow-query logging can capture query parameters, which for a geographic search means coordinates. That setting must be audited before launch so precise location cannot end up in a retained log, which would contradict the commitment above.

Today the site sets a small number of strictly necessary items:

• Session cookies from Clerk, which keep you signed in. Without them, authentication cannot work.
• Local storage holding your chosen city and whether you declined the location prompt, as described above. This is not a cookie and is not transmitted to us.

We currently set no advertising, tracking or third-party analytics cookies. No analytics provider is connected at this time.

You can see exactly what is on your device, and change it, on the cookie preferences page. It reads your browser live rather than describing what we think should be there.

Still not built: the consent banner. It is what you show before setting non-essential storage, and this site sets none — so there is nothing yet to ask permission for. It ships before anything that needs consent does, and this section changes with it.

We intend to measure how the directory is used — which searches return no results, which listings get contacted — so we can fix coverage gaps. Those measurements are designed to record city and state only, never precise coordinates.

At present no analytics provider is connected and no analytics data leaves the server.

The opt-in for it already exists on the cookie preferences page, and it is already wired to the code path that would do the collecting — so a choice you make now is enforced now and stays enforced when a provider is added. It is off by default.

• To run the directory and answer your searches.
• To let you sign in, and to attribute your contributions to you.
• To moderate submissions — checking a phone number works, an address resolves, and the content is not spam.
• To calculate, hold and pay out reward points.
• To detect and prevent fraud and manipulation of listings, ratings and rewards. This includes rate limiting and reviewing unusual patterns.
• To send the newsletter, if you asked for it.
• To reply when you contact us.
• To meet legal obligations, including tax reporting on payouts.

We use a small number of processors. They act on our instructions and are not permitted to use your data for their own purposes.

• Clerk — authentication. Holds your credentials, email address and sign-in history.
• Supabase — database and file storage. Holds listings, reviews, accounts and the points ledger.
• Our hosting provider — serves the site and keeps short-lived server logs.
• An email provider — sends confirmation and notification email. Configured but not yet in use.
• A payment provider — pays out reward balances and holds the identity and tax information that requires, so that we do not.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

Reviews are public, and appear with your display name, star rating, date and any photos you attach. Your email address is never shown. If a review was written in exchange for reward points it is labelled Incentivized. Listings you submit are public once approved, but the fact that you were the person who submitted them is not — the contributor identifier is never exposed publicly.

• Account data — while your account is open, then as described under your rights below.
• Reviews and listings — indefinitely, as part of the directory record. Deleting a contributor does not delete the directory.
• Reward and payout records — retained as long as tax and accounting rules require, even after an account closes. These are financial records.
• Newsletter data — until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record so we do not email you again.
• Server logs — a short rolling window.

Wherever you live, you can ask us to show you what we hold, correct it, delete it, or send it to you in a portable form. Use the privacy request form.

If you are a California resident (CCPA/CPRA) you have the right to know what is collected and why, to delete it, to correct it, to opt out of sale or sharing, to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising any of these.

On sale and sharing specifically: we do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. The Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information link is provided regardless, as the law requires, and confirms this in writing.

We respond within 45 days and will verify your identity before acting on a request — usually by confirming control of the email address on the account. An authorised agent may act for you with written permission.

A note on deletion: deleting your account removes your identifying information, but reviews you wrote stay published with your display name detached from your account, and payout records are retained where the law requires. We would rather say that up front than surprise you after the fact.

The site is served over HTTPS only. Credentials are held by our authentication provider and never by us. Database access is restricted by row-level security so that the public key used by your browser can read only published listings and approved reviews — never accounts, reward ledgers or unpublished submissions. No system is perfectly secure, and we do not claim otherwise.

This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has given us information, tell us and we will delete it.

We will update this policy as the site changes — in particular when analytics and the cookie consent mechanism are added. The date at the top shows the last change, and material changes will be announced before they take effect.

Privacy questions and formal requests go through the contact page. See also our Terms and Conditions.