Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

The 411 for the 719 ("we," "our," or "us") operates the web application at the411forthe719.com. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you use our platform, including our community forum, business directory, lead matching services, and subscription features.

2. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and password (stored securely using bcrypt hashing). Business owners may also provide a company name, phone number, website, profession, and business description.

Business Profiles

Business owners can create and manage public profiles that include company details, services offered, business hours, photos, and descriptions. This information is displayed publicly in our directory and catalog.

Community Content

When you participate in our community forum, we collect the content you post, comments you make, and messages you send to other users. Community posts may be subject to moderation before publication.

Payment Information

Payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe. We do not store your credit card numbers, bank account details, or other payment credentials on our servers. We retain Stripe customer and subscription identifiers to manage your account.

Usage Data

We collect basic usage data such as business profile view counts and content view counts to provide analytics to business owners and content creators.

3. How We Use Your Information

• Lead Matching: We use business profiles and service categories to match consumer service requests with relevant local businesses via email and SMS notifications.
• Community Features: To power the community forum, messaging, and ISO (In Search Of) service matching system.
• Notifications: To send in-app notifications, email alerts (lead notifications, review requests, moderation updates), and SMS messages to opted-in businesses.
• Account Management: To authenticate your identity, manage subscriptions, and provide customer support.
• Analytics: To provide business owners with profile view counts, lead statistics, and review summaries.

4. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate our platform:

• Stripe — Payment processing for business subscriptions. Stripe's privacy policy applies to all payment data: stripe.com/privacy
• Resend — Transactional email delivery for lead notifications, review requests, and account communications.
• Twilio — SMS notifications for businesses that opt in to text message lead alerts.
• DigitalOcean Spaces — Cloud storage for uploaded images (business photos, avatars, blog images).

5. Data Retention

We retain your account information and content for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will remove your personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required by law or necessary to resolve disputes. Community posts and reviews may be anonymized rather than deleted to preserve discussion context.

6. Data Security

We implement reasonable security measures to protect your information, including encrypted passwords, HTTPS encryption in transit, and access controls on our database. However, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your account and associated data
• Opt out of SMS notifications at any time
• Cancel your business subscription through the Stripe customer portal

8. Children's Privacy

Our platform is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected such information, please contact us immediately.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify registered users of material changes via email or in-app notification. Continued use of the platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact us at: admin@the411forthe719.com