Privacy Policy

1. Overview

This policy explains what personal information FixMyStuff.ca collects, why, and what we do with it. We handle personal information in accordance with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy legislation.

Short version: this site does not require an account, and we collect very little.

2. What we collect

Information you type in:

• The service or problem you search for (for example, "leaking faucet")
• The location you enter or the city you select

We use these to run your search and return relevant listings. We do not ask for your name, email address, or phone number to use the search function.

Information collected automatically:

• Approximate location derived from your IP address, or precise location if you use a "search near me" feature and grant your browser's location permission
• IP address, browser type, device type, operating system
• Pages visited, links clicked, time on page, referring website
• Cookies and similar technologies (see Section 5)

If you contact us: whatever you include in your message, such as your name and email address.

If you purchase a featured listing: your business details and billing contact information. Card payments are processed by our third-party payment provider; we do not store full card numbers on our systems.

If you create a business profile: see Section 12, which covers what we collect from business owners, how it is stored, and how to have it removed.

3. Why we use it

• To run searches and display relevant local results
• To operate, secure, and troubleshoot the site
• To understand which categories and locations people search for, so we know where to focus
• To respond to your enquiries
• To administer paid listings and billing
• To meet legal and regulatory obligations

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your search queries with individual businesses in a way that identifies you.

4. Google Maps Platform

This site uses the Google Maps Platform, including the Places API, to retrieve and display business listing data.

When you use search on this site, information including your query and location data is transmitted to Google in order to return results. Google's handling of that information is governed by the Google Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into this Privacy Policy by reference. We encourage you to read it.

We do not store the business listing data returned by Google beyond what Google's terms permit.

5. Cookies and analytics

We use cookies and similar technologies to keep the site working and remember basic preferences, such as your selected location.

You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings. Some site features may not work properly if you do.

This site does not currently use Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics or tracking service. If that changes, this policy will be updated to name the provider and link to their privacy practices.

6. Who we share information with

We share information only with:

• Service providers who help us run the site — hosting, analytics, email, and payment processing — and only what they need to perform that service
• Google, as described in Section 4
• Authorities, where we are legally required to disclose information

Our service providers may store or process data outside Canada, including in the United States, where it may be subject to the laws of that country, including lawful access requests by foreign authorities.

7. How long we keep it

We keep server logs and analytics data for 12 months. Enquiry emails are kept for as long as needed to deal with the enquiry and for a reasonable period afterward. Billing records are kept as long as required by Canadian tax law.

8. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards, including HTTPS encryption, to protect the information we hold. No method of transmission or storage over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Your rights

Under PIPEDA you may:

• ask what personal information we hold about you
• ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate
• ask us to delete it, subject to any legal retention obligations
• withdraw consent to non-essential processing
• complain to us, and if unsatisfied, to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

To make a request, email info@fixmystuff.ca. We will respond within 30 days.

10. Children

This site is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

11. Changes

We may update this policy. The effective date at the top will change when we do. Material changes will be noted on the site.

12. Business profile submissions

If you submit your repair business through our onboarding form, we collect and store information you provide about you and your business. This is the only part of the site where we ask for personal information as a condition of using a feature.

What we collect

• Your contact details — the name, email address, and phone number of the person submitting the business. We use these to send your private preview link, to reach you about your profile, and to confirm your identity if you ask us to resend the link.
• Public business details — everything you choose to publish, such as your business name, address, service areas, hours, prices, policies, credentials, and any logo or photographs you upload.
• Your attestation — when you approve your page we record your typed name, the statement you agreed to, and the date and time.
• An activity record — a timestamped log of each submission, edit, approval, publication, and any action our staff take on your profile.

What is published and what is not

Your private contact details are kept separate from your public page and are not published. A phone number or email address appears on your public profile only if you entered it in a field marked as public. Uploaded images are published as part of your page.

Why we hold it

We hold your contact details to administer your profile and to protect against fraudulent claims over a business. We hold the attestation and activity record as evidence of who approved what was published and when — this protects both you and us if the content of a page is ever disputed.

How it is stored

Profile data is stored in an encrypted, access-controlled database hosted by our infrastructure provider. Uploaded images are stored in our provider's object storage. Our providers may store or process data outside Canada, as described in Section 6. Private preview links use an unguessable token that expires, and we never send a preview link to an address other than the contact email recorded on the submission.

How long we keep it

We keep a published profile for as long as it is live. If a profile is never approved, we keep the draft for up to 24 months so you can return to it, after which it may be deleted. The activity and attestation record for a published page is kept for 7 years, because it is the evidence of consent to publish.

Removing your profile

You can ask us to unpublish your page, correct anything on it, or delete your submission entirely at any time. Email info@fixmystuff.ca from the contact address on the submission, or from a verifiable business address, and tell us the business name. We will unpublish within 5 business days and confirm deletion within 30 days. We may retain the minimum attestation record described above even after deletion, as we are entitled to do for legal record-keeping.

Deleting your profile does not remove your business from the search results on this site. Those listings come live from Google and are not ours to delete — see Section 4.

13. Contact

Privacy questions or requests: info@fixmystuff.ca

Michael Doyle