Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how FindBiz ("we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, discloses, and protects your personal information when you use our website, applications, and services (the "Platform").

FindBiz operates in Canada and handles personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy legislation. Where provincial law is more protective — for example Quebec's Law 25, or British Columbia's and Alberta's private-sector privacy acts — we follow that law for individuals in those provinces.

By using the Platform you consent to the practices described in this policy. You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal and contractual restrictions, by contacting our Privacy Officer.

Account information: When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and password (stored in encrypted form). Business accounts may additionally provide business details, location, and contact information.

Verification information: Businesses seeking a verified badge may upload documents such as a business licence or government-issued identification. These are used solely to confirm identity and legitimacy, are visible only to authorised reviewers, and are not published on the Platform.

Usage information: We automatically collect information about how you interact with the Platform, including pages visited, search queries, businesses viewed, device type, browser, IP address, and approximate location.

Transaction information: When you make a purchase or subscribe to a plan, our payment processor collects payment details. We do not store full card numbers on our servers.

Content you submit: This includes reviews, ratings, messages, favorites, marketplace listings, job postings, event details, and any other content you post or upload.

We use your information to: (a) provide, operate, and improve the Platform; (b) create and manage your account; (c) process transactions and subscriptions; (d) personalise your experience and recommendations; (e) communicate with you about updates, support, and promotions (with your consent where required); (f) verify business identity and moderate content; (g) operate the referral and rewards programme and detect abuse of it; and (h) comply with legal obligations.

We do not use your personal information to make decisions about you by automated means that would have a legal or similarly significant effect, other than automated fraud and abuse detection.

We send commercial electronic messages — newsletters, offers and product updates — only where we have your express consent, or where you have an existing business relationship with us that permits it under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

Every such message identifies FindBiz as the sender and includes a working unsubscribe mechanism that takes effect within 10 business days. You can withdraw your marketing consent at any time using that link, or by contacting our Privacy Officer; withdrawing marketing consent does not affect transactional messages about your account, orders or subscriptions.

We keep a record of when and how consent was given, because CASL requires us to be able to demonstrate it.

We do not sell your personal information. We may share it in the following circumstances: with service providers who help us operate the Platform (such as hosting, analytics, and payment processing), who are bound by contract to use it only for the services they provide to us; with other users to the extent you choose to publish content; to comply with legal process or protect the rights, property, or safety of FindBiz, our users, or the public; and in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, where your information may be transferred as part of that transaction.

We use cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember your preferences, understand how the Platform is used, and deliver relevant content. You can control cookies through your browser settings, but disabling them may affect the functionality of the Platform.

We also use Google reCAPTCHA on our forms to protect the Platform from abuse. reCAPTCHA collects hardware and software information and sends it to Google for analysis, subject to Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information, including encryption in transit (TLS), hashing of passwords, access controls, and restricted access to verification documents. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Platform, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When you delete your account, we delete or anonymise your personal information within a reasonable period, except where we are required to retain it by law — for example financial records, which Canadian tax law requires us to keep.

Under PIPEDA and applicable provincial law you may: access the personal information we hold about you; request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information; withdraw consent to certain uses; ask us to delete your information; and ask how your information has been disclosed. You can exercise most of these directly through your account settings, or by contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@findbiz.com.

We will respond to an access request within 30 days, as PIPEDA requires. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you may lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority instead.

The Platform is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it.

Your information is primarily stored and processed in Canada. Some service providers we use may process data outside Canada, including in the United States. Where that happens, your information may be accessible to foreign authorities under the laws of those jurisdictions. We use contractual safeguards to require our providers to protect it to a standard comparable to Canadian law.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post any changes on this page and update the "Last updated" date. Material changes will be communicated through the Platform or by email before they take effect.

For any question about this policy, or to exercise a privacy right, contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@findbiz.com or write to FindBiz, 100 King Street West, Toronto, ON M5X 1A9, Canada.