Privacy Policy

What information we collect and why

We collect personal information in two ways on this site.

Contact and inquiry forms. When you submit the contact form at /#contact, we collect your name, email address, what kind of work you do, and, if you choose to give them, an optional business name, website address, and city or service area. A hidden field is present only to catch automated spam submissions; we do not read or store that field's value if it is filled in by a bot.

Optional follow-up questions. After you submit the contact form, a short, entirely optional second panel may appear asking up to three additional questions: the main thing you want a new site to do, whether your business has one location or more than one, and whether you already have site content or photos to bring over or are starting fresh. This panel can be skipped, and none of its questions ask for any personal information beyond what you already gave us in the contact form. Your answers are linked to your original inquiry by an internal reference generated at the time you submitted the contact form, not by matching your name or email.

The purpose of collecting this information is to respond to your inquiry and to discuss the Living Websites service with you (PIPEDA Principle 2 - Identifying Purposes). We collect only what is needed for that purpose.

Analytics. We use two analytics tools to understand how the site is used in aggregate. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a cookie-based analytics service operated by Google LLC. Ahrefs Web Analytics is a cookieless, aggregate-only analytics service operated by Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. Neither tool is used to identify individual visitors by name. The purpose of analytics collection is to measure site performance and improve the service.

Server access logs. Our web server records standard access logs: the IP address, browser identifier (user agent), referring page, requested page, and time of each request. We use these logs for security and to understand, in aggregate, how visitors and automated agents (such as AI assistants) reach the site. Logs are retained for approximately 90 days and are then deleted automatically. We do not use access logs to identify individual visitors by name.

Consent

By submitting a form on this site you consent to Living Websites collecting and using the information you provide for the purpose described above (PIPEDA Principle 3 - Consent). This privacy policy, displayed at the time of collection, is the notice required by PIPEDA.

How to withdraw consent. You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us at hello@livingwebsites.ca. Withdrawal of consent does not affect our ability to respond to an inquiry you have already sent, but we will stop any further follow-up use of your information on request.

Analytics cookies (GA4) can be blocked or deleted using your browser's cookie controls or a browser extension that blocks tracking. Ahrefs Web Analytics does not use cookies and does not set any data on your device.

Use and disclosure

We use your contact information only to respond to your inquiry and to follow up about the Living Websites service. We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party.

Named third-party service providers:

• Google LLC - Google Analytics 4, used for site analytics. Google may process analytics data on servers outside Canada. See Google's privacy policy.
• Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. - Ahrefs Web Analytics, cookieless aggregate analytics. Ahrefs may process analytics data on servers outside Canada. See Ahrefs' privacy policy.
• DigitalOcean LLC - cloud hosting provider. Form submission data is stored on a DigitalOcean server in the tor1 (Toronto, Canada) region.
• Mailgun (Sinch Mailgun, Inc.) - our email sending provider, used to deliver outreach and transactional email and, for a small number of direct outreach emails, to record which links were clicked (see "Outreach click-tracking" below). Mailgun may process email data on servers outside Canada. See Mailgun's privacy policy.
• Twilio Inc. - our business phone provider, used to answer calls and take voicemail messages when we cannot answer (see "Phone calls and voicemail" below). Twilio may process call data on servers outside Canada. See Twilio's privacy policy.

Guide-page promo slots. Some of our guide pages include a free, unpaid feature panel for a local business relevant to that guide's topic. If you reach our contact form through one of these panels (a link containing a ref parameter) and your inquiry is a good match for that featured business, we may share your name, contact details, and message with that business so they can follow up with you directly. This is the only case in which we share your contact information with a business other than Living Websites, and it only happens when you arrive through a promo-slot link. We always disclose this at the point you submit the form.

We may disclose personal information if required by law or by a valid legal order, but we will not disclose more than is required.

Payments. If you order a package through this site, payment is processed by Stripe, Inc. (Stripe Payments Canada, Ltd. in Canada). Your card details go directly to Stripe and are never stored on our servers; we receive your name, email address, and order details so we can deliver the service. See Stripe's privacy policy. Stripe may process payment data on servers outside Canada.

Phone calls and voicemail

Our business phone line is provided by Twilio Inc. If we cannot answer your call, it goes to voicemail. Twilio records the voicemail message and automatically transcribes it to text; a beep plays before recording starts, as is standard for voicemail. We receive the recording and the transcript by email so we can follow up on your call.

The audio recording is removed from Twilio's platform once we have received it by email. Twilio may retain its own transcript of the message on its platform according to Twilio's data retention practices; see Twilio's privacy policy. We keep the emailed recording and transcript for as long as reasonably necessary to follow up on your call, then delete them; you can ask us to delete a voicemail recording or transcript sooner by contacting us at hello@livingwebsites.ca.

Outreach click-tracking

When we email a business owner directly to introduce Living Websites, most links in that email are click-tracked through our email provider, Mailgun. If you follow one of these links, we record that the link was clicked, along with your IP address, approximate location (city, region, and country), browser and device information, and the time of the click. Two links in every outreach email are never tracked this way: the link you would use to contact us directly, and the unsubscribe link.

The purpose of this tracking is to tell whether an outreach email was useful, so we know whether to follow up, not to build a profile of you. We keep the IP address, location, and device information for 14 days from the click, then delete it permanently; we do not anonymize this information, we delete it. A simple record of whether a link was clicked, with no identifying details attached, is kept alongside our record of having sent the email, as required by Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL).

We do not use this kind of tracking on emails sent to Quebec residents while Quebec's Law 25 requirements for this kind of technology remain unresolved for our outreach.

You can request that we delete any outreach click-tracking data about you, or stop emailing you entirely, at any time by contacting us at hello@livingwebsites.ca or by using the unsubscribe link in the email.

Cookies and analytics

Google Analytics 4 places cookies in your browser to measure visits, page views, and user interactions on this site. GA4 uses the measurement ID G-1SELDL7Q0J. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, or by blocking cookies in your browser settings. GA4 data may be processed on Google's servers outside Canada.

Ahrefs Web Analytics does not place cookies and does not store any data on your device. It measures aggregate traffic patterns only. You cannot be individually identified through Ahrefs Web Analytics. Ahrefs data may be processed on servers outside Canada.

No other tracking or advertising cookies are set by this site.

Data retention

We retain contact form submissions for as long as is reasonably necessary to respond to your inquiry and to maintain records of business communications. If no ongoing relationship results, we retain information for a period appropriate to the nature of the inquiry, and no longer than necessary.

You may request that we delete your information at any time by contacting us at hello@livingwebsites.ca.

Google Analytics data is retained according to the retention settings configured in our GA4 property: event-level data is retained for 2 months and user-level data for 14 months. Ahrefs aggregate analytics data is retained by Ahrefs according to their own data retention policies.

Your access and correction rights

Under PIPEDA Principle 9 (Individual Access), you have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you, to find out how it has been used or disclosed, and to correct any inaccuracies.

To exercise these rights, contact us at hello@livingwebsites.ca with a description of the information you are requesting. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before providing access.

If we cannot provide you with access to certain information (for example, if it would reveal information about a third party), we will tell you why and, to the extent possible, what type of information has been withheld.

Security safeguards

Form submission data is transmitted over HTTPS (TLS) and stored on a DigitalOcean server in the Toronto, Canada region. Access to that server is restricted to the operator (Bryan Benner). We apply reasonable administrative and technical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information and the risk of harm from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.

No security measure is absolute. If you have reason to believe your information has been compromised, please contact us at hello@livingwebsites.ca.

Data location

Contact form data is stored on a DigitalOcean server physically located in the tor1 region (Toronto, Canada). Analytics data processed by Google Analytics 4 and Ahrefs Web Analytics may be stored and processed on servers located outside Canada. By using this site you acknowledge that your information may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than Canada, where different privacy laws may apply.

Children

This site is not directed at children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child under 13 has submitted personal information through this site, please contact us at hello@livingwebsites.ca and we will delete it promptly.

Contact us and the OPC

The accountable person for privacy at Living Websites is Bryan Benner, the operator.

Privacy contact: hello@livingwebsites.ca

Mailing address: Living Websites, 17 Wilton Ave, Welland, Ontario L3C 1Z8, Canada.

If you are not satisfied with our response to a privacy concern, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), which is the federal oversight body for PIPEDA:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
30 Victoria Street
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3
Toll-free: 1-800-282-1376
www.priv.gc.ca

Updates to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Material changes will be noted here.

Effective date: August 4, 2026. (Updated from July 3, 2026: guide-page promo-slot third-party sharing disclosed. Updated from June 16, 2026: registered business identity and mailing address added; server access logs disclosed; Stripe payment processing disclosed. Outreach click-tracking disclosed and Mailgun added as a named service provider on August 18, 2026, without changing the effective date, matching this page's existing practice for additive disclosures. Phone voicemail recording and transcription disclosed and Twilio added as a named service provider on August 21, 2026, without changing the effective date, for the same reason.)