Privacy & Advertising Policy

Information and purposes

• Accounts and listing claims: email, account identifiers, business contact details, claim information, and listing edits to authenticate users and manage ownership.
• Verification and uploads: business evidence, photos, certificates, review decisions, and publication consent to assess submissions and display approved listing material.
• Payments: Stripe customer, order and subscription identifiers, billing status, and terms agreement records to fulfil purchases and manage renewals. Stripe processes card details; our checkout routes do not receive your full card number.
• Newsletter: email, optional region, signup source, consent version, signup and confirmation timestamps, browser user agent, and delivery or suppression status to send requested updates and honour opt-outs.
• Customer reviews and votes: account identifiers, a public display name, star rating, title, experience, customer declaration, helpful votes, moderation decisions and timestamps to publish customer feedback and prevent misuse. No installation evidence uploads are requested.
• Reports and support: information you provide in reports, correction requests, removal requests, account requests, or emails to review concerns and respond.
• Security and operation: requests, IP addresses, browser information and technical logs may be processed by hosting and security services for delivery, rate limiting, fraud prevention and troubleshooting.

We do not sell personal information. Providing information for support, a purchase, or a listing claim does not subscribe you to the newsletter.

Public listings, reviews and reports

Customer reviews submitted on this site are moderated before publication. Approved display names, ratings, titles, review text, dates and helpful-vote totals are public. Account emails, account identifiers, individual voting histories and unpublished reviews are not public. A public nickname is permitted. Moderation notes are visible to the submitting customer and administrators. You can update or withdraw your review on the installer profile; updates return to moderation. Account deletion removes your customer reviews and votes when the account deletion is processed; moderation decision records may remain with deleted account and review references removed.

Business listings may use public business sources and information supplied by owners. Published business contact details, approved photos and documents, verification status, and review excerpts can be viewed and copied by visitors. Only upload material you have permission to publish and remove private addresses, signatures, policy numbers, customer details, and other unnecessary personal information.

Scam reports are submitted for review. A moderated report may be published with the reported business or person name, location, date, and description. Reporting without your name does not remove hosting or security logs. Do not include private contact details, financial information, or unsupported allegations. See our community guidelines.

Third-party review excerpts may include the reviewer’s public name, rating, text, and date. They reflect their source and are not independent findings by this directory. Contact support about inaccurate listing information or privacy concerns; source-platform review disputes may also need to be raised with that platform.

AI assistant and external services

When you submit an AI question, the question, up to three recent exchanges, and relevant directory or reference information may be sent to Google Gemini and, on fallback, OpenRouter and its selected model provider. Avoid names, exact home addresses, financial details, account credentials, and sensitive documents. AI answers can be wrong; confirm advice with official programs and qualified professionals. You can use the directory and guides without the assistant.

Recent conversation context is kept in browser memory and cleared when you start a new conversation or leave the page. The assistant does not save a transcript to our database. Bill-comparison values submitted through the assistant are processed by our calculator endpoint and excluded from model requests and advisor operational events. Helpful/not-helpful feedback records a rating and optional fixed reason, associated with a random answer identifier. Advisor operational events record topic, response time, provider and fallback status, and reference counts without raw questions, conversation text or bill values; hosting logs follow the hosting provider’s retention settings.

We use Supabase for accounts, database and file storage; Vercel for hosting and enabled measurement services; Resend for email delivery; Stripe for payments; and Google services for maps, reviews, enabled analytics and advertising. Service providers process information for their services under their own terms and privacy practices. Following a link or loading an external map may send technical information to that provider.

Information may be processed or stored outside Canada and may be accessible under the laws of those jurisdictions. We remain responsible for personal information handled on our behalf. This policy does not promise Canadian-only storage.

Cookies, local storage and advertising

Sign-in and security functions use necessary storage. The site also stores privacy choices, saved directory shortlists, and newsletter-popup dismissal choices in your browser. Optional Google Analytics, Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights stay off until you allow analytics in Privacy preferences at the bottom of the page.

Advertising on selected blog pages requires your choice to load advertising settings and a separate consent-manager check. Where enabled, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies or similar technologies for advertising, measurement, and personalization. Paid directory placement is labelled Sponsored and is explained in our methodology.

You can turn optional services off in Privacy preferences; withdrawing permission reloads the page to stop previously loaded scripts. Browser settings can remove previously stored cookies. See how Google uses information from partner sites and Google advertising settings. Google Maps and Places features are also subject to the Google Privacy Policy.

Email choices

Newsletter signup requires a separate, unchecked consent choice and email confirmation. Each update includes an unsubscribe link. You can also email support to withdraw marketing consent; we action requests as soon as practicable and no later than 10 business days. Order, account, security, and requested support messages may still be necessary after a marketing opt-out.

Unsubscribed addresses remain on a suppression record to prevent further marketing sends. Withdrawing marketing consent does not itself remove a public business listing or close an account.

Retention and safeguards

Retention depends on the purpose and applicable recordkeeping requirements. Active account, listing and verification records support the service. Billing, consent, suppression and dispute records may need to remain after account closure. We have not established one automatic deletion period for every data category; contact support about a specific record.

The portal provides account deactivation and deletion requests. Account deletion has a 30-day waiting period and a processing step; it is not an immediate purge of all records, backups, provider records, or public business information. Account deletion, listing removal, subscription cancellation, and newsletter unsubscribe are separate actions.

We use access controls and other technical safeguards, but no website can guarantee absolute security. If a privacy incident occurs, we assess applicable reporting, notification, and recordkeeping duties.

Access, correction, withdrawal and complaints

Contact hello@heatpumpsnovascotia.ca, addressed to the Privacy contact, to request access to or correction of your personal information, withdraw consent, ask about retention or service providers, or make a privacy complaint. Describe the request without sending identity documents or passwords. We may verify identity proportionately before releasing records.

Where PIPEDA applies, access requests are generally answered within 30 days, subject to permitted extensions and exceptions. Withdrawal may limit a service that needs the information. If we cannot grant a request, we explain the applicable reason. You may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Changes

We publish the revision date here. A material new use of personal information may require a new notice or consent; updating this page alone does not authorize it. See also our terms and contact page.