Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

OttawaLocal ("we," "us," or "our") operates the website ottawa-local.ca, an independent local business directory serving the National Capital Region of Canada. We are based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

This Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information collected through our website. By using ottawa-local.ca, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

2. Information we collect

We collect information in the following ways:

• Information you provide directly: When you submit a business listing (business name, address, phone, website, description), contact us via email or our contact form, or submit an advertising inquiry, you provide us with personal information such as your name, email address, phone number, and business details.
• Information collected automatically: When you visit our site, we may automatically collect technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, and referring URL. This is collected through cookies and standard web server logs.
• Information from third-party services: We use Google services (including Google Places API and Google AdSense) which may collect data independently under their own privacy policies.

We do not collect sensitive personal information such as financial data, health information, or government identification numbers.

3. How we use your information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To display and manage business listings on the directory
• To respond to your messages, inquiries, and support requests
• To process advertising inquiries and arrangements
• To improve and maintain our website
• To serve relevant advertisements through Google AdSense
• To comply with legal obligations

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not use your information for automated decision-making that produces legal or significant effects.

4. Cookies and advertising

Our website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device — for several purposes:

• Essential cookies: Required for the website to function. These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics cookies: Help us understand how visitors use our site (e.g., which pages are most visited). We may use Google Analytics for this purpose.
• Advertising cookies: Used by Google AdSense to serve relevant advertisements. These cookies track your interests based on your browsing behaviour across websites.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling advertising cookies will not remove ads from the site, but will make them less relevant to your interests.

For more information on managing cookies, visit allaboutcookies.org.

5. Google AdSense

OttawaLocal uses Google AdSense to display advertisements. Google AdSense is a service provided by Google LLC that shows ads based on your prior visits to this website and other websites on the internet.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to ottawa-local.ca or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visits to our sites and other sites on the internet.

For more information about Google's privacy practices, visit Google's Privacy Policy. To opt out of Google's use of cookies for ad personalization, visit optout.aboutads.info.

6. Third-party services

We use the following third-party services that may collect data under their own privacy policies:

• Google AdSense — Advertising. Google Privacy Policy
• Google Places API — Business data lookup. Google Privacy Policy
• Google Fonts — Typography rendering. Fonts are loaded from Google's servers.
• Google Apps Script — Backend data storage via Google Sheets.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.

7. Data retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy:

• Business listing submissions are retained as long as the listing is active on the directory.
• Contact form submissions and emails are retained for up to 24 months.
• Web server logs are retained for up to 90 days.

You may request deletion of your personal information at any time by contacting us at hello@ottawa-local.ca.

8. Your rights under PIPEDA

As a Canadian privacy law (the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, or PIPEDA) applies to our operations, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Right to access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to correction: You may request that inaccurate personal information be corrected.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process data, you may withdraw it at any time.
• Right to complain: If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@ottawa-local.ca. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Contact us about privacy

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the revised policy on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. Continued use of our site after changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.