Privacy policy

What we collect

• When you ask for a quote: what needs fixing and your answers to our questions, the photos you add, and the problem in your own words; your address, whether you own or rent the home, and how to get in; and when you'd like the visit. When a pro has to look at your request before pricing it, also your name, email and phone number, so we can tell you when prices are ready. We remove location, camera and time details from photos before we store them.
• When you book: your name, email and phone number, and, if you ask for texts about the visit, when you agreed to them. Your card goes straight to Stripe; we keep only its brand, its last four digits and Stripe's references to it.
• With an account: your email and name, and what you tell us about your home, such as its fixtures, where the main water shutoff is and your answers to the home checkup. Login codes, and passwords if you use one, are stored only in a form that can't be read back. We note when you log in and whether with a code or a password, so our team can help if you can't get in.
• During and after a visit: what the pro records (the work, the parts, and the make and model of what's installed), extra work and your answer to it, your answers about how it went, problems you report, and your review.
• If you join the waiting list: your ZIP code, your email address and the kind of pro you're waiting for.
• When you contact us: what you tell us and what we did about it, noted by our team with the request, booking or account it's about, so whoever helps you next knows. Only Townhand's team sees these notes.
• Emails we send you: a record of each one, so we can tell you what we sent and send it again: which email it was, its subject (never a login code's), the address it went to, when, whether it arrived and why not, and whether our team sent it again. We don't keep what the emails said.
• Automatically: a scrambled form of your IP address that can't be read back, deleted after about two days, to limit how often forms can be sent from one place; your IP address and browser with your login session; and, through Sentry, reports when something breaks, timings for a share of page loads, and our servers' logs. These record what happened by reference numbers, not by your name, email or what you typed, and leave out the private part of any link.

If you run a business on Townhand

We keep the business's name, license or certificate numbers, phone number and email, the ZIP codes it serves, its prices and open times, its guarantee, and our checks of each trade it offers and of its insurance; for each person who runs it, their name and email; and the private calendar link each can make; and, if someone there asks for texts about its jobs, the mobile number they go to and when they agreed. Customers see the business's name, prices and rating, its phone number once they've booked, and its emergency number, if it gives one, on our emergency screen. We record who changed what in the business area.

Cookies and your browser

• A cookie keeps you logged in, and one remembers whether the account area's menu is open.
• While you fill in a request, what you've entered, which can include your name, phone number and address, is kept in your browser so a reload doesn't lose it. It's cleared when you send the request; a request you never send stays there until you clear your browser's data for this site.
• Your browser also keeps the last five requests you sent from it, with their private links, for 90 days, so you can find them again. Anyone using this browser can open them, so on a shared computer choose “Forget these on this device” where they're listed, or clear your browser's data for this site, when you're done.
• It keeps the ZIP code of the last request you sent, too, so your next request starts with it. Clearing your browser's data for this site forgets it.
• Stripe's card form sets its own cookies to prevent fraud, and loads its lettering from Google Fonts, so Google sees your IP address when it does.

We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.

How we use it

• To find the pros who can price your job, and to get you their quotes.
• To book and run your visit: to give the pro what they need, send you emails about your request and booking, take payment, and deal with problems. If you asked for texts, we also text you about the visit: reminders before it, and when the pro is on the way, running late, misses the window, moves or cancels the visit, or asks you to approve extra work, and if a payment doesn't go through.
• To check some descriptions: when you describe a problem in your own words, we send that description, and the problem you picked, to Jev, TypeSafe's AI model, which may suggest a safety question or a job we can price upfront. Nothing else about you is sent, and a suggestion changes nothing unless you choose it.
• To keep your home's record, if you have an account: what pros did and noted, and what you told us, shows on Your home and can fill in your next request.
• To remind you, if you have an account, when routine maintenance comes due on your home, like a water heater flush: on your Dashboard, and once by email for each reminder. Every reminder email has a link that stops them.
• To keep Townhand working and safe: fixing errors, stopping abuse and fraud, and meeting legal duties.
• To improve Townhand, such as checking our suggestions against what pros found on the visit.

We email you about your requests and bookings. We don't send marketing emails. If you join the waiting list, we'll email you once to confirm, and once more when a pro of the kind you asked about serves your ZIP code.

Who sees it

• Pros asked to price your request see the job, your answers and photos, your town and ZIP code, and, if you have an account, what earlier pros noted about the fixtures involved. They don't see your name or full address.
• The pro you book, or ask for a time, gets your name, phone number and address by email, and on their job page also how to get in, the job, your answers and photos, and, if you have an account, where your water shutoff is and what earlier pros noted. Once a visit is cancelled or declined, their page stops showing your details.
• Pros' calendar apps: a pro can add their visits to their own calendar (Google, Apple or Outlook) through a private link. Your name, address and the visit's time then go to that calendar's company too.
• Services that work for us: Stripe (payments), Resend (email), Twilio (texts, to those who ask for them: your number and the text), TypeSafe (the description check), Sentry (error reports, timings and logs), Google (the font in Stripe's card form), Vercel (which hosts our site and keeps the photos you add, where only our site can read them), and the company that hosts our database. They may use it only to provide their service to us. TypeSafe doesn't train its models on what we send, but hasn't published how long it keeps it.
• Townhand's team, to run the service and help with your bookings.
• When the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety or rights.
• If Townhand is sold or merged, the new owner, under this policy.

How long we keep it

We keep requests, bookings and payment records for as long as we need them to run the service, stand behind the work and keep the records the law asks for. Photos stay with the request they were added to. Photos added to a request that was never sent are deleted 7 days after they were added. The scrambled IP addresses kept to limit how often forms are sent are deleted after about two days. The record of a login code, email confirmation or password reset email is deleted after 30 days, and of any other email after two years. The note of when you logged in is deleted after a year.

Your choices

• With an account, your bookings and your home's record are in one place. You can change your name and what you've told us about your home, and remove saved cards.
• Reply STOP to any text from Townhand to stop them.
• To get a copy of your information, correct it, or have it deleted, write to team@townhand.io from the email you used with us, so we know it's you. You don't need an account. A copy is a file with your requests, bookings, photos and the rest of what this policy describes.
• Deleting your information removes your name, email, phone number, street address, photos, what you wrote to us and your pro, your home's record and your account. We keep what payment and tax records need, such as amounts, dates, your town, the last four digits of your card and the pro's record of the work, with nothing that says who you were. We can't delete it while a visit, a payment, a refund or a dispute is still under way. Pros you booked keep their own records, such as the emails we sent them.

Keeping it safe

The link to each request and booking is a long random key, and we store only a scrambled or encrypted copy of it. Login codes and passwords are stored only as hashes, and card details stay with Stripe. No system is perfectly secure, so keep your links, and the email account you log in with, to yourself.

Children

Townhand is for adults: you must be 18 or over to use it. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone younger.

Where it's kept

Townhand is run from the United States, and your information is stored and processed there.

Changes to this policy

We'll post any change here with a new date, and email account holders about big changes.

Contact us

Questions about your information? Please write to team@townhand.io.