Privacy Policy

Overview

Local Vegan Spots (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates localveganspots.com. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your information when you visit our website or suggest a listing.

Information We Collect

Information You Provide

When you suggest a listing, we collect:

• Required: Listing name, city, and state
• Optional: Street address, ZIP code, website URL, and your email address
• If you use the place lookup: The Google Place ID and coordinates of the place you pick

We use your email address only to tell you when the listing goes live. We do not display it.

When you use our contact form, we collect your name, email address, the message you send, an optional subject, and the listing you came from if you used a listing’s report link, so we can respond.

If you arrived through a link with campaign tags (UTM parameters), the suggest and contact forms also send those tags and the referring page with your submission.

Information Collected Automatically

We use Simple Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics service that does not use cookies or collect personal data. Simple Analytics collects page views, referrer and campaign tags, browser and screen details, language, time on page, scroll depth, country from your time zone, and events such as clicks on outbound links.

Simple Analytics does not track individual users, use cookies, or collect IP addresses. You can learn more about their privacy practices at simpleanalytics.com.

Search and Location

Searches you run on the site are sent to our search server.

When you use “Closest to me” or the “Nearest first” sort, your browser asks for permission to share your location, and we send it, rounded to two decimal places, to our search server to sort listings by distance. It also appears in the search page’s URL. We also look up an approximate location from your IP address through our own service at geo.84em.app, so these features can still work if you decline. Neither happens unless you use one of them.

Browser Storage

Our website uses your browser’s local storage to save your consent choice, and session storage to save your analytics opt-out preference and any campaign tags for your visit. This data stays in your browser, except for campaign tags sent with a form you submit. A service worker also caches the offline page on your device.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Display listings publicly in our directory
• Process listing suggestions and updates
• Reply to messages sent through the contact form
• Tell you when a listing you suggested goes live, if you gave us your email
• Improve our website and services

What Information Is Public

The following information from your listing is displayed publicly:

• Listing name, address, city, and state
• Phone number and website (if provided)
• Operating hours, description, and categories (if provided)
• Photos (if provided)

Data Processors and Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate our website. Each processes data according to their own privacy policies:

Cloudflare

We use Cloudflare for:

• Content Delivery Network (CDN): Delivers website content quickly and securely
• Security: Protects against malicious traffic using Cloudflare’s Web Application Firewall
• Image Hosting: Stores and delivers photos via Cloudflare Images
• Turnstile: Checks that suggest and contact form submissions come from a person, and may process your IP address and browser data to do so

Cloudflare may process IP addresses and request data to provide these services. Learn more: Cloudflare Privacy Policy

Simple Analytics

We use Simple Analytics for privacy-friendly website analytics. They do not use cookies, do not track users across websites, and do not collect personal data. Learn more: Simple Analytics Privacy Policy

Hosting

Our website runs on a third-party hosting provider, which processes the data needed to serve it.

Google Maps Platform

We use Google Maps APIs for the place lookup and address autocomplete on the suggest form. Google receives your IP address when the suggest form loads, and may process the text you type and the place you pick. Learn more: Google Privacy Policy

OpenStreetMap

Maps on the site load tiles from OpenStreetMap servers, which receive your IP address when you view a map. Learn more: OpenStreetMap Foundation Privacy Policy

Data Retention

We retain listing information for as long as a listing is active. If a listing is removed:

• Listing data is permanently deleted
• The listing is removed from search results
• Photos are deleted from our image storage

We may retain anonymized, aggregated data for analytical purposes.

Messages from the contact form and suggest form, including your name and email address if you gave them, go to our email provider, where we keep them with no set deletion date. Our site also logs them and keeps those logs for 30 days. To ask us to delete yours, contact us.

Your Rights and Choices

You have the right to:

• Access your data: Request a copy of the information we hold about your listing
• Update your data: Request changes to your listing information
• Delete your data: Request removal of your listing, your messages, and associated data
• Opt out of analytics: Add ?notrack to any page URL to disable analytics for your session

To exercise these rights, contact us through our contact form.

Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including:

• HTTPS encryption for all data transmission
• Secure access controls for administrative functions
• Regular security updates and monitoring
• Limited access to personal data on a need-to-know basis

Cookies

Our website does not use cookies for tracking or analytics. We use only the browser storage described above. Third-party services like Cloudflare may set cookies necessary for security and performance.

Children’s Privacy

Our service is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the “Last updated” date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, reach us through our contact form.