Privacy comes before scale.

DRAFT FOR LEGAL REVIEW · UPDATED JULY 22, 2026

This notice explains the information BLACK OWNED HERE. handles when people browse the directory, create accounts, submit or claim listings, contribute content, contact us, save businesses, or use reviews when that feature is enabled. It is a launch draft and must be reviewed by the owner and qualified counsel before broad public intake opens.

Information we handle

• Account details such as email address, display name, authentication state, and role.
• Listing drafts, ownership attestations, business contact details, service areas, links, hours, and media submitted for review.
• When an authorized owner chooses the quick website option: the website address, permission record, public pages read, public business text and links found there, candidate images, import warnings, and the resulting private draft. This source report remains private to the owner and administrators.
• Reviews, saved businesses, community contributions and stories, firsthand travel experiences, destination and visit context, story photos, public social links, support messages, correction requests, and moderation history when those features are used.
• Limited technical and aggregate usage data needed for security, reliability, and owner-facing profile action counts. Public action tracking does not store visitor identity.
• A city or state saved in the visitor's browser for location-aware search. If a visitor chooses “Near me,” raw coordinates are used only to find the nearest supported Census place and are not saved by the application.

What becomes public

Only approved public listing fields and media are published. Private owner contact, hidden addresses, verification evidence, drafts, rejected submissions, raw intake answers, and moderation notes are not public. Ownership attestations support review but are not displayed as independent certification. Approved community stories, their reviewed photos, relationship disclosures, social links, reviews, and contributor display names are public only when their related feature is enabled and the person submits them. Approved WELCOMED, HERE. reports may also display the destination, month visited, trip type, return preference, and optional travel tips supplied by the contributor. The contributor's account email remains private.

Giving permission to prepare a listing from a business website does not publish the draft, verify Black ownership, or approve its media. The owner must review and sign the submission, and an administrator must approve the exact version and each public image.

Why we use information

Information is used to operate accounts and search, review and publish eligible listings, prevent abuse, respond to support and correction requests, moderate public content, notify participants about workflow events, and understand aggregate product performance. BLACK OWNED HERE. does not sell personal information.

Service providers and retention

Hosting, database, authentication, storage, analytics, and optional email delivery are provided by contracted infrastructure vendors. They receive only the information needed to provide those services. Records are kept while needed to operate the account or listing, meet moderation and security needs, resolve disputes, or satisfy legal obligations. A deletion request may not remove records that must be retained for those limited reasons.

Your choices

• Clear saved location context from the search form or browser storage.
• Delete your own review or saved-business entry when those features are active.
• Use a listing's correction form to report inaccurate or removal-worthy information.
• Request account access, correction, or deletion through the private support form.

Security, children, and changes

Administrative access, row-level database rules, and private media review reduce risk, but no online system can promise absolute security. Business listing submissions are for adults. Community stories about children and youth-run project types remain disabled pending guardian, safety, legal, and policy review. Material changes to this notice should be dated here before they take effect.