LEAD HIPPO

Privacy Policy

How Lead Hippo collects, uses, stores, and shares personal information (PIPEDA)

Effective date: To be confirmed — Last updated: To be confirmed

1. Who We Are and What This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy explains how Lead Hippo, operating as Lead Hippo (“we”, “us”, “our”), handles personal information in connection with LeadHippo.ca. We are a Canadian business and handle personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and other applicable Canadian privacy laws. This policy covers three groups: homeowners whose project opportunities we list, contractors who purchase opportunities, and visitors to our website.

2. Information We Collect

Homeowners

When a homeowner contacts us about a project and agrees to be listed, we collect by telephone, with their express consent: name; direct phone number; email address (optional); city or region; project type, description, budget range, and timeline; photographs of the project area where the homeowner provides them; and their preferred contact method. We record the date consent was given.

We deliberately do not collect homeowner street addresses. Property addresses are never entered into our systems, never appear in our listings or reports, and are never sold or shared. If a homeowner chooses to disclose their address to a contractor, they do so personally and directly.

Contractors (purchasers)

When you purchase an opportunity we collect your company name, email address, and phone number, together with records of your purchases. Payment card details are collected and processed by Stripe, our payment processor; we never see or store full card numbers.

Website visitors

Like most websites we collect limited technical information (IP address, browser type, pages viewed) through cookies and similar technologies for site operation, security, and analytics. You can limit cookies in your browser settings; core site functions may be affected. Contact-form submissions (name, email, phone, message) are collected when you send them.

3. How We Use Personal Information

Homeowner information: to create and display opportunity listings (public listings show first name or initials at most, city/region, and project details — never phone numbers or full contact details) and to deliver full contact details to a maximum of three purchasing contractors, as consented.

Contractor information: to process purchases, deliver Opportunity Reports, provide receipts and support, maintain our purchase records, and — with your consent or as otherwise permitted by law — to tell you about new opportunities and services. You may unsubscribe from marketing at any time.

Visitor information: to operate, secure, and improve the Site.

All groups: to comply with legal obligations, prevent fraud and misuse, and establish or defend legal claims.

4. How We Share Personal Information

Homeowner information is shared with a maximum of three (3) contractors who purchase the specific opportunity, exactly as consented by the homeowner. Purchasers are contractually bound to use it only to contact the homeowner about that project, not to resell or further share it, and to stop contact on request.

Service providers: we use carefully selected third parties to run our business — payment processing (Stripe), website hosting and email (Hostinger), and similar services. They receive only what they need to perform their function and are required to protect it. Some providers may store information outside Canada; where they do, it is subject to the laws of those jurisdictions.

Legal requirements: we may disclose information where required or permitted by law, such as in response to a court order, or to protect our rights, users, or the public.

Business transactions: if Lead Hippo or its assets are sold or reorganized, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.

We do not sell personal information to data brokers, advertisers, or marketing-list compilers. The only sale we make is the consented, limited disclosure of a homeowner's project and contact details to at most three contractors, as described on our site and in this policy.

5. Consent and Withdrawal

We collect homeowner information only with express consent, obtained verbally when we speak with the homeowner, and we are moving to documented (written or text-message) consent records as standard practice. Homeowners may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us at leads@leadhippo.ca or contact email above; on withdrawal we will remove the listing and stop further sales of it. Information already delivered to purchasers before withdrawal cannot be recalled, but purchasers are contractually required to cease contact on the homeowner's request. Contractors may withdraw marketing consent at any time via the unsubscribe link in our emails or by contacting us; withdrawal does not affect communications necessary to deliver what you purchased.

6. Retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes described above and to meet legal, accounting, and audit obligations. As a guide: unsold or withdrawn listings are archived and homeowner contact details deleted within 6 months; purchase and transaction records are retained for 7 years to meet tax and accounting requirements; contact-form messages are retained for up to 12 months. When information is no longer required we delete it or de-identify it securely.

7. Safeguards

We protect personal information with safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) across the Site, hashed administrator credentials, access limited to the business owner, payment handling exclusively through Stripe (PCI-DSS compliant), and reputable Canadian-facing hosting with regular backups. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure; if a breach creates a real risk of significant harm we will notify affected individuals and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required by PIPEDA.

8. Your Rights

Access: you may request access to the personal information we hold about you.

Correction: you may ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.

Withdrawal: you may withdraw consent as described in Section 5.

Questions and complaints: contact our Privacy Officer (Section 11). If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).

9. Children

The Site is intended for adults and businesses. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top shows the current version. Material changes will be highlighted on the Site. Continued use of the Site after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact — Privacy Officer

Privacy Officer, Lead Hippo o/a Lead Hippo — Email: leads@leadhippo.ca — Phone: contact email above — Ontario, Canada. We respond to privacy requests within 30 days.