Privacy Policy

1. Summary

• We collect only what we need to answer your enquiry and to deliver the service you ask for.
• We do not sell personal data, we do not share it with advertisers, and this website uses no cookies, no analytics and no advertising trackers.
• Phone calls with our team may be recorded. Section 4.4 explains why and what your options are.
• You can ask us at any time what data we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, or object to how we use it. Write to info@cleanmyratings.com.

2. Who we are

This policy covers CleanMyRatings (“CleanMyRatings”, “we”, “us”). The company that provides a paid service to you is named in your service agreement and on your invoices, and it is the controller of the personal data described in this policy.

You can reach us by email at info@cleanmyratings.com or by phone at +1 773 541 4793 (Chicago) and +1 315 898 1150 (New York). For privacy questions, please write “Privacy” in the subject line so your message reaches the right person quickly.

3. What this policy covers

This policy applies to the personal data we process when you:

• visit cleanmyratings.com or any of its language versions;
• contact us by email, phone, the contact form or the live chat;
• become a client and use our services or the client portal;
• are contacted by us as a business that may be interested in our services; or
• have written a public review that is part of a case we work on for a client.

4. The personal data we collect

4.1 Information you give us

• Enquiries: your name, business name, role, email address, phone number, the links to your business profiles, the reviews you are concerned about, and anything else you write to us.
• Clients: the names and contact details of the people we work with, billing details, the case documents you choose to give us (for example booking, sales or employment records), and our correspondence with you.
• Payments: card payments are processed by our payment provider, Stripe. We receive confirmation of the payment, the amount and limited card details such as the card type and the last four digits. We never see or store your full card number.

4.2 The contact form

When you send the contact form on this website, the details you type (name, business, contact details, profile links and message) are sent to our server, stored in our internal admin system and passed to our team by email and through a team messaging app (Telegram). To prevent abuse we also keep your IP address with the request. We use these details only to answer your request and to prepare an offer, and delete them when they are no longer needed for that.

4.3 Live chat

If you use the live chat, we store the messages you send, any name or email address you choose to give, the page you were on, your browser language and time zone, and a random chat ID that links your messages together. The conversation is stored on our own server. So that we can reply quickly, our team is notified of new chat messages through a team messaging app (Telegram). A notification contains the beginning of your message, your name if you gave one, your language, your approximate region (based on your time zone) and the page you were on.

4.4 Phone calls

When you call us or we call you, we process your phone number and the date, time and length of the call. Calls with our team may be recorded for quality control, staff training, keeping an accurate record of what was agreed, and handling complaints. If you do not want a call to be recorded, tell us at the start of the call and we will either stop the recording or continue by email. Where the law of your location requires your consent to record, we rely on that consent.

4.5 Business contact details from public sources

We may contact businesses that we think could benefit from our services. For this we use business contact details that the business itself has made public, such as the business name, phone number, address, website and public review profile. If you do not want to hear from us, tell us once and we will not contact you again.

4.6 People who wrote reviews

When we work on a case, we process the content of public reviews and the reviewer’s public profile information as shown on the platform, such as the display name and other public reviews. We use this only to assess whether a review breaks the platform’s rules and to report it to that platform. We do not try to identify reviewers beyond what the case requires.

4.7 Technical data

Our web server records basic technical information about each visit: IP address, date and time, the page requested, the referring page and the browser type. We use these logs only for security and troubleshooting, and they are deleted automatically after 14 days. This website does not use cookies, analytics tools or advertising trackers. Its fonts and files are all served from our own server, so your browser does not contact any third party when you visit. See our cookie policy for the small amount of information stored in your browser.

6. Why we use your data and our legal bases

• To answer enquiries and prepare the free assessment — to take steps at your request before a contract, and our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us.
• To provide the services you ordered — performance of our contract with you.
• To invoice, take payments and keep accounting records — performance of the contract and our legal obligations.
• To record calls — our legitimate interest in quality, training and accurate records, and your consent where the law requires it.
• To contact businesses about our services — our legitimate interest in offering our services to businesses. You can object at any time.
• To process reviewer information in a case — our client’s and our legitimate interest in having content that breaks platform rules reviewed by the platform.
• To keep our systems secure and prevent abuse — our legitimate interest.
• To establish or defend legal claims — our legitimate interest.

7. When we process data on a client’s behalf

Some case documents contain personal data of our clients’ own customers or staff, for example a booking list. For that data the client is the controller and we act as the client’s processor: we use it only on the client’s instructions and only for the case. We ask clients to remove any details the case does not need before sending documents. A data processing agreement is available on request.

8. Who we share data with

• Review platforms (such as Google, Trustpilot, Yelp or Tripadvisor), only the information needed to file a report or appeal that the client has approved.
• Service providers who help us run our business, under contracts that require confidentiality and data protection: our hosting provider Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany (website, email and backups), Stripe (payments), our telephone service provider (calls), and Telegram (internal notifications of new chat messages).
• Professional advisers such as accountants and lawyers, when necessary.
• Authorities, when the law requires it.
• A buyer or successor, if our business or part of it is ever sold or reorganised, under the same protections.

We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising.

9. International transfers

Our servers, email and backups are located in data centres in the European Union. Some of our providers, in particular for payments, telephony and team messaging, are based in or process data in other countries, including the United States. When personal data is transferred outside the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as an adequacy decision, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the provider takes part in it.

10. How long we keep data

• Enquiries and chat conversations that do not lead to an engagement: only as long as needed to answer and follow up. You can ask us to delete them at any time.
• Client and case files: for the duration of the engagement and afterwards for as long as accounting, tax and other legal rules require, and as long as needed to handle possible disputes. Then they are deleted.
• Call recordings: only as long as needed for the purposes in section 4.4, unless a recording is needed to handle a complaint or dispute.
• Server logs: 14 days.
• Backups: our backups are overwritten on a rolling basis, so deleted data disappears from them within 60 days.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, data protection laws such as the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act and Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK) give you rights over your personal data. These include the right to:

• know whether we process your data and get a copy of it;
• have inaccurate data corrected;
• have your data deleted;
• restrict how we use your data;
• receive your data in a portable format;
• object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including business contact (we will stop direct contact as soon as you object);
• withdraw consent where we rely on it, without affecting earlier processing; and
• not be treated differently for exercising these rights.

To use any of these rights, write to info@cleanmyratings.com. We may need to confirm your identity before we act. We answer within the time the law requires, normally within one month. You also have the right to complain to the data protection authority in your country.

California residents: we do not sell or share personal information as these terms are defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act, and we do not use sensitive personal information for purposes that would give you a right to limit its use.

12. Security

All connections to this website and to our email service are encrypted. Access to client and case information is limited to the people who need it for the work. The accounts and devices we use for client work are protected with strong authentication, and our servers are monitored and backed up to separate storage in the European Union. No system is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and will inform you and the authorities of a breach where the law requires.

13. Children

Our services are for businesses. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

14. Other websites

This website links to review platforms and other websites. Their own privacy policies apply when you visit them.

15. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will publish the new version here with a new date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell our clients directly.

16. Contact

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy: info@cleanmyratings.com, subject “Privacy”. Phone: +1 773 541 4793 (Chicago) and +1 315 898 1150 (New York).