Privacy policy.

1. Who we are

SearchPod Inc. ("SearchPod", "we", "us") is a Canadian marketing agency. We run Google Ads and Meta campaigns, do search engine optimization, and build websites and software for small and mid-sized businesses. We are based in North Vancouver, British Columbia, with a second office in Toronto, Ontario.

This policy covers personal information we handle through searchpod.com, through our forms, calls and emails, and in the services we provide. Personal information means any information about an identifiable person, such as a name, an email address, a phone number or an IP address.

We follow Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). If you are in another country, the section on your rights explains what else applies.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

When you fill in a form, book a call, email us or become a client, we collect what you choose to share:

• Your name, email address, phone number and company name.
• Your website address, industry, the services you are interested in and your budget range, when you provide them.
• Your message, notes about your goals and the date and time you would like us to call.
• For partner and referral forms, details about your business and the person you are referring.
• For clients, billing details, the access you grant to accounts you own, and the information you give us to do the work.

If you refer someone to us, we contact that person once, tell them who referred them and use their details for nothing else unless they choose to work with us.

Information we collect automatically

• Standard technical details sent by your browser: IP address, browser and device type, operating system, language and the page that sent you to us.
• How you use the site: pages viewed, time on page, how far you scroll and which links you click. On proposal pages we sent you, we also record which sections you read, so the person who sent it knows what to follow up on.
• The approximate city or region matched to your IP address.
• Whether a visit came from one of our own ads, so we can measure what we spend.

Information from other sources

Advertising and analytics platforms (Google, and Meta when we advertise there) report to us in aggregate how our ads performed. When a client grants us access to their accounts, we receive the business information in those accounts. We do not buy contact lists or data from data brokers.

3. How we use it

We use personal information to:

• Reply to your inquiry, book and hold calls and demos, and send confirmations and reminders.
• Prepare proposals, sample websites and audits you asked for.
• Deliver, bill and support the services you buy from us.
• Understand how the website is used so we can improve it.
• Measure our own advertising and show our ads to people who have visited this site, where the law allows it.
• Keep the site and our systems secure, prevent spam and abuse, and meet our legal obligations.

We rely on your consent for marketing emails and non-essential cookies, on our contract with you to deliver services, and on our legitimate business interests for site security, analytics and measuring our own ads. You can withdraw consent at any time; see your rights.

4. Work we do for clients

When a business hires us, we often handle personal information on its behalf: the leads that come through the website we built, the data in its Google Ads, Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Search Console, Meta and other accounts, and the contact details of its customers.

• We act on the client's instructions and only for the purposes of the work. The client stays responsible for having a lawful basis to collect that information and for its own privacy notices.
• Leads submitted on client websites we operate are delivered to the client. We may keep a time-limited backup copy so a lead is never lost if an email fails, and we delete it when the client relationship ends or on request.
• We use the minimum access needed, keep account credentials out of shared documents and code, and remove our access when an engagement ends.
• We may use AI-assisted software to draft content, analyze campaign data and speed up routine work. We do not use personal information to train AI models, and we do not paste client customer records into tools that could retain them.

If you are a customer of one of our clients and have a question about your information, contact that business first. We will help them answer you.

5. Google API data (SearchPod Ads Manager)

SearchPod Ads Manager is our internal software for managing client accounts. It connects to Google APIs through OAuth, signed in as a SearchPod staff Google account that a client has given access to, for example through a Google Ads manager account link or a user invitation. Only SearchPod staff use it; clients do not sign in to it.

• What it accesses. Data in the Google accounts a client has given us access to: Google Ads (campaigns, keywords, search terms, budgets, conversions and performance reports), Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console and Google Business Profile.
• How we use it. Only to manage, improve and report on that client's own accounts, as agreed in our engagement. We do not use it to serve or target advertising anywhere else, to build profiles of individuals, or for any purpose unrelated to the client's work.
• Who we share it with. The client who owns the account, and the service providers listed in who we share it with, under confidentiality. We do not sell Google user data or pass it to data brokers, advertising networks or anyone else.
• How we store and protect it. OAuth tokens and credentials are kept in secured secret stores, never in email, documents or code. Reports we pull are kept only as long as the work needs them and within the periods in how long we keep it.
• No AI training. We do not use Google user data to develop, improve or train AI or machine learning models.
• Removing access. A client can remove SearchPod's access at any time from its Google accounts, for example by unlinking our manager account or removing our user, and can ask us to delete data we hold by emailing info@searchpod.com.

SearchPod Ads Manager's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell personal information and we do not share it with anyone for their own marketing. We share it only with the providers that run parts of our business for us, each under a contract that limits what they can do with it:

We may also disclose personal information:

• To professional advisers such as accountants, lawyers and insurers, under confidentiality.
• When the law requires it, such as a court order or a lawful request from a public authority.
• To protect our rights, our clients or the public, for example when investigating fraud or abuse.
• To a buyer or successor if SearchPod is sold or merged, under the same protections as this policy.

7. Cookies and analytics

Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. We use a short list of them, and none of them are needed to read this site. The site works with all of them blocked.

Other browser storage

A few features keep small settings in your browser's local storage. Nothing in this list is sent to advertisers.

• sp-sid-*, sp-r-*, sp-ref-*: Only on a proposal page we sent you. Remembers that the pages you open belong to one visit, so your proposal's activity is counted once. Cleared when the tab closes.
• Pricing calculator settings: Keeps the options you picked on the pricing page so they are still there if you come back. Stays in your browser only.
• Booking reference: Keeps your booking confirmation on the device you booked from so you can change or cancel it. Stays in your browser only.

Analytics

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not use cookies or track you across sites, and Google Analytics 4 with IP addresses shortened by Google. Both show us totals and trends, such as which pages are read and where visitors come from, not individual identities.

Advertising measurement

Google Ads tags tell us when a visit started from one of our ads and whether it led to an inquiry. They can also let us show follow-up ads to people who visited this site. We do not use this data to build profiles about you or share it with other advertisers.

Your controls

• Block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Every major browser has this under Privacy.
• Turn off personalised Google ads at adssettings.google.com, or install Google's Analytics opt-out add-on.
• Turn on the Global Privacy Control signal in a browser that supports it. We treat it as an opt-out of advertising cookies.

8. Email and calls

Under CASL we only send commercial emails to people who have asked for them or who have an existing business relationship with us. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link that works within 10 business days, usually immediately. Transactional emails, such as a booking confirmation or a reply to your inquiry, are not marketing and keep coming while they are relevant.

If you request a call, we call the number you gave us. We do not cold call from purchased lists. To stop hearing from us, reply to any email or write to info@searchpod.com.

9. How long we keep it

• Inquiries and bookings: up to 24 months after our last contact with you, then deleted or anonymised. We keep it this long because businesses often come back to us after a season or a budget cycle.
• Client records: for the length of the engagement, then as long as Canadian tax and contract law requires, which is generally six years for financial records.
• Backup copies of client leads: until the client has received them, then no longer than 90 days.
• Analytics: Google Analytics data is kept for 14 months. Cloudflare Web Analytics keeps aggregate counts only.
• Security logs: up to 12 months.

Where we are required by law to keep something longer, we keep only what the law requires.

10. How we protect it

• Every page and form on this site is served over HTTPS.
• Our internal tools sit behind signed, expiring sessions and are limited to our team.
• Access to client accounts and to our own systems is granted per person, on a need-to-know basis, and removed when it is no longer needed.
• Credentials and API keys are stored in secured secret stores, never in email, documents or code.
• Forms carry spam and bot protection, and submissions are logged so that nothing is lost or duplicated.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as PIPEDA requires.

11. Where it is stored

We are in Canada, and some of the providers listed above store data in the United States or on global networks. That means your information may be processed outside the country where you live and may be accessible to the authorities there under local law. We choose providers with strong security commitments and contractual limits on how they use data. Residents of British Columbia can contact us for more information about our use of service providers outside Canada.

12. Your rights and choices

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• Tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy.
• Correct information that is inaccurate or out of date.
• Delete your information, unless we have to keep it for legal reasons.
• Stop using it for marketing, or withdraw a consent you gave earlier.
• Explain how we have used or shared it.

Email info@searchpod.com with "Privacy request" in the subject. We may ask you to confirm your identity so we do not give your information to someone else. We respond within 30 days, and we never charge for a reasonable request.

Canada

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, in British Columbia, to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC.

California

We do not sell personal information. Our use of Google advertising cookies could count as "sharing" under California law; you can opt out through the cookie controls above or with the Global Privacy Control signal. You also have the right to know, delete and correct, and not to be treated differently for using these rights.

European Economic Area and United Kingdom

Our legal bases are consent, performance of a contract and legitimate interests, as described in how we use it. You can also object to processing, ask us to restrict it, ask for your data in a portable format, and lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. Transfers out of the EEA and UK rely on standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision for Canada.

13. Children

Our website and services are for businesses and the adults who run them. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given us information, tell us and we will delete it.

14. Links to other sites

This site links to other websites, and our proposal pages may show sample sites we built. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and this one does not cover them. Our portfolio and case studies describe client businesses, never their customers.

15. Changes to this policy

When we add a tool or change how we use information, we update this page and the effective date at the top. For a change that matters to you, such as a new purpose for data we already hold, we will tell you directly or post a clear notice on the site before it takes effect.

16. Contact us

Questions, requests and complaints about privacy all come to the same place: