Privacy Policy

Who is responsible for this website

BuildersOntario.com is owned and operated by 2121724 Ontario Inc., which does business as ICFhome.ca, from Tiny, Ontario. If you want to ask about your information, correct it, or have it removed, email info@icfhome.ca or call 705-533-1633. You will reach the people who actually hold the information, not a call centre.

We follow Canada’s federal privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which is the law that applies to a private business in Ontario. The short version of that law is this: collect only what you need, say what you are collecting it for, protect it, and let people see and correct it. That is what we try to do.

What we collect, and when

1. When you fill in a form or send us an email

If you use a contact form, a “request a real quotation” form on one of our calculators, or you just email us, we receive whatever you type: usually your name, email address, phone number, your town, and a description of your project. If you attach files (plans, photos, a contractor’s quote), we receive those too. All of it lands in our business inbox at info@icfhome.ca, and a copy goes back to you so you have a record.

We use it for one purpose: to answer you. If you asked for a quote review, we use it to review the quote. If you asked a question, we use it to answer the question. If you asked to be put in touch with a contractor, we pass your details to that contractor and nobody else, and we tell you we are doing it.

2. When you pay for something

Our paid services (quote reviews, takeoffs, directory listings) are paid through Stripe. Stripe collects your card details on its own secure checkout page. We never see your full card number and we do not store it anywhere; we see your name, email, what you bought, and that the payment went through. Stripe’s own privacy policy covers what they do with payment data: stripe.com/en-ca/privacy.

3. When you just read the site

Like nearly every website, this one uses Google Analytics to count visitors and see which pages people read. It tells us things like “300 people read the roofing cost page on Tuesday, mostly on phones, mostly from Ontario.” It does not tell us who you are. Google does set cookies to do this, and Google’s own policy on that is here: policies.google.com/privacy. If you would rather not be counted, Google’s opt-out add-on is at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout, or you can block cookies in your browser and the site will still work fine.

Our web server also keeps the ordinary logs every server keeps: your IP address, the page you asked for, the time, and what browser you used. We look at those only when something breaks or somebody is attacking the site.

4. What we do NOT collect

We do not run advertising networks on this site. There is no Facebook pixel, no ad retargeting, and no tracking that follows you to other websites. We do not buy data about you from anyone. We do not ask for your date of birth, your SIN, or anything else we have no use for. The calculators on this site run in your browser; the numbers you type into them are not sent to us unless you press the button that says you want to send them.

Cookies, in plain English

A cookie is a small text file your browser keeps so a website can recognize you on the next page. This site uses three kinds:

• Cache cookies. Our page-speed system (LiteSpeed Cache) sets a cookie so it can serve you pages faster. It holds no personal information.
• Analytics cookies. Google Analytics, described above, so we can count visitors.
• Login cookies. Only if you have an account and log in, which almost nobody other than us does.

We do not use a cookie banner because we do not use cookies for advertising. You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings at any time; every page on this site still works without them.

Spam protection

Form submissions are checked by Akismet, a spam-filtering service, before they reach us. That means the content of your form submission, along with your IP address, is sent to Akismet to be checked. Their privacy notice is at automattic.com/privacy. It is the price of not having 400 fake “SEO services” messages in the inbox every morning, and so far it has been worth it.

Who else sees your information

Nobody, except the companies that run the systems we use to run the website and the business. In plain terms:

• Our web host stores the website and its logs. Their servers may be outside Canada.
• Our email provider stores the emails you send us, the same way yours stores the ones we send you.
• Stripe handles payments, as described above.
• Google provides analytics and search tools.
• Akismet checks forms for spam.
• A contractor, only if you specifically asked us to introduce you to one, and only the details they need to call you back.

Because some of those companies keep servers in the United States, your information may be stored outside Canada and could be subject to the laws there. That is true of almost every small-business website in the country, and we mention it because the law says we should, not because we think it is a reason to worry.

We do not sell your information. We do not share it with marketers. We will not add you to a newsletter you did not ask for. If a court orders us to hand over records, we will do what the court says, and that is the only other case.

How long we keep it

Emails and form submissions stay in our business inbox for as long as they are useful, which in practice means a few years, because people come back two winters later and say “remember that quote you looked at for me?” Payment records are kept for seven years because the Canada Revenue Agency says so. Analytics data is kept by Google for the retention period set in our analytics account and then deleted automatically. Server logs roll over on their own after a few weeks.

If you want your emails and form submissions deleted sooner, ask, and we will delete them, except for the payment records the tax people make us keep.

Your rights, and how to use them

You can ask us at any time:

1. What information we have about you. We will tell you, and send you a copy.
2. To correct it, if something is wrong.
3. To delete it, subject to the tax-record rule above.
4. To stop contacting you. We only contact people who contacted us first, but if you have changed your mind, say so and that is the end of it.

Send the request to info@icfhome.ca. We may ask you to confirm you are who you say you are before we send anyone’s information to anyone, which is the whole point. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

How we protect it

The website runs over HTTPS, so what you type is encrypted on the way to us. The site is kept updated, protected by security software and a firewall at the hosting company, and backed up regularly. Our inbox and accounts are protected with strong passwords and we keep access to a very short list of people. None of that makes anything perfectly safe, and anybody who tells you their system is perfectly safe is selling something. What it means is that we take the ordinary, sensible precautions, the same way we strap a roof down properly instead of hoping the wind stays calm.

Children

This website is about building and renovating houses, which is not a hobby for children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has sent us something, tell us and we will delete it.

Links to other websites

Our pages link to government sites, manufacturers, and other sources because we would rather show you where a number came from than ask you to trust us. Once you click away to another site, their privacy policy applies, not ours. We pick our links carefully, but we do not control what other people do with their websites.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle information, we will change this page and update the date at the top. We will not sneak in anything that lets us sell your information, because we are not going to sell your information.