Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 17, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Brian O’Kelly, an individual doing business as Local Fact Check (“Local Fact Check,” “we,” “us”), collects, uses, and shares information when you visit localfactcheck.com (the “Site”), contact us, order a report or survey, or subscribe to our monthly re-check or Monitoring Plus (together, the “Services”). It applies alongside our Terms of Use and Refund Policy.

1. Information we collect

Information you give us. When you order a report or use another form on the Site, we collect what you enter — typically your business name, city, type of business (trade), website, and email address. When you email us, reply to one of our emails, or ask for a free sample, we collect your email address and whatever you include in your message. When you submit a form, our form provider saves your answers, the time you submitted, and random identifiers, including one stored in your browser’s local storage. If you start filling out a form, your answers are saved in your browser’s storage until you submit, so you can come back to them. It does not save your IP address with your submission, although it may check it briefly when you submit to block duplicate entries. It reports browser, device, and traffic-source information to us only in aggregate, not with your submission. Our form provider also records visit analytics for the form, such as when the form and its questions are viewed, along with a random session identifier and the full address of the page the form is on, including any tracking tags in it (such as utm_source or gclid). The form provider’s own code sets no cookies and loads no advertising trackers (Google reCAPTCHA, described in Section 4, may set Google cookies). When the form loads, the form provider’s error-monitoring service, Sentry, which is based in the United States, receives your IP address and browser details. We never ask for your passwords. Please don’t send passwords, health information, payment card numbers, or other sensitive information through the Site or by email. If you send it anyway, see Section 9.

Payment information. Payments are made through Stripe Checkout. You enter your card details directly with Stripe; we never receive or store your full card number. From Stripe we receive your name, email address, business name, and website, the last 4 digits of your card, and details of the payment, such as whether it went through and the amount.

Information about your business from public sources. To produce a report or survey, we look up publicly available information about your business and check what AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI answers) say about it, including your business’s name, phone number, hours, website, and the competitors those tools name. We review publicly available information about the business, such as listings and online reviews, which may include reviewers’ public names or usernames, only to prepare the customer’s report or survey. To offer free samples, we also collect public business contact information, such as business names, phone numbers, websites, and work email addresses published on business websites or in public search and map listings.

Information collected automatically. Like most websites, the Site and our hosting, security, and analytics providers automatically record technical information when you visit, such as your IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, referring page, and the date and time. Our security tools use this information to detect and block attacks and abuse.

Cookies. The Site uses cookies and similar technologies. Some are needed for the Site to work and stay secure. Google reCAPTCHA on our forms may also set Google cookies (see Section 4). We use Google Analytics, through Google’s Site Kit plugin for WordPress, which sets cookies to count visits and see how visitors use the Site, and Jetpack Stats, which counts page views (see Section 4). You can set your browser to block or delete cookies; some parts of the Site may not work properly if you do.

Do Not Track and cross-site tracking. We don’t track you across other websites. The Site does not currently respond to browser “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control signals.

2. How we use information

We use information to:

prepare and deliver the report and any survey you order, by email;
if you subscribe to the monthly re-check or Monitoring Plus, re-check what AI tools say about your business each month, email you what changed, and provide the other features of your plan;
process payments, subscriptions, cancellations, and refunds;
respond to your questions and support requests;
send a business a free sample email using public business contact information, and send marketing emails about our Services (every such email lets you opt out — see Section 6);
operate, secure, and improve the Site and the Services, including preventing spam and attacks;
keep business records and comply with legal obligations; and
protect our rights and the safety and security of others.

We don’t sell your personal information, and we don’t share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We don’t use information submitted through the Site to train AI models. To produce reports we send business information (not your payment information) to AI and search-data providers, which handle it under their own terms. We may also use AI tools to help us manage our email and draft replies; those providers handle information under their own terms.

We share information only as follows:

Service providers that help us run the Site and our business, such as our website host, form provider (Tally), payment processor (Stripe), customer records system (HubSpot), AI and search-data providers, email providers, security tools, and automation tools (see Section 4). We give them information only so they can provide services to us. They handle it under their own terms and privacy policies, and some (such as our security providers) may also use it for their own purposes, such as improving threat detection or their services.
Professional advisers, such as our accountant, lawyer, or insurer, when needed for their advice or services.
Legal and safety reasons, when we believe in good faith that disclosure is required by law or legal process, or needed to protect our rights, our users, or others.
Business transfers, if Local Fact Check is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, in which case information may be transferred as part of that transaction.
With your consent or at your direction.

4. Services that handle your information

We use the following services:

Website hosting: GoDaddy hosts the Site, which runs on WordPress.
Forms: Our order and contact forms are provided by Tally, a service from Tally BV, based in Ghent, Belgium. Submissions are stored on Tally’s servers, not in the Site’s WordPress database. Tally says form data is stored in Europe. Tally processes submissions on our behalf under its data processing agreement (https://tally.so/help/data-processing-agreement) and uses its own service providers (subprocessors), such as Google Cloud for hosting and storage and Twilio SendGrid, based in the United States, to send us email notifications of new submissions. This means information you submit may be transferred to the United States for those notification emails. Tally also uses Sentry, an error-monitoring service based in the United States, which receives your IP address and browser details when the form loads. Our forms use Google reCAPTCHA to block spam. reCAPTCHA sends Google information about your device and how you use the form, such as your IP address and browser details, and may set Google cookies. Your use of reCAPTCHA is subject to Google’s Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy) and Terms of Service (https://policies.google.com/terms). When we delete a submission, Tally says it permanently deletes it from its backups within 90 days. Learn more at https://tally.so/help/gdpr.
Payments: Stripe processes payments and subscriptions through Stripe Checkout. Stripe handles your card details under its own privacy policy at https://stripe.com/privacy.
Customer records: HubSpot is our customer records system (CRM). We add only people who reply to us, ask for a free sample, buy a report, or subscribe.
Automation: Zapier may copy new buyers’ details (such as name, email address, business name, and website) from Stripe to HubSpot.
AI and search-data providers: To produce reports, we send your business’s name, location, trade, and website to AI and search-data service providers that help us research and prepare reports. They return what AI tools and search results say about your business.
Email: We use business email providers to send reports, monthly updates, and replies from our localfactcheck.com addresses. We may send business outreach email, including free sample emails, from a separate domain, localfactcheckhq.com, through an email-sending service provider. Contacts who have not replied are kept only in that service and are not added to HubSpot. Every outreach email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can also opt out by emailing privacy@localfactcheck.com or support@localfactcheck.com (see Section 6).
Security: Wordfence helps protect the Site from attacks. It checks visitor IP addresses and related technical data, including details of attempts to log in to the Site’s admin area, against threat data maintained by its provider.
Analytics: We use Google Analytics, added through Google’s Site Kit plugin for WordPress, to understand how visitors use the Site. Google Analytics uses cookies and collects information such as pages visited, how long visitors stay, the referring site, approximate location, and device and browser details. We have not enabled Google Analytics advertising features (such as Google signals or ads personalization). Google handles this information under its own Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy). You can learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and can opt out with Google’s browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Analytics (Jetpack Stats): Jetpack Stats, a service from Automattic, counts page views on the Site. When you load a page, Jetpack Stats receives your IP address, browser type, the page you visited, the page you came from, your browser language, your country, and the date and time. If you are logged in to WordPress.com, it may also receive your WordPress.com user ID and username. We see only totals, not which person viewed a page. Automattic keeps stats logs that include IP addresses for 28 days. Learn more at https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-stats/ and in Automattic’s privacy policy at https://automattic.com/privacy/.

5. How long we keep information

We keep customer data only as long as we need it. We keep inquiry and free-sample contact information for up to 24 months after our last contact with you, unless you ask us to delete it sooner. If you buy a report or subscribe, we keep order and payment records for up to 7 years for tax and accounting purposes. If you unsubscribe from our emails, we keep your email address on a do-not-email list so we can honor that choice. Security and error logs are kept for limited periods set in those tools. Form submissions we delete are removed from Tally’s backups within 90 days, as described in Section 4.

6. Your choices

Marketing and sample emails: Every marketing or free sample email we send includes an unsubscribe link, and we honor opt-outs promptly (within 10 business days as the law requires, and in practice sooner). You can also opt out by emailing privacy@localfactcheck.com or support@localfactcheck.com. We may still send you non-marketing messages, such as your report, subscription and billing messages, and replies to your questions.
Monthly re-check and Monitoring Plus: You can cancel your subscription at any time as described in our Terms of Use and Refund Policy.
Access, correction, and deletion: You can ask us what information we have about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it by emailing privacy@localfactcheck.com. We’ll respond within 45 days and may need to verify your identity. If we need more time, or can’t fulfill a request (for example, because the law requires us to keep the information), we’ll tell you why. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local law; we’ll honor requests as those laws require.
Cookies: You can control cookies through your browser settings.

7. Security

We use reasonable safeguards to protect the information we collect, such as security software and limiting who can access it. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we can’t guarantee absolute security.

8. Children

The Site is intended for businesses and is not directed to anyone under 18. You must be at least 18 to submit a form on the Site, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has sent us personal information, contact us at privacy@localfactcheck.com and we will delete it.

9. Health and other sensitive information

We do not seek to collect health information or other sensitive information through the Site, and we ask that you not submit it. If you send it anyway, we will not use it, and we will delete it when we notice it or when you ask us to at privacy@localfactcheck.com. Copies may remain for a short time in backups kept by our service providers.

10. Where information is processed

Local Fact Check is based in Washington State, USA, and the Site is intended for visitors in the United States. The Site is hosted in the United States. Some of our service providers, including those that provide forms, email, payments, AI and search data, and security, may process information on servers in other countries. Washington law governs this Policy, consistent with our Terms of Use, without limiting any privacy rights you have under the laws where you live.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We’ll post the new version on this page and change the effective date. If we make material changes, we’ll give additional notice where appropriate. We won’t use information we have already collected in a materially different way than this Policy describes without your consent.

12. Contact us

Brian O’Kelly, doing business as Local Fact Check
15117 Main St, Suite 205, PMB 242
Mill Creek, WA 98012

Privacy requests: privacy@localfactcheck.com
Support, orders, and billing: support@localfactcheck.com
General questions: hello@localfactcheck.com