Privacy Policy

1. Overview

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information Farm-Stand ("we", "us") collects, how we use and store it, and when we share it. We handle personal information in line with Canada's federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, where they apply, provincial privacy laws such as those of Alberta and British Columbia. We send email in line with Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

Farm-Stand is free and funded by advertising from local businesses. Ads are chosen only by your approximate area, and we never sell your personal information or share it with advertisers. Section 3 explains how this works.

2. Information we collect

• Account information: your name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash, never in readable form) and whether you have verified your email. When you sign in we also create a one-time code, stored only in scrambled form. It stops working after 10 minutes and is removed once it is used or replaced.
• Farm information: for farm accounts, the business name, description, address, map location, phone, contact email, hours, products, photos and anything else you add to your listing.
• Content you post: reviews, ratings and the farms you save.
• Messages you send us: your name, email, topic and message from the Contact & support form, and the farm you report if you report a listing. We keep these to answer you and to track reported issues.
• Newsletter subscription: your email address, the region you chose, and a record of when and how you subscribed and confirmed, which we keep as proof of your consent.
• Activity dates: when you last signed in and, for farms, when you last updated your listing. We use these to see how actively farms keep their listings up to date.
• Location: we ask before using your device's location. If you agree, it is used to show farms near you, and an approximate version (rounded to about 1 km) is saved in a cookie in your browser: for 30 minutes if you are not signed in, or 30 days if you are. It is not stored in our database. If you say no, nothing is saved. Without your device location, we use an approximate area based on your IP address (city or region only), or the area you have chosen, to pick a sensible default.
• Usage information: pages viewed, searches, and actions such as clicking a farm's directions or phone link, or viewing and clicking sponsored content. These are recorded with random visitor and session identifiers (see our Cookie Policy), along with your approximate city and region, worked out from your IP address. We do not store IP addresses; a one-way code that changes daily is used to count visits.
• Search history (signed-in accounts, only with your consent): when you sign in, we ask whether we may use your searches to personalise your feed. If you agree, the searches you make while signed in are saved to your account, and your searches from the last 90 days are used to choose which products you see first. If you decline, your searches are not linked to your account.
• Technical information: browser type, device type and similar information your browser sends automatically.

3. How we use it

• To run Farm-Stand: create and secure your account, show farm listings, and find farms near you.
• To choose what you see: the homepage feed is ordered mainly by how close each farm is to you, then by the farm's rating and, if you have agreed, by your search history. Your recent searches on this device (kept in your browser) are sent with each request to help order the results, but are not stored with your account unless you have agreed.
• To show sponsored content: sponsored content in listings and the newsletter is chosen only by your approximate area (or the region you subscribed for), so you see businesses near you. We do not use your search history, account details or browsing behaviour to choose it.
• To report to sponsors: we count how often sponsored content is shown and clicked in each area. Sponsors receive only these totals, never information that identifies you.
• To communicate with you: account verification, sign-in codes, password resets, important service notices and, if you have subscribed, the newsletter.
• To improve and protect Farm-Stand: to understand how it is used and to keep it safe from fraud and misuse.
• To meet our legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with sponsors or advertisers.

4. What is public

Farm listings are public, including the business name, address, hours, products and photos. A farm's phone number and email are shown only if the farm chooses to display them. Reviews are shown with the name on the reviewer's account.

5. Who we share it with

We share personal information only with service providers who help us run Farm-Stand, such as website hosting, database, email and newsletter delivery, and image storage providers. They may use it only to provide their service to us. Some of these providers may store information outside Canada, where it may be subject to the laws of that country.

We may also disclose information where required by law, or to protect the rights, safety or property of our users, the public or Farm-Stand.

6. Newsletter emails

We send the newsletter only after you confirm your subscription. Every issue identifies us and includes an unsubscribe link; we act on unsubscribe requests within 10 business days. Our newsletter provider records whether an email is opened and which links are clicked, and we use this to see which content is useful and to count sponsor clicks in total.

7. How long we keep it

• Account information: for as long as your account is open. When you delete your account, we delete or anonymise your personal information within a reasonable time, except where we need to keep it to meet legal obligations or resolve disputes.
• Unconfirmed accounts: deleted after 30 days if the email address is never confirmed.
• Unconfirmed newsletter sign-ups: the email address is deleted after 30 days.
• Newsletter consent records: kept while you are subscribed and for as long as needed afterwards to show that we had consent. When you unsubscribe, we keep only what we need to make sure we don't email you again.
• Detailed usage records: deleted after 180 days. Usage statistics are kept in a form that does not identify you.

8. Security

We use reasonable safeguards to protect personal information, including encrypted connections, hashed passwords, a one-time code emailed at each sign-in and restricted access to our systems. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Your choices and rights

• You can see and update most of your information from your account.
• You can turn off location access, and delete the saved location cookie, in your browser settings at any time.
• You can turn the personalised feed and the use of your location on or off at any time on your account page, where your current choices are shown. Choices are saved to your account, so they apply on every device you sign in on. When the personalised feed is off, we stop saving your searches to your account and stop using them to order your feed. You can ask us to delete search history already saved.
• You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time using the link in any issue.
• You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or delete your account yourself from your account page.
• If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, where provincial privacy law applies, the privacy commissioner in your province.

10. Children

Farm-Stand is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

11. Changes

We will post any changes to this policy here with a new "last updated" date, and notify you of significant changes.

Contact us

To make a privacy request or ask a question, contact our Privacy Officer at hello@farmstandna.com.