Phonebooks Privacy Notice
Last Updated: January 1, 2025
SCOPE
This Privacy Notice ("Notice") is designed to help you understand how we may collect, use, share or otherwise process information that relates to you ("personal information") and how you can exercise your privacy rights.
This Notice applies to information that we collect both online and offline. This includes information gathered on websites that expressly link to this Notice ("Sites"), including Phonebooks.com, in connection with our data offerings ("Data Products") and other services (collectively, the "Services"). This Notice does not apply to information we collect in the job applicant or worker context.
If you reside in a U.S. state that has enacted a state consumer privacy law, please refer to our U.S. State Supplemental Privacy Notice for additional information concerning our data processing practices and the rights you may have.
If you have a disability that prevents or limits your ability to access our privacy-related notices, please contact us at support@phonebooks.com. We will work with you to provide the notices in an alternative format.
PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
The personal information we collect varies based on our relationship with you and how you use our Services. We may collect information you provide directly, information gathered automatically when you use our Services, and information from other sources and third parties, such as publicly available records.
2.1 Personal Information You Provide to Us Directly
- Your Communications with Us: We may collect personal information including your name, email address, postal address, date of birth, and telephone number when you use or request information about our Services, contact us for support, or exercise a privacy right.
- Search Criteria: When using our Services to search for individuals, you may provide specific details such as names, phone numbers, or addresses relevant to your search. However, we do not store this search information in a way that identifies who performed the search, so it is not considered your personal information.
2.2 Personal Information Collected Automatically
We, along with third parties that provide content, advertising, or other functionalities on our Services, may use cookies, pixel tags, local storage objects and other technologies ("CollectionTechnologies") to automatically collect information during your use of our Services. The types of personal information we collect using Collection Technologies include the following:
- Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Information: This includes your Internet Protocol (IP) address and Internet Service Provider (ISP). We also may gather data regarding your interaction with our Services, such as the pages you visit before, during, and after using our Services, the content and links you engage with, the frequency and duration of your activities, and other related usage information.
- Device Information: We may collect details such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, mobile carrier, mobile advertising identifiers, and other unique identifiers. Additionally, we gather cookie identifiers, browser or device information, and information regarding your user settings.
Geolocation Information: We may collect approximate location data derived from your IP address.
Our use of Collection Technologies generally falls into the categories listed below. Please note that these are the main ways of classifying Collection Technologies, although there may be others that will not fit neatly into these categories or may qualify for multiple categories.
Essential. These technologies are necessary for accessing our Services. They help us identify irregular website behavior, prevent fraud, enhance security, and enable you to use the features we offer. For example, we use Cloudflare’s content delivery network technology to evaluate various device-and-user based analytics to estimate whether the activity is from an automated program (i.e., a "bot") or a human. You can learn more about how data processed by Cloudflare is used by reviewing Cloudflare’s privacy policy.
Analytics and Customization. We use these technologies to understand how our Sites are used and to evaluate our marketing campaigns. This helps us see how visitors interact with our Services. For example, one of the analytics technologies we use is Google Analytics. To better understand how Google uses your personal information (including for its own purposes, such as profiling or linking it to other data), you may wish to review Google Analytics’ Notice. To learn more about how to opt-out of Google Analytics’ use of your information, please click here.
Advertising (Targeting). We may use first-party and third-party technologies, including cross-device tracking, to show you content and ads relevant to your interests on our Services or other websites. For example, we use Google's DoubleClick and Dynamic Remarketing. For more information on how Google uses your personal information, please visit Google's privacy policy. To control how Google uses your information for ads, click here.
2.3 Personal Information Collected from Other Sources
We may obtain personal information about you from various sources and third parties. These sources include publicly available information, data that has lawfully been made available to the public by a consumer, and data suppliers. The types of information we collect from these sources includes:
Identifiers: Real name, alias, current and former postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, names of relatives, email address, and other similar identifiers.
Characteristics of Protected Classifications Under Applicable State or Federal Law: Gender, age, and marital status.
Property or Business Record Information: Information related to businesses or real estate associated with you, including the address, property details (such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, and year built), estimated value and equity, last sale amount, last sale date, occupancy type, ownership type, and similar data.
Inferences Drawn from Any of the Personal Information Listed Herein: Profiles or summaries about an individual’s preferences and characteristics.
HOW WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION
We use personal information for a variety of purposes, including:
To develop and provide our Data Products and Services, including to operate, troubleshoot, develop, improve, upgrade, or enhance our existing Data Products and Services or those we are considering offering in the future.
To provide access to and maintain our Sites, including to provide access to certain areas, functionalities, and features of our Services to online visitors.
To respond to or notify you, including when you contact us with a comment, request, or question; request information about our Data Products or Services; or to send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, and other administrative messages.
To personalize your experiences with us, including remembering your interests and preferences. This allows us to offer you customized content and other personalized features, making our Data Products and Services more relevant to your interests and geographic location.
For research and analytical purposes, including understanding how you access and use our Data Products and Services, identifying usage trends, and developing data analysis. This includes research, audit, reporting, and other business operations, such as determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and evaluating our business performance.
For marketing and advertising purposes, including to measure your interest in and engagement with our Data Products and Services. This helps us offer new products, present promotional offers, and provide you with information about products and services, as well as those of our affiliates and third parties like sponsors. We may also use your information for short-term, transient purposes, such as customizing ads.
We may also use your personal information to tailor your experience with our Services and deliver content and ads as allowed by law. Our marketing efforts may include email campaigns, text messages, custom audience advertising, and "interest-based" or "personalized advertising," including through cross-device tracking. If you have questions about our marketing practices or wish to opt out, please refer to the COLLECTION TECHNOLOGIES PREFERENCES and YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS sections of this Notice.
For our business purposes, including operate and improve our business, Data Products, and Services, in connection with potential business transactions (e.g., mergers or acquisitions), internal administration, debugging to identify and repair our Sites or other Services-related errors; quality control, and data analysis; and for any other business purpose permitted by law.
For legal compliance and safety purposes, such as to operate, troubleshoot, repair, and improve our Sites; secure or enhance our Services administer and enforce our agreements and policies (including without limitation, this Notice and our Terms of Use) and notify you of changes; carry out activities that are required to comply with our legal obligations imposed by law, regulation, decree, court order, or legal settlement); investigate illegal activities, suspected fraud, or potential threats to the safety of any person; provide evidence in litigation in which we or our clients are involved; and other legitimate business purposes as permitted by law.
For purposes that you have otherwise consented to, including at the time your personal information is collected.
For other purposes permitted by applicable law, including to create de-identified, aggregated, or anonymized information. To the extent we create any de-identified, aggregated, or anonymized information from personal information, we publicly commit to maintaining and using de-identified information without attempting to re-identify the data, except as permitted under applicable law.
HOW WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We disclose your personal information to third parties for various business purposes, including when you request access to certain features on our Sites, providing our Data Products and Services, protecting our interests or those of others, or potentially in the event of a major business transaction such as mergers, sales, or asset transfers, as described below. For more information on how you can manage our use of your personal information and your experience with our Services, please review the COLLECTION TECHNOLOGIES PREFERENCES and YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS sections of this Notice.
4.1 Disclosures to Provide our Data Products and Services
The categories of third parties with whom we may share your personal information are described below.
Service Providers. We may share your personal information with third-party service providers and vendors that assist us in providing our Services. This includes providers offering IT support, hosting, payment processing, customer service, and related services.
Customers. We may disclose data through our Data Products and Services to individuals and other third parties who use our Data Products and Services to search for records on themselves or other individuals (collectively, our "Customers"). Customers may use our Data Products and Services for various purposes, including to find their family and friends or identify callers.
Professional Advisors. We may disclose your personal information to our professional advisors, such as lawyers, auditors, and insurers, when necessary. Our professional advisors use your personal information only as directed or authorized by us and are prohibited from using or disclosing your information for any other purpose.
Business Partners. We may share your personal information with business partners to provide you with the Data Products or Services you request. For instance, if you search for a profile and request to "View Full Background Report," or "View Details, " we may redirect you to, and share your information with, our business partner to facilitate your request. Additionally, we may share your personal information with business partners when we jointly offer products or services.
Advertising Partners. We may share your personal information with third-party advertising partners through our Services. These partners may set Collection Technologies and other tracking tools on our Services to collect information about your activities and your device (e.g., IP address, cookie identifiers, pages visited, location, time of day). They may use this information (and similar information collected from other services) to deliver personalized advertisements to you when you visit digital properties within their networks. This practice is commonly known as "interest-based advertising," "cross-contextual behavioral advertising," or "personalized advertising."
APIs/SDKs. We may use third-party application program interfaces ("APIs") and software development kits ("SDKs") as part of our Services’ functionality, in compliance with the providers’ terms.
4.2Disclosures to Protect Our Company or Others
We may access, preserve, and disclose personal information we receive from you, maintain about you, or have associated with you, including disclosing this information to external parties if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to: comply with law enforcement or national security requests and legal processes, such as a court order or subpoena; protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety; defend ourselves or others against legal actions; enforce our policies or contracts; assist with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity; and as may otherwise be required or permitted by law.
4.3 Disclosure in the Event of Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers
If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, purchase or sale of assets, or transition of service to another provider, your information may be sold or transferred as part of such a transaction, as permitted by law and/or contract.
COLLECTION TECHNOLOGIES PREFERENCES
You can manage the personal information we collect through Collection Technologies as described below.
Opt-Out Preference Signals. You may opt out of our use of certain Collection Technologies by broadcasting an Opt-Out Preference Signal, such as the Global Privacy Control ("GPC") on browsers and browser extensions that support such a signal. To download and use a browser supporting the GPC browser signal, please visit: https://globalprivacycontrol.org/orgs. If you choose to use the GPC signal, you will need to turn it on for each supported browser or browser extension you use. Importantly, a GPC signal opts you out of certain cookies, tracking, and the sale or sharing of site browsing information, but it does not opt you out of essential technologies necessary for running the Sites and Services or the information we provide as part of our Data Products and Services.
Additional Collection Technologies Controls. You can control our use of certain Collection Technologies in the following ways:
- Cookie Controls. On our website, you will find a widget in the bottom left-hand corner that allows you to modify your cookie settings. If you are accessing our site through your mobile phone, there is a link at the bottom of the site labeled "Cookie Management." These tools enable you to adjust your preferences, except for cookies and collection technologies essential for the operation of our site. To revisit and modify your choices at any time, simply click on the widget or link again. Your preferences will be updated accordingly. Please note that your selections will be specific to the device or browser you are using. If you use a different device or internet browser, you will need to renew your cookie controls.
- Browser Controls. You may also stop or restrict the placement of certain Collection Technologies in your browser or remove them by adjusting your preferences as your browser permits. These tools are generally available in the help section of browsers. You can also use the quick links, based on the browser type that you are using: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
- Device Controls. You may opt-out of personalized advertisements on some mobile applications by following the instructions for Android, iOS, and others. Please note that cookie-based opt-outs may not stop all mobile tracking, such as tracking done on mobile applications.
- Ad Industry Opt-outs.The online advertising industry also provides websites from which you may opt out of receiving targeted ads from data partners and other advertising partners that participate in self-regulatory programs. You can access these and learn more about targeted advertising and consumer choice and privacy by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative, and the Digital Advertising Alliance. Please note you must separately opt out in each browser and on each device.
YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS
6.1 Consumer Rights
Depending on your state of residence, you may have certain privacy rights related to certain types of the personal information we collect and process, as detailed further below.
Request to Know. You may have the right to request confirmation of whether we are processing or have processed your personal information. Additionally, you may be able to request disclosure of the personal information we have collected about you, including:
The categories of personal information we have collected
The categories of sources from which such personal information is collected
The business or commercial purposes for collecting, selling, or sharing your personal information
The categories or specific third parties to whom we disclose or have disclosed your personal information
The specific pieces of your personal information that we maintain or have processed
Request to Delete. You may have a right to request that we delete the personal information that we may maintain about you.
Request to Correct Inaccurate Personal Information. You may have the right to request thatwe correct our copy of your personal information where it is inaccurate or incomplete.
Request to Opt-Out of Sale, Sharing, and Certain Profiling Activities. As explained in our Notice of Right to Opt-Out of Sale and Sharing of Personal Information, you may have the right to opt out of certain activities involving your personal information. Specifically, you can opt out of our "sale" of your personal information to third parties, the "sharing" of your personal information for targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising, and certain profiling activities that result in legal or similarly significant effects on you. However, please note that we do not use personal information for such profiling activities.
It is important to understand that our Data Products use publicly available information, which is not covered by U.S. state privacy laws. This includes data from public records. If you request to opt out of the sale of your personal information, we will try to apply your request to the publicly available information we collect, as a courtesy. However, this will not remove the data from its original source. This means your information may still appear on other websites or be accessible through other services. Also, we regularly receive new public records so even if you opt out, your publicly available information may appear in our Data Products again in the future. We recommend you periodically refresh your opt-out request using the methods described below.
Please note that we do not have actual knowledge that we "sell" or "share" personal information about consumers under 18 years of age either as those terms are commonly understood or as they are defined under certain U.S. state privacy laws.
Request to Limit the use or processing of your sensitive personal information for certain purposes. However, please note that we do not process sensitive personal information, including to profile or infer characteristics about you or other individuals.
Right to No Discrimination. You have a right not to receive discriminatory treatment for the exercise of your privacy rights.
Do Not Track. Do Not Track ("DNT") is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.
6.2.1 Request to Know, Delete, or Correct Your Personal Information. If you want to know what personal information we have about you, delete it, or correct it, you can reach out to us in two ways:
Online: Visit our Privacy Rights page
Phone: Call us at (888) 838-4804
6.2.2 Request to Opt Out. To opt out of the selling or sharing of your personal information, please choose one of the following methods:
Online: Visit our Opt-Out Form
Phone: Call us at (888) 838-4804
Additionally, you must adjust your cookie settings or send an opt-out preference signal, such as the Global Privacy Control, to prevent the selling or sharing of personal information that may occur through the Collection Technologies we use. For detailed instructions, please refer to the Collection Technologies Preferences (Section 5) of this Privacy Notice.
6.2.3 How We Process Requests. We will process your requests in accordance with applicable laws and subject to the following:
Verification Methods. Once you submit a request, we will verify that you are the consumer to which the request pertains by matching the identifying information provided by you (e.g. name, email address, phone number) to the information we maintain. Depending on the type of request you submit, we will attempt to match either two or three of the data points you provided. If we are unable to verify your request with the data points you provided, we may reach out to you for additional information to verify your request. Please note that opt-out requests do not require verification.
Authorized Agent. Your "authorized agent" can submit a request on your behalf using the same methods described above. We may ask the authorized agent to provide a signed authorization from you, confirming their authority to act on your behalf. Additionally, we might require you to verify your own identity directly with us.
Appeal. You may have the right to appeal our decision or response to your request. To exercise your right to appeal, you can submit an appeal request by visiting our Privacy Request page or calling us at (888) 838-4804.
6.2 Exercise Your Privacy Rights
SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION
We take steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with this Notice. Unfortunately, no system is 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we do not accept liability for unauthorized access, use, disclosure, or loss of personal information.
RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We store personal information we collect as described in this Notice for as long as you use our Services, or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws. Additionally, we endeavor to retain all such personal information in accordance with legal requirements.
CHILDREN’S INFORMATION
Our Services are not directed to individuals under the age of 18 (for purposes of this Notice only, a "child" or collectively, "children"). We do not knowingly collect, disclose, sell, or share personal information of children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has uploaded personal information to any of our Sites without your consent, please Contact Us. If we become aware that a child has provided us with personal information in violation of applicable law, we will delete any personal information we have collected, unless we have a legal obligation to keep it, and if applicable, terminate the child’s account.
THIRD PARTY WEBSITES/APPLICATIONS
The Services may contain links to other websites/applications and other websites/applications may reference or link to our Services. These third-party services are not controlled by us. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of each website and application you may interact with. We do not endorse, screen, or approve, and are not responsible for, the privacy practices or content of such other websites or applications. You agree that if you elect to provide personal information to third-party websites or applications encountered on our Sites or through our Services, you do so at your own risk.
CHANGES TO OUR POLICY
We may revise this Notice from time to time in our sole discretion. If there are any material changes to this Notice, we will notify you as required by applicable law. You understand and agree that you will be deemed to have accepted the updated Notice if you continue to use our Services after the new Notice takes effect.
CONTACT US
If you have any questions about our information practices or need further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us using the methods described below.
Online: Visit our Contact Page.
Phone: Call us at 303-376-5589.