OurAugusta

Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 4, 2026

1. Who we are and how to reach us

OurAugusta is a local business directory for Augusta, Georgia and the surrounding area (the CSRA), at ouraugusta.com. This page explains what information we collect, why, who handles it for us, and how long we keep it.

Privacy questions: [email protected]. Anything else: [email protected].

2. Our promise

We don't sell your personal information. If OurAugusta is ever sold or merged, the information we hold would pass to the new owner, who must keep this promise for it.

We don't share your information for advertising, and we don't use cookies for advertising or analytics.

3. What we collect and why

a. When you visit the site

  • Our host, Cloudflare, processes your IP address and request details (such as the page and your browser type) to deliver and protect the site.
  • We count listing page views and clicks on a listing's phone number, website and directions link, per business. These counts are not linked to your IP address, your account or a cookie.
  • To stop abuse, we keep short-lived security counters keyed to your IP address. They expire within one hour.
  • Searches: When you search, we record the category, town and state you picked, the sort order, how many results there were, and which listing you clicked or tapped and where it appeared in the list, with a random number that lasts only for that page view. If a search finds nothing, we keep the search words, unless they look like they contain an email, phone number, address or web link, in which case we don't keep them at all. We can't reliably spot people's names, so please don't type personal names into the search box. We don't record your IP address, account or a cookie with it, and we delete these records after 90 days.
  • Phone taps: We count taps on phone numbers on listing pages and in search results.

b. Your account

Accounts are run by Clerk, our sign-in provider. Clerk handles signing in, including your login credentials; we never see or store them. We keep a copy of your name, email address, profile picture link and account role so the site works for you.

c. Messages you send to a business

  • We store your name, email, phone number (if you give it), subject, message and how you'd like to be contacted.
  • If the business has claimed its listing, we email your message to the business owner through Resend, our email provider.
  • If the listing is unclaimed, our team receives your message by email, may contact the business about it, and the business can read it once it claims the listing.
  • We use your email address for about one hour to limit spam.

d. Reviews

We store your rating, title, review text and the account that wrote it. Our team checks reviews before they appear. Reviews are shown publicly without your name. The business owner can see the name on your account, but not your email address.

e. Saved businesses

If you save a business, we store that with your account.

f. Business owners

  • When you claim a listing we store your claim details, the verification email address and the verification codes we send.
  • Ownership documents you upload (for example a license or utility bill) are stored privately. They are read by automated text recognition (Cloudflare Workers AI) and by our admins, and the extracted text is kept with your claim.
  • Listing edits and photos you add. Photos are public. We don't yet remove location data (EXIF) from photos, so please remove location from photos before uploading them.
  • Business submissions and requests to resolve duplicate listings.

g. Payments

Paid plans are handled by Stripe, and only when paid plans are available. Stripe collects your card details; we never see them. We store a Stripe customer ID and your subscription status.

h. Emails we send

We use Resend to send emails about your account, claims, messages and listing, including verification codes and owner reports.

4. Cookies

  • Sign-in cookies from Clerk. Clerk's script runs on every page, so it sets cookies for every visitor, even if you are not signed in: __client_uat and, when you are signed in, __session on ouraugusta.com (Clerk may add a short suffix to these names), and __client on clerk.ouraugusta.com. They keep you signed in and protect your account.
  • oa_ref: remembers a referral code for 30 days, only if you arrive through a referral link.
  • No cookies for analytics or advertising.

5. Who handles data for us, and who else may receive it

  • Cloudflare: hosting, database, file storage and text recognition for claim documents.
  • Clerk: accounts and sign-in.
  • Resend: email.
  • Stripe: payments, only when paid plans are available.
  • The businesses you contact or review, as described above.
  • Authorities, when the law requires it.
  • A buyer, if OurAugusta is sold or merged, who must keep the promise above.

Our fonts are served from our own site, so loading a page doesn't send your details to a font provider.

"Get Directions" opens Google Maps, and listings link to business websites. Those sites have their own privacy policies.

7. How long we keep it

  • Messages, reviews, claims and claim documents: until you ask us to delete them.
  • Security counters: up to one hour.
  • Search records: 90 days.
  • Server request logs: handled by Cloudflare under its own retention rules.
  • Database backups: made weekly and kept for 56 days.

8. Deleting your account

When you delete your account in Clerk, we clear your name and email from our records and release any listing you own. Your reviews, messages you sent, claims and saved businesses stay unless you ask us to remove them. Email [email protected] to have them removed.

9. Your choices

You can ask to see, correct or delete the information we hold about you by emailing [email protected].

10. Children

OurAugusta is not for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

11. Security

The site uses HTTPS, and only a small number of admins can access our systems. No system is perfectly secure, so please don't send sensitive information (such as ID numbers) in messages or reviews.

12. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we update the date at the top and add a line below.

  • November 4, 2026: Added search records and phone-tap counts (section 3a) and their 90-day retention.
  • November 4, 2026: Rewritten to describe what the site actually does. Contact form replaced by email. Google Analytics and Google Fonts removed.
  • January 19, 2026: Previous version.