Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 30, 2026. Operated by GoChiHQ — Ontario sole proprietorship (BIN 1001793631), Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. This policy is written to align with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Ontario law. The shorter notice at /legal/privacy summarizes the same commitments.

The short version

This website is a static site: it has no accounts, no database, and no checkout of its own. Most forms work by composing an email in your own email app (a "mailto" flow) or by saving a draft on your own device (localStorage) until you choose to email it to us. We collect only what a form needs, we never sell personal information, and we never ask for payment-card numbers on this site — card payments happen only on Stripe-hosted pages or a partner store's own checkout (see Payments security).

What each form collects, and why

Contact form — your name, a topic, and your message. Purpose: to answer your inquiry. The form opens your email app addressed to gochihq@gmail.com; nothing is stored by this website.
Partner application — your name, business/brand name, email, the partnership type, and your message. Purpose: to review the application and reply with terms confirmed in writing. Saved on your device and emailed to us only when you tap the send button on the confirmation step.
Driveway intake (hosts) — your name, email, city/region, neighbourhood or nearest intersection (never your exact address for publication), spot type, availability, asking monthly price, optional notes, and your electronic signature on the Host Agreement (typed name, date, agreement version). Purpose: to review the listing, match you with renters, and keep the signed-agreement record the marketplace runs on.
Reviews — the business reviewed, your name (published with the review), a 1–5 star rating, your review text, and your attestation that you actually used the business. Purpose: the spam/genuineness check, then publication unedited under our honest-reviews doctrine (see /legal).
Waitlist / concierge — the GoChi-Trade waiting list is collected through our link hub (Beacons) under that provider's privacy terms. The GoChi assistant chat answers from a local knowledge base: your questions are not stored by this site. If an external assistant API is ever configured, questions would be sent to that endpoint to generate a reply — the widget is labelled automated either way.
Smart search — runs entirely in your browser against an index of this site's own pages. Your queries are not sent anywhere or stored.
Basic technical logs — our host may record standard server logs (IP address, browser, pages visited) for security and reliability.

Retention — how long we keep things

Financial and business records (invoices, receipts, booking and agreement records, signed driveway agreements) are kept for six years, as the Canada Revenue Agency requires for business records.
General inquiries and applications are kept as email threads for as long as needed to handle the matter and maintain a business record of it, then deleted on request subject to the rule above.
Reviews, once published, stay published as part of the public review record; an author may ask us to correct or remove their own review (see Your rights).
Drafts saved on your device (localStorage) stay in your browser until you clear them — we cannot see or delete those copies.

Sharing — who sees your information

We never sell personal information, and we do not share it for third-party marketing.
Processors and platforms we rely on, named generically: our payment processor (Stripe) for card payments and receipts; our merchandise platforms (Fourthwall and Zazzle) for store orders; our link hub (Beacons) for the waitlist; ticket, flight and hotel partners when you choose to book through their links; and standard email/hosting providers that deliver this site and our inbox. Each handles the data you give them under its own privacy policy.
Driveway matching: a host's exact address is never published; it is shared with a matched renter only as needed to complete a booking the host approved.
We may disclose information where the law requires it (for example a court order).

Cookies

This site sets no marketing or cross-site tracking cookies of its own, and no analytics are wired until a tool is actually connected and this policy is updated. Outbound services you click through to may set their own cookies under their policies.

Email and CASL

We send commercial email only with consent or an existing business relationship, as Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) requires, and every marketing email identifies us and offers an unsubscribe. Reply to any email from us and ask to be removed, and we will remove you.

Your rights

You may ask us, at any time: what personal information we hold about you (access); to fix information that is wrong (correction); or to delete information we hold — we will delete it unless a legal duty (for example the CRA six-year business-record rule) requires us to keep it, in which case we will tell you what we must keep and why. Email gochihq@gmail.com with your request; a human replies. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Contact

Privacy questions and requests: gochihq@gmail.com · +1 519-731-1860. See also the terms and the legal & disclaimers hub.