Privacy policy

Effective October 9, 2026.

This policy explains how we handle information when you browse Emerald Coast Explorer, use an account, contribute content or claim a business.

Information we collect and why

• Accounts: your sign-in identifier, email address, email verification status, name and account status help us provide access, personalize your account and prevent misuse. Clerk handles sign-in credentials, authentication and your optional profile photo. We store the photo’s public URL to display it beside your reviews.
• Contributions and saved items: we store reviews, ratings, photos, descriptions, saved places and events, reports and account notifications so these features work and staff can moderate contributions.
• Business claims: we collect a contact name, email address, required phone number, business relationship and verification information. Staff use these details to assess your authority to represent the business and contact you about your claim. Providing a phone number does not sign you up for marketing calls or texts.
• Claim updates: we save claim receipts and decisions in your private notifications. When email alerts are enabled, we send these operational updates to your verified sign-in address. The messages include the business name, claim status, decision feedback and a link to the next step. We retain email delivery attempts and provider acceptance records to handle failures.
• Business management and paid submissions: we keep submitted changes, event information, images, owner replies and staff decisions to manage listings and record who authorized a change. We store plan access, reviewed order details, quoted prices, payment deadlines, provider transaction references and payment/refund status to fulfill subscriptions, promotions and approved member event publications. Payment-card details are entered with Stripe, not in our forms.
• Site operation: our hosting and sign-in providers process technical information such as IP addresses, browser details, request times and security events to deliver and protect the site. We count recorded business website clicks, directions clicks and submitted inquiries by place and day. These aggregate counts do not contain a visitor identity and do not prove a sale, booking or unique visitor. To limit automated and repeated requests, we derive a keyed, pseudonymous network identifier from the address supplied by our hosting network. Click-protection records store that identifier, a short-lived count or place/action marker and an expiry, not the raw address. They do not use a new tracking cookie or become part of the business report. Request counters expire after one minute and repeat-click markers after 30 minutes; expired entries are removed in bounded cleanup batches when traffic resumes or maintenance runs. Shared networks, repeat visitors, automated traffic and blocked requests can still affect totals.
• Support and listing requests: we store support topics, subjects, messages, the relevant listing, timestamps, status and staff responses to answer requests in a private conversation. When you email us, we receive your address and the information you include. We also store proposed business details, your stated relationship, duplicate-check references and staff decisions to review missing-business requests and show you their status. Accepted listing details may become public after publication; a listing request does not grant ownership access. Please do not send passwords, full payment card numbers or identity documents unless we have explained a necessary, secure way to provide them.

What other people can see

Published listings and events, community reviews and ratings with the reviewer's display name and optional profile photo, published photos and their descriptions, owner replies and eligible business offers are public. Community reviews and photos that pass the applicable checks can appear without prior staff approval. Suspicious contributions, and photos whose enabled image check cannot finish, stay private until staff review them. We store screening results and staff decisions to support moderation and appeals. Public content may be copied by visitors or indexed by search engines. Only share material you intend others to see.

Your sign-in email, claim contact details, verification notes, favorites, private notifications, reports and support conversations are not public directory content. Claim contact information is available to you and authorized staff for verification and support; it does not become the listing's public phone number or email address. Eligible business managers see action totals and their business’s customer inquiries and offer-code confirmations, not your private saved list, unrelated messages or sign-in credentials.

Services that help us run the site

We use Clerk for accounts, sign-in and profile photos, Render for website and database hosting, and Amazon Web Services for listing and community photo storage. When automated image screening is enabled, AWS Rekognition also receives a processed copy of a submitted community photo to check for explicit content. Review and photo-caption spam checks run on our server. These providers process the information needed to provide their services. Authorized staff access information to operate the directory, handle support and review content or claims.

When service email alerts are enabled, Resend processes recipient email addresses and message content to send claim receipts, administrator alerts and decision updates. Staff also receive generic alerts about new reports and screening holds; report text, photos and reporter details stay in the protected website workspace. These operational service messages are separate from the optional weekly event subscription. When you opt in, Resend also processes your verified address and weekly event message content; you can stop that subscription without stopping required account-service messages. Claim contact phone numbers and verification notes remain in the protected claim workspace rather than being included in these emails.

When an embedded map loads, your browser contacts OpenStreetMap and sends technical information needed to display it, including your IP address and the requested map area. The map shows listing coordinates; we do not request your device's precise location. Following a business website or other external link takes you to that service, whose own privacy policy applies.

Paid enrollment is currently closed. If paid plans become available, Stripe will process payments on its hosted pages, and we will explain billing data handling before checkout opens.

Google advertising is not currently enabled. We are preparing selected public pages for Google AdSense; the planned advertising and privacy choices are described below. We may disclose information when required by law or reasonably necessary to investigate abuse, protect people or secure the service. Our site is hosted in the United States; service providers may process information in other locations.

Provider information: Clerk, Render, AWS, Resend, OpenStreetMap and Stripe.

For our planned advertising service, see Google's Privacy Policy and how Google uses information from partner sites.

Cookies and browser choices

Clerk uses cookies to keep you signed in and protect your session. Blocking or clearing these cookies may sign you out or prevent account features from working. You can manage cookies in your browser settings. The advertising section below explains the additional cookies and choices that apply when Google advertising is enabled. The site does not currently change its behavior in response to a browser's Do Not Track signal. Global Privacy Control is a separate browser signal, addressed below. Browser storage also remembers theme choices and a dismissed weekly-event prompt. A dismissed event prompt can return after 14 days or when site data is cleared; signed-in subscribers are not asked to subscribe again.

Advertising and your choices

We are preparing to use Google AdSense on selected public discovery pages. Google ads are currently disabled while setup and review are completed. The following describes how advertising will work when enabled.

Google and other advertising partners may use cookies and similar technologies to show ads based on visits to this website and other websites. When an ad loads, your browser may send information such as the page URL, IP address and browser details to these providers. They use this information to deliver and measure ads, prevent fraud and, where permitted by your choices, personalize advertising.

Where applicable, a privacy message will identify advertising partners and let you consent, decline or manage advertising choices. Use the privacy and cookie settings link to revisit your consent, or the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link to opt out of relevant advertising uses. Advertising disclosures may qualify as sale, sharing or targeted advertising under some privacy laws.

You can also control personalized advertising in Google's advertising settings and through participating vendors at AboutAds. Opting out of personalization does not necessarily remove every ad; eligible contextual or limited ads may still appear.

When a supported browser communicates that Global Privacy Control is enabled as a page loads, our advertising integration skips Google AdSense placements for that page. Private account pages, claims, support conversations and business-owner tools do not contain ad placements.

Your choices and requests

You can browse public listings without an account. In My account, you can update your preferred first name, change or remove your profile photo, remove favorites, correct or withdraw your reviews and remove your community photos. Choose “Manage account” for sign-in profile settings. Verified representatives can manage business submissions in their business workspace. In My account → Weekly event updates, choose email, browser notifications or neither, and register or remove individual devices. Weekly emails include an unsubscribe link that works without signing in. Turning off optional updates does not cancel necessary account or billing messages. Remove shared devices and review browser permission settings when you no longer want notifications there.

For access to your information, corrections, account closure, deletion or a concern about a privacy request, use support or email us using the contact above. Account deletion requests are handled by staff. We may need to verify that the request comes from you before disclosing or changing private records. We assess requests under applicable law and explain any information we need to retain. Removing a sign-in account alone does not necessarily remove contributions or records held by this site.

Retention and security

We keep account information and contributions while needed to provide the service. Withdrawing content stops its publication on the site; it does not erase every associated record. We retain moderation and ownership history, reports, inquiries, offer confirmations, subscription preferences, delivery records, payment references and administrative records when needed to prevent abuse, resolve disputes or meet legal obligations. Removed information may remain in provider backups until those backups expire. Contact us for a review of information associated with your account.

We use encrypted connections and restrict access to private records. Photos are stored in private storage and made publicly available through the site only when approved for a public listing. No service can guarantee complete security; contact us if you suspect unauthorized access to your account or information.

Children and policy updates

Emerald Coast Explorer is a general-audience travel directory and is not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information, contact us so we can investigate and address it. Do not include children's private details in public contributions.

We will update the effective date when this policy changes. Material changes will be highlighted on the site, and we will seek consent when required before using information in a materially different way.

Terms of use · Community guidelines

Additional information about current features

Discovery and search interest: We count selections of organic place results from a typed search by place and day. Most searched uses the past 30 UTC calendar days, including today. We do not store the search words with these counts, and they do not identify visitors or prove visits, purchases or business size. To limit repeats, we store a keyed network identifier and place marker until the next UTC day; expired markers are removed by bounded traffic or maintenance cleanup. No new tracking cookie is used. Shared networks, automated traffic and blocked requests can affect totals. Our random discovery mix gives less-searched eligible places regular opportunities to appear; paid placements are separate and labeled.

Private trips: We store your trip names and saved places and events with your account so you can organize private trip collections. These collections are not public directory content.

Promotion reports: We count visible promotion impressions and listing-link clicks by campaign and day. These aggregate counts do not contain a visitor identity and do not establish a sale, booking or unique visitor. Repeated actions, automated traffic and blocked requests can affect the totals.

QR review-link opens: We count QR review-link opens by place and day. Opening a QR link does not prove that someone physically scanned a code. These counts are not attributed to a promotion campaign and do not establish unique visitors or purchases.

Support reply emails: When service email delivery is enabled, Resend processes the recipient’s verified account email address and a generic reply alert linking to the signed-in support conversation. Staff replies alert the requester; member replies alert eligible Support/Admin staff other than the sender. The email includes neither the conversation subject nor its message body. We retain delivery attempts and provider acceptance records to manage retries and failures.