Privacy Policy

Last updated: 15 July 2026

CanadaBusinessOwners.ca is a community-run, human-verified business directory for Canada. We are built on trust, so being clear about your data is part of the product, not fine print. This policy explains what we collect when you register a business, what becomes public, what we keep private, and the choices you have. It applies to every business owner who lists with us and to every visitor who uses the directory or sends an inquiry. Last updated: 15 July 2026.

What we collect

When you register a business, you give us the details needed to build and verify your public profile. This includes your business name, the owner or CEO name, your category, your province and city, a description of what you do, photos and a logo, and the contact details you choose to provide.

To confirm that a real person stands behind each listing, we also ask for a photo of the owner or CEO. We only collect what we need to list and verify your business, and we do not ask for information we have no use for.

Your business profile is public

Your business profile is meant to be found. Once your listing is approved, your business name, category, province and city, description, photos, and logo are shown publicly on CanadaBusinessOwners.ca.

Search engines such as Google and Bing can index this profile, so it may appear in search results, and other websites or people may copy or share what is publicly visible. Please only publish business information you are happy for the world to see.

Your personal contact details stay private

Your personal phone number, WhatsApp number, and email address are never shown on your public profile. Customers cannot see them. Instead, every customer contacts you through the inquiry form on your profile, and each inquiry is routed through CanadaBusinessOwners.ca to your inbox.

When someone sends you an inquiry, we share that sender's name and email, and their phone number if they chose to add one, with your business only, so that you can reply. We do not share it with any other business.

Legal basis: your consent, PIPEDA and Law 25

We process your data on the basis of the consent you give when you register your business with us. You are asking us to build a public profile from the details you submit.

We handle personal information in line with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, for business owners and visitors in Quebec, Quebec's Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25). CanadaBusinessOwners.ca decides how and why this information is used and is responsible for protecting it. You can withdraw your consent at any time, as explained below.

Unpublish, remove, or delete your listing

You stay in control of your listing. You can hide or remove it at any time by signing in to your account, or by emailing us at [email protected] and asking us to take it down. We honour removal requests.

Once your listing is removed, your profile stops being public on CanadaBusinessOwners.ca. Please note that content already copied or cached by search engines or third parties is outside our control, though we will do our part by taking your profile down promptly.

How long we keep your data

While your listing is live, we keep your data so your profile works and inquiries reach you. If you remove your listing, or if a paid membership lapses and is not renewed, we keep your data only for a limited period afterwards, for legitimate reasons such as records, re-activation if you return, and legal compliance, and then we delete or anonymize it.

Inquiry messages are kept so you and we have a record of contacts made through the platform. If you want your data deleted sooner, email [email protected] and we will act on your request.

We do not sell your data

We do not sell your data. We have never sold it and we will not. Your business profile is public because that is the point of a directory, but we do not sell, rent, or trade your personal contact details, your inquiry records, or your verification photo to advertisers, data brokers, or anyone else.

The only sharing we do is the inquiry routing described above, where a customer's contact details go to the one business they chose to contact.

Cookies

We keep cookies to a minimum. CanadaBusinessOwners.ca uses only essential cookies: one to keep you signed in during your session, and one to remember your language choice between English and French.

We do not use third-party advertising cookies, and we do not track you across other websites for ads.

Contact us

If we change this policy, we will update this page. For any question about your data, to ask what we hold, to correct it, or to have it removed, email us at [email protected].

We aim to respond promptly and to treat your data the way we would want ours treated.