FrederickLocalBusinesses

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: September 21, 2026

Frederick Local Businesses ("Frederick Local Businesses," "we," "us," or "our") operates fredericklocalbusinesses.com, an online directory focused on businesses in Frederick County, Maryland, and surrounding communities. Frederick Local Businesses is owned and operated by Support Local Marketing LLC.

This Privacy Policy explains the categories of information we collect, where that information comes from, how we use and disclose it, how long we retain it, and the choices and rights that may be available to you.

By using our website or voluntarily submitting information to us, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Questions or privacy requests may be sent to support@fredericklocalbusinesses.com.

1. Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with Frederick Local Businesses.

A. Directory Visitors

You may browse the directory without creating an account or voluntarily providing your name or email address.

Like most online services, our hosting, security, and infrastructure providers may process limited technical information needed to deliver and protect the website, such as request information, browser or device information, timestamps, and similar technical data.

B. Newsletter Subscribers

If you subscribe to a Frederick Local Businesses newsletter, we may collect:

  • Your email address
  • Your name, if you choose to provide it
  • Your subscription status and communication preferences
  • Your unsubscribe status
  • Limited information about interactions with our emails, such as opens or link clicks, if our email provider makes that information available

We use this information to send the communications you requested and to operate and improve our email program.

C. FrederickLocal Deals

FrederickLocal Deals allows consumers to receive coupons, discounts, promotions, or other offers from participating local businesses.

If you request a FrederickLocal Deal, we collect your email address so we can deliver the requested Deal.

By requesting a FrederickLocal Deal, you also agree to be added to the FrederickLocal Deals email list and to receive occasional FrederickLocal Deals emails about local offers, participating businesses, and related content.

You may unsubscribe from FrederickLocal Deals marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link in an email or by contacting us at support@fredericklocalbusinesses.com.

We do not sell or rent your email address to participating businesses.

Unless we clearly tell you otherwise at the time you submit your information, a participating business does not receive your personal email address merely because you requested or viewed its FrederickLocal Deal.

If you unsubscribe, we may retain the minimum information reasonably necessary in a suppression or do-not-email record so that we can honor your unsubscribe request.

D. Free Business Listings and Claims

Businesses may claim and manage a basic listing at no charge.

When a person claims a business listing or requests a change, we may collect:

  • The claimant's name
  • The claimant's email address or other contact information
  • Business name
  • Business phone number
  • Business hours
  • Business website, if provided
  • Business logo
  • Information reasonably necessary to confirm that the claimant is authorized to represent the business
  • Other information voluntarily submitted with the claim or update request

Information intended for a public business listing may be displayed publicly.

E. Business Submissions and Listing Updates

Businesses or authorized representatives may provide information to create, update, or correct a listing, including:

  • Business name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Hours of operation
  • Business category
  • Website
  • Business description
  • Logo
  • Photographs
  • Other information submitted for the listing

We may review submitted information, compare it with public or third-party sources, and request additional information when reasonably necessary to verify or correct a listing.

F. Paid Plans

If a business purchases a paid plan, we may collect:

  • Name and email address
  • Business information
  • Account information
  • Selected subscription plan
  • Subscription status
  • Billing status
  • Transaction or customer identifiers
  • Information submitted in connection with the paid service

Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not intentionally store complete payment-card numbers on our own servers.

G. Local Launch Inquiries and Services

If you contact us about Local Launch or another business service, we may collect information you submit through questionnaires, forms, email, or other communications, including:

  • Business and contact information
  • Information about your business goals or needs
  • Marketing information
  • Answers you provide to questionnaires
  • Other information you choose to provide

H. Event Submissions

If event submissions are available, we may collect:

  • Event name and description
  • Date and time
  • Location
  • Event website or registration information
  • Optional photographs or other media
  • The submitter's name and email address so we can communicate about the submission

A submitter's private contact email is not intended to be published unless the submitter separately provides that information for public display.

I. Publicly Available and Third-Party Business Information

Because Frederick Local Businesses is a business directory, we may obtain business information from public sources and third-party services.

This may include:

  • Business names
  • Addresses
  • Phone numbers
  • Websites
  • Business hours
  • Categories
  • Public descriptions
  • Public photographs
  • Map information
  • Ratings or review information
  • Other publicly available business information

We may use services such as Google to provide maps, business information, ratings, reviews, or related features.

Publicly available information may be subject to the terms, restrictions, or conditions of the source from which it was obtained.

J. Abuse Prevention and Technical Information

To help prevent spam, fraud, excessive submissions, and abuse, we may collect or generate limited technical information.

For example, we may create a salted cryptographic hash derived from an IP address and keep basic request information associated with a submission. We do not intend to retain the raw IP address as part of the ordinary submission record.

Technical information may be retained when reasonably necessary for security, troubleshooting, rate limiting, fraud prevention, or enforcement of our policies.

K. Job Board

In this MVP, FrederickLocal does not collect, receive, store, or relay job applications, applicant submissions, applicant records, or résumés. Selecting an application link sends you directly to the employer through its website or application service, a hiring email address, or a phone number. The employer's privacy practices govern information you send to it. FrederickLocal is not the employer and does not relay your application.

Businesses provide job descriptions, compensation disclosures, application instructions, and public hiring contact information. A public hiring email address or hiring phone number submitted for a job is displayed to visitors. Submit only contact information you are authorized to make public. Account sign-in information is separate from these public hiring contacts.

We keep a private copy of each published job posting and its publish, edit, close and repost history for 30 days after the posting closes or expires, then delete it. These records are not applicant records and do not replace the employer's own record-keeping.

Expired postings leave FrederickLocal's public pages, search results, structured data, and sitemap.

2. Information We Do Not Intentionally Request

Our ordinary directory, newsletter, Deal, and business-claim forms are not designed to collect sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers, financial account credentials, health information, biometric information, precise personal location data, or information about a person's race, religion, sexual orientation, immigration status, or similar sensitive characteristics.

Please do not submit sensitive personal information unless we specifically request it for a legitimate purpose and provide appropriate notice.

If a business operates from a residence, the business should consider carefully whether a home address is intended for public display before submitting it as a public business address.

3. How We Use Information

We may use information to:

  • Operate, maintain, secure, and improve the directory
  • Create, display, update, and correct business listings
  • Process and verify business listing claims
  • Respond to questions and support requests
  • Deliver requested FrederickLocal Deals
  • Send FrederickLocal Deals emails
  • Send general newsletters and other communications users request
  • Manage email preferences and unsubscribe requests
  • Communicate with businesses about their listings
  • Process and manage paid subscriptions
  • Provide Local Launch or other requested business services
  • Process payments through Stripe
  • Publish or manage submitted events
  • Publish, moderate, and maintain job postings and their compliance records
  • Detect and prevent spam, fraud, abuse, and unauthorized activity
  • Measure and improve the reliability and effectiveness of our services
  • Promote Frederick Local Businesses
  • Measure the effectiveness of our own marketing and promotional efforts where permitted
  • Maintain business, tax, accounting, and compliance records
  • Comply with applicable law and valid legal process
  • Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims
  • Enforce our Terms of Service and other policies
  • Protect the rights, property, security, and safety of Frederick Local Businesses, our users, listed businesses, and others

We seek to collect and use personal information that is reasonably necessary and proportionate to the service or function for which it is collected.

4. Public Business Information

The purpose of Frederick Local Businesses is to make local business information available to the public.

A public business listing may display information such as:

  • Business name
  • Business address
  • Business phone number
  • Hours
  • Website
  • Business category
  • Description
  • Logo
  • Photographs
  • Public ratings or review information
  • Directory badges or designations
  • Other information intended for public display

A business listing may exist even if the business has not claimed the listing or purchased a paid plan.

If you are an authorized representative of a business and believe information is inaccurate, outdated, or improperly displayed, you may use our claim or correction process or contact us at support@fredericklocalbusinesses.com.

We may request reasonable verification before changing information. Nothing in this policy requires us to remove accurate information that we are legally permitted to publish.

5. FrederickLocal Deals and Email Marketing

When you request a FrederickLocal Deal, we use your email address to deliver that Deal and to send occasional FrederickLocal Deals marketing emails as disclosed at the point of signup.

Marketing emails will provide a way to unsubscribe.

We may continue to send non-marketing messages when reasonably necessary to provide a service you requested. For example, a business with an active paid subscription may still receive billing, security, account, or service-related messages after opting out of marketing emails.

Our marketing email practices are intended to comply with applicable law, including requirements relating to accurate sender information and honoring unsubscribe requests.

6. Advertising and Promotion of Frederick Local Businesses

Frederick Local Businesses may purchase paid advertising or use other promotional channels to increase awareness of the Frederick Local Businesses platform, directory, services, FrederickLocal Deals, events, or other content.

Our advertising may appear on search engines, social media platforms, websites, online advertising networks, or other media.

These campaigns promote Frederick Local Businesses as a platform. They are not, by themselves, advertising services purchased by an individual directory business.

Because visitors who arrive through our advertising can browse the directory, our platform advertising may naturally increase traffic to individual business profiles. We do not provide a listed business with a visitor's personal email address or other contact information simply because the visitor viewed that business's profile.

At the effective date of this policy, we do not represent that we use cross-site behavioral advertising or retargeting technologies. If we later use advertising pixels, customer-list audiences, cross-site retargeting, or other technologies that materially change how personal data is processed, we will update our disclosures and provide any consent or opt-out choices required by applicable law.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Certain third-party services used on or linked from our website may use cookies, local storage, or similar technologies under their own policies.

These services may include:

  • Google, including maps and related business-information features
  • Stripe, including hosted checkout or billing features

Our hosting, security, or infrastructure providers may also use technical mechanisms reasonably necessary to deliver, secure, or maintain the website.

If we add analytics, advertising, or measurement technologies that materially change our practices, we will update this Privacy Policy as appropriate and provide legally required choices.

8. Service Providers and Categories of Information Shared

We use third-party providers to operate the website and provide our services. Depending on how you use the site, providers may receive the information reasonably necessary for their function.

Current or anticipated providers include:

  • Vercel — hosting and website infrastructure; may process technical request and service-delivery information
  • Supabase — database and application services; may store or process listing, account, form, contact, and subscription-related information
  • n8n — workflow automation; may process information needed to perform configured workflows
  • LeadConnector/HighLevel — customer relationship management and email communications; may process contact information, email subscription information, communication history, and related business information
  • Stripe — payment and subscription processing; may process billing information, payment details, transaction identifiers, and related account information
  • Resend — transactional email delivery; may process recipient email addresses and the content of service-related messages we send
  • Upstash — infrastructure and rate-limiting services; may process limited technical or request information
  • Google — maps, business information, reviews, and related services; Google may receive technical information when a user interacts with Google-powered features under Google's own terms and privacy practices. We also use Google Forms and Google Drive to collect and store business onboarding information, including any files a business submits through our onboarding form; responses to that form, and the Google account email associated with them, are processed and stored by Google under Google's own terms and privacy practices

These providers may act as service providers or processors on our behalf and, depending on the service, may also process information under their own terms and legal obligations.

We may enter into data-protection or security terms with service providers where required by applicable law.

9. Other Circumstances in Which We May Disclose Information

We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to:

  • Provide a service you requested
  • Process payments or subscriptions
  • Deliver communications
  • Protect and secure our systems
  • Detect or prevent fraud, spam, or abuse
  • Comply with applicable law or valid legal process
  • Respond to lawful governmental requests to the extent permitted or required by law
  • Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims
  • Enforce our agreements and policies
  • Protect the rights, property, or safety of users, businesses, Frederick Local Businesses, Support Local Marketing LLC, or others
  • Complete or evaluate a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar business transaction, subject to applicable law

10. Sale of Personal Data and Targeted Advertising

We do not sell personal information for money.

We do not sell or rent consumer email lists to participating businesses.

If our practices change so that we engage in a "sale" of personal data, targeted advertising, or profiling that creates opt-out rights under applicable privacy law, we will provide the disclosures and opt-out mechanisms required by that law.

11. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information against unauthorized access, use, alteration, disclosure, or destruction, taking into account the nature of the information and the size and nature of our operations.

No website, database, transmission method, or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

If a security incident occurs, we will investigate and provide notices required by applicable law.

12. How Long We Keep Information

We retain information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or for legitimate legal, operational, security, accounting, or compliance needs.

Examples include:

  • Newsletter and FrederickLocal Deals subscription information may be retained while you remain subscribed.
  • If you unsubscribe, we may retain a minimal suppression record to ensure that your marketing opt-out continues to be honored.
  • Business listing information may remain available while the listing remains in the directory.
  • Business claim and account records may be retained while needed to administer or verify a listing.
  • Billing and transaction records may be retained for tax, accounting, dispute, fraud-prevention, or legal purposes.
  • Security and abuse-prevention records may be retained for a reasonable period appropriate to the risk they address.

When information is no longer reasonably necessary, we may delete or de-identify it, subject to applicable legal obligations and exceptions.

13. Your Choices and Privacy Requests

You may contact us to request that we:

  • Confirm whether we maintain personal information about you
  • Provide access to certain personal information
  • Correct inaccurate personal information
  • Delete certain personal information
  • Provide a portable copy of certain information where applicable
  • Explain categories of third parties with which information is disclosed where applicable
  • Update your email preferences
  • Stop sending marketing emails
  • Address another privacy concern

Send requests to support@fredericklocalbusinesses.com.

We may take reasonable steps to verify that the person making a request is the person to whom the information relates or is otherwise authorized to make the request.

Some information may be exempt from deletion or other requests when retention or processing is permitted or required by law, necessary to provide a requested service, needed for security or fraud prevention, or otherwise subject to a lawful exception.

14. Maryland Privacy Rights

The Maryland Online Data Privacy Act (MODPA) provides privacy rights to Maryland consumers when the law applies to a covered controller.

To the extent MODPA applies to Frederick Local Businesses and to a particular request, Maryland consumers may have rights including the right to:

  • Confirm whether personal data is being processed
  • Access personal data
  • Correct inaccuracies
  • Request deletion of personal data, subject to legal exceptions
  • Obtain a portable copy of certain automatically processed personal data
  • Obtain information about categories of third parties to which personal data has been disclosed
  • Opt out of targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, and certain solely automated profiling
  • Use an authorized agent for certain opt-out requests
  • Appeal a decision denying a privacy-rights request
  • Exercise rights without unlawful discrimination

When MODPA applies, we will respond to an authenticated consumer request within the time required by law. Maryland law generally provides an initial 45-day response period and permits an additional 45 days in certain circumstances with notice.

If we deny a request that is subject to MODPA, you may appeal by emailing support@fredericklocalbusinesses.com with the subject line "Privacy Appeal." When MODPA applies, we will respond to an appeal within the period required by law.

Even when a particular privacy statute does not apply because of an exemption or statutory threshold, we may choose to honor reasonable access, correction, deletion, or preference requests when practicable and consistent with our legal and operational obligations.

15. Children's Privacy

Frederick Local Businesses is intended for businesses and members of the general public seeking information about local businesses. It is not directed to children under 13.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through our ordinary newsletter, Deal, or business-listing processes.

If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to us, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not knowingly use the personal data of individuals under 18 for targeted advertising.

16. Third-Party Websites and Services

Our website may link to or incorporate services operated by third parties, including business websites, social media platforms, map providers, booking services, event sites, and payment services.

We do not control the privacy or security practices of independent third parties. Your interaction with those services may be governed by their own terms and privacy policies.

17. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, technology, business practices, or legal obligations.

When we update it, we will revise the Effective Date at the top of the page.

If a change materially alters how we process personal information, we may provide additional notice or obtain consent when required by applicable law.

18. Contact Us

Questions, privacy requests, corrections, and deletion requests may be sent to:

support@fredericklocalbusinesses.com

Frederick Local Businesses Owned and operated by Support Local Marketing LLC fredericklocalbusinesses.com

See also our Terms of Service and Billing & Refunds Policy.