PRIVACY POLICY
Effective Date: February 18, 2026
This Privacy Policy describes how Houston.com LLC ("we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and discloses your information when you visit Houston.com. Houston.com LLC is a Kansas limited liability company that operates the Houston.com website under a license agreement from Barrett Companies, LLC, the domain owner.
Our address is Stilwell, KS 66085. Our contact email for privacy matters is legal@houston.com.
1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT
a. Personal Information You Provide
This includes information you voluntarily submit, such as your name, email address, phone number, and any other information you provide when you interact with our website, subscribe to newsletters, submit contact forms, or use our chatbot.
b. Automatically Collected Information
i. Log Data: When you visit our website, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends. This may include your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, browser version, the pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, and other diagnostic data.
ii. Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track activity on our website and store certain information. Specifically:
Google Tag Manager (GTM): We use GTM to manage tracking tags and scripts, which may deploy analytics and advertising cookies (including Google Analytics cookies such as _ga, _gid, and _gat).
Chatbot Cookies: Our chatbot uses session cookies to maintain conversation state and tracks IP addresses for service improvement, spam prevention, and to understand user location context.
Stripe Cookies: If you engage in any transactions on our site, Stripe, our payment processor, places cookies (such as __stripe_mid and __stripe_sid) to facilitate secure payment processing and fraud detection.
iii. Google Place IDs (GPID): We use Google Place IDs to import business reviews and photos from Google and to power local business listings on our site. This involves the collection and display of publicly available information associated with these Place IDs, in compliance with Google Maps Platform Terms of Service.
2. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
We use the collected information for the following purposes:
To provide, operate, and maintain Houston.com
To improve, personalize, and expand our website and services
To understand and analyze how you use our website
To develop new products, services, features, and functionality
To provide customer support and respond to inquiries
To display local business listings, reviews, and photos relevant to your location or search
To process transactions and send related information
To send you marketing and promotional communications (only if you have opted in), in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act
To detect, prevent, and address technical issues, fraud, and abuse
To comply with legal obligations
3. SHARING YOUR INFORMATION
We may share your information with the following third-party service providers:
Google (for analytics via GTM and for Google Places API data)
Stripe (for payment processing)
Chatbot provider (for chatbot functionality and conversation processing)
We may also disclose your Personal Information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
Comply with a legal obligation
Protect and defend the rights or property of Houston.com LLC
Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the website
Protect the personal safety of users or the public
Protect against legal liability
We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
4. DATA RETENTION
We retain your Personal Information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements and policies.
5. YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS
a. California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)
If you are a California resident, you have the right to:
Know what personal information is being collected about you
Know whether your personal information is sold or disclosed and to whom
Say no to the sale of personal information (we do not sell your data)
Request deletion of your personal information
Not be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights
Correct inaccurate personal information
To exercise these rights, please contact us at legal@houston.com or use the "Do Not Sell My Info" link on our website.
b. European Union Residents (GDPR)
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area, you have certain data protection rights including:
The right to access, update, or delete your information
The right of rectification
The right to object to processing
The right of restriction of processing
The right to data portability
The right to withdraw consent
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at legal@houston.com.
6. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY (COPPA)
Houston.com is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you become aware that your child has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us. If we discover that we have collected Personal Information from children without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.
7. AI CHATBOT DISCLOSURE
Our website may feature a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. Interactions with the chatbot may be logged and analyzed to improve the service. Please do not share sensitive personal information through the chatbot that you are not comfortable having recorded.
8. GOOGLE MAPS/PLACES API COMPLIANCE
Our use of Google Maps and Places API data is subject to the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. We display Google-sourced reviews, photos, and business information with appropriate attribution as required by Google's terms.
9. DATA BREACH NOTIFICATION
In the event of a data breach involving your Personal Information, we will notify affected individuals and relevant authorities in accordance with applicable state and federal data breach notification laws.
10. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Effective Date" above. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.
CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:
Email: legal@houston.com
Mail: Houston.com LLC, Stilwell, KS 66085