Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Utility Hotline, a service operated by Hydrovac News LLC ("we," "us," or "our"), operates the website utilityhotline.org and related services. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website, use our services, or interact with us.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring transparency about our data practices. By using our services, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at support@utilityhotline.org.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information in several ways depending on how you interact with our services:

Customer Quote Requests

When you request a quote for private utility locating services, we collect:

• Full name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Project location and details
• Timeline and project requirements

Provider Registration

When locating providers join our network, either through self-registration or when our team creates a listing on your behalf at your request, we collect:

• Company name and business information
• Contact person names and titles
• Business email addresses and phone numbers
• Regions and service areas
• Locating equipment and instrument details
• Company photos and logos

When our administrative team creates a provider listing on your behalf, we use only the information you have directly provided to us by email or other correspondence. You may review, update, or request deletion of this information at any time through your Provider Dashboard or by contacting us.

Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our website, we automatically collect:

• Session identifiers
• IP addresses, used for security auditing and to derive an approximate geolocation (city/region only, never a precise address) so we can show you locating providers near your location on the homepage. The lookup happens in real time at request time and is not stored beyond the sign-in audit log described in Section 6.
• Browser type and version
• Device information
• Pages visited and time spent on pages

Chat Conversations

When you use our chat widget, we collect:

• Chat messages and conversation history
• Location queries
• Session information

3. How We Use Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Connecting customers with providers: Putting you in touch with private utility locating providers in your area who can meet your project needs
• Service delivery: Processing quote requests and facilitating communication between customers and providers
• Communications: Sending you relevant updates about your requests, confirmations, and service-related notifications
• Network management: Maintaining and displaying provider listings in our network
• Sponsorship payments: Arranging and recording sponsorship payments from advertisers (settled manually via ACH or invoice)
• Automated processing of your request: Sending the project description you write to an AI service provider, which classifies it and extracts details from it — for example, whether the locate is at a residential or a commercial site — so our team can review and route the request accurately
• Service improvement: Analyzing usage patterns to improve our website, services, and user experience
• Customer support: Responding to your inquiries and providing assistance
• Legal compliance: Meeting our legal obligations and protecting our rights
• Service communications: When you create a provider listing, you will receive quote requests, emails about your account and listing, and occasional announcements about the Utility Hotline network. We do not sell or rent your address, and we do not sign you up to a third-party newsletter. Announcement emails carry your mail client's built-in unsubscribe button. In clients that support one-click unsubscribe it stops all email from us, including quote requests; other clients send the request to our team as an email instead, as does the “Unsubscribe” link in our email footer. To turn off automated lead email without losing your listing, use the Notifications page in your dashboard. We do not currently offer a control that stops announcements while still receiving quote requests

4. Information Sharing

We share your information in the following circumstances:

With Locating Providers

When you submit a quote request, we share your project details and contact information with locating providers in your area who may be able to fulfill your request. This is how the service works — a provider needs your details in order to send you a quote, and may contact you directly using them.

Third-Party Service Providers

We use the following third-party services to operate our platform:

• Resend: Email delivery services
• Anthropic: AI processing of submitted request text (classifying the project description you enter and extracting details from it) and AI-powered chat assistance
• Mapbox: Map and location services
• Neon (Neon Inc.): Postgres database hosting — the database this site runs on
• InstantDB: Former database platform, retired — it holds only residual data from before our migration and serves no part of this site
• Vercel: Web hosting and (when consented) first-party analytics

These service providers are contractually obligated to protect your information and only use it for the specific purposes we've engaged them for.

Third-Party Advertising & Retargeting

When you accept analytics/advertising cookies via our cookie banner (the “Accept All” option), we may load tracking pixels from the following advertising platforms so we can measure ad performance and show you relevant ads on those platforms after you visit our site (commonly known as “retargeting” or “cross-context behavioral advertising”):

• Meta (Facebook) Pixel: only loaded when NEXT_PUBLIC_META_PIXEL_ID is configured AND you have accepted analytics cookies. Used to measure campaign conversions and build retargeting audiences on Facebook and Instagram.
• LinkedIn Insight Tag: only loaded when NEXT_PUBLIC_LINKEDIN_PARTNER_ID is configured AND you have accepted analytics cookies. Used for B2B retargeting on LinkedIn.
• Google Tag Manager: only loaded when NEXT_PUBLIC_GTM_ID is configured AND you have accepted analytics cookies. Used as a container for additional ad-platform tags.

If you reject non-essential cookies, none of these pixels are injected and no behavioral-advertising data leaves your browser through our site. You can change your decision at any time by clearing your browser's site data and reloading the page; the cookie banner will reappear.

We are working on Global Privacy Control (Sec-GPC) honor logic so browsers signaling GPC will be treated as having opted out of ad-platform sharing automatically. Until that ships, please use the cookie banner to express your preference, or contact support@utilityhotline.org to opt out manually.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or government regulation, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.

5. Cookies & Tracking

We use cookies and similar technologies to improve your experience:

Session Cookie

We use a session cookie called hotline_session to maintain your session across our website. This cookie:

• Contains a JSON Web Token (JWT) for authentication
• Expires after 30 days
• Is set with HttpOnly and Secure flags for security

Local Storage

We use browser local storage to save form drafts, allowing you to continue quote requests if you navigate away from the page. This data is stored only on your device and is not transmitted to our servers until you submit the form.

6. Data Retention

We retain your information for different periods depending on the type:

• Quote requests: Retained for 2 years after the request is fulfilled or expires
• Provider accounts: Retained for the duration of the account plus 3 years after account closure
• Chat conversations: Retained for 7 days after completion, then automatically deleted
• Session data: Retained for 30 days
• Sign-in audit logs: We log sign-in attempts including IP address and approximate geolocation (city/region) for security auditing and account troubleshooting. Retained for 365 days.

Our administrators may permanently delete provider accounts, quote requests, and other records from our systems as part of routine data management. Deleted data cannot be recovered. All administrative deletion actions are logged in our audit system for accountability purposes.

We may retain certain information longer if required for legal compliance, dispute resolution, or fraud prevention.

7. Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Correction: Request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete information
• Deletion: Request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain exceptions
• Opt-out: Providers can turn automated new-lead emails and follow-up reminders off on the Notifications page in the dashboard. The one-click unsubscribe in an announcement email is all-or-nothing — it stops every email from us, quote requests included. We do not currently offer a control that stops announcements while keeping quote requests
• Portability: Request your data in a portable format

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@utilityhotline.org. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

8. California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

• Right to Know: You can request information about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the sources of that information, and how we use and share it
• Right to Delete: You can request that we delete your personal information, with certain exceptions
• Right to Correct: You can request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we maintain about you
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale: You can opt out of the "sale" of your personal information. However, we do not sell personal information to third parties
• Right to Opt-Out of Sharing: You can opt out of the "sharing" of your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes. When you accept analytics cookies, our retargeting pixels (Meta, LinkedIn, Google Tag Manager, see the “Third-Party Advertising” section above) may share pseudonymous identifiers with those platforms for ad measurement and retargeting. You can opt out by rejecting non-essential cookies in our cookie banner, by clearing site data to re-trigger the banner, or by emailing support@utilityhotline.org.
• Right to Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information: You can request that we limit the use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information to only what is necessary to perform the services you have requested
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights

To submit a CCPA/CPRA request, contact us at support@utilityhotline.org.

9. Security Measures

We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal information:

• Encryption: All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS
• Passwordless Authentication: We use secure, passwordless authentication methods to protect provider accounts
• Access Controls: We limit access to personal information to authorized personnel only
• Secure Cookies: Session cookies are set with HttpOnly and Secure flags to prevent unauthorized access

While we strive to protect your information, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security but are committed to maintaining industry-standard protections.

10. Children's Privacy

Our services are not directed to individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 13, please contact us immediately at support@utilityhotline.org and we will promptly delete the information.

11. Policy Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or other factors.

When we make changes:

• We will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page
• For significant changes, we will provide notice through our website or by email to registered providers
• Continued use of our services after changes indicates acceptance of the updated policy

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

12. Contact Information

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

We will respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 30 days.