Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

TheLocalRing is operated by Bjola Software Inc. This policy explains the information we process when providing United States and Canadian privacy numbers and the email-to-SMS relay service.

2. Information we process

• Account data, including your email address and authentication identifiers;
• Billing records, plan, payment status, Stripe customer and transaction identifiers;
• Phone-number leases, forwarding addresses, settings, and expiry timestamps;
• SMS content, participating phone numbers, timestamps, message status, country, and carrier identifiers;
• Call records for numbers that forward calls: the calling number, the time, whether anyone answered, and how long the call lasted. We do not record or listen to calls, and we do not take voicemail;
• Operational data such as IP address, browser information, request logs, delivery failures, and security events.

Stripe handles card details. We do not receive or store your complete card number.

3. Why we use it

We process this information to provide and bill for the service, route messages and forward calls, authenticate users, operate number leases, prevent abuse, honor STOP and HELP, enforce sender registration and geographic rules, retain proof that a recipient initiated a conversation, troubleshoot delivery, and meet legal or carrier obligations.

The first reply identifies TheLocalRing and a public reply label. A customer may choose that label; otherwise we use “Listing contact.” The label is stored separately from the account identity, and the reply does not disclose the customer's email address or personal phone number.

4. Service providers

We share only the information needed to operate the service with:

• Twilio for phone numbers and SMS delivery;
• Mailgun for email delivery and reply routing;
• Stripe for payment processing and recurring billing;
• Clerk for account authentication;
• Vercel for application hosting and anonymous, aggregate traffic statistics;
• Our database provider for application storage.

These providers may process information in Canada, the United States, or other countries where they operate. We do not sell personal information.

Mobile phone numbers, SMS consent records, and opt-in data are not shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Service providers receive them only as needed to route messages, prevent abuse, and operate the service.

5. No advertising tracking

We do not use advertising pixels, cross-site tracking, or behavioral profiling. On public marketing pages, Vercel Web Analytics records anonymous, aggregate statistics such as page views, referring websites, general location, device type, and browser type. It does not use cookies, and we do not attach these statistics to accounts, phone numbers, or messages. Essential authentication and security cookies may be used to keep you signed in and protect the service. A first-party cookie remembers the referring website's hostname (not its full URL), plus any campaign or referral parameters in the landing link, for up to 30 days so we can associate the signup with its source. It does not follow you across other sites. If you arrive from a Google ad, the click identifier Google placed in the link is stored with your account. If that account later pays, we send that identifier, the time, and the amount back to Google Ads to report the sale. Nothing else about you is sent, no Google code runs on this site, and Google cannot see your number, your messages, or your email address. Infrastructure providers may maintain ordinary security and access logs.

6. Data Retention

SMS bodies stored by TheLocalRing are deleted from our database 30 days after they arrive. A text deliberately held while forwarding was paused during an active lease may be kept until it is delivered; once a lease is released or replaced, its undelivered hold is cleared so the normal retention period applies. Copies already delivered to an email inbox remain subject to that email provider and account holder.

We retain lease and billing records, call history, consent, opt-out, fraud-prevention, and delivery records as reasonably needed for operations, disputes, carrier audits, and legal obligations. These records may contain phone numbers and message identifiers without retaining the message body.

7. Reused numbers

A number is exclusive to one customer during an active pass and its seven-day reservation period. After that it may be reassigned. Stored messages, forwarding addresses, settings, and old reply links remain attached to the prior lease and are not given to the next holder. Future senders who text the public number after reassignment may reach the next holder.

8. Your choices and contact

By voluntarily texting a published TheLocalRing listing number first, you agree to receive conversational SMS replies about your own inquiry. Message frequency varies with each person's conversation. Message and data rates may apply. Text STOP to opt out of further messages, START to resume after an opt-out, or HELP for assistance. Subject to applicable law, you may ask to access, correct, or delete personal information we hold, or ask how it has been used. Contact hello@thelocalring.com. We may need to verify your account before acting on a request.