Privacy Policy
Effective: September 2, 2026.
1. Overview
whoreallyowns.org is built to need as little of your information as possible. There are no accounts, no advertising, no tracking cookies, and we do not sell or share personal information for advertising. Site usage is measured with Plausible, a privacy-focused analytics service that uses no cookies and produces only aggregate statistics. This policy explains the little that does get processed and the choices you have.
2. Information processed when you use the site
- Technical logs. Our hosting and database providers process standard request data (IP address, user agent, pages and queries requested, timestamps) to serve the site, keep it reliable, and defend it against abuse. We use these logs for operations and security, not to profile visitors.
- Search queries. What you type is processed to return results and to understand demand in aggregate (for example, which industries people ask about that we don’t cover yet). Queries are not linked to identified individuals. Natural-language queries may be sent to a third-party AI inference provider solely to interpret them into the site’s filters; the query text is what is sent, nothing about your identity.
- Location, only if you use “near me”. If you tap the near-me feature and grant browser permission, your coordinates are read in your browser and sent to our database only as parameters of that search. We do not store your location beyond standard request logs, and we never receive it at all unless you invoke the feature. Declining permission simply falls back to typing a city. Note that a “near” search puts approximate coordinates in the page URL — clear it before sharing a link if you don’t want that.
3. Cookies and local storage
The site sets no tracking cookies. Your browser’s local storage may hold interface preferences; that data never leaves your browser.
4. Third-party services
The site is served and supported by: Railway (hosting), Supabase (database), Google Fonts (typefaces — your browser requests font files from Google, which discloses your IP address to Google), a map-tile and map-library CDN when you open the map view, an AI inference provider for interpreting natural-language searches, and Plausible Analytics (cookieless, aggregate-only usage measurement; it does not track visitors across sites). Each processes technical request data under its own privacy policy. We use no advertising or social embeds.
5. The directory itself
The directory reports on organizations — businesses and the firms that own them — compiled from public records and companies’ own publications. Our claims policy prohibits naming individual people as owners. Where public records we process contain individuals’ names (for example a licensee-of-record on a state roster), we do not publish them. Business contact details shown (address, phone, website) are those the businesses themselves publish or file in public records. To request a correction to a listing, email [email protected].
6. Retention
Technical logs are retained per our providers’ standard rolling windows and then deleted. We keep aggregate, non-identifying search statistics.
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example California or the EU/EEA), you may have rights to access, correct, or delete personal information. Because we hold essentially none, most requests will find nothing on file — but we honor them: email [email protected] and we will respond within the legally required time. We do not discriminate against anyone for exercising privacy rights, and we do not sell personal information as defined by the CCPA.
8. Children
The site is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their information.
9. Changes
We may update this policy; the effective date above changes when we do.