Privacy Policy

East TN Trusted Home Advisors ("East TN Trusted Home Advisors," "ETTHA," "we," "us," or "our") respects the privacy of homeowners, consumers, service professionals, business partners, website visitors, and others who interact with us.

East TN Trusted Home Advisors is a home-improvement referral, matching, lead-generation, and homeowner-resource service based in Knoxville, Tennessee. We primarily help consumers in East Tennessee connect with locally owned home-service and home-improvement businesses that we believe, based on information reasonably available to us, have demonstrated a favorable reputation, professionalism, or other qualities relevant to the services requested.

East TN Trusted Home Advisors generally does not perform the home-improvement or home-service work requested by consumers. Instead, we receive project inquiries and may match, route, refer, transfer, or otherwise provide those inquiries to independent local service providers that may be able to perform the requested work.

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and otherwise process information when you:

• Visit a website, landing page, social-media page, or other online property operated by us;
• Respond to one of our advertisements;
• Submit a Meta/Facebook/Instagram Instant Form or other lead form;
• Request a contractor, home-service professional, estimate, consultation, or other service;
• Communicate with us by telephone, email, web form, social media, or other means;
• Are referred to us by a business partner or other source;
• Interact with a service provider through a referral originating with us; or
• Otherwise use a service that links to this Privacy Policy.

By providing information to us, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy does not replace any additional consent, disclosure, terms, or authorization presented to you when you submit a specific service request.

When you request assistance locating a home-service or home-improvement professional, you are submitting your request to East TN Trusted Home Advisors, rather than necessarily submitting the request directly to any particular contractor or service provider.

We may review the information you provide and select a service provider based on factors that may include:

• Type of service requested;
• Project location;
• Service area;
• Provider availability;
• Provider capacity or workload;
• Project size or characteristics;
• Requested timeline;
• Provider responsiveness;
• Provider experience;
• Publicly available reputation information;
• Customer feedback;
• Our prior experience with the provider;
• Licensing or insurance information when applicable and available;
• Commercial arrangements with the provider; and
• Other operational or business considerations.

The specific service provider who ultimately receives your information may not be known or selected at the time you initially submit your request.

We may assign a request to one provider and later reassign or redirect the request to another provider if, for example, the original provider is unavailable, over capacity, does not timely respond, does not serve your location, declines the project, or otherwise cannot appropriately handle the request.

Depending on the circumstances, we may provide a service request to one or more service providers capable of responding to the requested service.

East TN Trusted Home Advisors may receive compensation from service providers for referrals, leads, introductions, marketing services, access to project opportunities, or other services.

Submission of a service request does not guarantee that a provider will accept the project, contact you, provide an estimate, perform services, or enter into an agreement with you.

Service providers are independent businesses and are not employees, agents, joint venturers, or representatives of East TN Trusted Home Advisors merely because they receive a referral from us.

The information we collect depends upon how you interact with us.

A. Information You Provide Directly

We may collect information including:

• First and last name;
• Email address;
• Telephone or mobile number;
• Property address;
• Mailing address;
• City, state, and ZIP code;
• Requested service;
• Description of a project or property condition;
• Whether you own or are authorized to make decisions regarding the property;
• Property characteristics;
• Desired project timing;
• Estimated or anticipated project budget;
• Preferred contact method or contact time;
• Photos, videos, documents, measurements, or other project information you provide;
• Communications between you and us;
• Responses to questionnaires or qualification questions;
• Feedback, reviews, complaints, or survey responses; and
• Other information you voluntarily provide.

Please do not provide Social Security numbers, financial-account passwords, medical information, government identification numbers, or other highly sensitive information unless we specifically request such information for a legitimate purpose.

B. Information Collected Through Advertising Platforms

If you interact with our advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, Meta, or another advertising platform, we may receive information that you submit through that platform, including contact information and answers to service-request questions.

We may also receive advertising-related information such as:

• Advertisement or campaign associated with your inquiry;
• Lead or form identifier;
• Date and time of submission;
• Referral source;
• Ad interaction information;
• Campaign attribution information; and
• Other information made available by the advertising platform.

Your use of an advertising or social-media platform is also governed by that platform's own privacy practices.

C. Information Collected Automatically

When you interact with our websites, landing pages, advertisements, emails, or other digital properties, we or our technology providers may automatically collect information such as:

• Internet Protocol address;
• Browser type;
• Device type;
• Operating system;
• Approximate geographic location;
• Referring website;
• Pages viewed;
• Links clicked;
• Date and time of activity;
• Advertising identifiers;
• Cookie identifiers;
• Conversion information; and
• Interaction with advertisements, forms, or communications.

We may use cookies, pixels, tags, APIs, conversion technologies, analytics tools, and similar technologies for these purposes.

D. Information From Third Parties

We may receive information from:

• Advertising platforms;
• Service providers;
• Referral partners;
• Technology vendors;
• Customer-relationship-management systems;
• Publicly available sources;
• Business directories;
• Review platforms;
• Data or analytics providers;
• Consumers referring another person; and
• Other lawful sources.

We may combine information obtained from different sources.

E. Communications and Calls

We may maintain records of emails, telephone calls, text messages, web chats, form submissions, and other communications relating to a service request.

Where permitted by law, calls may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance, documentation, training, dispute resolution, fraud prevention, or customer-service purposes. When notice or consent is legally required, we will provide such notice or seek such consent as applicable.

We may use personal information to:

• Receive and process service requests;
• Determine the type of provider appropriate for a project;
• Match consumers with local service providers;
• Route or reroute project opportunities;
• Provide service providers with information necessary to respond to a request;
• Determine whether a request is within a provider's service area;
• Evaluate the apparent validity or quality of a request;
• Communicate with consumers concerning their requests;
• Facilitate introductions between consumers and providers;
• Notify providers of new project opportunities;
• Follow up regarding a project or referral;
• Provide customer service;
• Resolve complaints or disputes;
• Measure provider responsiveness and performance;
• Improve our matching process;
• Operate and improve our business;
• Maintain records concerning referrals and provider relationships;
• Analyze advertising effectiveness;
• Measure marketing conversions;
• Improve advertising campaigns;
• Prevent spam, fraud, abuse, or misuse;
• Protect the security of our systems and users;
• Comply with legal obligations;
• Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims;
• Enforce agreements and policies;
• Conduct accounting, auditing, and internal administration;
• Develop new services or features; and
• Create aggregated, statistical, or de-identified information.

We may use aggregated or de-identified information for lawful business purposes when that information cannot reasonably be linked to an identifiable individual.

This section is especially important if you submit a request for home-improvement or home-service assistance.

When you submit a project or service request, East TN Trusted Home Advisors may disclose information relating to that request to one or more independent home-service providers that we select to respond.

Information disclosed may include:

• Your name;
• Telephone number;
• Email address;
• Service address or project location;
• Service requested;
• Project description;
• Timeline;
• Budget range;
• Property information;
• Photos or other project materials;
• Responses to qualification questions; and
• Other information reasonably relevant to the provider's ability to respond to your request.

The provider receiving your information may contact you directly regarding the service you requested.

We generally seek to work with locally owned businesses that we believe have a favorable reputation or otherwise meet our internal standards. However, reputation, licensing status, insurance, personnel, ownership, availability, and other characteristics can change.

Our decision to include or refer a provider does not constitute a guarantee or warranty concerning that provider or the provider's work.

You are responsible for deciding whether to hire any service provider and should independently evaluate credentials, licensing, insurance, references, pricing, contracts, and other matters important to you.

Your project request is not permanently assigned to a particular provider merely because we initially route it to that provider.

We may redirect or reassign your request if we determine that another provider may be more appropriate or available.

For example, reassignment may occur because of:

• Provider workload;
• Provider availability;
• Service territory;
• Project requirements;
• Provider response time;
• Provider temporary suspension;
• Provider refusal of the project;
• Scheduling considerations;
• Provider performance;
• Consumer preferences;
• Changes in our provider network; or
• Other operational considerations.

If appropriate, we may also share the request with an additional provider to increase the likelihood that a consumer receives a response.

East TN Trusted Home Advisors is a commercial business.

We may charge service providers or other businesses for:

• Leads;
• Referrals;
• Qualified opportunities;
• Appointments;
• Introductions;
• Marketing services;
• Advertising services;
• Membership or network participation;
• Subscription services; or
• Other business services.

As a result, we may receive monetary or other valuable consideration in connection with providing information about a consumer's service request to a service provider.

Under some privacy laws, certain transfers of personal information made in exchange for monetary or other consideration may be characterized as a "sale," "sharing," or similar transaction.

Other laws may exclude disclosures made for purposes of providing a product or service affirmatively requested by the consumer.

We will treat such disclosures in accordance with the law applicable to the particular transaction and consumer.

A home-service provider that receives your information is an independent business.

Once information has been lawfully provided to an independent service provider, that provider may maintain its own records concerning you and your project and may process information according to its own legal obligations, privacy policy, business practices, and relationship with you.

East TN Trusted Home Advisors does not control every action of an independent service provider after information has been provided to that business.

A privacy request directed to East TN Trusted Home Advisors generally applies to information under our control. If your information has already been disclosed to an independent provider, you may also need to contact that provider directly regarding information maintained by that provider.

Where appropriate or required by law, we may assist in forwarding a privacy request to a service provider, but we cannot guarantee the provider's response except to the extent required by applicable law or contract.

We may disclose information to companies that provide services necessary to operate our business, including providers of:

• Customer-relationship-management software;
• Website hosting;
• Cloud storage;
• Email delivery;
• Telephone services;
• Advertising services;
• Analytics;
• Form processing;
• Data processing;
• Cybersecurity;
• Accounting;
• Payment processing;
• Customer support;
• Automation;
• Information technology;
• Legal services; and
• Other professional or operational services.

These parties may process information on our behalf or as otherwise permitted by applicable law and their agreements with us.

Examples of platforms that may be used in our operations include Meta products and customer-relationship-management or marketing-automation platforms. The specific vendors used by us may change over time without requiring an amendment to this Privacy Policy, provided that our use remains consistent with the purposes described herein.

We may use advertising and analytics technologies to understand how people interact with our advertising and digital properties.

These technologies may include cookies, pixels, conversion APIs, tracking tags, advertising identifiers, and similar tools.

Information collected through these technologies may be used to:

• Attribute service requests to advertising campaigns;
• Measure advertising effectiveness;
• Create advertising audiences;
• Retarget advertising;
• Prevent advertising fraud;
• Improve future campaigns; and
• Understand website or form activity.

Certain advertising activities may be considered "targeted advertising," "sharing," or a "sale" of personal information under particular state privacy laws.

Where applicable law provides a right to opt out of those activities, we will provide a method for exercising that right.

Disabling cookies or tracking technologies may affect certain website features and does not necessarily eliminate advertising.

When you provide contact information in connection with a project request, we may use that information to communicate with you about the request, administer our matching service, provide customer service, or facilitate an introduction to a provider.

A service provider receiving a project request may use the contact information provided to respond to the service inquiry, subject to applicable law.

Marketing or automated communications requiring additional consent will be sent only where the legally required consent has been obtained.

You may opt out of promotional email by using the unsubscribe link contained in the message.

You may request that telephone marketing stop by informing the caller that you do not wish to receive additional marketing calls.

Where we offer a text-message program, additional SMS terms and consent disclosures may apply.

SMS Consent and Mobile Opt-In Information:

Consent provided specifically to receive text messages from East TN Trusted Home Advisors applies only as disclosed at the time consent is obtained. We do not sell or transfer a consumer's text-message opt-in consent to another business as authorization for that business to send automated or promotional text messages.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. Information sharing to subcontractors in support services, such as customer service, is permitted. All other use case categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Nothing in this section prevents us from providing contact information to a service provider when the consumer has affirmatively requested to be connected with a service provider and the disclosure is otherwise permitted by applicable law. However, the receiving provider is responsible for obtaining any additional consent legally required for its own automated or promotional text messaging.

We may disclose information if we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to:

• Comply with applicable laws or regulations;
• Respond to a subpoena, court order, warrant, government request, or other lawful process;
• Cooperate with law enforcement;
• Protect our legal rights;
• Enforce our agreements;
• Investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, or illegal activity;
• Protect the rights, safety, reputation, or property of East TN Trusted Home Advisors, consumers, service providers, or others;
• Prevent harm;
• Resolve disputes; or
• Establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim.

Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to require us to disclose information when applicable law permits or requires us to decline disclosure.

If East TN Trusted Home Advisors is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, sale of assets, reorganization, bankruptcy, dissolution, transfer of operations, change in ownership, or similar transaction, personal information may be disclosed or transferred as part of that transaction.

A successor or acquiring party may continue to process information consistent with this Privacy Policy unless otherwise required by applicable law or unless a revised privacy notice is provided.

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and for legitimate business purposes, including:

• Processing and documenting referrals;
• Maintaining provider and customer records;
• Responding to inquiries;
• Preventing fraud;
• Measuring marketing performance;
• Resolving disputes;
• Establishing or defending legal claims;
• Complying with legal, tax, accounting, or regulatory obligations;
• Enforcing agreements; and
• Maintaining business continuity and backup systems.

Different categories of information may be retained for different periods.

Information may remain in backup, archival, fraud-prevention, legal, or compliance systems after deletion from active systems where continued retention is reasonably necessary or legally permitted.

We may retain aggregated or de-identified information indefinitely when it cannot reasonably be associated with an identifiable individual.

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that we believe are reasonable and appropriate for the nature of the information we maintain and the size and nature of our business.

These safeguards may include access controls, authentication, restricted user permissions, secure technology vendors, encryption where appropriate, account security procedures, and other measures.

However, no website, database, electronic communication system, internet transmission, cloud platform, or storage method is completely secure.

Accordingly, we cannot and do not guarantee absolute security of personal information.

If we become aware of a security incident requiring notification under applicable law, we will provide legally required notifications in accordance with applicable requirements.

Depending on where you reside and which privacy laws apply to East TN Trusted Home Advisors, you may have rights concerning your personal information.

Those rights may include the ability to request:

• Confirmation of whether we process personal information about you;
• Access to personal information;
• Correction of inaccurate information;
• Deletion of certain personal information;
• A portable copy of certain information;
• Information about categories of information disclosed to third parties;
• Opt-out from certain sales of personal information;
• Opt-out from certain targeted advertising;
• Opt-out from certain profiling activities; and
• Appeal of certain decisions concerning a privacy request.

Not every right applies in every circumstance or jurisdiction.

We may need to verify your identity before processing a privacy request.

We may deny or limit a request when permitted by law, including when information must be retained for legal compliance, security, fraud prevention, accounting, dispute resolution, contractual obligations, establishment or defense of legal claims, or another legally permitted purpose.

We may also retain de-identified or aggregated information.

To submit a privacy request, contact:

East TN Trusted Home Advisors

Knoxville, Tennessee

privacy@easttntrustedhomeadvisors.com

East TN Trusted Home Advisors is based in Knoxville, Tennessee and primarily serves consumers in Tennessee.

To the extent the Tennessee Information Protection Act or another Tennessee privacy law applies to East TN Trusted Home Advisors and to a particular consumer, we will honor the rights and obligations applicable under that law.

Where applicable, Tennessee residents may have rights relating to access, correction, deletion, portability, targeted advertising, profiling, and certain sales of personal information.

If applicable law requires an appeal process and we deny a qualifying privacy request, you may appeal by sending an email to:

privacy@easttntrustedhomeadvisors.com

Use the subject line:

"Privacy Rights Appeal."

Include sufficient information to identify the original request and explain why you believe the decision should be reconsidered.

Nothing in this section is intended to create a statutory right where the law does not provide one.

Where applicable law gives you the right to opt out of a sale or sharing of personal information, you may submit a request using the contact information in Section 16.

Because the principal purpose of East TN Trusted Home Advisors is connecting consumers with independent service providers, certain information disclosures are necessary to fulfill a consumer's affirmative request to locate or connect with a provider.

If you instruct us not to provide your information to any service provider before a provider has received your request, we may be unable to provide our matching or referral service.

An opt-out request does not necessarily require information already lawfully disclosed to an independent service provider to be retrieved or deleted where applicable law does not impose such a requirement.

Where a privacy law distinguishes between compensated transfers of data and disclosures necessary to fulfill a service expressly requested by the consumer, we will apply the definitions and exemptions provided by the applicable law.

Our services are intended for adults capable of requesting or authorizing services for residential or commercial property.

We do not knowingly solicit home-improvement service requests from children under 18.

If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child in circumstances where collection was not permitted, we may delete that information.

Parents or legal guardians who believe that a child has provided information to us may contact us using the information in Section 16.

We may collect information concerning service providers, prospective providers, vendors, and other businesses, including:

• Business name;
• Owner or representative name;
• Business address;
• Telephone number;
• Email address;
• Service categories;
• Service areas;
• Licensing information;
• Insurance information;
• Public reviews;
• Complaint information;
• Business experience;
• Availability;
• Capacity;
• Lead acceptance and response information;
• Performance information;
• Referral and sales results;
• Payment and billing records; and
• Other information relevant to our commercial relationship.

We may obtain some provider information from public records, websites, review platforms, licensing authorities, business directories, customers, and other sources.

Business information that is not protected as personal information under applicable law may be used for legitimate business purposes.

Our websites, advertisements, messages, or other communications may contain links to third-party websites, service providers, social-media platforms, or other services.

We do not control the privacy, security, content, or data-handling practices of independent third parties.

Information you provide directly to another business is governed by that business's privacy practices.

We encourage you to review the privacy policy and terms of any third party with whom you interact.

Some browsers and devices allow users to transmit "Do Not Track," Global Privacy Control, or other privacy-preference signals.

Our response to such signals may vary depending upon the technology used, applicable law, and whether the signal is legally required to be recognized.

Where applicable law requires us to honor a recognized universal opt-out mechanism, we will process qualifying signals as required by law.

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in:

• Our services;
• Technology;
• Providers;
• Advertising practices;
• Legal requirements;
• Business operations; or
• Data-processing practices.

The "Last Updated" date at the beginning of this Policy identifies the most recent revision.

Material changes will be communicated in a manner reasonably appropriate under the circumstances and as required by applicable law.

If applicable law requires consent before we use previously collected personal information for a materially different purpose, we will seek such consent as required.

This Privacy Policy is intended to provide notice regarding our information practices.

Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to waive obligations imposed on East TN Trusted Home Advisors by applicable law.

Likewise, nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to create contractual, statutory, or other legal rights beyond those otherwise provided by applicable law.

If a provision of this Privacy Policy conflicts with a mandatory requirement of applicable law, the applicable legal requirement will control to the extent of the conflict.

Questions, complaints, privacy requests, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy may be directed to:

East TN Trusted Home Advisors

Knoxville, Tennessee

privacy@easttntrustedhomeadvisors.com

When contacting us regarding a privacy matter, please provide enough information for us to understand and appropriately respond to your request.