Gold Standard Web
What we collect, why we collect it, and what we will never do with it — in plain English, because a policy nobody can read protects nobody.
Last updated: July 30, 2026
If you apply to be a Prospector, we collect what you type into the application so we can decide whether to work with you and get in touch. If you're a business considering a website, we collect what you give us so we can quote and deliver it. We use a small number of outside services to run the business — email, hosting, payments, e-signature — and they see only what they need.
We do not sell your personal information, and we never have. You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, and tell us to stop contacting you — and we'll do it.
Gold Standard Web is a software company that builds and maintains websites for local businesses. We also operate The Prospectors, our network of independent sales representatives.
In this policy, "we", "us", and "our" mean Gold Standard Web. When we say "you", we mean whoever is reading this — an applicant, a Prospector, a business considering our services, an existing client, or simply a visitor.
You can reach us any time at our contact address.
This policy applies to personal information we collect through:
It does not cover the websites we build and host for our clients. Those are our clients' websites, and our client decides what happens to the information collected through them. See Section 12.
We only collect what we actually need. What that is depends on who you are.
Everything on the application form, because you typed it there: your name, email address, mobile phone number, the city and state you'd work in, how much time you can give it, whether you've sold anything before, why you want to do it, and how you heard about us. We also record your confirmations that you're 18 or older, legally able to work as an independent contractor, and happy for us to contact you.
Your name, email address, and your quiz result — your score, whether you passed, and which questions you got wrong. Your progress through the modules is saved in your own browser on your own device, not on our servers.
What we need to pay you and to meet our tax obligations: your legal name, mailing address, payment details, and the taxpayer identification number on your IRS Form W-9 — which for most people is a Social Security number. We also keep your signed contractor agreement and a record of your certification status.
A Social Security number is the most sensitive thing we will ever hold about you, and we treat it that way. We collect Form W-9 through a service built for handling tax documents securely — not by ordinary email. We do not store it in spreadsheets, shared drives, or our general business systems. Access is limited to the people who need it to pay you and file the required tax forms.
Your business name, the name of the owner or authorised signer, business address, phone number, and email address; the content you give us for your website, including photographs, logos, prices, and hours; your domain name details; and records of our conversations and your agreement with us.
Payment information: when you pay us, you enter your card or bank details directly with our payment processor. We never see or store your full card number. Our representatives are expressly forbidden from handling your payment details or accepting cash.
Standard technical information that any web server records: your IP address, browser type, device type, the pages you visited, and the site you came from. We use this to keep the sites working and to understand roughly how they're used — not to build a profile of you.
We don't ask for your date of birth, your government ID number (other than the W-9 for contractors we pay), your financial account details, your health information, your race or ethnicity, your religion, your political views, or your precise location. If a form ever appears to ask you for any of those, don't fill it in — tell us instead, because it isn't ours.
| What we use it for | What that means in practice |
|---|---|
| Deciding on applications | Reading your application, replying to you either way, and sending your training access code if we move forward. |
| Running the training | Confirming who completed certification and who passed, so we know who is authorised to represent us. |
| Paying contractors | Calculating commissions, sending payments, producing statements, and filing the tax forms the law requires. |
| Delivering our services | Building, publishing, hosting, and maintaining websites for our clients, and answering support requests. |
| Talking to you | Replying to what you send us, and sending information you asked for. |
| Protecting people | Keeping a record of anyone who has asked not to be contacted, so that no representative contacts them again. |
| Keeping the lights on | Security, fraud prevention, fixing faults, and improving how the sites work. |
| Meeting our obligations | Complying with tax, accounting, and other legal requirements, and responding to lawful requests. |
Our sites use very little. Specifically:
If we ever add analytics or advertising tools, we will update this policy first and say plainly what they do.
Most browsers let you send a "Do Not Track" signal. There is no agreed industry standard for how sites should respond to it. Since we don't track you across other sites in the first place, there is nothing for us to switch off.
We share personal information only with organisations that help us run the business, and only with what they need to do their job. These include providers of:
We also share information where we genuinely have to: to comply with the law or a valid legal request; to enforce our agreements; to protect the rights, safety, or property of anyone; or, if our business is ever sold or merged, with the party acquiring it — in which case we'll tell you.
One thing worth saying explicitly: our independent sales representatives receive the business contact details of the businesses they are assigned. They do not receive information about other applicants, other representatives, or clients they did not sell.
If you give us your phone number on an application and confirm we may contact you, we may call or text you about that application. Standard message and data rates from your carrier may apply.
You can stop it at any time. Reply STOP to any text, click the unsubscribe link in any email, or simply tell us — in any words, by any method. We'll stop, on every channel, and we'll record it so it stays stopped. We do not require you to telephone us to opt out.
We never text a phone number that the person didn't give us themselves.
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Applications we don't move forward with | Kept for a limited period in case you reapply or ask us to reconsider, then deleted. |
| Contractor records, tax forms, and payment history | As long as tax and accounting rules require after the relationship ends. |
| Client agreements and project records | For the length of the relationship and a period afterwards, for warranty, accounting, and legal reasons. |
| Do-not-contact records | Indefinitely — because the whole point is to never contact you again, and we can only guarantee that if we remember. |
| Server logs | A short period, then discarded. |
When we no longer need something, we delete it or put it beyond use.
We use encrypted connections across our sites, limit who inside the business can see what, choose reputable providers for anything sensitive, and keep tax documents in a system built for them rather than in general storage.
We'll be straight with you: no company can promise perfect security, and anyone who does is not being honest. If a breach ever affects your personal information, we will notify you and the authorities as the law requires, and we will tell you what happened.
Whoever you are and wherever you live, you can ask us to:
We are not going to make you prove you live in a particular state to get these. Just ask.
How to ask: email us at our contact address with what you want. We'll confirm we got it, and we aim to complete it within 30 days. We may need to verify who you are first, so that we don't hand your information to someone else. Exercising any of these rights costs nothing and we will never treat you worse for asking.
Some states give residents additional specific rights, and those laws apply to companies above certain size thresholds. We intend to honour the requests above regardless of whether a particular law obliges us to, and we will update this section as our obligations change.
When we build and host a website for a business, that business decides what information the site collects and what happens to it. They are responsible for it; we handle it on their behalf under our agreement with them, and only to provide the service.
So if you filled in a contact form on a local business's website that we happen to host:
Our sites and services are for adults running or working with businesses. You must be at least 18 to apply to be a Prospector. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given us information, tell us and we will delete it.
If we change this policy we'll update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we use information we already hold about you, we'll tell you directly rather than quietly editing the page.
For anything about this policy, to exercise any right in Section 11, or to report something that looks wrong:
A real person reads these. If you don't hear back within a few business days, send it again — we'd rather hear from you twice than miss you once.
Every certified Prospector can be verified. If someone claims to represent Gold Standard Web and you're unsure, contact us directly using the address above before you give them anything. And if anyone ever tells you your listing or website will be removed or penalised unless you buy something, that is not us — please report it, because we want to know.