Privacy Policy
Effective October 18, 2026
This policy explains what 5arz Inc. ("SOS.city", "we") collects when you use sos.city, the library and the API, what we do with it, and your choices. We collect as little as the Service needs, and we don't sell personal information.
The SOS.city store at shop.sos.city runs on Shopify, and Shopify's checkout and the store's own privacy policy cover your purchases there.
What we collect about you
| What | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | You make an account, request data or buy a deep search | To sign you in, deliver what you asked for and send account notices |
| Plan and billing status | You subscribe | To give you your plan. Stripe processes payments, so we never see or store your full card number. |
| API keys | You create a key | Only a salted hash is stored. The key itself is shown to you once. |
| Questions you ask | You use the search box or /v1/search | To answer them and to find gaps in the library. Signed in: stored with your account. Signed out: stored without anything that identifies you. |
| Data and deep-search requests | You send one | To do the work and contact you about it |
| Usage counts | Every API call or question | To apply plan limits. Signed in: counted per account. Signed out: counted under a one-way hash of your IP address that changes every day. We never store your IP address itself, and these signed-out counters are deleted after 35 days. |
| Technical data | Every visit | Our host, Cloudflare, processes your IP address, browser and request details to deliver the site and protect it from attacks. It keeps its own logs under its own policy. |
Cookies. We use only the cookies the site needs, such as keeping you signed in and remembering your city. We don't use advertising cookies, cross-site trackers or third-party ad networks.
How we count visits. When you open a page on sos.city, your browser tells us which page it was, the site that sent you (just its name, such as youtube.com) and any campaign tag in the link. We add one to that day's count. We don't record your IP address, set a cookie or keep anything that could tell visits apart.
Questions you type. Questions asked in the search box and the terminal are kept so we can see what people need and add missing records. Unanswered questions go to our gap board only after we rewrite them as a record type and place, with any names, addresses or numbers removed.
Email alerts. If you sign up, we keep your email, the city you chose, the page you signed up from and the exact wording you agreed to. We use it only to send SOS.city alerts and checklists. We first email you a link to confirm the address is yours, and send nothing else until you click it. The emails go out through our email provider, Resend, which handles your address only to deliver them. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and you can ask privacy@sos.city to delete it.
The store. shop.sos.city runs on Shopify. If you buy there or join the store's email list, Shopify processes your details for the order and, if you agree, for store emails (including reminders about a checkout or cart you left). Those are separate from the SOS.city alerts above: signing up for alerts doesn't put you on the store list.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. We don't track you across other sites and we don't sell or share personal information for ads, so there is nothing to opt out of. We honour Global Privacy Control signals as an opt-out anyway.
What's in the library
The library indexes public records published by governments, utilities and courts: water systems, outages, permits, inspections, laws, grants, business registrations and similar records. It is about places, buildings, businesses and public bodies, not about private individuals.
- We don't offer search by a person's name. We don't build profiles of individuals.
- Business registry entries show only what the registry itself publishes. Home addresses of sole proprietors are left blank.
- Sex-offender registries, jail logs and booking photos are link-only: we point to the official site and don't copy the data.
- You can ask us to remove or correct a record, for example sealed, expunged or court-ordered records, or if you're in a confidential-address programme such as California's Safe at Home. See Removals and Corrections.
How we use information
- To run the Service and give you your plan
- To answer your questions and requests
- To find what the library is missing. Questions that find nothing are turned into neutral research topics, with names, addresses and other identifiers removed before any topic appears on the public gap board.
- To keep the Service secure and stop abuse
- To send you account and billing messages, including the renewal reminders California law requires. We send marketing email only if you opt in, and every marketing email has an unsubscribe link.
- To meet legal obligations
Who we share it with
We share personal information only with the companies that help us run the Service, and only for that purpose:
- Cloudflare for hosting, database and security
- Stripe for payments
- our email provider, to send account and service email
We may also disclose information:
- if the law requires it, for example a valid subpoena or court order (where we're allowed, we tell you first)
- to protect people's safety or the Service
- as part of a merger or sale, in which case this policy continues to apply
We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Account email, plan and billing records | While your account is open. After you close it, billing records are kept as long as tax law requires, and the rest is deleted within 90 days. |
| Questions linked to your account | Until you delete them or close your account |
| Signed-out usage counters | 35 days |
| Requests and deep searches | 2 years after they're closed, so we can answer follow-ups and disputes, then deleted |
| Auto-renewal consent records | As long as California law requires (at least 3 years) |
Your rights
Whatever state or country you live in, you can ask us to:
- see the personal information we hold about you
- correct it
- delete it
- export it
Email privacy@sos.city from the address on your account. We'll confirm we got your request within 10 business days and answer within 45 days. We won't treat you differently for using these rights.
California residents have these rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act once it applies to us, and we offer them to everyone now. If you're in the EU or UK you also have the right to object and to complain to your data protection authority.
Children
The Service isn't meant for children. You must be 16 or older to make an account. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal information, email privacy@sos.city and we'll delete it.
Security
- Data is encrypted in transit.
- API keys are stored only as salted hashes.
- Access to our systems is limited to people who need it.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we'll tell you as the law requires.
Where data is processed
We're based in the United States, and our providers may process data in the US and other countries.
Changes
If we change this policy in a material way, we'll post the new version here with a new effective date and email account holders before it takes effect.
Contact
5arz Inc., 16192 Coastal Highway, Lewes, DE 19958, USA, privacy@sos.city