Privacy Policy

What information does SaunaIndex collect?

Very little, and none of it identifies you by name. SaunaIndex is a directory you read. There is one quote form, and filling it in is optional. Apart from that there is no sign-up and no account. Three things are recorded anyway.

First, our host keeps standard server logs, including your IP address, browser type and the address of the page you asked for, to keep the site online and secure. The site is hosted by Vercel Inc., and those logs are held by Vercel on its own retention schedule rather than ours.

Second, Google Analytics records your visit and sets two cookies in your browser to do it. What reaches Google is the pages you open, roughly where you are (a city or region worked out from your IP address, not a street), your device and browser type, and the site or search that sent you here. The cookie section below explains it in full.

Third, if you write to us at corrections@saunaindex.ca, we keep your message and whatever you chose to put in it. That address is a forwarding address, not a mailbox of its own: mail sent to it passes through Forward Email, which relays it to a mailbox hosted by Google, where we read it. Please do not send sensitive information such as financial account numbers.

How does SaunaIndex use it?

If you write to us, we use your message only to answer you. We do not sell personal information, we share nothing with the businesses listed on this site except what you send through the quote form, and we do not use it for advertising. Server logs are used only for security, troubleshooting and preventing abuse.

Does SaunaIndex contact the businesses on your behalf?

No, and this is worth stating plainly. SaunaIndex does not pass your details to anyone. When you find a business here you contact it yourself, through its website or the quote request on its profile. Anything you then tell that business is between you and them, under their own privacy practices. We are not part of that conversation and never see it.

Does SaunaIndex use cookies or analytics?

Yes, one of each, and this section was wrong until 19 August 2026. SaunaIndex runs Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-6ND9PBCGF7) on every page. It sets two cookies in your browser, _ga and _ga_6ND9PBCGF7, both of which last up to two years unless you clear them. They hold a random number that lets Google tell one browser from another; they do not hold your name, your email or anything you typed.

We use it for one thing: to see how many people read the site and which pages they open, so we know which guides are worth keeping up to date. We do not use it to identify you, we never try to match a visit to a person, and we run no advertising pixels, no remarketing and no cross-site trackers beyond this. Our host may also set what is strictly necessary to serve the pages.

To opt out: install Google's own Analytics opt-out browser add-on, block or clear cookies for this site in your browser settings, or use your browser's private window. Any of the three stops the counting, and nothing on this site breaks without it, because no feature here depends on being measured.

An earlier version of this page said SaunaIndex ran no analytics and set no cookies, and promised that if analytics were ever added the policy would be updated first. The tag went on the site on 19 August 2026 and this page was not changed with it, so for part of that day the policy was false and that promise was not kept. Saying so is cheaper than pretending it did not happen.

How does SaunaIndex handle business listing data?

Our directory lists businesses using public information, such as company names, addresses, phone numbers, ratings and reviews sourced from Google Maps and business websites. This is public business data, not private personal data. If you own a listed business and want your listing corrected or removed, see our contact page for what a request needs to contain, or write to corrections@saunaindex.ca directly. We process removal and correction requests, and a removal asked for by the owner is honoured rather than argued with.

What are your privacy rights under PIPEDA?

Under PIPEDA you can ask what personal information SaunaIndex holds about you, request a copy, ask us to correct it, and withdraw your consent to our use of it. In practice, unless you have written to us, we hold nothing about you beyond server logs and an anonymous analytics count. Write to corrections@saunaindex.ca or see our contact page, and we respond within a reasonable time.

How does SaunaIndex comply with CASL?

Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) governs commercial email. SaunaIndex sends no marketing email, no newsletters and no promotional blasts, and holds no mailing list to send them to. If you write to us, we reply to you and nothing else. If we ever introduce optional marketing email, it will be strictly opt-in with a clear unsubscribe link in every message, as CASL requires.

How long does SaunaIndex keep data, and where is it stored?

We keep correspondence only as long as needed to handle it and any follow-up. The two analytics cookies expire two years after your last visit, or sooner if you clear them, and the visit counts behind them sit in Google's own systems under Google's retention settings rather than ours. Server logs are held by our host on its retention schedule, not on one we set. We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards to protect what we hold, though no method of transmission over the internet is perfectly secure.

Your information is stored outside Canada. SaunaIndexis operated from Ontario, but it runs on infrastructure belonging to three companies, all of them foreign: Vercel Inc. hosts the site and holds the server logs, on servers in the United States and in other regions its network serves; Google LLC receives and stores the analytics described above, in the United States and in other countries where Google operates; and mail you send to us is relayed by Forward Email into a mailbox hosted by Google. Information held in another country is subject to that country's laws and may be accessible to its courts and authorities, and using this site means you accept that this is where the handling happens.

How do I contact SaunaIndex about privacy?

Write to corrections@saunaindex.ca, or see our contact page. If we make material changes to this policy, we will post the updated version here with a new effective date. Please also review our terms of service, which govern your use of SaunaIndex.

What happens to what I send through the quote form?

If you fill in the quote form, we pass your name, contact details and your description of the job to one company listed in your area, so they can quote the work. One company, never a list, and never a pool of firms bidding against each other for you. The form will not send until you tick the box that says so, and that tick is recorded with the date and the exact sentence you agreed to. If you change your mind afterwards, write to us and we will delete what you sent.

Nothing else about you goes anywhere. Reading this site sends nobody anything.SaunaIndex sells no leads and no company can buy a better position: the order on every list comes from a published formula. When you call a company from a profile here, that call goes straight to the company, and we are not told it happened.