Privacy Policy | Five Stars

1. Who We Are

Five Stars ("we", "us", "our") operates the website five-stars.com — an AI-first business directory. Our contact email is support@five-stars.com.

2. What Data We Collect

Email address — when you sign up, log in, or complete a purchase.
Business information — name, address, phone number, website, social media links, description, and Google rating/review count imported from your Google Business Profile.
Payment information — handled entirely by Stripe. We do not store your card details.
Usage data — standard server logs including IP address, browser type, and pages visited.

3. How We Use Your Data

To provide and maintain your business listing on Five Stars.
To send you login links and account-related emails.
To process payments and manage your subscription.
To display your business information to website visitors and AI systems.
To improve our platform and services.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

We process your personal data under the following lawful bases:

Contract — processing necessary to fulfil our service agreement with you.
Legitimate interests — operating and improving our platform.
Consent — where you have explicitly opted in (e.g. marketing communications).

5. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party processors:

Supabase — database and authentication hosting.
Stripe — payment processing and subscription management.
Google — business data sourced from Google Business Profiles via the Places API.
Render — cloud hosting provider.

Each processor operates under their own privacy policies and data protection agreements.

6. Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide our services. If you cancel your subscription and request deletion, we will remove your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal or accounting purposes.

7. Your Rights (GDPR)

Under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR, you have the right to:

Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Rectification — request correction of inaccurate data.
Erasure — request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests.
Restriction — request that we limit processing of your data.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at support@five-stars.com. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Cookies

We use essential cookies to maintain your login session. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies.

9. Data Transfers

Your data may be processed outside the UK/EEA by our third-party processors. Where this occurs, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses.

10. Contact

For any privacy-related queries or to exercise your rights, contact us at: support@five-stars.com.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you are based in the UK.