Privacy Policy

This policy explains how PublishProof, operated by Ikigai Lifestyle LLC dba PublishProof ("we," "us"), collects and uses information when you use publishproof.net.

What We Collect

• Your county-stamped FBN statement (the photo or PDF you upload).
• Contact details you provide: name, email address, and phone number.
• Order details: county, FBN file number, filing date, type of filing, the business names and registrants on your statement, and the business address shown on it.
• If you order for someone else (optional): who the order is for, a business or client name, your reference number, and an extra email address to copy on order emails.
• Messages you send through our contact or attorney forms.
• Basic technical data, such as IP address and browser type, used to keep the site secure.
• Site usage statistics: which pages are visited and in what order, the site or campaign that referred the visit (including the campaign code in links we send), the county chosen, and the steps of the order form reached. We use our own first-party tools and Cloudflare Web Analytics (from our hosting provider), all with no cookies and no advertising trackers. Our page log keeps your browser type and a visitor code made by one-way scrambling your IP address and browser type with a key that changes every day, so a visit can be followed within a day but not across days; your IP address itself is not stored. Our own tools store no names, email addresses, or document contents, and record nothing if your browser has Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track turned on. A random visit identifier lasts only until you close the browser tab. The link or site that first brought you here (campaign code, referring page, landing page) is kept in your browser's local storage for 30 days, with no identifier, so an order you place later can be credited to it. If you place an order, the page and source that led to it are saved with the order so we can see which pages help customers. Usage statistics are deleted after 25 months, and the page log after 13 months.
• We do not collect or store payment card details. Payments are processed by Stripe; card data never touches our systems.

Information From Public Records

FBN statements are public records. If you recently filed one, we may use the business name, filing details, and contact information from that record to email you about publishing your notice, with a link that fills in your order for you. Every such email has an unsubscribe link. Once you unsubscribe, we won't email you about it again or add you to future lists.

How We Use It

To place, verify, and document your newspaper publication order: submitting the notice to the newspaper, confirming the publication schedule, arranging the affidavit of publication filing, and emailing you order updates and a copy of the signed affidavit. We also use it to answer your questions and prevent fraud. We don't use your information for marketing unless you tick the optional "email me updates" box. We don't sell your personal information.

Who Sees It

• The newspaper publishing your notice. Your notice is public by law.
• The county clerk, which receives the affidavit of publication.
• Our staff, who review every order before it's placed.
• Service providers that process data for us under contract: our document-processing software provider for reading uploaded statements, Stripe for payments, and our email and hosting providers.
• No one else.

Automated Processing

When you upload your statement, automated software extracts the business names, registrants, file number, filing date, and county, and checks the document type. This pre-fills your order and flags wrong uploads before payment. The software is run by a document-processing software provider under a paid account whose terms don't allow your document to be used to train its models. Every order is reviewed by a person before it's submitted to the newspaper.

How We Contact You

By email about your order. We may call the phone number you provide only if we need to reach you about your order. We don't send text messages or automated calls.

Retention and Deletion

If you upload a statement but don't finish an order, we delete the upload and the details read from it within 7 days. We keep order records, including a copy of the signed affidavit of publication, for 7 years from the order date, then delete them. You may ask us to delete your personal information sooner at any time; we'll do so unless a specific record must be kept by law.

Your Rights

You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. California residents have these rights under California law, and we won't treat you differently for using them. We'll respond within a reasonable time.

Contact

For any privacy question or request, use our contact form. PublishProof · Ikigai Lifestyle LLC dba PublishProof · California