Privacy

Around Madison is a local discovery guide for Madison, Indiana and nearby communities. We collect only what we need to operate the site, support business listings, and improve the product. We do not sell personal information.

Last updated: August 18, 2026

Information we collect

• Account data — email, name, password hash, and role when you register or manage a business.
• Business claims & portal updates — ownership evidence, listing edits (hours, contact details, media), and verification status.
• Leads & trip requests — contact details and messages you submit, plus the consent timestamp and policy version you accepted.
• Event submissions & newsletter signups — submitter contact info and subscription email with consent.
• Reviews & favorites — ratings/comments you post and places you save while signed in.
• Technical logs — IP address, user agent, and session identifiers needed for authentication, abuse prevention, and security audit trails.

Cookies & sessions

We use HTTP-only session cookies to keep you signed in for the public site, business portal, and admin tools. Session cookies are required for authenticated features. We do not use third-party advertising cookies on Around Madison pages.

Business claims & listings

When you claim or manage a listing, we store claim evidence, manager relationships, and field change history so we can verify ownership and prevent unauthorized edits. Public listing fields (name, address, hours, phone, website, photos) are shown on the site.

Leads & consent

Service requests and trip/planning forms require explicit consent before submission. We record when consent was given and which policy version applied. Lead details may be routed to matching local businesses you authorized through that request. You can ask us to close or delete a lead where retention rules allow.

Analytics

We store first-party analytics events (for example profile views, website clicks, and directions clicks) in aggregate and business-scoped form to help ranking quality and business portal reports. These signals are not sold and are not used to build advertising profiles for third parties.

Ask AroundMadison (AI)

When you use Ask AroundMadison, your prompt and the grounded answer path may be logged for quality, safety, and cost controls (provider, model, latency, and result state). Do not include sensitive personal data in prompts. AI answers are informational and may be incomplete; always confirm details with venues.

Stripe billing

Paid business plans and sponsorships are processed by Stripe. We store Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, plan status, and entitlement state. Card numbers are handled by Stripe, not stored on Around Madison servers. Stripe's privacy policy also applies to payment processing.

How we use information

• Operate and secure the directory, events, deals, and editorial guides.
• Authenticate users and enforce role-based access.
• Moderate claims, reviews, media, and event submissions.
• Deliver consented leads and newsletter editions when enabled.
• Improve organic ranking and detect incomplete or duplicate listings.

Retention & your choices

Account, listing, and audit data are kept while needed to run the service and meet security obligations. Newsletter subscribers may unsubscribe at any time. To request account deletion, listing correction, or a privacy question, email hello@aroundmadison.com.

Contact

Around Madison — Madison, Indiana. Privacy contact: hello@aroundmadison.com. See also our Terms of use.