Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and what this policy covers

This policy is issued by PUMA Solutions, a waste removal and property services business operating across northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Throughout this document, "we", "us" and "our" mean PUMA Solutions; "you" means any person who contacts us, requests a quote, engages our services or uses this website.

It covers every route by which we receive personal information — this website, telephone calls, voicemail, email, text messages, in-person conversations at your property, and information passed to us by a client on whose behalf we are attending a site. It applies to residential customers, commercial account holders, and the individual employees and representatives of those account holders whose contact details we necessarily hold.

It does not cover the independent privacy practices of any third party whose website we may link to, nor of a separate business that a client engages on our recommendation. Where we place work with a vetted regional contractor, however, that contractor acts under our instruction and the safeguards described in section 7 apply.

2. The principles we work to

Four rules govern everything below, and where a specific provision seems ambiguous, these are how we resolve it.

• Collect only what the job needs. We do not ask for information because it might be useful one day. Every field on our quote form exists because a quote or a collection genuinely depends on it.
• Use it only for what it was given for. Information provided to obtain a quote is used to provide that quote and the service that follows. It does not migrate into a marketing database.
• Keep it only as long as there is a reason to. Retention periods are published in section 9 rather than left to discretion.
• Never sell it. We do not sell, rent, trade or otherwise disclose personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes. This is not a policy position we intend to revisit.

3. Information we collect

3.1 Information you give us directly

When you submit the quote form on this website we collect the fields you complete: your name, email address, telephone number, ZIP code, the service you select, the timing you indicate, and the free-text description of what needs to be removed or cleaned. The consent checkbox records that you agreed to be contacted about the request.

When you telephone us, our operator records the same categories by hand — name, callback number, ZIP code and a description of the job — because a quote cannot be prepared without them. If you leave a voicemail, whatever you say in that message is recorded until it is transcribed into a job note and the recording is deleted.

When a job proceeds, we additionally record the service address, access details relevant to carrying out the work (for example "rear gate, code required", "narrow stairwell", "dog in the kitchen"), the agreed date and window, the item list, and the final invoiced amount.

3.2 Information collected automatically

This website is deliberately self-contained. Fonts, stylesheets, scripts and images are served from our own domain rather than from a content delivery network or a font service, which means that simply reading these pages does not disclose your browsing activity to an advertising platform, a font provider or an analytics vendor.

Our web host produces standard server logs in the ordinary course of serving the site. These typically contain the requesting IP address, the date and time, the page requested, the referring page and the browser user-agent string. They exist for security and operational purposes — identifying attacks, diagnosing errors, understanding load — and are not combined with the information you provide through the quote form.

3.3 Information we receive from others

Occasionally somebody else provides your information to us. A property manager books a cleanout at a unit you occupy or previously occupied. A family member arranges an estate clear-out. A realtor instructs us to empty a property before listing it. In these cases we hold only what the instructing party gave us — typically an address, access arrangements and a contact number — and we use it solely to carry out the instructed work.

If you believe somebody has given us your details without the authority to do so, contact us and we will tell you what we hold and, where we are not required to retain it, delete it.

3.4 Information we do not collect

We do not collect Social Security numbers, dates of birth, driver's licence numbers, financial account numbers, health information, biometric data, precise geolocation from your device, or information about your race, religion, political opinions, sexual orientation or union membership. If any of that appears in a free-text field you complete, we will remove it from the record rather than retain it.

4. How we use your information

Every use falls into one of the following categories. There is no residual "and other business purposes" clause, because that clause is how policies stop meaning anything.

We do not use your information to build a profile of you, to score you, to make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects, or to train any machine learning system.

5. Telephone calls, voicemail and text messages

Our removal specialists double as telephone operators, which is why a call during peak hours may go to voicemail and why we commit to returning it within thirty minutes. Voicemail messages are stored on our telephone system until an operator transcribes the relevant details into a job note, after which the recording is deleted — normally the same working day and in all cases within seven days.

We do not routinely record live telephone calls. If a specific call is recorded — for example because a complaint is being investigated and both parties agree to it — you will be told at the start of that call.

Where you give us a mobile number, we may send text messages about your specific job: a confirmation, a crew-is-on-the-way notice, or a message asking to move a window. These are operational messages about work you asked us to do. We do not send marketing text messages, and we do not enrol numbers in any recurring message programme. Replying STOP to any message from us stops all further messages to that number.

6. Cookies, browser storage and analytics

6.1 We do not set tracking cookies

This website sets no advertising cookies, no analytics cookies and no cross-site tracking identifiers. There is no cookie consent banner on this site because there is nothing to consent to. We do not operate an advertising pixel, a remarketing tag, a heatmap recorder or a session replay tool.

6.2 One piece of browser storage, and what it does

When you submit the quote form, your first name and the service you selected are written to your browser's session storage so that the confirmation page can address you by name and confirm what you asked for. Three things are worth knowing about that entry:

• It is deleted by the confirmation page immediately after it has been read.
• It never leaves your device and is never transmitted to us or to anyone else.
• Session storage is cleared by your browser when the tab closes, so it does not persist between visits even if the deletion above somehow failed.

If your browser blocks storage entirely, the confirmation page simply displays a generic greeting. Nothing breaks.

6.3 Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Because we run no tracking infrastructure, a Do Not Track header or a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser has nothing to switch off. We honour both by construction rather than by configuration.

7. Who we share information with

We disclose personal information only in the circumstances set out below, and in each case only the minimum required.

Contractors and service providers are permitted to use what we give them only to perform the task we engaged them for. They are not permitted to retain it beyond that task, to use it for their own marketing, or to pass it on further.

8. Payment information

Residential work is paid on completion by cash or card. Card payments are taken on a terminal operated by our payment processor, and card details are entered into that terminal directly. We receive a confirmation, the amount and a truncated reference — never the full card number, expiry or security code. We do not store card details, and we cannot take a card payment over the telephone by writing the number down.

Commercial accounts are invoiced on agreed terms. We hold the billing contact details and payment history necessary to operate the account and to pursue non-payment where that becomes necessary.

9. How long we keep things

Retention is by category, not by discretion. Where a record falls into more than one category, the longest applicable period governs.

When a period expires, electronic records are deleted and paper records are shredded. We do not maintain an archive of "just in case" data behind these periods.

10. How we protect your information

The most effective safeguard we apply is that we hold very little. Beyond that:

• Job records are held on access-controlled systems, available only to staff whose work requires them.
• This website is served over HTTPS, so information submitted through the quote form is encrypted in transit.
• Devices used by office staff are password-protected and encrypted at rest.
• Access is removed promptly when a member of staff leaves.
• Contractors receive job details for a single job, not standing access to our records.
• Full card numbers never enter our systems, so they cannot be taken from them.

No system is perfect and we will not claim otherwise. If a breach occurs that creates a real risk to you, we will tell you directly and promptly, describe what happened and what information was involved, explain what we are doing about it, and tell you what you can do — and we will notify any authority that the law requires us to notify.

11. Your rights and how to exercise them

Regardless of which state you live in, we extend the following to every customer.

• Know. Ask what personal information we hold about you, where it came from, what we use it for and who we have disclosed it to.
• Access. Receive a copy of it in a readable format.
• Correct. Have inaccurate information corrected. We will pass corrections on to any contractor who received the incorrect version.
• Delete. Have information erased, except where a retention period in section 9 is still running for tax, insurance or legal-hold reasons — in which case we will tell you precisely what is being retained and why, and delete the remainder.
• Opt out of contact. Ask us to stop contacting you, other than where a message is necessary to complete work you have already booked.
• Opt out of sale or sharing. Available on request, though there is nothing to opt out of: we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.
• Non-discrimination. Exercising any of these rights will never affect the price you are quoted or the service you receive.

11.1 How to make a request

Call (218) 461-1436 or email [email protected]. There is no form to complete and no account to create. Tell us what you want and enough detail for us to find your record — usually the name and telephone number used when booking, or the service address.

We will verify that the request comes from you or from somebody authorised to act for you, because releasing a job record to the wrong person is itself a privacy failure. For most requests, confirming details already in the record is sufficient. We will not demand documentation disproportionate to the sensitivity of what is being requested.

We respond within 30 days. Where a request is genuinely complex we may take up to a further 30 days, and if so we will tell you before the first period expires. There is no charge, unless a request is repetitive or manifestly excessive, in which case we will tell you the cost before doing the work rather than invoicing you afterwards.

11.2 If we say no

If we decline a request in whole or in part, we will tell you which part, why, and what you can do next. You may ask us to reconsider by replying to that response, and a different person will review it. If you remain dissatisfied you may complain to the Attorney General of your state.

12. State-specific notes

Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan residents. The rights in section 11 are extended to you as a matter of our own policy. Consumer protection and data breach notification statutes in these states apply to us and we comply with them.

California residents. If California law applies to you, note the following. In the preceding twelve months we have collected the categories of information described in section 3 — identifiers, commercial information relating to services purchased, and internet activity limited to server logs. We collect these for the business purposes in section 4 and disclose them for a business purpose to the categories of recipient in section 7. We have not sold personal information and have not shared it for cross-context behavioural advertising, in the preceding twelve months or at any other time. We do not knowingly collect the personal information of anyone under sixteen. You may exercise your rights by the methods in section 11.1, and you may use an authorised agent to do so.

Other states. Where you live in a state with a comprehensive privacy statute, we will honour the rights that statute grants you even if you are not otherwise covered, because operating one standard is simpler and better than operating several.

13. Children's privacy

Our services are directed at adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under thirteen, and our quote form is not designed for or marketed to children. If you believe a child has provided us with information, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

Children are frequently present at properties we attend. We do not photograph people during documentation work — our before-and-after photographs record rooms and items, not occupants — and where a person is unavoidably in shot, the image is cropped or the photograph retaken.

14. Where your information is held

Personal information is held on systems located in the United States. We do not transfer personal information outside the United States in the ordinary course of business, and we do not use offshore processing for job records, call handling or bookkeeping.

15. Links to other websites

This site links to a small number of external pages, including the disposal fee schedule published by the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District and the share endpoints of two social networks. Those links are provided because the information is useful, not because we have any relationship with the operators. Once you follow a link, this policy no longer applies and the destination's own practices govern.

16. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change. The revision date at the top of the page always reflects the current version.

Where a change materially affects how we handle information already given to us, we will not rely on you re-reading this page. We will contact affected customers directly using the details we hold, describe the change in plain language, and where consent is required we will ask for it rather than assume it.

17. Contacting us and making a complaint

Questions, requests and complaints about privacy all go to the same place, and a person will answer you.

• Email: [email protected]
• Telephone: (218) 461-1436, Monday to Saturday, 07:00 – 19:00
• Post: PUMA Solutions, Privacy Enquiries, Duluth, Minnesota

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Attorney General in your state. We would rather resolve it with you first, but we will not obstruct you if you would prefer to go elsewhere.