Privacy policy

AskHercules LLC ("Plowhorse," "we," "us" or "our") provides Plowhorse, a done-for-you service that helps small local businesses get found and chosen on Google. This Privacy Policy describes how we process personal information that we collect through plowhorse.co, app.plowhorse.co, the free audit, the Plowhorse service, and our other activities described here (together, the "Service").

State privacy rights: see the State privacy rights notice section below for information about your rights under applicable state privacy laws.

Personal information we collect

Information you provide to us

• Contact data, such as your name, business name, email address, phone number and mailing address.
• Account data, such as your role, the names and email addresses of team members you add, your settings, and the approvals and choices you make in the app.
• Business data, such as your services, hours, service area, the towns you serve, your advertising budget cap, and what we learn from your website when you ask us to read it.
• Photos you send us for your profile. We remove location and other embedded data from each photo when we receive it.
• Free audit data: the business name, town or Google Maps link you enter; your email address if you ask us to send you the audit; and your name, email and phone if you ask us to contact you.
• Your customers' contact details: when you ask us to send a review request, the customer's first name, email address or phone number you give us.
• Communications data from your exchanges with us, such as support emails.
• Payment data needed to bill you. Card details are collected and processed directly by our payment processor; we don't store full card numbers.

Information from Google when you connect your account

See Google user data below.

Third-party sources

• Public sources, such as public Google search and map results, business websites and public listings, obtained through licensed data providers.
• Services you connect, such as your Google account.
• Service providers that help us run the Service, such as our email delivery provider (for example, delivery status).

Automatic data collection

When you visit plowhorse.co or use the app, our hosting provider logs device data (such as IP address, browser and device type) and online activity data (such as the pages you visit and when). To stop abuse of the free audit, we keep a keyed, one-way hash of your IP address, never the address itself.

Google user data

When you connect your Google account, we ask only for the access needed to manage your Google Business Profile (your listing details, reviews and replies, photos, posts and performance) and, for the Leads plan, to work with your Google Ads and Local Services Ads accounts (leads, call and message records, campaigns, budgets and spend) through our manager account. We use that access only to provide the features you see in Plowhorse: keeping your profile up to date, replying to reviews, posting photos and updates, managing the campaigns and budgets you approve, disputing junk leads, and reporting on calls, leads and results.

Plowhorse's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy (opens in a new tab), including the Limited Use requirements.

• We don't sell Google user data, and we don't use or transfer it for advertising.
• We never use data received from Google APIs to develop, improve or train generalized AI or machine-learning models.
• Our staff read Google user data only when you ask us to, when it's needed to provide the Service (for example, a person checks a reply to an unhappy customer before it's posted), for security, or to comply with the law.
• Your Google sign-in tokens are encrypted, used only by our servers, and deleted when you disconnect. Other Google user data is deleted within 30 days after you disconnect or cancel.

Tracking and other technologies

Cookies. plowhorse.co does not use advertising or analytics cookies. The app uses strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in, and our hosting provider may use strictly necessary cookies to keep the Service secure.

Bot checks. The free audit uses Cloudflare Turnstile to tell people from bots, which is subject to Cloudflare's Turnstile privacy addendum (opens in a new tab).

AI technologies. We use AI models (Anthropic's Claude) to draft text such as review replies, photo captions, posts, audit recommendations, lead disputes and report summaries. Customer phone numbers and email addresses are removed before any text is sent to a model. Under its commercial terms, our AI provider may not train its models on this data. A person checks sensitive drafts before anything is published.

How we use your personal information

Service delivery and operations. We use personal information to:

• run the free audit and send it to you;
• provide the Service: keep your Google Business Profile up to date, reply to reviews, post photos and updates, send review requests you ask for, and, on the Leads plan, track leads, manage the campaigns you approve and dispute junk leads;
• send Service emails, such as sign-in links, approval requests, weekly summaries, monthly reports, and account and billing notices;
• set up and maintain accounts;
• provide support and respond to requests, questions and feedback.

Review requests. When you ask us to, we send your customers a review request on your behalf. Every customer gets the same request.

Service improvement and analytics. We use personal information to understand how the Service is used, fix problems, and improve and develop the Service.

Marketing. We may tell business owners about Plowhorse and our sister services by email, as described when you gave us your details. You can opt out at any time (see Your choices). We don't do interest-based advertising.

Compliance and protection. We use personal information to:

• comply with laws, lawful requests and legal process;
• meet the requirements of Google's policies for the accounts we manage;
• protect our, your or others' rights, privacy, safety or property;
• enforce our terms;
• prevent and investigate fraud, spam, misuse and security incidents.

Aggregated, de-identified data. We may create aggregated or de-identified data from personal information by removing names, email addresses, phone numbers and other details that identify a person or business. We may use it for our lawful business purposes, such as improving the Service, including training small in-house models from records like staff decisions and booked-job tags (for example, to spot junk leads or blurry photos). We won't try to re-identify it, and we never use data received from Google APIs to train generalized AI or machine-learning models.

Retention

We keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes it was collected for, including legal, accounting and reporting requirements, resolving disputes, and preventing fraud.

• Audit searches you didn't run: deleted after one day.
• The IP hash on an audit: deleted after 30 days.
• Your email, name and phone from the free audit: deleted after 12 months unless you become a client.
• Client data: deleted within 30 days after you cancel, except billing records and a log of actions we took, with personal details removed.
• Google sign-in tokens: deleted as soon as you disconnect.

When we no longer need personal information, we delete it, de-identify it, or set it aside from further use.

How we share your personal information

• Your business and your team. Business information is shared with the owners and team members you add.
• Google, to carry out the work you authorize, such as updating your listing, posting replies and photos, and managing your campaigns.
• Service providers that help us operate the Service: hosting, email and bot checks (Cloudflare), our database (Neon), AI drafting (Anthropic), public search and map data (DataForSEO), and email delivery. They may use the information only to provide their services to us.
• Payment processors. Card payments are processed by Stripe, which may use payment data under its privacy policy (opens in a new tab).
• Professional advisors, such as lawyers, accountants and insurers.
• Authorities and others, when we believe in good faith that it's required by law or needed for the compliance and protection purposes above.
• Business transferees, in connection with a financing, merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, under this Privacy Policy.

We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for targeted advertising.

Your choices

• Stop marketing emails: use the unsubscribe link in the email, or contact us. You'll still get Service and account emails.
• Access or update your information: clients can update account and business details in the app, or contact us.
• Download or delete your data: clients can download their data and ask for deletion from Settings in the app. Anyone can ask us for a copy of their data, or to delete it, by emailing hello@plowhorse.co.
• Google access: you can remove Plowhorse's access to your Google account at any time from your Google account permissions (opens in a new tab).
• Customers of a business: if a business we work for sent you a review request, we'll work with that business on your request.
• Do Not Track: we don't currently respond to "Do Not Track" browser signals.
• Declining to provide information: some information is needed to provide the Service. Without it, we may not be able to provide some features.

Other sites and services

The Service may link to websites and services run by others, including our sister services. We don't control them and aren't responsible for their practices. Please read their privacy policies.

Security

We use technical, organizational and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information, including encryption in transit and encryption of Google sign-in tokens at rest. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't promise the security of your information. If a breach affects you, we'll notify you as the law requires.

International data transfer

We are based in the United States, and personal information is processed in the United States.

Children

plowhorse.co and Plowhorse accounts are not intended for anyone under 18. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have, please contact us and we'll delete it as the law requires.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy. If we make material changes, we'll update the effective date, post the new version here, and tell clients directly. Using the Service after the effective date means the updated policy applies to you.

How to contact us

• Email: hello@plowhorse.co
• Mail: AskHercules LLC, 5912 Hansen Rd, Edina, MN 55436

State privacy rights notice

This section applies to residents of U.S. states whose privacy laws apply to us and give their residents the rights below (the "State Privacy Laws"). Not every right is available in every state, and these rights aren't absolute: we may decline a request where the law allows. "Personal Information" and "Sensitive Personal Information" mean what the State Privacy Laws say they mean.

Your rights may include:

• Information: the categories of Personal Information we collected, where it came from, why we collected it, and the categories of third parties we disclosed it to.
• Access: a copy of your Personal Information.
• Correction: correcting inaccurate Personal Information.
• Deletion: deleting Personal Information we collected from you.
• Appeal: appealing our decision on a request.
• Opt-out: we don't process Personal Information for targeted advertising, we don't sell it, and we don't use it for profiling or automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

Minors. We have no actual knowledge that we sell or share the Personal Information of consumers under 16.

Sensitive Personal Information. We don't intentionally collect Sensitive Personal Information, and we don't use it to infer characteristics about anyone.

Information we process for businesses. When we process a customer's contact details on a business's behalf, such as for a review request, we act as that business's service provider. We'll refer your request to the business or help the business respond.

How to make a request: email hello@plowhorse.co with "Privacy request" in the subject. We may need to verify your identity, for example by emailing the address the request is about. You can use an authorized agent; we may ask for proof of their authority and confirm the request with you. To appeal a decision, reply to our response with "Appeal" in the subject.

Nondiscrimination. We won't discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

Personal Information we collect, use and disclose (currently and in the past 12 months):