Privacy Policy

Notice at collection

This notice explains what Ben’s Asphalt collects when you use Pothole Watch, why, and how long we keep it. It applies when you send a report, and when you email or call us instead.

• Pothole location (sensitive personal information: precise geolocation). Your device’s GPS reading and its accuracy, or the address you type, and the street address we look up from it. Used to find, review and repair the pothole, to tell the property owner or manager about it, and to spot duplicate reports. Kept 3 years, then anonymized.
• Photo (optional). Used to see the pothole’s size and condition, and screened automatically for harmful images. Kept 365 days; a copy attached to a notification email stays in our mailbox for 13 months.
• Note (optional, up to 500 characters) and surface type (street or parking lot). Used to understand and prioritize the report. Kept: the note for 3 years; the surface type stays with the anonymized record.
• Language and how you found us, such as the TV or QR-code link you used and the website that sent you. Used to handle the report in your language and to learn which announcements work. Kept with the anonymized record; it does not identify you.
• Device and security information: a short summary of your device and browser, a coded (hashed) version of your IP address, and bot-protection signals. Used to block spam, bots and abuse, and to fix problems. Kept: the hashed IP address for 30 days; the device summary for 3 years.
• Your email address or phone number, only if you email or call us instead of using the app. Used to receive and handle your report. Kept: emails for 13 months; calls only as long as needed.

We do not sell or share your personal information, including sensitive personal information, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We use your precise location only to handle your report and keep the service safe, not to infer anything about you.

Who receives it: Ben’s Asphalt staff and the service providers who run Pothole Watch for us: Vercel, Supabase, Resend, Microsoft 365, Geoapify, OpenAI, Sentry, GitHub and Better Stack. See How we share information and How long we keep information for details.

Your rights: to make a request, call us toll-free at (888) 455-0000 or email privacy@bensasphalt.com. See Your privacy rights.

Information we collect

We designed Pothole Watch to collect as little as possible. We don’t ask for your name, and you don’t need an account.

When you send a report

• Pothole location. If you tap “use my location,” your browser asks for your permission and then gives us your device’s GPS reading, how accurate it is and when it was taken. We only ask for your location when you tap that button, and we stop once we have a good reading. We don’t track your location. If you type an address instead, we receive the text you type and the matching address you pick. Either way, we look up the street address or map point with our address lookup provider. Because a GPS reading taken at the pothole shows where you were at that moment, the CCPA treats it as sensitive personal information (precise geolocation).
• Photo (optional). Before it leaves your phone, the app shrinks the photo and converts it to a JPEG, which removes hidden metadata such as the camera’s own location tag. Our server then processes the photo again and runs an automated safety check (see Photo safety screening). Please keep faces, license plates and other personal details out of your photos.
• Note (optional). Up to 500 characters about the pothole. Please don’t include personal information.
• Surface type (street or parking lot), if you choose one.
• Language you used (English or Spanish).
• How you found us. For example, a code in the link or QR code you used (such as a TV or campaign tag), the name of the website that sent you (not the full page address), and whether you opened Pothole Watch from your home screen.
• Device and security information. A short summary of your device and browser (for example, “iPhone · Safari · mobile”), taken from information your browser sends with every request. We don’t store your IP address. Instead we store a coded version made with a secret key (a keyed hash) and delete it after 30 days. We use it only to limit how many reports can be sent from one connection and to spot abuse. Our hosting provider’s bot protection also runs an automated check in your browser that looks at technical characteristics of your browser and connection to tell people from bots.
• Reference code and time. We create a reference code (for example, PP-7K3M9Q) and record when the report was sent.

If you email or call us instead

If Pothole Watch can’t send your report, or you prefer, you can email or call us. Then we receive your email address or phone number, anything you choose to tell us or attach (for example, your name or a photo), and the report details the app fills into the email for you. Photos you attach to your own email are not processed by the app, so they may still contain hidden metadata, such as where the photo was taken. You can remove it before sending.

What we don’t collect

• Your name or contact details, unless you email or call us.
• Your location in the background, or at any time other than when you tap to share it.
• Your contacts, other photos, or anything else stored on your device.
• Advertising identifiers, or information from tracking cookies.

Where it comes from

We get this information from you and your device, and we create some of it, such as the reference code and the hashed IP address. Street addresses come from our address lookup provider, based on the location or text you give us.

How we use information

• To review and repair potholes. Every report goes to Ben’s Asphalt staff by email and into our report tracker, where staff review it, decide what to do and record the outcome.
• To contact property owners. When a pothole is on private property, such as a parking lot, we may contact the owner or manager about it, including to offer a repair. We tell them the pothole’s location and condition and may show them the photo. We never give them your email address or phone number.
• To prevent spam, fraud and abuse and to keep the service secure. For example, rate limits, bot protection, photo screening, and flagging reports that contain web links or come from outside the United States.
• To run and improve Pothole Watch. For example, finding and fixing errors, spotting duplicate reports, and counting visits and reports in aggregate so we know which announcements work. Our analytics don’t use cookies and never include your location or the text you write.
• To comply with the law and to protect the rights, property and safety of the public, our customers and Ben’s Asphalt.

We don’t use your information for targeted advertising, to build a profile about you, or to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

Sensitive personal information

The only sensitive personal information Pothole Watch collects is precise geolocation: the GPS location of the pothole. We treat an address you type the same way. We use and disclose it only for the purposes the CCPA regulations allow without offering a right to limit (Cal. Code Regs. tit. 11, § 7027(m)): to provide the service you asked for, which is getting the pothole reviewed and repaired; to keep the service secure and prevent fraud, abuse and illegal activity; to ensure physical safety; and for our service providers to do this work for us. We don’t use it to infer characteristics about you.

Because of this, we don’t offer a separate “Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information” link. You can still ask us questions or make any of the requests described in Your privacy rights.

Photo safety screening

Photos are uploaded to a private holding area first. Our server checks that each file is a real image, processes it again (which removes any remaining metadata) and sends the processed image, without your location, note or other report details, to OpenAI’s moderation service. That service checks it for sexual, violent or self-harm content.

• Photos that pass are added to the report.
• Flagged photos are held for staff review and are never emailed. Staff can approve or delete them.
• Files that fail our checks are deleted, and uploads that never become part of a report are deleted within 8 days.

The result of this check only decides whether a photo is attached to a report. It has no other effect on you. If a photo appears to show child sexual abuse, we will report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

How we share information

We do not sell or share your personal information, as the CCPA defines those terms, and we have not done so. We disclose it only as described below.

Service providers

These companies run parts of Pothole Watch for us. Their contracts with us allow them to use the information only to provide their services to us.

Property owners and managers

When we contact the owner or manager of the property where a pothole is, we may share its location, its condition and the photo. We never share your email address or phone number with them.

Legal, safety and business transfers

We may disclose information if the law or legal process requires it; to protect the rights, property or safety of anyone; to report illegal content, such as to NCMEC; or as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of all or part of our business, in which case this policy continues to apply to the information transferred.

We don’t disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83).

Cookies and storage on your device

• Language cookie. If you switch languages, a small cookie remembers your choice for up to one year.
• Reports waiting to send. So a report isn’t lost if your connection drops, the app keeps it in your browser’s local storage until it is sent: up to 3 reports, for no more than 7 days, and never photos. It is removed as soon as our server confirms the report.
• Report draft. While you fill in a report, the app keeps a draft in your browser’s session storage for up to 30 minutes, so reloading the page or switching languages doesn’t lose it.
• How you found us. The link code you arrived with is kept in session storage until you close the tab, so it can be added to your report.

We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies, and our visit analytics are cookieless. You can clear this data at any time in your browser settings.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Pothole Watch does not track you over time or across other websites, and we don’t allow third parties to do so through our site. Because we don’t do that kind of tracking, we don’t change what we do when your browser sends a “Do Not Track” signal.

We don’t sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of sale and sharing.

How long we keep information

We may keep information longer when we need it for a legal claim, to meet a legal obligation or to investigate abuse.

How we protect information

All connections use HTTPS. Reports and photos are kept in private storage that only authorized Ben’s Asphalt staff can reach, each with their own account. We store only a hashed version of IP addresses, strip metadata from photos, and encrypt our backups. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and to limit who can see it.

Your privacy rights

If you are a California resident, the CCPA gives you these rights:

• Right to know. You can ask what personal information we have collected about you, where it came from, why we collected it and the categories of third parties we disclosed it to, and you can ask for a copy of the specific pieces of information.
• Right to delete. You can ask us to delete personal information we collected from you, subject to exceptions the law allows.
• Right to correct. You can ask us to correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to limit use of sensitive personal information. We already use sensitive personal information only for the permitted purposes described in Sensitive personal information, so there is nothing further to limit.
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing. We don’t sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of.
• Right to non-discrimination. We won’t treat you differently for using any of these rights. Pothole Watch is free and works the same for everyone.

Because Pothole Watch doesn’t collect your name or contact details, we can usually find your report only with details you give us: ideally your reference code, plus the approximate date, time and location, or the note you wrote. We verify your request by matching those details to our records, and we will ask only for what we need. If we can’t reasonably match a report to you, we will tell you. We will never ask you to create an account.

You can use an authorized agent to make a request for you. We may ask for proof that you gave the agent permission, and we may ask you to confirm the request with us directly.

We will confirm that we received your request within 10 business days and respond within 45 calendar days. If we need more time (up to 45 more days), we will tell you why.

If you live outside California, you can make the same requests and we will consider them.

How to make a privacy request

• Call us toll-free at (888) 455-0000.
• Email privacy@bensasphalt.com.

Tell us which right you want to use, and include your reference code if you have it.

Children

Pothole Watch is a general-audience service and is not directed to children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and we don’t sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when our practices change and revise the “Last updated” date above. If we make a material change, we will post a notice on Pothole Watch before the change takes effect.

Contact us

See also our Terms of Use.