Privacy Policy

HostSerp is a brand of Eternal Digital LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, which is the controller of the personal data described here. This page covers what we collect on hostserp.com, why we collect it, who else is involved, and what you can ask us to do about it.

Last updated 31 October 2026

1. The short version

You can read HostSerp without an account. If you create one, we hold your email address and whatever you choose to put on your profile. If you write a review, it is published with the display name on your account. We use cookies to keep the site working, to understand which pages are used, and to show advertising. Advertising on HostSerp is partly served by third parties, including Google, and they use cookies of their own. You can opt out of personalised advertising, and you can ask us for a copy of your data or for it to be deleted.

The rest of this page is the detail behind that.

2. What we collect

Things you give us

Account details: your email address, a password we store only as a cryptographic hash, your display name, and any avatar or profile detail you add.
Reviews and ratings: what you write and the scores you give. These are public, shown with your display name.
Provider claims: if you claim a provider listing, the business details and evidence of authority you send us.
Messages: anything you send us by email or through a form on the site.
Payment details: where you pay us for something, payment is handled by our payment processor. We receive a record of the transaction, not your full card number.

Things we collect automatically

Your IP address, which also tells us your approximate location at country or region level, not a precise one.
Device and browser information: type, operating system, language, screen size.
How you use the site: pages viewed, searches run, links followed, the page you arrived from, and timestamps.
Information stored in cookies and similar technologies, as described in section 4.

We do not ask for or want special category data, such as information about health, race, religion, politics or sexuality. Please do not put it in a review.

3. Why we use it

To run your account, sign you in, and let you post and manage reviews.
To publish reviews and calculate the ratings shown on provider profiles.
To detect and prevent fraud, inauthentic reviews, vote manipulation, spam and abuse, and to enforce our Terms of Service.
To send you service email such as verification and password resets.
To understand which parts of the site are used, so we can improve them.
To show advertising, and where you have agreed to it, personalised advertising.
To comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, our legal bases are: performing our contract with you, for running your account and publishing what you post; our legitimate interests, for security, abuse prevention, and understanding site usage; your consent, for advertising and analytics cookies that are not strictly necessary, which you can withdraw at any time; and legal obligation, where a law requires it.

4. Cookies and similar technologies

A cookie is a small file a site stores in your browser. We and our partners use cookies and similar technologies such as local storage in four ways:

Strictly necessary: keeping you signed in, remembering your consent choices, and protecting forms against abuse. The site cannot work without these.
Preferences: remembering things like recently viewed providers.
Analytics: counting visits and understanding which pages and searches are used.
Advertising: measuring and, where permitted, personalising the advertising you see. See section 5.

Your browser lets you block or delete cookies, and most let you refuse third-party cookies specifically. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will stop you being able to sign in.

5. Advertising

HostSerp carries advertising, and some of it is served by third parties rather than by us. The following disclosures apply:

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites.
Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to HostSerp and/or other sites on the internet.
You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings.
Where we have not opted out of third-party ad serving, cookies of other vendors and ad networks may also be used to serve ads on HostSerp. You can opt out of personalised advertising from participating vendors at aboutads.info, and in the United States at the NAI opt-out page.

Opting out stops advertising being personalised to you. It does not stop advertising appearing.

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland: we ask for your consent before setting advertising or analytics cookies, and before personal data is used to personalise advertising. We keep a record of the consent given. You can change or withdraw it at any time through the cookie settings on the site, or by clearing cookies in your browser, and withdrawing it does not affect anything already done on the basis of it. Where advertising partners receive personal data through HostSerp, they are identified to you at the point consent is requested.

6. Analytics

We use analytics tools to count visits and understand how the site is used, in aggregate. These tools may set their own cookies and may receive your IP address and information about the pages you view. We use what they tell us to improve the site, not to build a profile about you as an individual.

7. Affiliate links

Some links to providers are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you follow one and go on to buy something. When you follow one, the provider or its affiliate network can usually tell that you came from HostSerp, typically through a cookie or a tracking parameter in the link, and that is how the commission is attributed. What they then do with that information is governed by their privacy policy, not ours. Earning a commission does not change a provider's rating.

8. Who else sees your data

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only as follows:

Publicly: your reviews, ratings and display name are public by design.
Service providers: hosting, email delivery, search, storage, error monitoring, analytics, advertising and payment processing, each handling data on our instructions.
Advertising partners: as described in section 5.
Legal reasons: where we must comply with a law or valid legal request, or need to protect our rights, our users or the public.
Business transfers: if the business is reorganised, sold or merged, as part of that transaction, under terms that continue to protect your data.

9. Where your data is held

HostSerp is operated from, and its data is stored in, the United States, and our service providers may process data in other countries. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, this means your data is transferred outside your home jurisdiction. Where we make such a transfer we rely on an appropriate safeguard, normally the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, or the UK addendum to them.

10. How long we keep it

Account data is kept while your account is open. If you close it, we delete or anonymise your account data within a reasonable period, except where we need to keep something for a legal, accounting, security or fraud-prevention reason.

Published reviews are treated differently. Because other people rely on them and because the ratings on provider profiles are calculated from them, we may keep a review in place after an account closes, with the author shown as removed rather than named. If you want a specific review taken down, ask us and we will do it where we are able to.

11. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including encryption in transit, hashed passwords, and restricted internal access. No service can promise perfect security, and we cannot guarantee it. Use a strong, unique password, and tell us promptly if you think your account has been accessed by someone else.

12. Your choices and rights

Whoever and wherever you are, you can ask us to give you a copy of the personal data we hold about you, correct it if it is wrong, delete it, or stop using it for a particular purpose. Write to hello@hostserp.com. We may need to verify who you are before we act, and we will respond within the time the applicable law allows. We will not treat you differently for asking.

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland

You have the rights to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and to object to processing based on legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. You can also complain to your national data protection authority; in the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office. We would rather you came to us first so we can put it right.

If you are a California resident

Under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA you may request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the sources, the purpose, and the categories of third parties we disclose it to; request deletion or correction; and opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information.

We do not sell personal information for money. However, using advertising cookies to show you personalised advertising may count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising under that law. You can opt out through the cookie settings on the site, through the industry opt-out links in section 5, or by sending a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser, which we honour. You may also use an authorised agent, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

13. Children

HostSerp is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child has given us personal data, tell us at hello@hostserp.com and we will delete it.

14. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change, and change the date at the top. Where a change materially affects you we will give notice on the site or by email. Where the law requires fresh consent, we will ask for it rather than assume it.

15. Contacting us

For any privacy question or request, write to hello@hostserp.com, or use our contact page.