Privacy Policy
Effective November 4, 2026
The short version
We collect what we need to inspect your house and send you the report. Nothing beyond that.
We do not sell your information, and we never have.
Illinois law forbids us from giving your report to your agent, your attorney, or anyone else without your written consent. We follow that strictly.
We do use photographs, video, and what we find in our marketing, on the website, on social media, in email, and in ads. Illinois requires your written permission first, so the agreement asks you, and your answer does not change your price.
Illinois requires us to keep inspection records for five years, so deleting everything on request is not always something we are allowed to do.
1. What this covers
This policy explains what Canary Inspection LLC does with personal information on canaryinspection.com, on our booking and report subdomains, and in the course of inspecting a property. Questions go to hello@canaryinspection.com or 847-927-0371.
2. What we collect
Contact details — name, email, phone, mailing address
Property details — address, square footage, year built, structures, access notes
Transaction context — your agent’s or attorney’s name, if you give it
Inspection material — photographs, measurements, instrument readings, notes, the report
Signature records — your signed agreement and its audit trail
Payment — amount, date, method, confirmation (we never see or store full card or bank account numbers)
Site and server data — IP address, browser, pages viewed, referring page
3. Photographs inside your home
An inspection produces a lot of photographs, and some of them are of rooms people live in. Two rules we hold to:
We photograph the building and its systems. We avoid photographing people, personal documents, medications, screens, mail, and anything else that is plainly private.
If a photograph of a defect unavoidably includes personal belongings, it goes in your report and nowhere else.
If you want a particular area or item left out of the photographs, tell us during the inspection and we will note it as a limitation in the report rather than photograph it.
4. What we use it for
Quoting, scheduling, and performing your inspection
Writing and delivering your report, and answering your questions afterward
Taking payment and keeping our books
Keeping the records Illinois requires us to keep
Responding to you, and to a legal demand if one ever arrives
Marketing, but only the parts you have given written permission for, as described below
We do not use your information to build advertising profiles, to target ads at you, or to train anything.
5. Calls and text messages
When you give us a mobile number we use it to confirm your appointment, to reach you about access on the day, and to tell you the report is ready. If you opt in to appointment reminders, you will get automated texts for that booking.
Reply STOP to any message to stop them, or HELP for help. Message and data rates may apply from your carrier. Consent to texts is never a condition of booking an inspection, and we do not send marketing texts.
6. Who else sees it
We use a small number of outside services to run the business. They handle information on our behalf and are not allowed to use it for their own purposes.
Website and domain host - The public site, form submissions, basic traffic statistics
Content delivery and report hosting - Serving report pages, server logs, security filtering
Scheduling and calendar - Your appointment, contact details, and property address
Electronic signature - Your agreement and its signing record
Email - Our correspondence with you and report delivery
Cloud file storage - Photographs, report files, and the records we must retain
Payment processing - Your payment. They hold the card details; we do not
Software that helps us draft reports, including AI-assisted tools - Inspection photographs and notes, processed to help produce your report. A person reviews and signs every report
Beyond that, we share only when the law requires it, when we must defend a legal claim, or if the business is ever sold, in which case the buyer takes on these same obligations.
We do not sell personal information, and we never hand it to anyone else for their advertising. We also accept no payment from contractors, lenders, insurers, warranty companies, title companies, or real estate licensees in exchange for your information or for a referral. Our own marketing is a separate matter and runs on your written permission; see below.
7. Your report goes to you
Illinois is strict about this and so are we. Under 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1410.250 we may not send your report or its results to a third party, including your own real estate agent or attorney, without your written consent. The agreement has a place to name those people, you can add or withdraw names at any time in writing, and we keep a record of what you authorized.
The same rule covers marketing. Illinois does not let us use identifying client information or inspection results in advertising or for any commercial purpose without your written consent and approval first, so we ask for it in the agreement rather than assume it here.
8. Photographs, video, and reviews in our marketing
We do market with the work. Photographs of a failed component, short videos of a system being tested, and what an inspection turns up are the most useful things we can show someone deciding whether to hire an inspector. Your agreement asks your permission in two separate parts, and you can agree to one, both, or neither. Saying no changes nothing about your price, your scope, or your report.
Nothing that identifies you. Photographs and video of a defect, a system, or the work itself, with the address, your name, and anything else that identifies you or the property removed. We use these on our website, on social media, in email, in printed material, in paid advertising, and in training material.
Identified use. The property address, your first name, a quote or review from you, or the details of what we found, in those same places. This is a separate box and it is never assumed.
If you leave us a public review on Google or anywhere else, we may quote it and repost it, with your first name and last initial, on our site, our social channels, and in email. Tell us to stop and we will.
You can withdraw either permission at any time by writing to us, and we will stop using the material going forward. We cannot always recall something already printed, already sent in an email, or reposted by someone else.
One limit worth naming. At a pre-purchase inspection the house and nearly everything in it still belong to the seller, and your permission covers your own information, not their property. For that reason interior images used in marketing are de-identified, and we ask the owner separately before using anything that shows a recognizable home or its contents.
9. Report links
Online reports sit at an address containing a long random token. The link is not published anywhere, there is no index of reports, and search engines are instructed not to visit. That makes the address effectively unguessable, but it is a secret link rather than a password: anyone you forward it to can read it. Please treat it accordingly. Ask us and we will take any report page down.
10. How long we keep it
Inspection records, meaning your agreement, report, photographs, notes, and any consent you gave: at least five years, or two years after any legal proceeding ends, whichever is longer. This is required by 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1410.240 and is not something we can waive.
Financial records: as long as tax and accounting rules require.
Quote requests that never became a booking: until deleted.
Website server logs: kept by our host for its own short retention period.
11. Security
Files are held in access-controlled accounts protected by strong, unique credentials and multi-factor authentication. The site and the report pages are served over HTTPS. Report links use random tokens and are excluded from search engines.
No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. If a breach affects your personal information we will notify you as the Illinois Personal Information Protection Act (815 ILCS 530) requires.
12. Your choices
See what we hold. Ask and we will tell you.
Correct it. If something is wrong, we will fix it. A factual correction to a delivered report is issued as a revised report, not an edit to the original.
Delete it. We will delete what we are not required to keep. We cannot delete records inside the five-year retention window described above.
Change who can see your report. Add or withdraw an authorized recipient in writing at any time.
Stop the texts. Reply STOP.
Write to hello@canaryinspection.com and we will respond within 30 days. We may need to confirm who you are first.
13. Cookies and tracking
Our website host sets a small number of cookies that are needed for the site to work and to count visits in aggregate. We do not run advertising pixels and we do not build audiences for retargeting. You can block or delete cookies in your browser; the site will still work, though a form may forget what you typed.
14. Children
This is a service for people buying and owning property. The site is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has given us information, tell us and we will delete it.
15. Where you are
We serve northern Illinois and store information in the United States. We are a small business that falls below the thresholds of the California and European privacy statutes, but we will honor a reasonable request to see, correct, or delete your information from wherever you live, within the retention limits above.
16. Changes
We may update this policy. The effective date at the top changes when we do. If a change materially affects how we handle information we already hold about you, we will tell you directly rather than rely on you noticing a new date.
Getting in touch
Canary Inspection LLC
454 Broadview Ave., Highland Park, IL 60035
847-927-0371
hello@canaryinspection.com
If anything here is unclear, ask. We would rather explain it than have you guess.