Privacy Policy

Universe Duct Cleaning
Effective Date: November 14, 2025
Last Updated: November 14, 2025

1. Introduction and Scope

This Privacy Policy describes how Universe Duct Cleaning (referred to throughout as “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, maintains, protects, and discloses information obtained from individuals and entities (referred to as “you,” “your,” or “Client”) who engage with our services, visit our website at https://universeductcleaning.com/, contact us by telephone at (561) 719-9830, or communicate with us via electronic mail at universeductclean@gmail.com. David Best serves as Chief Executive Officer and Manager of the Company and acts as the data controller responsible for overseeing compliance with applicable privacy obligations.

Our business operates exclusively within South Florida, targeting residential and commercial clients located in this geographic region. We do not intentionally direct our marketing efforts toward individuals residing in the European Union, nor do we knowingly provide services to persons located outside the United States. Consequently, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which governs the processing of personal data of individuals within the European Economic Area, does not apply to our operations. However, we remain committed to protecting the privacy and security of information entrusted to us in accordance with applicable United States federal law and Florida state statutes, including the Florida Information Protection Act codified at Florida Statutes Section 501.171, which took effect in 2020 and imposes obligations regarding data security and breach notification.

The Florida Digital Bill of Rights (FLDBOR), enacted in 2023 and effective July 1, 2024, establishes comprehensive consumer privacy protections for Florida residents. This law applies to entities that conduct business in Florida or produce products or services targeted to Florida residents and that meet specific revenue or data processing thresholds. Although Universe Duct Cleaning, as a small service business, may not meet all statutory thresholds triggering FLDBOR obligations, we have elected to align our privacy practices with the spirit of these consumer protections as a matter of good business practice and ethical responsibility.

By engaging our services, visiting our website, or otherwise providing information to us, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described herein. Should you disagree with any provision of this Privacy Policy, you should refrain from using our services or providing information to us.

2. Categories of Information We Collect

The nature of our business requires us to gather certain information to schedule appointments, perform services, process payments, and maintain ongoing customer relationships. The categories of information we collect include the following.

1. Identifying Information

When you request services or contact us for quotes, we collect your name, physical address (including street address, city, state, and zip code), telephone number, and email address. This identifying information allows us to communicate with you regarding appointments, provide service estimates, send invoices, and follow up regarding service quality. For commercial clients, we may also collect business names, employer identification numbers, and contact information for relevant personnel such as property managers or facilities directors.

1. Property Information

To provide accurate estimates and perform services effectively, we collect information about your property, including square footage, the age and type of HVAC system installed, the configuration and accessibility of ductwork, the number of supply and return vents, and any known issues such as mold contamination or excessive debris accumulation. Photographs of work areas may be taken by our technicians during inspection and service delivery; these images become part of our service records.

1. Financial and Payment Information

Payment processing requires the collection of financial information. When you pay by credit or debit card, we collect card numbers, expiration dates, security codes, and billing addresses. For clients who pay by check, we retain copies of checks received, which contain account numbers and bank routing information. Electronic payment platforms we use may collect additional information in accordance with their respective terms of service and privacy policies. We do not store complete credit card information on our systems; rather, payment processing is handled through third-party payment processors that maintain PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance.

1. Communications Records

We maintain records of communications between you and our Company. This includes email correspondence, text messages, notes from telephone conversations, voicemail recordings where legally permissible, and any written complaints or service feedback you provide. These records serve multiple purposes: they document service agreements, preserve evidence of customer consent and preferences, assist in resolving disputes, and help us improve service quality.

1. Technical and Website Usage Information

When you visit our website, certain technical information is automatically collected through cookies, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies. This category includes your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, device identifiers, operating system, referring website addresses, pages viewed on our site, time spent on pages, links clicked, and the date and time of visits. We use this information to analyze website traffic patterns, improve site functionality, troubleshoot technical issues, and enhance user experience.

3. Sources From Which We Collect Information

Information reaches us through multiple channels, which can be categorized as direct collection from you and indirect collection from third-party sources.

1. Direct Collection

Most information we possess comes directly from you through voluntary disclosure. You provide information when you fill out contact forms on our website, call our office to schedule appointments, send email inquiries, engage with our social media presence, respond to marketing communications, or interact with our technicians during service delivery. Payment information is provided at the time of transaction.

1. Third-Party Sources

We may receive information from third-party platforms and service providers we use to operate our business. Housecall Pro, our scheduling and customer relationship management software, collects and transmits to us information you provide when booking appointments through their platform. Analytics services such as Google Analytics collect website usage data and provide aggregated reports. Facebook Business Tools, including the Facebook Pixel, may collect information about your interaction with our advertising and website after you have engaged with our Facebook or Instagram advertisements. Referral sources, including prior customers who recommend our services or business partners who refer clients to us, may provide your contact information with your permission.

4. How We Use Your Information

The information we collect serves specific business purposes, each of which is detailed below. Our use of information is limited to purposes reasonably necessary to provide services, fulfill our contractual obligations, comply with legal requirements, and conduct legitimate business operations.

1. Service Delivery and Performance

The primary purpose for collecting information is to deliver the HVAC cleaning and maintenance services you request. We use contact information to schedule appointments, confirm arrival times, and notify you of any schedule changes. Property information enables our technicians to arrive prepared with appropriate equipment. Payment information allows us to process transactions and issue receipts. Service records document work performed and serve as the basis for warranty claims.

1. Customer Communication

We use your contact information to communicate regarding active service engagements, respond to inquiries, address complaints or concerns, request feedback about services received, and provide information about related services that may interest you. Such communications may occur via telephone, email, or text message where you have provided consent to receive such messages.

1. Billing and Accounting

Financial information is processed to generate invoices, accept payments, maintain accounting records, pursue collection of overdue accounts, and comply with tax reporting obligations. Payment records are retained as required by federal and state tax authorities and generally accepted accounting principles.

1. Business Operations and Analysis

Aggregated and anonymized data derived from customer information helps us understand our client base, identify trends in service demand, evaluate marketing effectiveness, optimize scheduling efficiency, train staff, and make strategic business decisions. For example, analyzing which geographic areas generate the most service calls helps us plan technician deployment and marketing efforts.

1. Legal Compliance and Protection

We may use and disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, or enforceable governmental requests; to enforce our Terms and Conditions; to detect, prevent, or address fraud, security vulnerabilities, or technical issues; to protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of our Company, our customers, or the public; or to defend against legal claims.

5. Information Sharing and Disclosure to Third Parties

We do not sell, rent, or trade personally identifiable information to unaffiliated third parties for their independent marketing purposes. However, we do share information with certain categories of third parties under circumstances described below.

 

 

1. Service Providers and Business Partners

We engage third-party vendors who perform services on our behalf and require access to customer information to perform those functions. These service providers include payment processors, accounting and bookkeeping services, customer relationship management platforms, email marketing services, website hosting providers, and IT support contractors. Each such vendor is contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality of information received and to use it solely for the purposes of providing services to us, not for their own independent purposes.

1. Professional Advisors

In the ordinary course of business, we may share information with attorneys, accountants, auditors, insurance providers, and other professional advisors who require access to information to provide professional services to our Company. These professionals are bound by ethical and legal obligations to maintain confidentiality.

1. Business Transfers

Should Universe Duct Cleaning be involved in a merger, acquisition, sale of assets, bankruptcy, or other business transaction, customer information may be transferred as part of that transaction. Any successor entity would remain bound by the commitments made in this Privacy Policy unless you consent to a different privacy policy.

1. Legal Requirements and Protection of Rights

As noted above, we disclose information when required by law or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our legal rights, comply with judicial proceedings or governmental requests, investigate suspected fraud or violations of our Terms and Conditions, or protect the safety of any person.

6. Third-Party Tools and Technologies

Our website and business operations utilize several third-party tools that collect information. Understanding how these tools function is important to informed consent.

1. Facebook Pixel and Meta Business Tools

We have implemented the Facebook Pixel on our website. This is a piece of code provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. (formerly Facebook, Inc.) that enables us to measure the effectiveness of our advertising by understanding the actions people take on our website after viewing our Facebook or Instagram advertisements. The Pixel collects information about your visit, including pages viewed, buttons clicked, and actions taken, and transmits this information to Facebook. Facebook then uses this data to attribute website conversions to specific advertisements, build custom audiences for retargeting, and optimize advertisement delivery to users likely to take desired actions.

The Facebook Pixel may collect and transmit information including IP addresses, browser information, page location, referrer URLs, device identifiers, and timestamp data. If you are logged into Facebook when visiting our website, Facebook may associate your activity on our site with your Facebook account. You can control Facebook’s use of your information through your Facebook privacy settings and by using browser settings to block cookies or employing opt-out mechanisms provided by the Digital Advertising Alliance or Network Advertising Initiative.

Recent enforcement actions by European data protection authorities have scrutinized the use of Facebook Pixel, particularly regarding transfers of personal data to Meta’s servers in the United States. Because we serve only U.S. clients and do not market to EU residents, these particular GDPR concerns do not apply to our operations. Nonetheless, we have configured our Facebook Pixel to avoid transmitting sensitive personal information and to respect user privacy preferences to the extent technically feasible.

1. Web Analytics Services

We use web analytics services, which may include Google Analytics or similar platforms, to collect and analyze information about how visitors use our website. These services employ cookies and similar technologies to track user interactions, generate reports on website activity, and provide insights into user demographics and interests. Analytics providers typically anonymize IP addresses and aggregate data to protect individual privacy. You may opt out of analytics tracking through browser settings, analytics provider opt-out tools, or browser plugins designed to prevent analytics scripts from executing.

1. Housecall Pro and Scheduling Software

Housecall Pro serves as our customer relationship management and scheduling platform. When you book appointments through our website or when we enter your information into the system, Housecall Pro collects and processes that information on our behalf. Housecall Pro’s own privacy policy, available at their website, governs their data handling practices. According to their published privacy policy, Housecall Pro collects identifiers, contact information, payment details, and service-related data; uses commercially reasonable security safeguards; and may disclose information to comply with legal obligations or protect safety.

Housecall Pro’s terms explicitly state that communications with their platform, including telephone calls, SMS messages, and in-product communications, may be monitored, recorded, and processed by third-party partners and vendors for purposes of analysis, quality assurance, training, and service improvement. Users of Housecall Pro consent to such monitoring and processing.

7. Data Security Measures

Protecting the security and integrity of information entrusted to us constitutes a paramount obligation. Florida Statutes Section 501.171, part of the Florida Information Protection Act, requires covered entities to take reasonable measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, or misuse.

We have implemented administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect information against reasonably foreseeable risks. Administrative safeguards include employee training on data privacy and security, background checks for personnel with access to sensitive information, and policies limiting access to information on a need-to-know basis. Technical safeguards include encryption of data in transit using industry-standard protocols, password protection for systems containing personal information, regular software updates and security patches, and firewall and anti-malware protections. Physical safeguards include secure storage of paper records, controlled access to facilities where records are maintained, and proper disposal of documents containing personal information through shredding or similar destruction methods.

Payment card information is processed through third-party payment processors that maintain compliance with PCI DSS requirements, which establish rigorous standards for handling credit card data. We do not store complete payment card numbers on our systems.

Despite these precautions, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. In the event of a data breach affecting personal information, we will comply with applicable breach notification requirements, including those established by Florida Statutes Section 501.171, which generally requires notification to affected individuals and to the Florida Department of Legal Affairs within 30 days of determining that a breach has occurred, absent good cause for a 15-day extension.

8. Data Retention Practices

We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, comply with legal and regulatory obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and maintain business records.

Service records, including customer contact information, property details, service histories, and payment records, are typically retained for a period of seven years following the last service date. This retention period aligns with tax record retention requirements under Internal Revenue Service regulations and Florida’s statute of limitations for contract actions. Communications records are generally retained for similar periods. Technical information and website analytics data are often retained in anonymized or aggregated form indefinitely for business analysis purposes.

When information is no longer needed, we dispose of it securely through methods such as permanent deletion from electronic systems, overwriting of storage media, or physical destruction of paper records. Certain information may be retained in backup systems for limited periods beyond active deletion.

9. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your location and the nature of our relationship, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information.

1. Florida Residents Under the FLDBOR

The Florida Digital Bill of Rights, effective July 1, 2024, grants Florida consumers rights to access, correct, delete, and control use of their personal information, subject to certain exceptions. Specifically, Florida residents have the right to: (i) confirm whether we are processing their personal information and to access that information; (ii) correct inaccuracies in their personal information; (iii) request deletion of personal information we have collected; (iv) obtain a portable copy of personal information in a readily usable format, to the extent technically feasible; and (v) opt out of the sale of personal information, processing for targeted advertising, or collection through voice or facial recognition technologies.

Universe Duct Cleaning does not sell personal information to third parties, does not engage in targeted advertising beyond standard business marketing to existing customers, and does not use voice or facial recognition technologies. Accordingly, opt-out rights related to these activities are not applicable to our operations. However, we honor requests to access, correct, or delete information subject to exceptions permitted under the FLDBOR, such as where retention is necessary to complete transactions, comply with legal obligations, exercise free speech rights, conduct internal research, or maintain security.

1. California Residents Under the CCPA

Although our business operates in Florida and does not specifically target California residents, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), may apply to businesses meeting certain thresholds that collect information from California consumers. The CCPA grants California residents rights similar to those under the FLDBOR, including rights to know what personal information is collected, to delete personal information, to opt out of sales of personal information, and to non-discrimination for exercising these rights.

If you are a California resident and believe the CCPA applies to information we have collected about you, you may exercise CCPA rights by contacting us using the methods described in Section 12 below.

1. Exercising Your Rights

To exercise privacy rights described above, submit a request via email to universeductclean@gmail.com or by calling (561) 719-9830. Your request should specify which right you are exercising and provide sufficient information for us to verify your identity and locate your records in our systems. We may request additional identifying information to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests, particularly deletion requests, to prevent unauthorized access to your information.

We endeavor to respond to verified requests within the timeframes required by applicable law, generally within 45 days for FLDBOR and CCPA requests, with the possibility of extension by an additional 45 days where reasonably necessary. We do not charge fees for processing requests unless they are manifestly unfounded, excessive, or repetitive, in which case we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on the request.

10. Children’s Privacy

Our services are not directed to children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires enhanced protections for information collected from children under 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 16 without appropriate parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information promptly.

Parents or legal guardians who believe we may have collected information from a minor should contact us immediately at universeductclean@gmail.com so that we can investigate and take appropriate corrective action.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in our information practices, legal requirements, or business operations. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy and post the revised version on our website at https://universeductcleaning.com/. For significant changes that materially affect your rights or our use of your information, we may provide additional notice through email to the address on file or through prominent notice on our website.

Your continued use of our services or website following the posting of changes constitutes acceptance of those changes. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect information.

12. Contact Information and Privacy Inquiries

Questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices should be directed to:

Universe Duct Cleaning
Attn: David Best, CEO and Data Controller
Email: universeductclean@gmail.com
Telephone: (561) 719-9830

We take privacy inquiries seriously and will respond to all legitimate requests in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

13. Acknowledgment and Consent

By providing information to Universe Duct Cleaning through any means, including our website, telephone, email, or in-person interactions, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described herein. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not provide information to us or use our services.