Privacy Policy

Information we collect

We collect information you choose to provide, information created when you use certain features (such as signing a document), and limited technical information needed to operate the site and prevent abuse.

Contact form

Name, email address, and message. Submissions are emailed to us so we can reply. They are not saved to our website database. Your email address is used as the reply address on that message.

Inspection request / scheduling form

Name, email address, phone number, property address, service requested (including options such as radon testing), preferred date or timeframe, and any notes you add. This information is stored in our scheduling system so we can contact you and arrange the inspection.

Anti-abuse technical data on inspection requests and signatures

When you submit an inspection request, we may record the IP address and browser user-agent string associated with that submission. The same kinds of details may be stored when you open or sign a document through a signing link, including for rate-limiting and audit records. This is used to identify spam and abuse and to evidence a signature. It is not used by us for advertising profiles.

Ordinary page visits

Browsing public pages does not cause this application to store your IP address or browser user-agent in our website database. Those fields are written only for the actions described above (inspection requests and document signing), not for every page view. We have not independently verified, from this application’s current production reverse-proxy settings, whether hosting access logs retain IP addresses or user-agent strings for ordinary visits.

Electronic signatures and consent records

If you sign an inspection-related document through a secure signing link we send you, we store your signed name, signature image or drawing data, consent acceptance, related document details, and technical evidence such as IP address, browser user-agent, and timezone for authenticity and audit purposes.

Inspection clients and business records

If you hire us, we create ordinary business records connected to the job — contact details, property information, service selections (including radon testing where applicable), inspection reports and photographs, invoices, payment status, and signed agreements. Client and billing records may also be maintained in our accounting/CRM system.

Payments

When an invoice is payable online, you are directed to a Stripe checkout experience arranged through our accounting system. Vaughn Home Inspection does not collect or store complete payment-card numbers on this website. Card data is handled by the payment processor.

Staff account information

Our staff sign in to an internal business application. That area uses authentication and session cookies. It is not a public consumer account portal on this marketing website.

Phone, email, and SMS communications

If you call, email, or text us, we receive whatever information you choose to share in that conversation, and we may keep ordinary business correspondence. If you opt in to transactional text messages (see SMS / Text Messaging below), we record your consent, the exact consent text, a version identifier, and the date of consent.

SMS opt-in data

If you check the SMS consent checkbox when requesting an inspection, we store that you consented, the exact label text you agreed to, and a consent version string. This data is used solely to send you transactional messages related to your inspection and to document your opt-in for compliance purposes. Mobile opt-in data and consent information will not be sold or shared with third parties for their marketing or promotional purposes.

How we use information

We use personal information to:

Respond and schedule

Answer inquiries, schedule and perform inspections, and communicate about services.

Deliver the work

Prepare for inspections, provide reports, administer contracts and electronic signatures, and handle invoices and payment administration.

Operate the business

Provide customer service, keep required business, tax, insurance, licensing, and liability records, and maintain internal operations.

Secure and protect

Operate and secure the website and systems, prevent spam, fraud, and abuse, and investigate suspicious activity.

Send transactional SMS

If you opt in to text messaging, we send transactional text messages related to your inspection — for example, scheduling confirmations, appointment reminders, and status updates. We do not send marketing or promotional text messages. See SMS / Text Messaging below for program details.

Advertising and measurement by third parties

Allow advertising partners such as Google to serve and measure ads on portions of this site, as described in the Google Advertising section below. We do not use information you submit through our forms to build advertising profiles, and we do not add you to marketing lists you did not ask to join.

Cookies and similar technologies

This website uses cookies and similar technologies in a limited way:

Necessary / session cookies

The staff area of the application uses session cookies so authorized users can stay signed in. Those cookies are functional and are used for authentication, not for public-site advertising.

Advertising cookies

Google AdSense and its partners may set cookies, device identifiers, or similar technologies to serve and measure ads. See Google Advertising below.

Affiliate / retailer cookies

If you follow an Amazon Associates link from this site, Amazon may set its own cookies under Amazon’s policies.

Browser controls

You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Blocking cookies may affect site features, sign-in, or how ads are shown.

What we do not run

This public website does not run Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, or similar first-party visitor-tracking analytics scripts. We also do not operate a first-party newsletter signup on this site.

Google Advertising

This website uses Google AdSense to display advertising. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads on this site.

Google may use advertising cookies to serve ads based on a visitor’s prior visits to this website and/or other websites. Google and its partners may use cookies, device identifiers, IP addresses, or similar technologies for advertising and measurement.

Users can manage or opt out of personalized advertising through Google’s advertising settings. You can also learn about industry opt-out tools at aboutads.info.

Vaughn Home Inspection does not control Google’s independent data practices. Google’s collection and use of information is described in Google’s Privacy Policy.

The advertising script this website loads is Google’s AdSense script. Google may load additional advertising or measurement partners when ads are served. This application’s code does not include a list of those ad technology providers, and we cannot verify from the code which partners Google currently uses on this site.

This Privacy Policy does not collect advertising consent. This website’s application code does not currently include an on-site Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) or consent banner. Settings inside a Google AdSense account, including Privacy & messaging, are not the same thing as a CMP running on these pages. Configuring an AdSense account does not, by itself, complete a site implementation. A certified CMP would need to actually load and operate on this website for visitors in regions where Google requires one (including the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland) before this site could treat advertising consent as collected through that mechanism.

Affiliate relationships

As an Amazon Associate, Vaughn Home Inspection may earn commissions from qualifying purchases made through Amazon affiliate links on this site. Affiliate relationships do not change the price you pay. Amazon’s own privacy practices apply once you leave this site.

Third-party service providers

We use service providers to operate the business and the website. Depending on the feature involved, information may be processed by:

Google

AdSense advertising on public pages (the AdSense script loads on marketing pages). Staff-side Google Search Console reporting about search performance of our own site (aggregated data, not individual visitor profiles from a site analytics tag). Staff-only Google Maps/Places tools used inside our internal application for business operations such as places lookup and mileage-related calculations. The typefaces on this site are served from our own files, not from Google’s public font CDN.

Stripe (via our accounting system)

Online invoice payment checkout. We store payment-request references and payment URLs/status as needed for billing administration; we do not store complete card numbers on this website.

ERPNext / accounting and CRM

Contacts, customers, invoices, and related billing workflows for inspection jobs.

Email (SMTP)

Delivery of contact-form messages, inspection-request notices, invoices, reports, and signing-related emails through our configured mail provider.

Twilio (SMS messaging service)

If you opt in to transactional text messages, SMS messages are delivered through Twilio, which acts as a processor on our behalf. Twilio receives your phone number and message content as needed to deliver the messages. Twilio's privacy practices are described in Twilio's Privacy Notice. We do not share your opt-in data with Twilio for their independent marketing purposes.

Hosting, database, and document storage

Website hosting infrastructure, our PostgreSQL database, and optional document storage used for inspection-related files and signed documents.

Identity provider (staff)

Keycloak is used for staff authentication to the internal application.

OpenStreetMap

Our public service-area map loads map tiles from OpenStreetMap servers, which receive the network request needed to deliver those tiles.

Lake Insights

Certain lake property pages load an embedded water-level widget from Lake Insights in your browser. Our servers also request public lake-conditions data from Lake Insights to display a conditions summary; that server-side request is not a visitor browser request to Lake Insights.

Laboratories and transaction parties

When a service such as radon testing requires laboratory analysis, relevant information is shared as needed to perform that service. We may also share information with people you ask us to include, such as a real estate agent or another party to your transaction.

Information sharing

We do not sell personal information for money, and we do not rent or trade mailing lists.

Advertising technologies on this site (including Google AdSense and its partners) may collect information through cookies and similar technologies for advertising and measurement. Under some privacy laws, that kind of third-party advertising activity may be considered a “sale” or “share” of personal information even when no money is exchanged. You can limit personalized advertising through the Google settings linked above and through your browser controls.

We share personal information where needed to provide services, operate our systems, comply with law, or protect rights and safety — including with the providers described in this policy, laboratories when required for a service, parties you ask us to include, and when we receive a valid legal request or a South Carolina licensing-related obligation.

SMS / Text Messaging

Vaughn Home Inspection offers an optional transactional text-messaging program. You may opt in when submitting an inspection request on this website. Opting in is not required to use our services.

We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

What messages you will receive

Transactional messages related to your home inspection only, such as scheduling confirmations, appointment reminders, and status updates. We do not send marketing or promotional text messages through this program.

Frequency

Message frequency varies depending on your inspection. You will typically receive between 1 and 10 messages per inspection engagement.

Rates

Message and data rates may apply depending on your mobile carrier and plan.

Opt out

Reply STOP to any message to cancel. You will receive a single confirmation and no further texts from this program.

Help

Reply HELP to any message or contact us at (864) 934-6058 or info@vaughnhomeinspection.com.

Carrier disclaimer

Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Delivery is not guaranteed.

Opt-in data

Mobile opt-in data and consent information will not be sold or shared with third parties for their marketing or promotional purposes.

Messaging processor

Text messages are delivered through Twilio, which acts as a processor on our behalf. See Third-party service providers above.

Terms

Additional SMS program terms are described in our Terms & Conditions.

Retention

We do not currently publish fixed automated deletion schedules for every record type in our application. In general, we retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for business, legal, accounting, security, contractual, tax, insurance, licensing, and liability purposes.

Contact-form emails remain in our mailbox as ordinary correspondence. Inspection requests, reports, invoices, signed documents, and related audit records are retained as business records for as long as we may need them for those purposes.

You may ask us to delete information we are not required to keep, and we will honor that request where we reasonably can.

Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information, including HTTPS for this website and restricting access to inspection records and internal systems to authorized staff accounts. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure. Please do not send sensitive information such as full financial account numbers or a Social Security number through our public web forms.

Children’s privacy

This website is directed to adults arranging home inspection and related property services. It is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has submitted information to us, contact us. We will review the report and take appropriate steps, including deleting the information where that is appropriate or required.

Privacy requests and your choices

You can browse much of the site without submitting a form. Forms are optional; you may call or email us instead.

To request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information we hold about you, or to ask a privacy question, contact us using the details below and describe your request. We will respond as promptly as we reasonably can.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under applicable law. This policy is not a claim that every statutory right applies in every jurisdiction. If a privacy law that applies to you provides specific rights, contact us and we will address your request in light of that law.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

This website does not currently detect or honor browser “Do Not Track” signals or Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals. You can still use browser cookie controls and Google’s advertising settings.

Some privacy laws may require covered businesses to honor opt-out preference signals such as GPC. This policy does not determine whether those laws apply to Vaughn Home Inspection. That question should be reviewed with legal counsel. This statement is flagged for legal review because the site does not currently honor GPC.

External links and embedded content

This site may link to third-party websites or load embedded third-party content (for example Amazon product pages, Google ads, OpenStreetMap tiles, or Lake Insights widgets). Vaughn Home Inspection is not responsible for the independent privacy practices of those third parties. Their policies apply to information they collect.

Search performance data

We may review aggregate search performance data that Google Search Console provides about our own site, such as which search queries showed our pages. That reporting is about our site’s visibility in search results and is not a visitor analytics tag installed on every public page.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. Material changes will be reflected here.