Privacy

You can use The Hidden Quarter without an account, and we keep as little as we can: only what you choose to send us, and numbers about which pages are visited.

Last updated 24 October 2026.

Just looking around

Browsing the directory, searching and opening listings needs no account and sends us nothing about you. Two small things are remembered on your own device, and we never see them:

• Your colour theme, if you pick one, and whether you’ve seen the tip about themes (saved in your browser’s storage).
• Which lamplit street suits your screen (Lantern Lane or The Row), in one small cookie called thq-view. It holds only the word “lane” or “row” and is gone when you close your browser.

There are no tracking or advertising cookies, so there’s no cookie banner.

When you send us a form

Claiming a listing, suggesting an edit, reporting a closed business, asking for a removal, suggesting a new listing or sending a message: we keep what you type, so we can deal with it and reply. That means your name, your email address, and your phone number, your connection to the business and your message if you give them. For a new listing, also the business details you send.

We also keep a one-way code made from your network address (never the address itself), so we can stop floods of spam. It can’t be turned back into your address, and it’s erased after 90 days.

A copy of your request is emailed to our own mailbox (info@thehiddenquarter.com), so we see it promptly. Only the people who run the site read requests. We keep a request for as long as we need it to handle it and to keep the directory accurate (for example, a record that an owner asked for their listing to be removed, so it isn’t added back by mistake). You can ask us to delete yours at any time.

Businesses and practitioners listed here

Listings are compiled from information that businesses and practitioners publish themselves, mostly their own websites and public profiles, gathered with the help of research tools and checked before they’re added. Each listing says when its details were last checked, and links to where they came from.

We only list business details: a business or practice name, what’s offered, the city, and public ways to get in touch (website, booking page, business phone and email, social pages), plus prices and hours where they’re published. We never show a street address for anyone who works from home.

If a listing is about you or your business, you can claim it to keep it up to date, ask us to correct it, or ask us to remove it, using the links on the listing’s page or by writing to info@thehiddenquarter.com. Removed listings are taken off the site straight away and kept only as a short record so they aren’t added back.

Counting visits

To see how the site is used, we count how many times each public page is opened each day, and where visits come from in general terms (for example “Google” or the name of a website that linked to us). We also tally whether pages are opened on a phone, a tablet or a computer, and a small script tells our server when a page has stayed open for a couple of seconds, so we can tell real visits from robots (it sends only the page’s address).

That’s all: just numbers. We don’t keep your network address, your browser details, or what you typed into the search box, we don’t use cookies for it, and no outside analytics service is involved. Search-engine robots are tallied separately by kind.

No trackers, nothing from other companies

Everything on this site, including its fonts and the 3D street, comes from our own server. No other company’s scripts run here, and nothing is sent to social networks or advertisers.

Links to other websites (a listing’s website or booking page, its social pages, or “Open in maps”, which goes to Google Maps) take you to those sites, and their own privacy policies apply there.

Advertising

The ad spaces on the site show our own notices and, from time to time, sponsors we’ve agreed with directly. They’re plain pictures and links: they don’t track you. If we ever add an ad service such as Google AdSense, we’ll update this page first to explain what it collects and how to opt out.

Where it’s kept

On our own server, rented from DreamHost in the United States, so it’s subject to the laws there. Our web server keeps no log of visits or network addresses. We take a backup copy every night: those copies are kept for 14 days on the server and for about 30 days in a private off-site copy (in Google Drive). Everything travels over a secure (HTTPS) connection.

Sharing

We don’t sell, rent or share what you send us with anyone, except when the law requires it. Our email goes through our own mailbox at DreamHost.

Your choices

• Ask what we hold about you, and we’ll send you a copy.
• Ask us to correct it or delete it.
• Claim, correct or remove a listing about your business.
• Clear the theme and street choice by clearing this site’s data in your browser.

Write to info@thehiddenquarter.com for any of these. Copies in backups age out within about 30 days.

Children

The Hidden Quarter is meant for adults. It isn’t aimed at children, and we don’t knowingly collect anything from anyone under 13.

If The Hidden Quarter changes hands

If the site or its domain name is ever sold or transferred, what we hold would go to the new owner, who would have to protect it as this page describes.

Changes to this page

If we change what we collect or how we use it, we’ll update this page first and change the date at the top.

Questions

Email info@thehiddenquarter.com, or send us a message. If you’re not happy with our answer, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.