How information is handled

1. Information collected

Send One In collects the business name, category, town or service area, a description of what the business does, how the submitter knows or used it, the submitter's first name, and a private follow-up contact. It also asks for at least one public business contact method: website, phone, or a supported public social link.

The submission intent is required. A last initial, additional public contact methods, and a private note to Muscadine are optional. Muscadine also processes limited operational submission information needed to receive and review the intake.

2. Submission handling

Submissions are not automatically published. They remain private and pending until manually reviewed, and submitting does not guarantee publication. Submitter contact details, relationship context, and private notes are not intended for public vendor profiles. Only approved, public-safe business information may later appear publicly.

3. Community contributions

Recommending an existing business asks for the contributor's full first name, full last name, and email address. A short written note about how the contributor knows or used the business is optional. Muscadine also maintains operational information related to a contribution, which may include submission timestamps, moderation status, contribution classification, moderation and action timestamps, operator moderation history, private operator notes where applicable, and withdrawal or other governed history where applicable.

Full surname and email remain private operational information used for contributor accountability, duplicate and abuse prevention, moderation, operator follow-up, withdrawal processing, governance and audit history, and platform integrity. For an accepted Recommendation, Muscadine may publicly display only the contributor's first name and last initial, such as “Chris C.”

When written context is submitted, Muscadine preserves the contributor's substantive wording as original contribution evidence. Normal moderation classifies and reviews the contribution without rewriting that wording. Recommendation wording is not currently displayed publicly. Community Feedback contributor identity and wording remain private and operator-only.

Community contributions remain pending until manually reviewed. A legitimate contribution may be classified as an affirmative Recommendation or as Community Feedback. Only accepted affirmative Recommendations may contribute to factual public Recommendation evidence. Community Feedback, pending contributions, rejected contributions, and withdrawn contributions do not qualify for public Recommendation count or attribution. Muscadine does not use Recommendation activity as ratings, rankings, trust scores, popularity scores, quality scores, discovery-priority signals, or paid-placement signals.

4. Operational email alerts

After a successful Send One In submission, Muscadine may send a private operational alert to the platform operator to support review. The alert may contain information entered in the submission, is not public, and is delivered through an email service provider. If the alert fails, that does not change the submission's intended private, pending status.

5. Service providers

Vercel hosts the web application. Supabase stores application data. Resend delivers operational submission alerts.

6. Analytics and general traffic

Muscadine uses Vercel Web Analytics for aggregated operational insight into general site traffic, including page views, referring sources, device type, browser, operating system, and broad geographic information. Before analytics events are sent, Muscadine removes URL query parameters and replaces individual vendor-detail identifiers with the generic vendor route. Muscadine does not add custom user IDs, create advertising profiles, configure cross-site tracking, or configure custom behavioral events. Send One In and Recommendation form contents are not sent as analytics event data, and private submission storage remains separate from site-traffic analytics.

7. Public vendor information

Approved public profiles may include a business name, category and public trade information, a neutral description, public contact links, city and state, accepted community-Recommendation attribution using first name plus last initial, and other approved public business information. Not every profile contains every type of information. Location data may support local-center and Radius discovery; internal coordinates and location-review details are not presented as public profile fields.

8. Data sale and advertising

Muscadine does not sell the personal information submitted through the guidebook. Muscadine currently does not operate paid advertising or paid-placement systems.

9. Retention, withdrawal, corrections, and choices

Send One In information and related operational records may be retained as reasonably needed to review submissions, prevent duplicate or abusive submissions, make corrections, support necessary follow-up, maintain record integrity, address security concerns, and operate Muscadine. Information that is no longer reasonably needed for those purposes may be securely disposed of. This operational retention practice is separate from the community-contribution retention standard described below.

Community-contribution records may generally remain stored while the related Muscadine vendor profile remains active and for up to three years after the later applicable retention event. Applicable events may include vendor-profile removal, contribution rejection, contribution withdrawal, or another governed terminal event. Where multiple applicable events occur, the ordinary retention period is generally measured from the latest applicable event.

Covered private records may include contributor full name, email or other collected contact information, original contribution evidence, moderation status and classification, moderation history, operator moderation notes, withdrawal history, redaction or withholding history, and directly related governance evidence. The three-year period is a Muscadine governance standard, not a universal legal requirement.

Retention may extend beyond the ordinary period when reasonably necessary for a documented legal obligation, active dispute, security concern, abuse investigation, fraud-prevention purpose, preservation requirement, or comparable legitimate operational need. Once the ordinary retention period has expired and no legitimate exception remains, a covered record becomes eligible for secure disposal. Muscadine does not promise automatic destruction at the exact moment a three-year period expires.

A contributor may request withdrawal of a public-facing contribution by emailing muscadineguide@gmail.com. Once a valid withdrawal is processed, public Recommendation display and counting stop as applicable. Public withdrawal and private-record retention are separate: withdrawal does not by itself require immediate destruction of private contribution or moderation history.

You may choose not to submit and may omit optional information. Email muscadineguide@gmail.com with a privacy question, correction request, or contribution withdrawal request. Requests are reviewed, but no particular outcome or response time is promised.