Privacy Policy

Outbound Angler is operated by Palometa Group LLC, a Florida limited liability company (“we”, “us”). We run outboundangler.com, a directory that helps anglers find fishing guides and charter captains. It replaces FindTheFishing.com, which we also operated. This policy explains what information we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

1. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Account details: username, email address and password when you register, plus an optional full name. We store your password only as a one-way hash, so we can’t read it.
• Listing details: if you submit or manage a listing, we collect the business name, captain name, phone, email, website, address, description, boats, trips and rates, the species, regions and waters you fish, social media links, and any photos you upload.
• Claims: if you claim a listing, we record the request and any notes you add, and we use your account email to check whether you own the listing (see section 2).
• Reviews: the rating, review text, trip name, trip date and whether you’d recommend the guide.
• Bookmarks: the guides you save. Only you can see them.
• Messages to us: anything you send us by email.

Information collected automatically

• Session and security data: your IP address and browser details (user agent) while you use the site. We use them to keep you signed in, protect forms, limit repeated sign-in attempts and investigate abuse.
• Usage analytics: through Google Analytics, we collect the pages you view, the site you came from, your device and browser type, your approximate location (country or city level) and clicks on a guide’s phone or email link. In Europe this only happens if you agree (see section 6). Before anything is sent to Google, we remove password-reset codes, verification codes and email addresses from page addresses.
• Bot-protection signals: on the sign-in, registration, listing submission and claim forms, Cloudflare Turnstile checks your browser to tell people apart from automated bots.
• Server logs: our servers record technical errors and requests so we can fix problems and keep the site secure.

Information from other sources

• FindTheFishing.com: accounts and guide listings from FindTheFishing.com (operating since 2012) were moved to Outbound Angler when the site was replaced. That included email preferences, such as whether you’d asked to receive a newsletter.
• Public business websites: we check and complete listings from the guide’s own public website and social media. See section 2.

2. Guide & charter listings

A directory only works if it lists the businesses anglers are looking for, so some listings are published before the business creates an account. If you run a listed guide service or charter, here is how that works:

• Where the details come from. They were submitted by the business, carried over from FindTheFishing.com, or collected from the business’s own public website and social media.
• How we keep them accurate. We run automated checks to see whether listed websites are still online (our checker identifies itself as OutboundAngler-Bot). We also use AI tools to read a business’s public website and suggest corrections or new details. Suggestions that clearly match what the business publishes are applied automatically, and anything less certain is reviewed by a person before it goes on a listing. We never pass angler account information to those tools.
• Why we do it. We have a legitimate interest in running an accurate, useful directory, and anglers have an interest in finding guides. We only publish business contact details: information the business has already made public in order to get customers.
• Ownership checks. When someone submits or claims a listing, we compare the domain of their email address with the listing’s website. If they don’t match but the listing’s own email does, we email the listing’s address with a link to approve or deny the request. Otherwise a person reviews the request by hand.
• Your options. You can create an account and claim your listing to edit it or close it. Or email info@outboundangler.com to correct your listing, remove it, or object to being listed. We’ll act on removal and objection requests unless we have a legal reason not to.

3. How we use information

• To run the directory: publishing listings and reviews, search, bookmarks and your account.
• To check listing ownership and keep listings accurate.
• To send service emails: address verification, password resets, submission and approval notices, ownership verification requests, and new-review alerts for listing owners. We don’t currently send marketing emails.
• To protect the site and its users: preventing spam, bots, fraud and abuse, and enforcing our Terms of Use.
• To understand how the site is used so we can improve it.
• To meet legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.

Legal bases (for visitors in the EEA, UK and similar places):

• Performing our agreement with you: running your account, listing, reviews and bookmarks.
• Legitimate interests: running the directory and publishing business listings, security and fraud prevention, and understanding site usage.
• Consent: Google Analytics cookies for visitors in Europe, and anything else where the law requires it. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal obligation: where we must keep or disclose information.

4. What is public

• Listings are public, including the business contact details on them.
• Reviews are public and show your username, the trip name and trip date you entered, your rating and your review text. Pick a username you’re comfortable showing.
• Private information: your email address, password, bookmarks and full name are never shown publicly.

5. Who we share it with

We do not sell personal information. We don’t share it for targeted advertising, and we don’t run ads on the site. We share information only with:

• Service providers that run parts of the site for us:
  • IONOS: hosting.
  • Backblaze: stores encrypted backups of our database. Backups are encrypted before they leave our server, so Backblaze can’t read them.
  • Resend: email delivery. It handles your email address and the emails we send you.
  • Google Analytics: site statistics.
  • Cloudflare Turnstile: bot protection.
  • AI service providers: used to read public business websites when we check listings.
• Listing owners: when you review a listing, its verified owners get an email alert about the new review.
• The public: the information described in section 4.
• Legal and safety: when the law requires it, or when needed to protect the rights, property or safety of our users, the public or us.
• A business transfer: if Outbound Angler is sold or merged. The new owner would have to honor this policy.

6. Cookies & similar technologies

Your analytics choice.

• In Europe (the EEA, UK or Switzerland, which we estimate from your device’s time zone): Google Analytics doesn’t load until you click “Accept”.
• Everywhere else: analytics is on by default, and you can turn it off.
• Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends this signal, we treat it as a “Decline”.
• Changing your mind: use Cookie settings, also linked in the footer of every page. If you decline, we stop loading Google Analytics and delete its cookies.

Cloudflare Turnstile runs only on the forms listed above. Cloudflare says it does not use cookies to track you across sites. Our web fonts are served from our own servers, not a third party.

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, but blocking our required cookies will stop sign-in from working. We honor Global Privacy Control as described above. There is no agreed standard for browser “Do Not Track” signals, so we don’t respond to them separately.

7. How long we keep it

• Accounts: until you delete your account. Deleting it also removes your reviews, bookmarks and listing claims.
• Records of changes: we keep an internal record of edits to listings and accounts so we can investigate problems and abuse. When an account is deleted, we remove its personal details (name, username and email) from that record. We keep only the fact that the changes and the deletion happened.
• Session records (IP address and browser): deleted about 2 hours after your last activity.
• Server logs: kept for about 14 days, then deleted automatically.
• Backups: we keep encrypted backups of our database so we can recover from a failure. Each backup is deleted automatically after about 60 days, so information you delete can remain in a backup until then. We restore from backups only to recover the site after a failure.
• Listings: kept while the business operates. Closed listings are hidden from the public, but we may keep them to stop duplicates and handle ownership disputes. You can ask us to remove a listing entirely.
• Analytics: kept by Google according to our Google Analytics retention setting.

8. Your choices & rights

• Update your details: change your username, name and email on your profile page. Listing owners can edit their listings from their dashboard.
• Delete your account: do it yourself from your profile page. It takes effect straight away.
• Get a copy, correct, restrict or object: email us. We may need to confirm your identity first, usually by writing back to the email address on your account. We reply within 30 days.
• Email: service emails are part of using the site. We don’t currently send newsletters. If we start, we’ll ask you first, and every newsletter will have an unsubscribe link.

9. Regional notices

• EEA, UK and Switzerland: you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict and move your data, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to withdraw consent. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. We’d appreciate the chance to fix the problem first.
• California: we don’t sell or share personal information as California law defines those terms, and we don’t use sensitive personal information to infer things about you. You can ask what we collect about you and ask us to delete it, using the contact details below.
• Canada: you can access and correct your personal information and withdraw consent, subject to legal limits. Contact us as described below.

We won’t treat you differently for using any of these rights.

10. Security

We protect your information in several ways:

• Encrypted (HTTPS) connections.
• Hashed passwords.
• Email address verification.
• Bot protection and sign-in rate limits.
• Admin tools restricted to authorized staff.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we’ll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

11. Children

Outbound Angler is not meant for children under 16, and we don’t knowingly collect their personal information. If you think a child has given us information, contact us and we’ll delete it.

12. International transfers

We’re based in the United States, and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries. Those places may have different data protection laws from yours. Where the law requires it, we rely on safeguards such as our providers’ standard contractual clauses.

13. Changes to this policy

We’ll update this page when our practices change and revise the effective date at the top. If a change is significant, we’ll also give notice on the site or by email before it takes effect.

14. Contact us

The data controller is Palometa Group LLC, operator of Outbound Angler. For privacy questions or requests, email info@outboundangler.com and put “Privacy” in the subject line.