Privacy Policy

Apex Marketing & E-commerce LLC, a Tennessee limited liability company operating the Instant Edge Systems brand ("Instant Edge Systems," "we," "us," "our") provides website, marketing automation, and customer communication services to home service contractors. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

This policy applies to instantedgesystems.com and to the services we deliver to our clients ("you," "Client") and, where relevant, to your customers whose contact information you provide to us for use within the system.

1. Information We Collect

Information you give us directly:

• Name, business name, email, phone number, and mailing address
• Business details: services offered, service areas, hours, licensing information
• Payment information (processed by our payment provider — we do not store full card numbers)
• Photos, logos, and other content you provide for your website
• Your customer/contact list, when you provide it for reactivation campaigns

Information collected automatically:

• Basic technical and hosting data needed to operate and secure the website, such as request logs, device/browser information, and pages requested where our hosting platform makes that information available
• If communications features are activated, call and text metadata needed to operate those features, such as timestamps, phone numbers, routing information, and message content necessary for delivery

The current IES website repository does not contain an active Meta Pixel, TikTok Pixel, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, PostHog, or comparable session-replay or cross-context behavioral-advertising tracker. If we add nonessential analytics or advertising technology, we will update this policy and deploy any consent/opt-out control required for that use.

Information about your customers: When you provide us your customer list or when your customers interact with your website, chat widget, or automated texts, we process their name, phone number, email, and communication history solely to deliver the services you've engaged us for (missed-call response, review requests, reactivation campaigns). You are responsible for having a lawful basis to share your customer data with us — see Section 7.

2. How We Use Information

• To build, operate, and maintain your website and marketing automations
• To send service-related SMS and email communications on your behalf to leads and customers when the communication is supported by the recipient's request, consent, or another lawful basis applicable to that message
• To respond to missed calls and manage appointment or service communications; marketing, review, and reactivation campaigns are sent only when the required consent or other lawful basis has been documented for that campaign
• To bill you for services
• To communicate with you about your account, including guarantee-related matters
• To improve our own services (in aggregated or anonymized form only)

We do not sell your data or your customers' data. We do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

Mobile information and text messaging consent

No mobile information will be sold, rented, or shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. This applies to your mobile phone number, your text-messaging opt-in status, and your consent records.

Information obtained as part of the SMS consent process is not shared with any third party for that third party's own marketing. If messaging is activated, information may be provided to the service providers listed in Section 4 only as reasonably necessary to configure, route, deliver, secure, or support the requested communications, subject to applicable contractual and legal restrictions.

Text-messaging opt-in data and consent are never shared with third parties for marketing.

3. SMS / Text Messaging

If text messaging is activated for IES or a Client account, those messages are subject to our SMS Terms and are handled according to the purpose of the message.

• Instant Edge Systems marketing or promotional texts: sent only after the recipient affirmatively opts in through the applicable consent flow. Consent is never a condition of purchasing any product or service.
• Client service or lead-response texts: may be sent when a person directly contacts a client business or requests service and the message is responsive to that interaction, subject to applicable consent requirements.
• Reactivation or other marketing texts on behalf of a client: require the client to maintain the consent records or other lawful basis required for that campaign. Being a past customer alone is not treated as blanket permission for automated marketing texts.
• Message frequency: varies by your interactions; you may receive several messages in a single conversation.
• Cost: message and data rates may apply, per your carrier plan.
• Opt out: reply STOP or use any other reasonable method described in our SMS Terms. HELP for assistance.

For opt-ins collected through our forms, we retain the date, phone number, and the exact consent wording shown at the time. For client-supplied contacts, the client is responsible for preserving the consent or lawful-basis records associated with those contacts.

4. Third-Party Service Providers

We currently use or configure the following categories of service providers:

• Stripe — subscription billing, payment processing, refunds, and tax calculation when enabled
• Google services — appointment scheduling, calendar, video meetings, business-profile integrations, and other Client-authorized Google functions
• ClickUp — CRM/work-management and lead/sales tracking where the IES server-side bridge is activated
• Domain/DNS and hosting providers — for domain resolution, hosting, and delivery of public web content when production hosting is enabled
• Communications carriers/platforms, if activated — for text and call delivery after the applicable communications stack is actually configured

Each of these providers processes data only as needed to deliver the service and under their own data protection obligations. Our current public provider list is available at our Subprocessor List.

5. Data Retention

We retain your account information and your customers' contact/communication history for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period after cancellation for legal, accounting, and dispute-resolution purposes. You may request deletion of your data — see Section 8.

6. Your Rights

Depending on your state of residence, you may have the right to:

• Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion of your information (subject to legal retention requirements)
• Opt out of marketing communications at any time

To exercise any of these rights, use our Privacy Choices page or contact us at decarlo@instantedgesystems.com.

Online tracking, Do Not Track, and browser privacy signals

Legacy browser Do Not Track (DNT) signals are not a standardized opt-out command, and our site does not currently change its basic functionality in response to DNT. The current IES website repository does not contain a cross-context behavioral-advertising pixel or session-replay tracker, so there is currently no such tracker for a DNT signal to disable.

Where applicable law requires us to honor a supported universal opt-out mechanism such as Global Privacy Control (GPC), and covered processing exists, we will honor that signal for the browser or device as required. If we add covered advertising/tracking technology, it must pass the privacy/consent gate before deployment and this disclosure must be updated.

Third parties necessary to provide the site or service may receive information as described in Section 4. We do not currently authorize third parties to collect personally identifiable information on this site over time and across unrelated websites for their own behavioral advertising purposes.

7. Your Responsibility for Customer Data You Provide

If you provide us a customer or lead list, you represent that you have a lawful basis to share that information with us and to authorize the specific communications you ask us to send on your behalf. For marketing or reactivation SMS, you are responsible for maintaining the consent records required for that campaign. A prior customer relationship alone is not treated by us as blanket consent for automated marketing texts. Purchased, scraped, rented, or otherwise unlawfully sourced lists are prohibited. We rely on your representations and do not independently verify the provenance of every record you provide.

8. Data Deletion Upon Cancellation

If you cancel service, you may request an export of Client-controlled contact and conversation data that is reasonably available from the active delivery stack. Hosted or managed components under our control may be deactivated on or after the effective cancellation date, subject to any written transition commitment we have made to you. You may request deletion of personal information from systems under our control by contacting decarlo@instantedgesystems.com; we will process the request within the period required by applicable law, subject to legal, accounting, security, backup, fraud-prevention, and dispute-retention requirements.

9. Children's Privacy

Our services are intended for businesses and are not directed at individuals under 18. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be posted here with an updated "Last Updated" date.

11. Contact Us

Instant Edge Systems Nashville, Tennessee, United States decarlo@instantedgesystems.com