1. The short version
Submitting a quote request sends it to us and we store it: the job details you filled in, and the name, phone and email you gave so a company can reply. We keep it so we can help if something goes wrong with your request. It is not passed to any cleaning company — you copy the summary and choose who to contact. Email support@rugrate.com and we will delete it.
So that we see it, the request is also emailed to our own inbox through an email provider, Resend, which handles it in transit on our behalf. It goes to us and to no one else.
Photos you add to a quote request are never uploaded. They are previewed on your own device, and only the number of them is stored, so a company knows how many to expect from you.
The cost calculator and the report form run entirely inside your browser and never send anything to us. Drafting a review works the same way — but submitting one does not: submitting sends it to us so it can be checked and published, and section 5 says exactly what that involves and what a published review shows.
When you copy a request or a review and send it to a company yourself, that exchange is between you and them.
2. What we collect
Today, RugRate collects:
- What you submit in the quote builder: the job details you filled in, and the name, phone and email you gave so a company can reply
- A one-way fingerprint of your IP address, stored with a quote request, a sign-in code request or a review only to stop those forms being flooded or manipulated. It is hashed with a secret key, so it can tell two requests apart but cannot be turned back into an address
- The browser identification string sent with a quote request, which helps tell a real submission from an automated one
- For an account: the email address you sign in with, when you signed in, and any claim, listing change, review or reply you submit
- Sign-in codes and session tokens, stored only as one-way hashes that cannot be used to sign in
- Nothing at all from the cost calculator or the report form, because neither ever submits anything — and the same is true of a review for as long as you are only drafting it rather than submitting it
- Standard technical information your browser sends to the web host when a page loads, such as IP address and user agent, which hosts keep for security and operations
- Anything you choose to send us directly, for example by email
3. What we do not do
We do not sell personal information. We do not publish your contact details. We do not pass your quote request to any cleaning company — you choose who to send it to. What you type into the cost calculator or the report form we never receive at all, and the same is true of a review for as long as you are only drafting it rather than submitting it.
4. Cookies and analytics
The site uses Vercel Web Analytics to count visits and Vercel Speed Insights to measure how quickly pages load for real visitors. Neither sets cookies, neither stores anything on your device and neither identifies you: between them they record the page address, the referring site, a coarse device, browser and country, and page timing figures. None of it can be traced back to a person.
Google Analytics also runs here, and it is the one thing that can use cookies. It is loaded with Google Consent Mode set to deny storage, which means that until you press Accept on the notice shown on your first visit, it writes no cookie and stores nothing on your device. Press Accept and it starts; press Decline and it stays denied.
Advertising consent is denied permanently, not just by default, because this site runs no advertising.
There are no advertising cookies, no advertising pixels, no session recording and no cross-site tracking either way.
If that ever changes, this page will be updated first and, where the law requires consent, that consent will be asked for before anything non-essential is set.
5. Reviews
Writing a review requires signing in to a RugRate account (see the next section), but nothing about that account is published with it. A published review shows your display name (something like "Dana R.", never your full name), the service and the month, what you were quoted and charged if you gave them, your star rating on each aspect, and the words you wrote. The borough, timing and method you give are collected too, but only for our own moderation checks — they are never published.
Your email address is never published, whichever account submitted the review or replied to one. The one-way IP fingerprint taken when you submit a review, described in section 2, is stored only to stop the form being flooded and is never published either.
A review cannot be edited once submitted, so it is worth checking before you send it. Withdrawing your review is your right over your own words: email support@rugrate.com and we will withdraw it. The row is not deleted, but the next publish removes it from the site and from the RugRate Score. A company can respond to a published review, but cannot have an honest one removed because it is negative.
6. Accounts
The same email-code sign-in serves everyone: a customer writing a review, and a company claiming its listing, proposing corrections or replying to a review of its work. Signing in uses a six-digit code sent to your email; there is no password, so none is stored.
We keep your email address, when you signed in, and every claim, listing change, review and reply you submit, including RugRate’s decision on each. That record is how a listing’s history stays accountable, so it is kept while the account exists.
Signing in sets one cookie, rr_session. It is strictly necessary - it is what keeps you signed in - so it is set only when you sign in and needs no consent. Signing out deletes it, and it expires after 30 days.
Sign-in codes stop working after 10 minutes and sessions after 30 days; both are stored only as hashes that cannot be used to sign in. A review or sign-in request is also stamped with a one-way IP fingerprint, for the same anti-flooding reason described in section 2, and it is never published.
Documents offered as proof of ownership are sent to us by email and are never uploaded to or stored by this site. Ask support@rugrate.com to close your account and we will remove your email address from it.
7. Your choices
The cost calculator and report form store nothing, and neither does drafting a review, so clearing them or closing the tab removes what you typed. For a quote request, email support@rugrate.com and we will delete it. For a business account, email support@rugrate.com and we will remove your email address from it. If you have emailed us, you can ask us to delete that correspondence too. To take a published review down, email support@rugrate.com and we will withdraw it; it comes off the site and the Score at the next publish.
Never send payment card details, identity documents or passwords by email, to us or to any cleaning company.
8. Contact
Privacy questions can go through our contact page.