Privacy Policy

Ringstead provides an AI phone answering service to home-service businesses ("shops"). This policy explains what information we handle, why, and how long we keep it. It covers two groups of people: the shops that hire us, and the callers who phone those shops and reach our system.

Call recording and consent

We record and transcribe calls answered by our system. At the start of every call, before any recording is used, our system states that the caller has reached an automated assistant for the shop and that the call is recorded. A caller who does not want to be recorded can ask for a person or hang up; asking for a person causes the system to take a message or transfer the call.

Recording laws vary by state. Missouri, where we operate, requires the consent of only one party to a call. However, callers may dial from states that require every party to consent, including California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. Our spoken notice at the start of each call exists so that callers in those states are informed and can decline before anything is recorded. If you believe you were recorded without that notice, contact us and we will delete the recording.

What we collect

From callers

• The phone number you called from, and the date, time and length of the call.
• An audio recording of the call and a written transcript of it.
• Details you give in order to book work: your name, service address, contact number, and a description of the problem.

From shops

• Business name, address, service area, contact details and the services you offer.
• Your call-handling rules: your hours, what counts as an emergency, and when calls should forward to us.
• Billing details, handled by our payment processor. We do not store full card numbers.

From this website

We use Vercel Analytics, which measures page views without cookies and without building a profile of you. We do not run advertising or cross-site tracking on this site.

Why we handle it

• To answer the call, understand the request and book the job on the shop's calendar.
• To send the shop the details of each call, including the recording and transcript.
• To route genuine emergencies to the shop immediately.
• To keep the service working, investigate faults and prevent abuse.
• To bill shops for the service.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

Who we share it with

Calls reach the shop that you dialled — the recording and transcript of your call are made available to that shop. Beyond that, we share information only with the service providers we need to operate: our telephony provider, the AI model provider that interprets the conversation, our calendar and messaging providers, our hosting provider and our payment processor. These providers act on our instructions. We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.

How long we keep it

• Call recordings and transcripts: 90 days, then deleted. A shop can ask us to delete a specific recording sooner.
• Booking details are retained by the shop in its own calendar and records, under the shop's own policies.
• Shop account and billing records: for as long as the account is open, and afterwards as tax law requires.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to know what personal information we hold about you, get a copy of it, correct it, or have it deleted. Residents of California have these rights under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, including the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them. Because we handle caller information on behalf of the shop you called, we may refer your request to that shop or handle it jointly with them.

To make a request, contact us using the details below. We will respond within the time the law allows.

Security

Recordings and transcripts are encrypted in transit and at rest, and access is limited to the people who need it to run the service. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach affects your information we will notify you and the relevant regulators as the law requires.

Children

The service is for businesses and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of the page. Material changes affecting shops will be sent to the account contact.

Contact

Ringstead, St. Louis, Missouri. Reach us at hello@callringstead.com.