Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Stowd is an online marketplace that connects renters with storage facilities across Canada. We are an intermediary — we do not own or operate the facilities listed on our platform. Our principal office is in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

2. Information We Collect

From renters

• Full name and email address (at registration)
• Phone number (optional, for communications with the facility)
• Search location (address or GPS coordinates you enter)
• Booking and payment history
• Reviews and ratings submitted
• Messages exchanged with operators through the platform
• Browsing and usage data (pages visited, clicks, session duration)
• IP address, browser type, and device used

From facility operators

• Name, email address, and phone number
• Legal business name and facility address
• Photos of the facility and units
• Unit data (size, pricing, availability, features)
• Booking and revenue history generated through Stowd
• Stripe Connect account ID (for payouts)

Payment information

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to:

• Create and manage your user account.
• Facilitate bookings and communications between renters and operators.
• Process payments and distribute funds to operators.
• Send you confirmations, reminders, and notifications related to your bookings.
• Inform you of important platform updates or policy changes.
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and illegal activity.
• Analyse platform usage to improve it (via Google Analytics and PostHog — see section 5).
• Comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We will not send you marketing communications without your express consent. You may unsubscribe at any time.

4. Service Fees and Transaction Records

Stowd collects a 3% service fee from renters and an 8% commission from operators on each monthly payment. These amounts are recorded in our system for accounting, customer support, and tax compliance purposes. Renters can view their complete payment history — including service fees collected — in their dashboard.

5. Analytics and Cookies

With your consent, we use the following tools to understand how the platform is used and to improve it:

See our Cookie Policy for more details.

6. Sharing Your Information

We share your information only in the following cases:

• Necessary service providers: Stripe (payments), Supabase (secure database), Resend (transactional emails), Vercel (hosting), Google (analytics), PostHog (product analytics).
• Facility operators: Your name, email, and phone number are shared with the operator only after a booking is confirmed.
• Legal obligations: If required by law, in connection with legal proceedings, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Stowd, its users, or the public.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services and comply with our legal obligations. In general: account data is retained for the duration of your active account, plus 3 years after closure. Transaction data (payments, bookings) is retained for 7 years for tax and accounting purposes. Anonymised analytics data may be retained indefinitely. Upon request, we can delete your personally identifiable data within the timeframes prescribed by applicable law.

8. Your Rights (Quebec Law 25 and PIPEDA)

Under Quebec Law 25 and the federal PIPEDA, you have the following rights:

To exercise any of these rights, contact our privacy officer at info@stowd.ca. We will respond within the timeframes prescribed by law (generally 30 days).

9. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, or destruction. These measures include encryption of data in transit (HTTPS/TLS), role-based access management, and regular security audits. In the event of a privacy incident presenting a risk of serious harm, we will notify you and the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec in accordance with Law 25 requirements.

10. International Transfers

Some of our service providers (including Stripe, Vercel, Google, PostHog) store or process data in the United States or other countries. These transfers are carried out in accordance with protection mechanisms recognized by Canadian and Quebec authorities. Where required by Law 25, we conduct a privacy impact assessment before transferring information outside Quebec.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Any material change will be announced by email or through a platform notification at least 15 days before it takes effect. The current version is always accessible on this page with its update date.

12. Contact Us

For any questions about this policy or our privacy practices, or to exercise your rights:

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may file a complaint with the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec.