1. Who We Are

Groundwork Dental ("we", "us") builds websites and Google Business Profiles for dental practices, and runs the optional Groundwork Managed add-on. We're based in California. Privacy questions and requests go to [email protected].

2. What We Collect

When you fill in a form on this site

The preview request, contact and "email me the list" forms collect your name, email address, practice name, website address and anything you write in the message box. We store it in our database and send it to our email inbox so a person can reply.

When you use the practice checker

  • The website address you enter. We read that site's public pages and its public Google listing to produce the results, and keep the results for 7 days so a repeat check is instant.
  • Your IP address, used only to limit how many checks one visitor can run in a day. It's deleted automatically after about a day.
  • A Cloudflare Turnstile check, which confirms you're a person without a puzzle.
  • Your results are also saved in your own browser so the preview form can be filled in for you. That copy stays on your device; clear your browser storage to remove it.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to see which pages are visited, roughly from where, and on what kind of device. It uses cookies. We use it to improve the site, not to target ads.

Payments

Payments are handled by Stripe. We see your name, email, business details and what you bought, but never your full card number.

Practices we contact first

We research dental practices from public sources (their websites and public Google listings) and may email a practice's published business address with an audit or a preview. If you'd like us not to contact your practice, reply to that email or write to us, and we'll add you to our do-not-contact list.

Clients

To build and hand over your site, we work with your practice details, the content and photos you send, and access to accounts you give us (for example your domain registrar, Cloudflare, GitHub, Google Analytics, Search Console and Business Profile).

Groundwork Managed

  • Contact details: the mobile number and email of the dentist and, if you add one, the office manager.
  • Text message consent: when and how you agreed to receive our texts, and any opt-out.
  • What you send us: videos, photos, notes and text replies, plus the transcripts, edits and posts we make from them.
  • Performance data from the channels we publish to (Google Business Profile, Search Console, YouTube), used for your monthly report.

3. Text Messages

Groundwork Managed clients who opt in get texts from us about their weekly prompts, uploads and approvals, usually a few per week. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out at any time, or HELP for help. We do not share mobile numbers or text-message consent with third parties or affiliates for their marketing or promotional purposes.

4. Patient Information

Our services aren't designed to handle patient health information, and we don't ask for it. Please don't send patient names, charts, X-rays or patient photos unless the patient has signed a consent form for marketing use. When something private appears by accident in a video or photo, we blur it or hold the item for review, and we delete anything we shouldn't have received.

5. How We Use It

  • To reply to you, build your preview and website, and deliver Groundwork Managed.
  • To bill you and keep the records the law requires.
  • To keep the site and the checker working and protected from abuse.
  • To improve our service, using aggregate patterns rather than individual profiles.

We don't sell personal information, and we don't use it for advertising profiles.

6. Who Handles It for Us

We use these service providers, each only for the job listed:

  • Cloudflare: website hosting, our database and file storage, bot protection (Turnstile).
  • Google: Analytics, our email (Gmail), and, for clients, Business Profile, Search Console and YouTube. Google Gemini analyses Groundwork Managed videos and photos for quality and privacy checks.
  • Stripe: payments.
  • Twilio: text messages for Groundwork Managed.
  • ElevenLabs: transcribing Groundwork Managed recordings.
  • Anthropic: AI drafting and checking of text (summaries, posts, compliance checks).
  • GitHub: storing website code.

We use their business services, under their business terms, not consumer apps. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to a buyer if our business is sold, under the same protections.

7. How Long We Keep It

  • Checker IP addresses: about a day. Checker results: 7 days.
  • Form submissions and emails: as long as they're useful for the conversation, and deleted on request.
  • Client project files: for as long as you're a client and a reasonable time after, so we can help if something breaks.
  • Groundwork Managed recordings and photos: while you're subscribed, then 90 days after you cancel so we can send them to you, then deleted. What we published stays on your channels, which you control.
  • Billing records: as long as tax law requires.

8. Security

Everything travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS) and is stored with providers that encrypt data at rest. Only the people who need access to deliver your work have it. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information, we'll tell you promptly.

9. Your Choices and Rights

  • Email us to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you. We'll answer within 30 days.
  • Reply STOP to any text to stop texts, and ask us to stop email at any time.
  • Block or delete cookies in your browser to stop analytics. We don't respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals, because there's no common standard for them.
  • California residents have the right to know what we collect, to delete it, to correct it, and not to be treated differently for asking. We don't sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

10. Children

This site and our services are for dental practices, not children. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 16.

11. Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update this page and the date at the top, and tell clients by email when a change affects them.