Article

How we use your email address

By TrustPast

Updated

You got an email from us, or you’re about to give a site your address and want to know what happens to it. Most owners have been written to by a dozen firms this year, and few of them said where the address came from. This page sets out what we, TrustPast, do with an email address, line by line, from our own privacy policy.

The policy is the text that counts. Most claims below about our own practice are quoted from it, many with the section number, so you can check them. If anything here ever reads differently, the policy wins, and we’ll fix this page.

The short answer

We hold very little. If we wrote to you first, we have a name, a business email address, a company name and a job title. We found them on your company’s own website or in a public source, or, for a closed company, through a business-contact data provider.

Every email we send carries our postal address and a way to opt out. Once you opt out, we stop within 10 business days, and we keep your address on a list so we never write again.

We don’t sell your address. We don’t share it with micro1. Our site doesn’t ask for it either: the estimate stopped taking email addresses on 19 October 2026.

And you can ask us, at any time, what we hold, to correct it, or to delete it. We answer within 30 days.

Worth two minutes to see the range for your company instead? Our estimate asks five questions and asks for no address.

See your estimate

Where your address came from

If we wrote to you first, the address came from one of the sources section 4.3 of our privacy policy names. It names two in one sentence. “We use business contact details from the companies’ own websites and from public sources.”

It then names one kind of public source. “These include public government notices, such as WARN Act filings.” Our page on WARN notices and company records explains why those companies still have something worth knowing about.

There’s one more source, for closed companies only. “For closed companies we may also use a business-contact data provider to find former owners and officers.” A company that has shut down often has no website left. The people who ran it are often the ones who know where its records are.

That’s the full list in the policy. Your company’s website, public sources such as government notices, and, for a closed company, a business-contact data provider. Nothing else.

What we hold about you

The policy lists it in one sentence. “The details are a name, business email address, company name and job title, plus public business facts about the company (size, years in operation, systems used) from the company’s own website and public sources.”

So the record is short. A plumbing contractor’s owner, say, would sit in our records as a name, a work email address, the company and “Owner.” Then a few facts anyone could read on the company’s site: roughly how many staff, how long it has traded, which job software it mentions.

What isn’t on that list matters as much. No home address. No personal phone number. No personal email account. The California section of the policy adds one more line: “Sensitive personal information. We do not collect it.”

And none of it is your company’s records. We see that a business exists and roughly how big it is. We never see an estimate, a work order or an email from your inbox. Our referral disclosure says so in one sentence. “We never receive, store or handle your company’s files or systems.”

Why we write to you at all

Section 4.3 opens by saying that we email people at companies that may qualify. Qualify for what is set out in section 1.

We help owners “find out if a data buyer would license a de-identified copy of the company’s retained business records.” The records “can include estimates, job files, change orders, project history, CRM data, and chat and email archives.” The buyer uses them “to train AI models.”

That’s the reason for the email. A company with years of records may have something with a price on it, and most owners don’t know. If you want the long version of what a buyer looks for in those files, our cornerstone page on what data buyers want from a trade business goes through them one at a time.

We’re paid by the buyer, not by you. The disclosure says each buyer “pays us a referral fee when a company that applied through our link completes a deal.” It adds: “Your company pays us nothing.” Our page on whether licensing your records costs anything counts the cost that is real, which is your office’s time.

What we send, and what every email carries

Our outreach goes out through a sending service named in section 5.2 of the policy. It comes from us, not from the buyer.

micro1 is strict about that on its side. Its referral page says “Referral partners must use their own personal or professional email addresses.” It also says “Referral partners must not represent themselves as micro1 employees or official representatives.” We’re an independent referral partner, as our referral disclosure says, not part of micro1.

The policy promises two things about every email. It says “Every email we send” “carries our postal address” and “gives you a way to opt out.” It then names the law we follow. “We follow the US CAN-SPAM Act.”

That law covers email between businesses too. The Federal Trade Commission’s guide says “The law makes no exception for business-to-business email.” It also says “Your message must include your valid physical postal address.” Ours is the one in the policy, in Austin, Texas.

Before we send, two services check that a business address is valid. Section 5.2 lists them for “checking that business email addresses are valid before we send.” That’s so we don’t write to an address that bounces. It isn’t a profile of you.

The button on our pages goes to micro1’s application through our link.

Section 4.2 of the policy says what that link records. “We count the clicks on them, by the page the link was on. We do not record who clicked.” So a click on that button counts as a click, not as you.

There’s one exception, and it’s narrow. A link in an email we sent to someone who signed up on the old estimate form “links the click to the answers that sign-up sent.” If you never signed up, that doesn’t apply to you.

How to opt out, and why we keep the opt-out

Every outreach email gives you a way to opt out. Use it, and we stop within 10 business days.

The policy sets the timing. “We honor opt-outs within 10 business days.” That matches the federal rule. The FTC’s guide says “You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.” Ten business days is the promise in writing.

Then comes the part owners sometimes find odd. We keep your address after you opt out. The policy says why. “We then keep your address on a suppression list so we never contact you again.”

Section 6 says how long. “Opt-out records: indefinitely, so we never contact you again.” Section 7 repeats it. “If you opt out, we keep your email address on our suppression list. That is how we make sure we never contact you again.”

Here’s the reason it has to work that way. If we deleted the address, the next time it turned up on a company website we’d have no way of knowing you’d said no. The suppression list is the memory of your no. It’s the one record we hold longest, and it’s there for your benefit.

If you gave us your address on the site

Today, you can’t. The site doesn’t ask for an email address anywhere.

The policy describes the estimate in section 4.1. It asks five things: whether the company is operating or closed, how many people work there now and at peak, how many years of records it keeps, which systems hold the work, and its industry. “Your browser works out the non-binding estimate range from your answers. The answers are not sent to us or to the buyer, and we do not store them.”

That’s how the page is built, too. The range is worked out on your phone or computer, and the form has no email field.

It wasn’t always so. The policy says “Until 19 October 2026 the form could also take an email address to send you the range and short notes about the programmes.” If you signed up before then, we still have that address.

For those past sign-ups the policy says: “We keep those past sign-ups until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them. You can unsubscribe in one click from any of those emails.” One click, on any of them, and the notes stop.

If you reply, or write to us

A reply is correspondence, and we keep it. Section 4.4 says “When you write to us or reply to our emails, we keep that correspondence.”

That includes a reply that says “not interested.” It also includes a question about your records, or a note that the owner has changed.

How long is in section 6. “Correspondence: up to 24 months after our last contact with you, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.”

What we never do with your address

We never sell it. Section 8 of the policy is two sentences long. “We do not sell or share personal information.” It goes on: “You apply to the buyer yourself”, and says we share nothing with micro1.

We never hand it to the buyer. Section 5.1, on the buyers, says we share nothing with micro1. It adds: “You apply to the buyer yourself, through our link.” There’s no list of names we pass on, and no introduction we make on your behalf.

micro1’s own page describes how a company reaches it instead. “Your POC from the company sets up the company’s profile on the company portal through your unique referral link and completes data manifest.” POC means point of contact. It also says “Companies must register and complete their own applications through the referral link.”

So what micro1 receives in the application is what your own point of contact enters. Not our notes. Not our list. Our page on whether you can apply without TrustPast covers that route in full.

The people who do process your address for us are service providers, listed in section 5.2. They handle hosting, email, sending, replies and address checks. The policy says where it all sits. “Your information is stored in the US and the EU with these providers, and in our own records.”

How long we keep each thing

Section 6 of the policy is short, so here it is in full, with the outreach line from section 4.3.

  • Outreach records: “We keep outreach records (the company, the contact, the emails sent and any reply) while a campaign runs and for 24 months after it ends.”
  • Past sign-ups: “until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.”
  • Correspondence: “up to 24 months after our last contact with you, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.”
  • Consent logs: “for the life of any referral that results, plus 3 years.”
  • Opt-out records: “indefinitely, so we never contact you again.”

So the plain version is this. Outreach records and correspondence go 24 months after the campaign ends or after our last contact with you. The opt-out never does.

How to ask what we hold, or to delete it

Section 7 lists four things you can ask for. Tell you what we hold about you. Correct it. Delete it. Stop contacting you.

How to ask is one line. “Email hello@trustpast.com. We answer within 30 days.” No form, no account, no login.

The California section of the policy adds how a request is checked. “We verify a request by replying from the email address it concerns, or by sending a one-time code to that address before we act.” That’s so nobody else can ask for your details. It also says “We will not treat you differently for using these rights.”

One thing to know before you ask for deletion. If you’ve opted out, your address stays on the suppression list, because the policy keeps opt-out records indefinitely. That’s the only way we can keep the promise not to write again.

What this means for a plumbing company

Here’s one company, as our own example, not a case micro1 publishes. A plumbing contractor with 40 people and twenty years of service calls behind it.

How we found it. The company’s website lists the owner’s name and a business email address. That’s a business contact detail from the company’s own website, the first source in section 4.3.

What we hold. The owner’s name, that business email address, the company name, “Owner,” and a few public facts: around 40 staff, two decades of trading, a field service system named on its careers page.

What we send. Outreach emails, each with our postal address and a way to opt out.

What the owner does. Maybe nothing, and that’s fine. Maybe the office manager runs the estimate, which sends nothing to us. Maybe the owner replies “not now,” and we keep that reply for up to 24 months after our last contact. Or the owner opts out, and the address goes on the suppression list for good.

What we never touch. The company’s own inbox. Its CRM with every customer’s address and service history. Its work orders, its invoices and its photos. If the company applies, its office manager fills in micro1’s profile and data manifest. We aren’t part of that.

What micro1 would be looking at, if the fit holds, is the work inside those systems. The service call where the first visit found a slow leak and the second traced it to a failed valve. The email thread with a general contractor about a rough-in date. Our pages on email archives and CRM records show what counts in each.

What is never included

This page is about our records, which are short. Your company’s records are a separate matter, and none of them ever passes through us.

When it comes to those records, micro1 says “We protect sensitive information through data anonymization and secure handling.” It says that before sharing, “Personal and identifying information is removed or transformed before your data is shared with third parties.” Asked whether a company must anonymize first, it answers “No, micro1 has processes for de-identifying and transforming sensitive information.”

micro1 doesn’t publish a fixed list of exclusions. What follows is our own advice, not micro1’s. Customer names, addresses and payment details are never what’s wanted. Keep out health information, payment-card and financial-account details, Social Security numbers, minors’ data, attorney-client privileged records, and anything a client owns under its contract with you. Our page on what is never included goes through where each one hides, and How it’s safe sets out who holds what at each step.

Where the exact words live

We’ve quoted our own pages on purpose. A summary can drift; the source can’t.

If you’d rather we didn’t write again, opt out from any of our emails. If you’d rather see what your records might be worth first, the estimate takes two minutes and doesn’t ask for an address. Worth a look?

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Where did you get my email address?

From your company's own website or a public source. Our privacy policy says we use business contact details “from the companies' own websites and from public sources,” including “public government notices, such as WARN Act filings.” For a closed company, we may also use a business-contact data provider “to find former owners and officers.”

How do I stop your emails?

Every email we send gives you a way to opt out. Our privacy policy says “We honor opt-outs within 10 business days.” You can also write to hello@trustpast.com and ask us to stop contacting you.

Why do you keep my address after I opt out?

So the opt-out holds. The policy says we keep your address on a suppression list “so we never contact you again,” and that opt-out records are kept “indefinitely.” It's the one record that has to outlast everything else.

Do you pass my email address to micro1?

No. Our privacy policy says “We do not sell or share personal information.” It also says we share nothing with micro1. What micro1 learns from the application comes from your own point of contact, who registers the company.

Does the estimate ask for my email?

No. The estimate asks five questions about the company and works out the range in your browser. The policy says the answers “are not sent to us or to the buyer, and we do not store them.” The form stopped taking email addresses on 19 October 2026.

How do I get my details deleted?

Email hello@trustpast.com and ask. Our privacy policy says “We answer within 30 days.” You can also ask us to tell you what we hold, or to correct it.

See your estimate

*Purchases are made by micro1 under its data partnership programme. TrustPast is an independent referral partner of micro1.

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