Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Last Updated: July 8, 2026

1. Purpose and Scope

AD18 operates under a freemium posting model as described below.

This Privacy Policy ("Policy") explains how ad18.ca ("AD18," "the Platform," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, discloses, retains, and safeguards personal information from users, posters, visitors, and account holders ("you," "User," "Poster," or "Visitor").

This Policy is intended to support compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA"), Quebec Law 25, Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation ("CASL"), and other applicable Canadian privacy laws.

By accessing, browsing, registering for, posting on, reposting, or purchasing services through the Platform, you agree to this Policy and our Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, Refund Policy, ID Verification Policy, and other policies referenced on the Platform.

If you do not agree with this Policy, you must not use the Platform.

2. Eligibility and Age

The Platform is intended only for individuals who are at least eighteen (18) years of age, or the age of majority in their province or territory, whichever is greater.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors. If we become aware that personal information from a minor has been collected, we may delete the information, suspend the related account, restrict access, preserve records where legally required, or report serious safety concerns to appropriate authorities.

3. Personal Information We Collect

We collect only the personal information reasonably necessary to operate, secure, moderate, support, improve, and comply with legal obligations relating to the Platform.

Account and Identity Information

This may include:

  • Email address
  • Public username
  • Name, where required
  • Date of birth or age confirmation
  • Province, territory, and city
  • Optional phone number
  • Account status
  • Posting status
  • Free base ad allowance status
  • Repost eligibility and Repost history
  • Verification status
  • Login and authentication records

Ad and Content Information

This may include:

  • Ad titles
  • Ad descriptions
  • Categories and subcategories
  • Province, city, and location fields
  • Uploaded images
  • Public watermarked image copies
  • Contact fields entered by the Poster
  • Tags, pricing fields where permitted, and listing details
  • Ad status, including active, expired, deleted, pending, rejected, hidden, restricted, shadowbanned, or reposted
  • Reports, appeals, user ratings, reputation signals that may follow future ads, moderation notes, and enforcement history

Contact Information in Ads

Posters may provide contact information in dedicated contact fields, such as email, optional phone number, or one permitted external link where allowed by the Platform.

Contact information entered in dedicated ad fields may be displayed on the public ad page. Contact information must not be placed inside restricted fields such as titles or descriptions.

Optional ID Verification Information

If you choose or are required to complete identity verification, we may collect or receive information such as government-issued ID images, selfie or liveness check data, age or identity verification results, verification metadata, consent records, review status, and decision records. ID verification information is treated as sensitive personal information.

4. Payment and Transaction Information

We may collect and retain transaction-related information necessary for paid additional ads, paid Reposts where applicable, paid upgrades, invoices, tax compliance, fraud prevention, refunds, chargebacks, audits, and support.

This may include:

  • Purchase history
  • Ad package, Repost, or upgrade purchased
  • Payment status
  • Payment method type
  • Processor transaction ID
  • Invoice ID
  • Refund, credit, or administrative adjustment records
  • Tax amounts, including GST, HST, and/or QST where applicable
  • Limited billing metadata
  • Crypto payment reference information, where applicable

Card payments may be processed by CCBill or another approved card processor where available. Cryptocurrency payments may be processed by CoinPayments or another approved crypto payment provider where available.

AD18 does not store full card numbers, private keys, seed phrases, or full payment credentials. Payment processors may collect and process payment information according to their own privacy policies and compliance obligations.

5. Technical, Device, and Usage Information

When you use the Platform, we may automatically collect technical and usage information, including IP address, device type, browser type, operating system, referral URLs, session data, timestamps, cookie identifiers, security logs, error logs, analytics events, and fraud-prevention signals.

This information is used to operate the Platform, protect accounts, detect abuse, prevent fraud, improve performance, and support moderation and legal compliance.

6. Support, Safety, and Compliance Information

When you contact support, report an ad, appeal a moderation decision, request a refund, request support related to free ad eligibility, or interact with Platform staff, we may collect support ticket details, messages and attachments, screenshots or evidence submitted, linked ad IDs, payment IDs, invoice IDs, moderation notes, refund notes, appeal outcomes, audit logs, compliance records, and law enforcement or legal request records.

7. How We Collect Personal Information

We collect personal information directly from you when you create an account, post ads, Repost ads, upload images, enter contact fields, purchase services, request support, submit reports, appeal decisions, request refunds, or verify your identity.

We collect information automatically when you use the Platform, including through cookies, logs, analytics, security tools, and fraud-prevention systems.

We may collect information from service providers, such as hosting providers, payment processors, email providers, analytics providers, moderation tools, ID verification providers, and error-monitoring providers.

We may collect information from other users, such as when a user reports an ad, submits a complaint, or provides evidence relating to a support or safety issue.

8. Why We Use Personal Information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

  • Creating, maintaining, and securing accounts
  • Authenticating users, including magic-link or email-based login
  • Confirming age eligibility
  • Publishing, displaying, managing, editing, expiring, reposting, or removing ads
  • Administering the free base ad allowance
  • Processing paid additional ads, paid Reposts where applicable, paid upgrades, and other paid services
  • Processing card or cryptocurrency payments through third-party providers
  • Issuing receipts, invoices, refunds, credits, or tax records
  • Applying GST, HST, QST, or other applicable taxes
  • Preventing fraud, scams, spam, abuse, evasion, duplicate free ad use, or unauthorized activity
  • Moderating ads, images, accounts, reports, and appeals
  • Enforcing the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and other Platform policies
  • Responding to support tickets, complaints, refund requests, and legal inquiries
  • Maintaining audit logs and compliance records
  • Improving Platform functionality, reliability, safety, and performance
  • Sending service-related emails, such as login links, receipts, invoices, support replies, security notices, moderation notices, Repost notices, and account notices
  • Sending marketing communications only where permitted by law and with required consent
  • Complying with legal, tax, regulatory, safety, payment processor, or law enforcement obligations

9. Consent

By using the Platform, submitting information, posting ads, Reposting ads, purchasing services, or completing verification, you consent to the collection, use, disclosure, and retention of personal information as described in this Policy.

Where required, we may request additional express consent, including for sensitive information such as ID verification, biometric or liveness checks, or marketing communications.

You may withdraw consent where legally permitted. Withdrawal of consent may limit your ability to use certain Platform features, maintain Verified status, post ads, Repost ads, receive services, or complete transactions.

We may continue to retain or use certain information where required or permitted for legal, tax, fraud prevention, safety, payment, moderation, dispute, or compliance purposes.

10. Cookies and Analytics

We use necessary cookies and local browser storage to maintain sessions, support login and account security, remember user preferences, and prevent fraud and abuse. Separately, we may use cookie-free aggregate analytics and error-monitoring tools to measure Platform performance, improve user experience, and detect errors and technical issues.

We use privacy-conscious, cookie-free website analytics to understand aggregate traffic such as visits, routes, referrers, device categories, and countries. This analytics service does not create user-level profiles. AD18 does not use custom analytics events in this integration and does not send account, contact, listing, or payment identifiers through analytics.

You may control cookies through your browser settings, but disabling cookies may affect Platform functionality.

11. Disclosure of Personal Information

We do not sell or rent personal information.

We may disclose personal information only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including to:

  • Hosting, infrastructure, and database providers
  • Payment processors, including card and cryptocurrency processors
  • Email delivery providers
  • ID verification providers
  • Analytics and error-monitoring providers
  • Moderation, security, fraud-prevention, and compliance tools
  • Customer support and operational service providers
  • Professional advisors, such as legal, accounting, tax, or compliance advisors
  • Law enforcement, regulators, courts, or government authorities where required or permitted by law
  • Payment processors or financial institutions for fraud, chargeback, refund, transaction, or compliance investigations
  • A successor organization in the event of a merger, acquisition, financing, restructuring, asset sale, or business transfer
  • Other parties with your consent or direction

12. International Transfers

Personal information may be stored or processed outside your province, territory, or Canada by AD18 or its service providers.

Where personal information is processed outside Canada, it may be subject to the laws of that jurisdiction.

We take reasonable steps to require service providers to protect personal information using safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.

13. Retention

We retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Retention periods may include:

  • Account records: retained while the account is active and for a reasonable period after closure for compliance, fraud prevention, disputes, and audit purposes
  • Ads, reports, moderation records, Repost records, free ad allowance records, and audit logs: generally retained for at least twenty-four (24) months, or longer where needed for legal, safety, fraud, payment, or compliance purposes
  • Support tickets and complaints: generally retained for at least twenty-four (24) months
  • Payment, refund, invoice, and tax records: retained for seven (7) years or as otherwise required by law
  • ID verification images and selfies: deleted promptly after verification where technically and legally possible
  • ID verification metadata and decision records: retained only as long as reasonably necessary for compliance, fraud prevention, safety, disputes, or legal obligations
  • Security logs: retained as needed for security, fraud prevention, abuse prevention, and operational reliability

We may anonymize, de-identify, aggregate, or delete information when it is no longer required.

14. Account Deletion and Data Requests

Users may request access to, correction of, export of, or deletion of their personal information, subject to identity confirmation and lawful retention requirements.

Where self-serve tools are available, users may use them to download account data or request account deletion.

Account deletion may result in anonymization or removal of personal account information while certain records are retained where required or permitted, including invoices and tax records, payment and refund records, audit logs, moderation and enforcement records, support tickets, fraud prevention records, free ad allowance records, Repost history, and legal or compliance records.

We may decline or limit deletion requests where retention is required for tax, legal, payment, fraud prevention, safety, moderation, dispute, or compliance purposes. Requests may be sent to privacy@ad18.ca.

15. Security Safeguards

We use safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information we collect, including encryption in transit, encryption at rest where supported, role-based access controls, least-privilege access, secure secrets management, logging and monitoring, backups, access restrictions for sensitive information, separation of public and private data where practical, and administrative controls for moderation, support, and compliance access.

No system is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we maintain safeguards designed to reduce the risk of unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, loss, or misuse.

16. Your Privacy Rights

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to access your personal information, correct inaccurate personal information, request deletion of personal information, request export or portability of your data, withdraw consent where legally permitted, withdraw marketing consent at any time, ask questions about our privacy practices, and file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or an applicable provincial privacy authority.

To make a privacy request, contact privacy@ad18.ca. We may need to verify your identity before processing a privacy request.

17. Quebec Privacy Rights and Law 25

Where Quebec privacy law applies, AD18 takes steps intended to support compliance with Quebec Law 25, including designating a Privacy Officer, treating sensitive information with heightened care, obtaining express consent where required for sensitive information, maintaining consent and access records where appropriate, assessing privacy risks for higher-risk processing activities, applying retention, deletion, and breach-response practices, and providing contact information for privacy questions and requests.

Quebec users may contact the Privacy Officer at privacy@ad18.ca.

18. CASL and Marketing Communications

We may send service-related messages necessary to operate the Platform, including login links, account notices, Repost notices, payment confirmations, invoices, support replies, moderation notices, safety notices, and policy updates.

We send commercial electronic messages, such as promotions or marketing emails, only with consent or where otherwise permitted by law. Marketing messages will identify the sender and include an unsubscribe mechanism where required. You may withdraw marketing consent at any time.

19. Breach Notification

If we become aware of a security breach involving personal information, we will assess the risk and take appropriate steps.

Where required by law, including where a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected individuals and applicable regulators without undue delay. We may also maintain records of security breaches as required by law.

20. Accessibility

We are committed to providing accessible communications and support where reasonably possible. Users may request accessible formats or accommodations by contacting support@ad18.ca.

21. Third-Party Links and Services

The Platform may contain links to third-party websites, payment processors, social platforms, or external services.

AD18 is not responsible for the privacy practices, content, security, or policies of third-party websites or services. Users should review the privacy policies of any third-party services they choose to access.

22. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, Platform operations, payment processing, categories, features, freemium rules, service providers, security practices, or compliance requirements.

The "Last Updated" date indicates the current version. Continued use of the Platform after an updated Policy is posted constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.

23. Contact - Privacy Officer

For privacy questions, data requests, deletion requests, complaints, or concerns, contact Privacy Officer - AD18 at privacy@ad18.ca. For general support, contact AD18 Support at support@ad18.ca.