Privacy Policy
Last Updated: May 2026
Effective Date: May 2026
1. Introduction
MicroMA operates the MicroMA platform at microma.ca, a marketplace for buying and selling small businesses in Ontario, Canada. We are committed to protecting your personal information. This policy is governed by PIPEDA and applicable Ontario privacy legislation.
Contact us at: davidblair667@gmail.com
2. Information We Collect
Account Information: Full legal name, email address, phone number, date of birth (buyers), password (encrypted).
Seller Information: Legal business name, CRA Business Number, province of registration, business entity type, years in operation.
Financial Documents (Sellers): T2 Corporate Tax Returns (last 2 years), HST Returns (last 4 quarters), Business Bank Statements (last 6 months), Notice of Assessment. Optional: P&L statements, lease agreements, franchise agreements.
Identity Verification (Buyers): Government-issued photo ID, selfie/liveness photo, proof of funds or financing documentation.
Legal identity (both sides): the full legal name, address for notices and signing capacity that appear on any agreement you sign, and an HST registration number where you supply one.
What we read out of your documents: when you upload a document to support a listing, we extract its text to check it against your figures, and store what we found — the years it mentions, the largest amounts, and whether it could be read at all. We keep the extracted figures, not a copy of the text.
Signature records: for every document you sign, the name you typed, the time, your network address, your browser, the acknowledgements you ticked, and a cryptographic digest of the exact document. This is what makes an electronic signature evidence rather than a click, and it is kept for as long as the agreement could matter.
Conversations: the messages you send about a deal, the events that happened to it (an agreement issued, an offer received, a deal going firm), any files you share, and private notes you write to yourself — which the other party never sees.
Usage Data: IP address, browser type, pages visited, device information. Views of a listing are de-duplicated using a salted, one-way hash of address and browser, which we cannot reverse into an identity and do not join to anything else.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use your information to run your account, verify identity, business ownership and funds, review listings and the documents supporting them, generate and record the transaction documents you sign, carry conversations between the parties to a deal, detect fraud, send notifications, and improve the platform. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use documents you upload for any purpose other than the check they were uploaded for and the deal they belong to.
Document checking happens on our own servers. Nothing you upload is sent to a third-party model, transcription service or analytics provider — the check is text extraction and arithmetic, performed here.
What a buyer sees is deliberately narrow. Where several buyers are competing for the same business, each may be told how manyother offers exist and never what is in them; no route on this platform returns a competing offer’s price, deposit or conditions to anyone but the seller who received it.
4. How We Store and Protect Your Information
Data is stored in a Neon Postgres database, and uploaded files are held in private Vercel Blob storage that is not publicly reachable. Financial documents can only be retrieved through an authenticated request by the document's owner or a MicroMA administrator. Documents are shared with buyers only after a valid NDA is executed, and links sent to outside legal counsel are time-limited and can be revoked. Passwords are hashed and never stored in plain text. All data is transmitted over HTTPS.
Retention:
- Account information is kept while your account is active
- Financial documents are retained for 2 years after a listing closes
- Identity documents are retained for 1 year after account closure
- You may request deletion at any time
5. Who We Share Your Information With
We do not sell or rent your data. Sellers see a buyer’s verification status only, never underlying documents. Buyers see a listing’s verification badge only, never the seller’s BN or financial documents unless an NDA is signed.
Third-party service providers include Neon, Vercel, Resend, and Google Maps, all bound by data processing agreements. We may disclose information if required by law or court order.
6. Your Rights (PIPEDA)
You have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information, withdraw consent, and file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.
Contact us at: davidblair667@gmail.com
We will respond within 30 days.
7. Children’s Privacy
MicroMA is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect information from minors.
8. Changes to This Policy
We will notify you of material changes by email or prominent notice on the platform. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.
9. Contact
Email: davidblair667@gmail.com
Platform: microma.ca