Effective October 5, 2026 · Last updated October 5, 2026
Rooted CoMo is Columbia’s local business directory, with a free weekly email called Rooted Weekly. This page explains, in plain words, what information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with and what choices you have.
The short version:
We don’t sell your personal information. Not to anyone, not ever.
We collect what we need to run the directory, the newsletter and paid listings.
We use Google Analytics to see how people use our site, and the Meta Pixel to see whether our Facebook and Instagram ads work. Section 7 lists every cookie and outside service, and how to opt out.
You can unsubscribe, fix your info, or ask us to delete it at any time.
Some of our team are AI assistants, and we’ll always tell you when you’re talking to one.
1. Who we are
Rooted CoMo is operated by Kim Wuest in Columbia, Missouri. When this page says "we" or "us," it means Rooted CoMo.
Mail: 110 Orr St #109, Columbia, MO 65201
Phone: (573) 289-1581
Email: support@rootedcomo.com
Our site and newsletter are for people in the United States, mostly in and around Columbia and Boone County.
2. What we collect
If you sign up for Rooted Weekly
What you type in: your email address, plus your first name if you choose to give it.
Optional questions: what part of Columbia you live in, whether you own or rent, what you want to read more about, and how you heard about us. You can skip any of them.
How you found us: our signup links can carry a source tag, a campaign tag, or a friend’s referral code. We save these so we know which channels work.
Your signup record: when you signed up and when you confirmed your email.
Email activity: our emails include a small tracking image and tracked links. Together they tell us whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. We use this to improve the newsletter, keep the list healthy by removing inactive addresses, and give sponsors totals like how many readers clicked. Open counts can be inaccurate, because some email apps (for example Apple Mail Privacy Protection) load images automatically. Turning off images in your email app limits open tracking. Reports to sponsors are totals only and never include names or emails. Unsubscribing stops these emails and this tracking.
Referral rewards: your personal referral link and how many friends have signed up with it. If you earn a reward, we also keep your choice of mail or pickup, your mailing address if you want it mailed, and whether you’re OK with a thank-you shout-out by name.
If you own or manage a business
Your public listing: business name, address, phone, website, hours, category, description, photos and social links. Listings are public on purpose. Anything on your listing can be seen by anyone.
Where listing info comes from: we build many free listings from public sources, like a business’s own website, signage and other public directories. We list businesses, not private people.
If you claim or add a listing: your name, email, your role (for example, owner or manager), the listing you’re claiming, and your confirmation that you’re allowed to manage it.
Proof of ownership (only if we need it): if we can’t confirm your claim by email, we may ask for one document. That could be a business license, a Missouri Secretary of State filing, a utility bill or a lease. We use it only to check your claim.
Your account: if you’re approved, you get a login to manage your listing. Passwords are stored in a scrambled (hashed) form that we can’t read.
Paid plans: your plan, billing contact and payment history. All payments are made through secure HighLevel payment links, and Stripe processes them. Stripe handles your card details, so we never see or store your full card number. Our site software includes a store add-on (WooCommerce), but we don’t use it to take payments.
If you leave a review
Anyone can leave a review on a listing, with a star rating. You don’t need an account.
The form asks for your name, email and review. Once approved, your name, star rating and review are public. Your email is not shown.
We check every review before it goes up. New reviews wait for our approval.
Our spam filter (Antispam Bee) checks reviews on our own server. It doesn’t send your review to an outside company.
We also save the IP address a review was sent from. This is a normal WordPress feature that helps us stop spam and abuse.
If a profile picture is linked to your email through Gravatar, it shows next to your review. To find it, a scrambled code (hash) made from your email is sent to Gravatar (see section 7).
We may remove reviews that break our rules, like spam, fake reviews, personal attacks or private information.
If you use a listing’s contact form or our contact page
We collect what you type, such as your name, email, phone and message. If you send a request through a business’s listing, it goes to that business. That’s the point of the form.
If you sign up through a Facebook or Instagram ad
Some of our ads may use Meta’s built-in signup forms. If you use one, Meta sends us what you put in the form, usually your email, your first name and an optional neighborhood answer. More in section 6.
What’s collected automatically
Basic technical info: your IP address, browser type, device type, the pages you visit and the page that sent you here. Our hosting and security tools collect this.
Analytics and ad measurement: Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel record the pages you visit, the link that brought you, your device and browser, and actions like signing up or claiming a listing. See section 7.
HighLevel form attribution: our Claim a Listing and Add Your Business forms are run by HighLevel, a service provider. HighLevel’s own tracking inside those forms notes your visit, which link brought you, how you use the form, and a "fingerprint" of your browser (an ID made from your browser and device settings). It also looks up your location from your IP address. This is HighLevel’s tracking, not analytics we run. See section 7.
Cookies and outside services: see section 7.
What we don’t collect
We don’t ask for Social Security numbers, health information or other sensitive details. Please don’t send them. If a document you send us includes something we don’t need, we only use the parts that prove you own the business.
3. How we use it
We use your information to:
Run the directory: show listings and reviews, keep them accurate and let owners manage them.
Check claims, so nobody can take over a business that isn’t theirs.
Send Rooted Weekly to people who signed up and confirmed their email.
Send account emails, like claim updates, receipts and listing changes. These aren’t marketing.
Contact businesses. We may email a business at its public business email address about its free listing. Every email says who we are and tells you how to opt out.
Run the referral program and get rewards to you.
Decide what to cover. Survey answers help us pick stories. We may describe our readers to local sponsors, but only as totals, like "about half of readers own their home." We never share one person’s answers.
Keep things safe: stop spam, fake signups, fake reviews, fraud and abuse.
Improve the site and newsletter, and see which signup channels work.
Measure our ads with Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel, so we know whether Facebook and Instagram ads lead people to sign up or claim a listing.
Follow the law, and protect our rights.
4. AI assistants on our team
Rooted CoMo uses AI assistants to help run the business. For example, Kim, Rooted CoMo’s AI assistant, emails local businesses and helps check claims. AI assistants also help draft the newsletter and answer messages.
What that means for you:
If you email us or reply to one of our emails, an AI assistant may read your message and draft or send the reply.
When an AI assistant writes to you directly, it says so.
AI assistants work under rules our team sets. Hard calls, like disputed claims, complaints and legal questions, go to our team.
The AI tools we use are run by service providers. They process messages only to do this work for us.
Please don’t put sensitive personal details in your messages.
5. Who we share it with
We don’t sell your personal information. We also don’t trade or rent our email lists.
We share information only in these cases:
Service providers who help us run Rooted CoMo. They may use it only to do work for us:
HighLevel (LeadConnector): our customer database, signup and claim forms, email sending and payment links. Its forms load from HighLevel web addresses: link.msgsndr.com, api.fullstacktactical.com and leadconnectorhq.com.
Stripe: payment processing.
WordPress hosting through HighLevel, plus Cloudflare: hosting the site, speeding it up, and blocking bots.
Gravatar (run by Automattic): profile pictures next to reviews.
Google (Analytics and Tag Manager): measuring how people use our site.
Meta: measuring our Facebook and Instagram ads, and showing our ads to people who might be interested.
AI service providers: see section 4.
Outside services your browser contacts. Some of the services above load straight into your browser, so they get your IP address. Section 7 lists them.
Businesses, when you choose. For example:
when you send a request through a business’s listing form
when you pick a local business for a referral gift card (we may give that business your name so they can issue the card)
when you agree to a shout-out by name
We don’t share your info with businesses otherwise.
Sponsors, only as totals, such as subscriber counts, click totals and survey results. Never names, emails, clicks by one person, or one person’s answers.
Advertising partners (Meta). When you visit our site or sign up, the Meta Pixel tells Meta about the visit and actions like signing up or claiming a listing. Some state laws call this "sharing" or "targeted advertising," even though no money changes hands. You can opt out (see section 7).
Public listing info and reviews are public by design.
When the law requires it, or to protect people, our rights or our site from fraud or harm.
If Rooted CoMo is sold or merged, your information may go to the new owner. They’d have to follow this policy or tell you about any change first.
6. Facebook and Instagram (Meta)
If you sign up for Rooted Weekly through a Meta form:
We use what you send only to sign you up for Rooted Weekly and to send the confirmation email, unless you agree to something else.
You’ll still get a confirmation email, and you’re not on the list until you click it.
We never sell this information, and we don’t pass it to other advertisers.
Meta has its own privacy policy for what happens on its apps.
We use the Meta Pixel on our site. The Meta Pixel is a small piece of code on our pages. It tells Meta when someone visits a page, signs up for Rooted Weekly or claims a listing. We use this to see whether our Facebook and Instagram ads work, and to show our ads to people who might be interested. Meta may combine it with what it knows about you from its own apps. To opt out, see "Your choices about analytics and ads" in section 7. You can also change your ad settings at facebook.com/adpreferences.
As part of HighLevel form attribution, the HighLevel forms on our Claim a Listing and Add Your Business pages also load Meta’s basic tracking code library. Our Meta Pixel may also run on those pages. Your browser connects to Meta when those two forms load, so Meta receives your IP address and browser type.
7. Cookies and outside services
Analytics and ad pixels
We use Google Analytics (loaded through Google Tag Manager) to count visits and see which pages people read. We use the Meta Pixel to measure our Facebook and Instagram ads. We don’t use Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity or other tracking tools. HighLevel form attribution, our form provider’s own tracking, still runs inside the forms on two pages, as explained below.
Most of our pages
This covers the home page, listings, Explore, Listing Plans, this page and most others.
Outside services: Google (Analytics and Tag Manager) and Meta (Pixel). Our fonts are stored on our own site. Visits also pass through Cloudflare, which hosts our site, speeds it up and blocks bots.
Cookies: Cloudflare’s __cf_bm for bot checks, plus Google Analytics and Meta Pixel cookies (see the tables below).
Browser storage: a small cart record from our store add-on, plus short-lived first-party flags that stop the same signup or purchase event from firing twice in one tab (see the tables below). None of that storage is used to track you across other sites.
Claim a Listing and Add Your Business pages (HighLevel form attribution)
These two pages show a form from HighLevel, a service provider. The form loads from link.msgsndr.com and api.fullstacktactical.com. Inside the form, HighLevel controls what loads, and it runs its own tracking. We call this HighLevel form attribution. Your browser connects to these services, and each one receives your IP address and basic browser info:
Service
What happens
HighLevel (leadconnectorhq.com)
Notes your visit and which link brought you, makes a browser fingerprint, counts how you use the form (form analytics), and looks up your location from your IP address. Also loads the form’s app files.
Google Cloud Storage (storage.googleapis.com)
Hosts some of HighLevel’s form code. Google receives your IP address.
Cloudflare bot check (challenges.cloudflare.com)
Checks that you’re a person, not a bot.
Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com)
Loads the fonts the form uses. Google receives your IP address.
Meta (connect.facebook.net)
HighLevel’s form always loads Meta’s basic tracking code library. Our Meta Pixel may also run here. Meta receives your IP address (see section 6).
Only after you do something
Reviews: if you leave a review, the cookies below may be set, and Gravatar may be checked for your profile picture (see "Gravatar" below).
Logging in: listing owners and team members get WordPress login cookies.
Paying for a plan: clicking a plan on our Listing Plans page takes you to a HighLevel payment page (api.fullstacktactical.com). Stripe processes the payment. Nothing from HighLevel or Stripe loads before you click.
Gravatar
Next to an approved review, we may show the reviewer’s Gravatar profile picture. To do that, a scrambled code (hash) made from the reviewer’s email address is sent to Gravatar (run by Automattic). Your browser connects to Gravatar when it shows those pictures.
Cookies and similar storage
Cookies are small files your browser saves. Some sites also save data in your browser’s storage. Here’s everything our site and forms use.
Needed to keep the site working and safe
Name
Who sets it
What it does
How long
__cf_bm
Cloudflare, on rootedcomo.com
Tells people apart from bots
30 minutes
__cf_bm
Cloudflare, for HighLevel (.leadconnectorhq.com), only on the two form pages
Bot check for the form
30 minutes
Analytics and advertising
Name
Who sets it
What it does
How long
_ga, _ga_*
Google Analytics
Counts visits and tells new visitors from returning ones
Up to 2 years
_fbp
Meta Pixel
Lets Meta tell whether a visit came from one of our ads
90 days
_fbc
Meta Pixel
Saves the ad click that brought you here
90 days
Functional storage (not cookies)
Name
Who sets it
What it does
How long
wc_cart_hash_*, wc_fragments_*
WooCommerce, on rootedcomo.com
Part of the store add-on. Saves a small cart record in your browser. It doesn’t track you, and we don’t sell anything through it.
Until cleared, or until you close the tab
embedded_iframe_inline-<formId>
HighLevel, on rootedcomo.com (two form pages only)
Sizes the form to fit the page
Until cleared
rt_lead_*, rt_purchase_*
Rooted CoMo, on rootedcomo.com
Session-only flags so the same signup or purchase event isn’t sent twice in one browser tab. No personal data.
Until you close the tab
rt_privacy_choices
Rooted CoMo, on rootedcomo.com
Saves your "Your privacy choices" selections in browser localStorage so we remember whether to load the Meta Pixel. No personal data.
Until cleared
HighLevel form attribution (inside HighLevel’s forms on the two form pages; HighLevel’s own tracking)
Keeps listing owners and team members logged in. Only set if you go to the login page or log in.
Until you close your browser, or up to 14 days
This page is how we tell you about these cookies and tools.
Your choices about analytics and ads
Opt out of "sharing" for ads: click "Your privacy choices" at the bottom of any page, or email support@rootedcomo.com. We’ll stop sending your visits to Meta for ads.
Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of sharing for ads, and we won’t load the Meta Pixel for you.
Google Analytics: install Google’s opt-out add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Meta: change your ad settings at facebook.com/adpreferences.
Other ad networks: see optout.aboutads.info.
Browser settings: you can block or delete cookies and site data in your browser. If you block all cookies, logging in, reviews and some forms may not work.
We don’t respond to "Do Not Track" signals, because there’s no common standard for them.
8. Your choices
Unsubscribe from Rooted Weekly: click "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any issue. You can also reply "stop." We’ll stop right away.
Stop business outreach emails: reply "remove" or "no thanks," or contact us. We’ll stop the same day and keep your address on our do-not-contact list so it stays that way.
Fix a listing: claim your listing and edit it yourself, or tell us what’s wrong. We’ll fix it within 5 business days.
Remove a listing: if you own or run the business, ask us to take its free listing down. We’ll check that the request comes from the business, then remove it within 5 business days. Paid listings come down when the plan is canceled.
Remove your review: contact us from the email you used on the review, and we’ll take it down.
See, fix or delete your personal information: email support@rootedcomo.com, call (573) 289-1581, or write to us at the address above. We’ll confirm it’s really you, then answer within 30 days.
Skip the survey: every question is optional.
Opt out of ad "sharing": see "Your choices about analytics and ads" in section 7.
Account emails, like claim updates and receipts, keep coming while you have a listing or account, even if you unsubscribe from Rooted Weekly.
9. How long we keep things
We keep information only as long as we need it:
What
How long
Newsletter signups that never get confirmed
We stop emailing after day 14, and delete the record within 45 days
Newsletter subscribers
Until you unsubscribe. After that we keep your email on an "unsubscribed" list only, so we don’t email you by mistake
Survey answers
As long as you’re subscribed
Claim records
As long as the listing is active, plus a short note of how the claim was checked
Proof-of-ownership documents
Deleted 90 days after we decide the claim
Reviews
Until the reviewer asks us to remove them, we remove them for breaking our rules, or the listing comes down
Payment records
7 years, for taxes and accounting
Outreach do-not-contact list
Kept, so we honor your request
Messages to us
As long as needed to help you, then deleted on a regular schedule
Public listings stay up until the business asks us to remove them, or the business closes.
10. Kids
Rooted CoMo is for adults and businesses. It’s not meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information. If you think a child under 13 has given us information, contact us and we’ll delete it. We don’t aim our ads or signup forms at minors.
11. Security
We protect your information with reasonable safeguards:
encrypted connections (HTTPS)
bot protection through Cloudflare
spam filtering for reviews, run on our own server
separate logins for each team member, with limited access
payment processing through Stripe
No website or email system is 100% secure, so we can’t promise perfect security. If a breach affects your personal information, we’ll tell you as the law requires.
12. State privacy laws
Missouri doesn’t have a general consumer privacy law right now. Some other states do, like California, Texas and Montana. Those laws usually apply only to larger businesses, or to businesses that handle the data of many thousands of that state’s residents or sell personal data. We’re a small Columbia business, and we believe we’re currently below those limits.
We still give everyone the same basic rights: you can ask what we have about you, ask us to fix it, ask us to delete it, and opt out of marketing emails. We don’t sell personal information for money. Some state laws treat our use of the Meta Pixel as "sharing" or "targeted advertising," and you can opt out of it at any time (see section 7). If a state law starts to apply to us, we’ll update this page and follow it.
13. Links to other sites
Listings link to business websites and social pages. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and we don’t control them.
14. Text messages
We don’t send marketing text messages.
15. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. If it’s a big change, like using your information in a new way, we’ll tell subscribers and account holders by email before it takes effect.
16. Contact us
Questions, requests or worries about your privacy? We’re here:
Rooted CoMo
110 Orr St #109
Columbia, MO 65201
(573) 289-1581
support@rootedcomo.com
Rooted Weekly: Columbia's local business news, once a week. Free.