Privacy Policy

Effective October 23, 2026

AskHercules LLC ("Texthand," "we," "us" or "our") provides Texthand, a business text line for small local businesses. An AI assistant answers a business's customers by text, and the business's team can reply from their own phones. This Privacy Policy describes how we process personal information that we collect through texthand.co, the Texthand service, the text messages and calls handled through it, and our other activities described here (together, the "Service").

State privacy rights: see the State privacy rights notice section below for information about your rights under applicable state privacy laws.

Personal information we collect

Information you provide to us.

• Contact data, such as your name, business name, email address, mailing address and mobile number.
• Account data, such as your role, your team members' names and mobile numbers, on-call schedules, and settings.
• Business profile data, such as your services, hours, service area and common questions, including what we learn from your website when you ask us to set up Texthand from it.
• Communications data from your exchanges with us, such as support emails and texts.
• Payment data needed to bill you. Card details are collected and processed directly by our payment processor; we don't store full card numbers.
• Waitlist data, such as the name, business name, mobile number and website you give us when you join a waitlist.

Information we process for businesses that use Texthand. When you text or call a business's Texthand number, we process, on that business's behalf:

• your phone number;
• the messages and photos you send and receive, and when;
• details you share in the conversation, such as your name, address, the work you need, or appointment times;
• for calls, the calling number, time, and type of line (mobile or landline).

Third-party sources.

• Public sources, such as a business's public website and listings.
• Services a business connects, such as a calendar or job-management tool, from which we receive availability and appointment details.
• Service providers that help us run the Service, such as our messaging carrier (for example, delivery status and line type).

Automatic data collection. When you visit texthand.co, our hosting provider logs device data (such as IP address, browser and device type) and online activity data (such as the pages you visit and when).

Tracking and other technologies

Cookies. texthand.co does not use advertising or analytics cookies. Our hosting provider may use strictly necessary cookies to keep the site secure.

AI technologies. Texthand uses AI models to read incoming texts and write replies on a business's behalf, and to set up a business's assistant from its website. Message content and business details are sent to our AI provider to produce those results. Under its commercial terms, our AI provider may not train its models on this data. Texthand tells customers it's an AI assistant in its first message.

How we use your personal information

Service delivery and operations. We use personal information to:

• provide the Service: answer and route texts, collect details, book appointments, and send conversations to the right person on a business's team;
• send Service texts and emails, such as sign-in codes, conversations relayed to a team member, urgent-request alerts, and account and billing notices;
• set up and maintain accounts;
• provide support and respond to requests, questions and feedback.

Service improvement and analytics. We use personal information to understand how the Service is used, fix problems, and improve and develop the Service.

Marketing. We may tell business owners and waitlist members about Texthand by email or text, as described when you gave us your details. You can opt out at any time (see Your choices). We don't do interest-based advertising.

Compliance and protection. We use personal information to:

• comply with laws, lawful requests and legal process;
• meet carrier requirements for business texting, such as registering businesses and honoring opt-outs;
• protect our, your or others' rights, privacy, safety or property;
• enforce our terms;
• prevent and investigate fraud, spam, misuse and security incidents.

Aggregated, de-identified data. We may create aggregated or de-identified data from personal information, including conversations, by removing names, phone numbers, addresses and other details that identify a person or business. We may use it for our lawful business purposes, such as improving the Service, and to train and improve our own AI models and for other machine learning purposes. We won't try to re-identify it. See Your choices for how to opt out of training.

Text messaging

When you give us your mobile number, through an account, a team invitation, a waitlist or by texting a Texthand number, we use it to send the texts described above and in our Terms of Service.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Retention

We keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes it was collected for, including legal, accounting and reporting requirements, resolving disputes, and preventing fraud.

• Messages: kept for up to two years by default; a business can choose a shorter period.
• Opt-out records: kept as long as needed to keep honoring them.
• Account and billing records: kept as long as the law requires.

When we no longer need personal information, we delete it, de-identify it, or set it aside from further use.

How we share your personal information

• The business you text. A customer's conversation is shared with that business and its team.
• Service providers that help us operate the Service: phone and messaging carriers, AI providers, hosting, email, and customer support. They may use the information only to provide their services to us.
• Payment processors. Card payments are processed by our payment processor, such as Stripe, which may use payment data under its privacy policy (stripe.com/privacy).
• Third parties a business designates, such as a calendar or job-management tool the business connects to Texthand.
• Professional advisors, such as lawyers, accountants and insurers.
• Authorities and others, when we believe in good faith that it's required by law or needed for the compliance and protection purposes above.
• Business transferees, in connection with a financing, merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, under this Privacy Policy.

We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for targeted advertising.

Your choices

• Stop texts: reply STOP to any Texthand text. Reply START to opt back in. Reply HELP for help.
• Stop marketing emails: use the unsubscribe link in the email, or contact us. You'll still get Service and account emails.
• Access or update your information: business users can update account details in Texthand, or contact us.
• Download or delete your data: a business can download its conversations and contacts at any time, including after it cancels. To ask us to delete information, email hello@texthand.co.
• Customers of a business: your conversation belongs to the business you texted. We'll work with that business on your request.
• Training data: we may use de-identified conversations to train our own AI models (see How we use your personal information). To keep your business's conversations out of training, email hello@texthand.co. We never use conversations with people who have texted STOP.
• Do Not Track: we don't currently respond to "Do Not Track" browser signals.
• Declining to provide information: some information is needed to provide the Service. Without it, we may not be able to provide some features.

Other sites and services

The Service may link to websites and services run by others. We don't control them and aren't responsible for their practices. Please read their privacy policies.

Security

We use technical, organizational and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information, including encryption in transit and encryption of sensitive credentials at rest. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee the security of your information. If a breach affects you, we'll notify you as the law requires.

International data transfer

We are based in the United States, and personal information is processed in the United States.

Children

texthand.co and Texthand business accounts are not intended for anyone under 18. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have, please contact us and we'll delete it as the law requires.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy. If we make material changes, we'll update the effective date, post the new version here, and tell business owners directly. Using the Service after the effective date means the updated policy applies to you.

How to contact us

• Email: hello@texthand.co
• Mail: AskHercules LLC, 5912 Hansen Rd, Edina, MN 55436

State privacy rights notice

This section applies to residents of U.S. states whose privacy laws apply to us and give their residents the rights below (the "State Privacy Laws"). Not every right is available in every state, and these rights aren't absolute: we may decline a request where the law allows. "Personal Information" and "Sensitive Personal Information" mean what the State Privacy Laws say they mean.

Your rights may include:

• Information: the categories of Personal Information we collected, where it came from, why we collected it, and the categories of third parties we disclosed it to.
• Access: a copy of your Personal Information.
• Correction: correcting inaccurate Personal Information.
• Deletion: deleting Personal Information we collected from you.
• Appeal: appealing our decision on a request.
• Opt-out: we don't process Personal Information for targeted advertising, we don't sell Personal Information, and we don't use Personal Information for profiling or automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

Minors. We have no actual knowledge that we sell or share the Personal Information of consumers under 16.

Sensitive Personal Information. We don't intentionally collect Sensitive Personal Information. A customer may choose to include it in a message, and we don't use it to infer characteristics about anyone.

Information we process for businesses. When we process a customer's conversation on a business's behalf, we act as that business's service provider. We'll refer your request to the business or help the business respond.

How to make a request. Email hello@texthand.co with "Privacy request" in the subject. We may need to verify your identity, for example by sending a code to the phone number the request is about. You can use an authorized agent; we may ask for proof of their authority and confirm the request with you. To appeal a decision, reply to our response with "Appeal" in the subject.

Nondiscrimination. We won't discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

Personal Information we collect, use and disclose (currently and in the past 12 months):