Ask the VenuePrivacy Policy
Effective date: November 9, 2026
This policy explains how Spark Punch LLC, 423 San Anselmo Ave #A, San Anselmo, CA 94960 ("we," "us"), handles information through Ask the Venue: (a) the askthevenue.com website, and (b) the AI chat assistant that venues place on their own websites.
The short version
- The chat assistant is AI, not a person, and tells you so before you start.
- We don't keep your chat messages after answering, and we don't use them to train AI.
- Your chat is emailed only if you ask: to yourself, or to the venue when you send them your details.
- We keep a small record that you agreed to the chat notice. It contains no name, email, IP address or chat text.
- We don't sell your information.
1. Information we collect
Venue customers: name, business name, email, website, the venue information you provide, and billing details. Card details are handled by Stripe; we never see or store full card numbers.
Chat visitors on a venue's website:
- Your messages. These pass through our systems to our AI provider to generate answers, and are not kept by us afterward.
- Contact details you choose to share with the venue through the contact form: name, email, and optionally event date, guest count and a note.
- An email address you enter for "Email me a copy." It is used for that one email and not stored.
- A consent record: time, venue, notice version and a random chat ID.
We don't collect your IP address or browser details in the consent record. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes visitors' IP addresses to deliver the site and protect it from abuse and attacks. Ask the Venue itself does not log or store IP addresses. Ask the Venue sets no advertising cookies or trackers.
2. Notice and consent before chat
Before a chat starts, you see a notice that you're talking with an AI assistant, how your messages are handled, and a link to this policy. The chat opens only after you click "I agree." If you click "No thanks," no chat starts and nothing is stored.
The notice uses this account of how chats are handled:
Your messages pass through Ask the Venue (Spark Punch LLC) and our AI provider, OpenRouter, to generate answers. Neither of us keeps your messages after replying, and neither uses them to train AI. Your chat is sent by email only if you ask: to yourself (“Email me a copy”) or to the venue (when you send them your details). Our email provider keeps a delivery copy for up to 30 days, then deletes it. Once delivered, your copy is yours and the venue's copy is theirs.
3. How chats are handled
Your messages pass through Ask the Venue (Spark Punch LLC) and our AI provider, OpenRouter, to generate answers. Neither of us keeps your messages after replying, and neither uses them to train AI. Your chat is sent by email only if you ask: to yourself (“Email me a copy”) or to the venue (when you send them your details). Our email provider keeps a delivery copy for up to 30 days, then deletes it. Once delivered, your copy is yours and the venue's copy is theirs.
While you chat, the conversation is held in your own browser.
Your chat is emailed only if you ask:
- To yourself, when you use "Email me a copy." The venue is not copied.
- To the venue, when you send them your details using the contact form and choose to include the chat.
Please don't share sensitive personal information (such as health details) in the chat.
4. How we use information
To answer visitor questions; to send emails visitors request; to provide support; to bill customers; and to keep the service secure and working. We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
5. Who we share it with
- The venue whose website you're chatting on, only when you send them your details.
- Service providers that help us run Ask the Venue, under contracts that limit their use of the information to providing services to us:
If this table is wider than the screen, use the arrow keys to scroll sideways.
| Provider | What it does | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter (zero data retention). Answers come from Anthropic's Claude Haiku 4.5, routed through Amazon Bedrock or Google Vertex endpoints that don't keep the messages. If Claude is unavailable, and to double-check answers against the venue's facts, we use OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol, served by Microsoft Azure through OpenRouter, also with zero data retention. | Generates chat answers | Chat messages, only long enough to write the answer, with zero data retention turned on for every request |
| Cloudflare Workers | Runs the widget and our servers, and processes visitors' IP addresses to deliver the site and protect it from abuse and attacks. Ask the Venue itself does not log or store IP addresses. Cloudflare Turnstile checks the email forms for bots. That check is not an advertising tracker. | Visitors' IP addresses, to deliver the site and protect it from abuse; chat messages in transit; consent records; a bot-check token when you send an email |
| Resend | Delivers requested emails | Emails visitors ask us to send. Resend keeps a delivery copy for up to 30 days, then deletes it. |
| Stripe | Processes customer payments | Venue customers' billing details |
- Authorities, when the law requires it.
No AI training. Every request, to either model, asks OpenRouter for zero data retention and tells it not to use chats for training. Our AI requests are sent through OpenRouter with zero data retention enforced.
We keep anonymous daily counts for each venue, such as the number of chats, leads sent, and questions handed to the team, plus a one-word topic for unanswered questions (like 'parking'). These counts never include what anyone typed.
6. How long we keep it
If this table is wider than the screen, use the arrow keys to scroll sideways.
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Chat messages | Not kept after the assistant replies |
| "Email me a copy" address | Not kept after that one email is sent |
| Emails visitors request (copies and leads) | Delivery copy kept by Resend for up to 30 days |
| Consent record (no name, email, IP or chat text) | About 4 years, then deleted automatically |
| Venue customer account details | While the account is active, plus 90 days |
| Billing records | As long as tax and accounting law requires (typically 7 years) |
7. Your choices and rights
You can decline the chat notice, and no chat starts. You can ask to access, correct or delete personal information we hold about you by emailing [email protected]. Because we keep so little, we may have nothing tied to you; the consent record is not linked to your name or email. For information you sent to a venue, contact that venue.
California residents may have additional rights under California law, including the right to know what personal information is collected and the right to request deletion. We do not sell or share personal information, and we don't discriminate against anyone for exercising their rights.
8. Do Not Track
Ask the Venue does not track visitors across websites, so browser "Do Not Track" signals do not change how it works.
9. Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect information, including encryption in transit. No system is perfectly secure.
10. Children
The service is meant for adults planning events and isn't directed to children under 13. We don't knowingly collect their information.
11. Changes
We'll post any update on this page and change the effective date above. If a change materially affects how we handle visitor information, the chat notice version changes too, and visitors see the new notice before their next chat. We'll email venue customers about material changes.
12. Contact
[email protected] · Spark Punch LLC, 423 San Anselmo Ave #A, San Anselmo, CA 94960