Closing Business Checklist

Business closure guides Updated

Privacy

See what our records checker collects, how your submitted answers are stored on Cloudflare, and how we use cookie-free Cloudflare Web Analytics.

Closing Business Checklist stores answers submitted through its records checker in our database on Cloudflare. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics without cookies. We never sell personal data.

This page describes the information handled by this website. It does not describe the underlying business records that a company might later propose to license, or the terms of another website’s application process, including the buyer’s site that our Apply button leads to.

Information you provide

The records checker asks for the company’s full-time headcount category, operating or closure status, main market and types of records held. Those answers help produce an initial result about whether the company may fit our referral rule.

The check does not ask for your email address.

The checker asks for categories of records, rather than their contents. Do not include customer details, employee information, passwords, confidential documents or copies of your operational archive in a checker response. Keep any later data review within the separately agreed application process.

Storage and use

Submitted answers are stored in our database on Cloudflare. With each submission we also store the result, the decision page and the first landing path (without its query or fragment), your country (Cloudflare works it out from your IP address), how you reached the site as one broad class such as google, chatgpt or direct, a hash of your IP address that limits repeat submissions, a random lead token, and, for a result saved with JavaScript, a random key that prevents duplicate saves of that result. We use answers for the checker’s initial fit assessment. This storage is separate from the website traffic analytics described below.

A checker result is preliminary. It does not confirm ownership of records, signing authority, legal permission to transfer information or acceptance by a buyer.

Apply clicks

When you click Apply, our own address records the click and sends you on to the buyer’s site. We record the time, the page and button the click came from, the partner (the buyer the click is sent to), your country, whether the visit looks like a bot, the same broad class for how you reached the site, and a hash of your IP address. We also store the first landing path and, when available, the lead token to link the click to its completed check. We never store an external referrer URL or the IP address itself, and we set no cookies. We use these records to see which pages and buttons lead to registrations.

The hash is made from your IP address and a random salt that changes every UTC day. The hash is used for abuse controls and submission limits, never as a visitor identifier or to join checks, page views or clicks. Anyone who holds the salt could test an IP address against the hash, so we treat it as personal data.

What you enter on the buyer’s site is handled under that site’s privacy policy.

How long we keep it

We keep each Apply click, and each checker submission, for 90 days from the day it was recorded. After that we add it to a daily total and delete the record. The deletion runs once a day, so a record can stay up to a day past its limit. A click total holds the day, the site, the page, the button, the partner, whether the visit looks like a bot and the broad class for how you reached the site, plus a count. A checker total holds the day, the site, the page, the result, the headcount, status and market answers and the same broad class, plus a count. Neither holds a country, IP hash, email address, lead token, result key, first landing path or record number.

We clear the IP hash, result key and first landing path from a submission after 90 days. We delete each day’s salt when the first click or form of the next UTC day is recorded.

We also count save acknowledgements from the server and save outcomes observed by the page, separately. These counters hold only the day, site, source (server or page), saved or failed outcome and count; they contain no visitor fields and are deleted after 90 days. Deletion-run totals contain no visitor fields and are kept indefinitely. They count attempts, while completed checks are answer submissions; email-only follow-ups are separate. Entry context is added to the internal page link you follow when you interact with it, without cookies or browser storage. An arrival from outside the site starts its own context. The random result key stays in page memory and is sent only with the save; the lead token on the result URL and Apply link refers only to that check.

Cloudflare keeps point-in-time backups of our database, which it calls Time Travel, for the last 30 days. A record we delete can stay in a backup for up to 30 days after we delete it, and so can a day’s salt. See Cloudflare’s Time Travel documentation.

What the checklist and letter builder keep in your browser

The closing checklist and the EIN letter builder on the EIN closing guide run in your browser. What you enter in them is not sent to us, and neither tool sets cookies.

The checklist keeps your profile answers, ticks, notes, dates and your choice to show all steps in your browser’s local storage, so they are still there when you come back on the same device. “Reset checklist” removes them.

The letter builder keeps its fields in local storage too, except the EIN and the date. It keeps the EIN only while “Remember the EIN on this device” is ticked, and unticking the box removes it. “Clear the form” removes the rest.

Both tools make their PDFs in your browser. If your browser blocks local storage, the tools still work but forget your entries when you leave the page.

Website analytics

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand website use and page performance. It does not use cookies for analytics. Cloudflare describes the service as avoiding analytics fingerprinting and client-side storage such as cookies or localStorage; see its Web Analytics explanation.

Cloudflare’s service documentation explains that its performance beacon collects metrics using the browser’s Performance API. These analytics help us understand traffic and page performance. They are distinct from the answers you deliberately submit to the checker.

Our site links to the buyer’s application process and to sources used in our guides. Another website’s privacy information governs its own collection and use of information. Review that information before providing company details or sharing records there.

Our referral disclosure explains the commercial relationship. We never sell personal data. A possible company-data license is a separate transaction requiring its own scope, authority and privacy review.

Next steps

Read about this site for its purpose and editorial approach. Before submitting information, check that it is limited to what the form requests.

Contact: Ingenious Digital LLC, (954) 834-3426

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