Privacy policy

Effective October 4, 2026

This policy describes information processed by the GovAnswers website and information tools, including the Canadian GovAnswers plugin when available. GovAnswers is operated by Davie Lee, operating as HeyLily, a sole proprietorship. Davie Lee is the contact for privacy questions at [email protected].

Information processed when you visit

GovAnswers uses Cloudflare to host, deliver and protect its website, data and APIs. Requests can include your IP address, browser or client details, requested URL, date and time, referring page, approximate country or network, and technical information such as response status. Cloudflare processes this information to deliver content, operate its services and detect abuse.

GovAnswers uses traffic information to understand which pages people and AI agents use, diagnose problems, distinguish automated traffic and decide where coverage would be useful. Downloaded traffic reports can include IP addresses, browser details, visited pages, referrers, times and approximate network or country information. These reports are not limited to anonymous totals.

The website's municipality finder and search page match terms in your browser against downloaded public indexes. That does not prevent hosting logs from recording a requested page URL or information included in that URL.

Requests from an AI assistant

When an AI platform calls GovAnswers, we receive the tool name, its input and the technical request information sent by that platform. Inputs can include search words, a municipality, a province, a topic or a document path. We do not need your entire conversation, but an AI platform may include personal information in a tool input if it chooses to send it.

The Canadian plugin's dedicated connection does not add custom query analytics or require a GovAnswers account or payment. Hosting logs and traces can still be produced. The general GovAnswers API separately records tool inputs and outcomes, client and session identifiers, result counts, network information and user-agent details for troubleshooting and usage analysis.

Use only the information needed for a lookup. Do not include passwords, identification documents, financial information or unrelated personal details in a bylaw query. Your AI platform independently processes your conversation and its use of tools under its own privacy policy.

If you contact us

Email correspondence includes your email address, message and any attachments or details you choose to send. We use that information to answer questions, investigate corrections or technical problems, and handle privacy requests. Our email provider processes the correspondence to deliver and store it.

Other services and links

Following an official-source link, archived-document link or other external link sends a request to that destination. Its operator may receive technical information such as your IP address and referrer and applies its own privacy practices. Cloudflare may process information outside Canada; email and AI services may also process information in other countries.

If you choose a separate address-based zoning feature in the general API, address searches may be sent to a municipal mapping service or a geocoding provider such as OpenStreetMap Nominatim. Separate paid zoning requests can involve a payment facilitator and public blockchain transaction information. These address and payment features are not part of the free Canadian plugin.

Cookies and browser storage

The site's search functions do not need a GovAnswers login or use application cookies to save searches. Cloudflare may use cookies or other technical measures for security and service delivery. Any AI platform or external site you use has its own cookie and storage practices.

Retention

Cloudflare-hosted logs, traces and analytics are retained according to the relevant Cloudflare service and account settings; different datasets have different retention periods.

GovAnswers also keeps downloaded traffic and usage reports. There is currently no automatic deletion schedule for those local reports. A downloaded report can remain available after the corresponding Cloudflare dataset expires. These reports may therefore be retained for an extended period for troubleshooting and understanding service use. Support correspondence is retained to handle the enquiry and related follow-up; contact us about access to or deletion of a particular message.

Contact us to ask about a particular record or request deletion. A request to GovAnswers cannot remove records independently controlled by an AI platform, a source website or a public blockchain. Contact those operators about their records.

Access, correction and deletion requests

Email [email protected] with “Privacy request” in the subject to ask what personal information GovAnswers holds about you, request access or correction, request deletion, or raise a concern. Include enough context to locate a record, such as an approximate date and page URL, without sending sensitive identification documents.

We may need to confirm that a request relates to you before disclosing or changing a record. Where a record cannot be located, a request cannot be fulfilled, or information must be retained, we will explain the limitation.

Changes and contact

Changes will be posted on this page with a revised effective date. Contact Davie Lee at [email protected] for questions or concerns. See Support & corrections for other ways to report a problem with the service.