Nomination Privacy Notice

This notice explains what we collect when someone submits a nomination for the Find a Pro WNY 30 Under 30 · Class of 2027, what we do with it, who can see it, and how long we keep it. It covers the nomination program only — everything else on Find a Pro WNY is covered by our privacy policy.

The short version. Nominations are private and are never published. If someone nominated you, that is not permission to publish anything about you — and we will not, unless you are selected and personally agree to it in writing. We keep nomination records for the 2027 class until January 15, 2028. After that, records for nominees who were not selected are permanently deleted. Records for recipients are kept for as long as we publish the Class of 2027. You can ask us to withdraw or delete a nomination at any time.

What we collect

About the person nominating. Name, email address, and optionally a phone number and their relationship to the nominee.

About the nominee. First and last name, email address, phone number, and two confirmations — that they own or co-own the business, and that they are 18 to 29 years old on January 15, 2027.

About the business. Business name, trade categories, year started, number of employees, city, county, counties served, and any website, Facebook, Instagram or Find a Pro WNY profile links provided.

The nomination itself. Written answers to five questions about the owner and the business — why they started, what distinguishes their work, their biggest accomplishment, their community impact, and why they should be selected.

Technical details. How the nominator reached the form (referral source and campaign tags), the page they arrived on, and their IP address, which we use only to limit automated and abusive submissions.

What we do not collect

We do not ask for a date of birth on the nomination form. Age is a checkbox. If someone is selected, we confirm their date of birth privately, directly with them — and we never publish it.

We do not collect Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial account details, payment information or biometric data at any point in this program. Nominating is free and nothing can be purchased that affects selection, so there is no payment step.

If someone else nominated you

Anyone may nominate a business owner they know. If that happened to you, then:

• We have your name, email, phone and business details because the person nominating you provided them. We did not take them from anywhere else.
• We have not published anything about you, and we will not. A nomination submitted by someone else is never treated as your permission to publish your name, story, photograph or contact details.
• Our system will never email you automatically. If we contact you at all, a person decided to, and it will be to explain the program or to confirm details.
• You can be removed. Email us and we will withdraw the nomination and delete the record. We will not ask you to justify it.

How we use it

We use nomination information to:

• check whether a nominee meets the published eligibility requirements;
• contact the nominator, and the nominee where appropriate, about the nomination;
• group nominations that appear to be for the same owner, so one person is reviewed once rather than several times;
• score eligible nominations against the published rubric and select the class;
• arrange verification, acceptance and publicity permissions with the people selected; and
• keep counts of how many nominations we received, by trade and by area, so we can run the program better next year.

One exception, and only one. After the class is announced, if an eligible nominee was not selected, we may send a single email about a discounted Find a Pro WNY listing — the same offer in every case, described in the official rules. If the nominee nominated themselves and agreed to be contacted, it goes to them. If someone else nominated them, it goes to the person who made the nomination, as part of a thank-you, to pass on if they choose. It has no bearing on selection. Apart from that, we do not use nomination information to market to anyone, we never email a sales offer to someone nominated by another person, we do not sell it, and we do not share it with chambers, community partners, sponsors or any other organization.

Who can see it

Nominations are visible only to Find a Pro WNY administrators and to the reviewers who score them. Community partners who help publicize the program never see nominations.

Reviewers see the nomination content and the business details. Scores, reviewer comments and internal notes are private program records and are never disclosed to nominees, nominators, partners or the press.

How long we keep it

We keep nomination records for the 2027 class until January 15, 2028. After that, records for nominees who were not selected are permanently deleted. Records for recipients are kept for as long as we publish the Class of 2027.

When we delete a record we delete it — including the nomination, any scores and any internal notes attached to it. We may keep anonymous counts, such as how many nominations came from each county, which contain nothing that identifies anyone.

Nothing is published without consent

No nominee’s name, story, photograph or business details are published because of a nomination.

If you are selected, we contact you privately first. Before anything about you appears publicly, you will be asked to sign a publicity release setting out exactly what we may publish — your business information, biography, quotes, images and logo. You may decline, and you may decline individual parts of it, such as media interviews.

Your spotlight is written from a questionnaire you complete and approve. It is not written from what someone else wrote about you in a nomination.

Analytics

We record anonymous usage of the program pages — page views, how many people start the form, how many complete it, and which fields cause errors. Names, email addresses, phone numbers, reference numbers and the written answers are never sent to analytics. This is enforced in our code by an allow-list and an automated test, not by policy alone.

Your choices

Whether you were nominated or did the nominating, you may:

• Withdraw a nomination, which removes it from consideration;
• Delete a record, which removes it permanently;
• Correct information that is wrong;
• Ask what we hold about you.

Email carl@findaprowny.com and we will confirm when it is done. There is no form and no account required.

Security

Nomination records are held in an access-controlled database. Administrator and reviewer access requires a sign-in, and no part of the public site can read nomination data.

Changes

If we change this notice we will update the date above and post the change on the program page. We will not apply a materially different use to nominations already submitted under this notice.

Contact

carl@findaprowny.com — or write to us about anything in this notice. The program covers businesses in Erie or Niagara.