Privacy
Privacy Policy
Effective: September 1, 2026 · Yard Patrol, a DBA of Ian C. Swanson Companies LLC · Oakland County, MI
Yard Patrol is a small, local dog-waste removal service. We keep this simple: we collect only what we need to schedule your service, keep you updated, and bill you. We don't sell your information, and we don't send marketing texts you didn't ask for.
Information we collect
When you contact us or sign up for service, we collect:
- Contact details — your name, phone number, email address, and service address.
- Service details — your dog's name, gate or access instructions, and notes needed to do the job.
- Payment information — a card on file, processed and stored by our payment provider. We do not store your full card number on our own systems.
- Your checkout record — if you bought through the Groundkeep checkout, which is where a Snow Patrol season is sold: what was in your cart and what it priced to, and the fact that you ticked the agreement box, when you ticked it, and which version of the terms was posted at the time.
- Visit photos — dated photos taken during each visit of the yard and the work, including the photo that rides along with your All-Clear text.
- Site activity — how you arrived at the site and which parts of it you used (see "Analytics and cookies" below).
Photographs of your yard
Taking pictures is part of the service, not an extra. Every visit produces dated photos of the yard and the work — including the one in your All-Clear text — so you can see the yard is clear without being home. They are your record: we keep them for your account, we will send you a copy whenever you ask, and we will delete them on request.
We photograph the yard and the work — never people. Your dog will wander into frame sometimes — we never post or advertise any photo from your yard without asking you first.
How we use your information
We use your information to schedule and deliver your weekly service, send your per-visit All-Clear text, answer your questions, process payment, and keep records for our own accounting. That's it.
Text messaging (SMS) consent
When you text Yard Patrol or give us your number to start service, you agree to receive text messages from us related to your service — scheduling, confirmations, your All-Clear text, billing notices, and replies to your questions.
These are service messages only. We do not send marketing or promotional texts, and we never sell or share your number with anyone for their own marketing. Message frequency varies with your service. Message and data rates may apply. Your text messaging opt-in consent is yours alone — we never share it with or sell it to third parties.
You can opt out of texts at any time by replying STOP, or by calling us. Reply HELP for help. Opting out of texts may mean we reach you by phone or email instead.
How we share information
We don't sell your information. We share it only with the service providers we use to run the business — for example, our payment processor and our scheduling/billing software — and only so they can perform that work for us. We may also disclose information if required by law.
There is one more piece of sharing, between our own two brands, and it gets its own section because you should read it rather than skim it. It is right below.
Sharing between Yard Patrol and Groundkeep
Yard Patrol and Groundkeep are the same business. Both are Ian C. Swanson Companies LLC. Same owner, the same person answering the same phone, and the money from both lands in the same bank account. Two names, one company.
Where your card actually is — and this depends on how you signed up, so both cases are set out here.
If you signed up for Yard Patrol on its own, your card sits with Sweep & Go, the software that runs our routes and our billing. It stays there. Nothing of yours moves anywhere because of anything on this page.
If you signed up through the Groundkeep checkout, one card was taken for both brands. We take those payments through Stripe, in a single account covering both names, so your card is saved once and pays for Yard Patrol visits and Groundkeep work alike. There is no second copy of it and nothing is passed from one company to another — it was one company the whole time.
A Stripe charge will say ICS on your statement. Card statements show the name the payment account is registered under, and ours is Ian C. Swanson Companies. A charge appears as ICS followed by the brand — for a Yard Patrol line, ICS* YARD PATROL. If you see ICS and are not sure what it is, that is us. Call or text (248) 491-8052 and we will tell you exactly which visit it was. (A Sweep & Go charge shows under our Yard Patrol billing name, as it always has.)
What we hold: your name, your email address, your phone number, your service address, and a payment method — saved with Stripe, or with Sweep & Go, depending on the case above.
What we have never held: your full card number. The payment company holds that, not us, and it never touches our website or our records.
What stays with the brand that took it: your visit photos, your dog's name, and your gate and access notes. Those do not move between brands just because the billing does not need to.
Who any of it goes to: nobody. This is not a sale, a swap, or a hand-off to another company.
If you would rather we did not keep a card on file — call or text (248) 491-8052, or email ian@yardpatrolco.com, and say so. You do not have to give a reason. We will bill you another way — a check, or a payment link we send you each time. It costs you nothing and it changes nothing about the work.
Analytics and cookies
We would rather tell you exactly what runs here than describe it vaguely.
- The Meta pixel. This site loads Meta's pixel on every page. It records a page view, and it records a custom event when someone clicks through to the signup form or sends one. It is there to measure whether our advertising works. It can be used by Meta to show you our ads elsewhere.
- Campaign tags. If you arrive from an ad or a link we published, the campaign name travels with you through the site in your browser's own session storage, so we can tell which link brought you. It clears when you close the tab.
- The price builder. The answers you give it stay in your browser so the page can remember them while you look around. They only reach us if you send them to us. We do record that someone adjusted it — how many dogs and how often — because it tells us whether the pricing is landing. That is the setting, not you.
- Google Analytics. This site uses Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages people actually use. It records the pages you view, roughly where you are (city level, from your IP address — we never see your street address from it), what kind of device and browser you are on, and how you arrived. It also records some interactions: how far down a page you scroll, which sections you reach, clicks on links leaving the site, taps on our phone or text link, and the fact that a quote or signup was sent, along with the price the page showed you — never what you typed into it. On the winter form, the ZIP check records only whether you are inside our service area, not the ZIP you entered. None of our forms put your details into a web address, so nothing you enter is passed to Google. We also record the fact that someone began typing in an email box — that they started, never what they typed.
These tools set cookies or similar browser storage. They do not collect your name or contact details on their own. You can block cookies in your browser settings, and most browsers and phones also offer an ad-tracking or “do not track” control that limits what the pixel can do. When you submit a signup, the email you entered is held briefly in your browser’s own session storage so the confirmation page can work, and clears when the tab closes.
Data retention and security
We keep your information for as long as you're a customer and as long as we need it for accounting and legal records, then dispose of it. We take reasonable steps to protect it, though no method of storage or transmission is ever completely secure.
Children's privacy
This site and our service are intended for adults. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13.
Your choices
You can ask us to update or delete your information, or stop contacting you, at any time — just call, text, or email. Opting out of texts is covered above (reply STOP). Telling us you would rather your details were not shared between our two brands is covered under Sharing between Yard Patrol and Groundkeep.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll post the updated version here with a new effective date.
Contact us
Questions about your privacy or this policy?
Call or text (248) 491-8052 · Email ian@yardpatrolco.com