Privacy Policy

1. Who this policy covers

This Privacy Policy explains how Fromerica LLC, a Florida limited liability company ("Fromerica," "we," "us"), collects, uses, discloses, and protects information in connection with fromerica.com and related services (the "Platform"). It applies to Exporters, Importers, Professionals, job/quote requesters, and anyone who simply visits the Platform without registering ("Visitors"). It should be read together with our Terms of Use, Cookie Policy, and Listing & Content Terms.

The Platform is intended for business use and is not directed at, or knowingly used to collect information from, individuals under 18 years of age. If we learn we have collected information from a minor, we will delete it.

2. Information we collect

Exporters: company name, state of business registration (optional), email, password (stored as a salted hash, never in plain text), website, WhatsApp number, physical address and coordinates, employee-count range, production capacity, minimum order quantity, certifications, export markets, social-media links, product catalog, and up to four product images.

Importers: contact name, job title, business name, email, password (hashed), website, WhatsApp number, business address, business type, estimated import volume, and country.

Professionals: first and last name, profession, job title, license/authorization number (self-reported), office address, email, password (hashed), phone, WhatsApp number, website, a profile photo, and — optionally — the export/import routes served, client names, and testimonials they choose to submit.

Messages and requests: the content of contact messages sent through the Platform, Requests for Quote and their details, quotes submitted in response, and star ratings and written reviews.

Payment status: we never receive or store full card numbers. Stripe, our payment processor, shares with us only a subscription/payment identifier and status (active, expired, cancelled).

Tariff alerts (no account needed): if you ask us to email you when the duty rate of a tariff code changes, we store your email address, the tariff code, your language, the date you asked and the date you confirmed. The alert only starts after you click the confirmation link we email you, and we use that address only to send alerts about the codes you chose — never for advertising. Each alert email has a one-click link to stop it.

Supplier requests (no account needed): if you ask us to find U.S. suppliers for a product, we store your email address, the product, quantity, destination country, any details you add, the related tariff code, your language and the dates you sent and confirmed the request. We use them only to look for suppliers and to write to you about that request. We do not give your email address to manufacturers without your permission: we describe your request to them and put you in touch only if you agree. The request is subject to the sanctions checks described in Section 3.

Export-tender alerts: if you list a company as an Exporter, we compare the product names in your listing with open public tenders (World Bank procurement notices) and, once a week, email you the new ones that match. We use only your product names and email address for this; each email has a one-click link to stop it.

Search terms: when someone searches the exporter directory, we store the words searched, the day, and a one-way code that changes every day and cannot be traced back to an IP address or a person. We use them only in aggregate: to show exporters which products buyers are looking for (a term is shown publicly only if at least three different visitors searched it) and to improve the directory. They are deleted after 90 days.

Usage data: pages visited and referrer, collected together with a randomly generated, non-identifying visitor ID stored in your browser's local storage (see Section 5) — not tied to your name unless you are also logged in — plus standard server logs (IP address, browser type, timestamps) kept for security, abuse-prevention, and diagnostic purposes.

3. How we use information

We use the information above to: operate the Platform (create and display your public profile, run search and product matching, deliver messages and quote requests between users); send transactional and account emails (registration and payment confirmations, password resets, new-message and new-RFQ-match notifications, subscription-renewal reminders, tariff-watch and saved-search alerts you opt into, and — for Exporters — a monthly performance digest); process payments through Stripe; screen names against public denied/restricted-party lists where a user requests that check; detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents; comply with legal obligations (including tax and accounting record-keeping); and improve the Platform through aggregate, non-identifying usage analytics.

We also check the country, address, and company or contact names provided at registration (and the destination country of a request for quote) against U.S. sanctions and export-control restrictions and the U.S. government's public restricted-party lists. If a check points to a restricted location or a possible match, we may decline the registration or hold it for manual review, and we keep a record of the check. At registration we also look up the approximate country of the connection from its IP address. If it is a country or region subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions, the registration is flagged for manual review rather than refused, because locations based on IP addresses are approximate and may reflect a VPN; only in that case is the result, with the IP address, kept in the screening record. This check is part of opening an account and also applies when Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control is on. This is a legal-compliance measure required of a U.S. company that connects exporters and importers; it does not involve selling or sharing your information.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use your data to serve third-party advertising on or off the Platform.

4. Your public profile is public — by design

The core function of the Platform is to publish Exporter and Professional profiles so buyers can find them. If you create an Exporter or Professional profile, the information you submit for that profile (company/professional name, address, products, images, certifications you list, ratings received, and public reviews) is intentionally made public, is displayed to any Visitor, and is designed to be indexed by search engines such as Google. The same public profile information is also returned by our public API and by our connector for AI assistants (MCP), so that buyers using those tools can find you. Do not include in a public profile any information you do not want to be publicly visible and searchable. As explained in our Listing & Content Terms, all such information is self-declared and unverified.

Requests for quote. When an Importer posts a request for quote, we may describe the request — product, quantity and destination country only, never the Importer's name, company or contact details — to U.S. manufacturers that are not yet on the Platform, to invite them to register and quote.

Public government records. Our FMC license lookup shows company-level information from the Federal Maritime Commission's public list of licensed and registered Ocean Transportation Intermediaries (company name, trade names, city, state, country, license type and number, renewal date). We do not collect the names of individuals, phone numbers or bond details from that list. If you believe an entry is inaccurate, please contact the FMC, which maintains the official list, and let us know at info@fromerica.com.

Direct messages, RFQ contact details, and account credentials are not published to the public directory, but message content is visible to the sender and the recipient(s) it was addressed to, and — for RFQs where an Importer requests professional help — to Professionals in the relevant category, as described in the Platform's own features.

Online status and repeat visits. While you are logged in, the Platform records that you are currently active so a small "online now" indicator can be shown on your public profile (Exporters, Professionals) or next to your name where you already contacted someone (Importers) — this reflects only recent activity, never your specific location or what page you are on. Separately, if you are a logged-in Importer and you view an Exporter's profile after already contacting that same Exporter, the Exporter's dashboard may show that you visited again, so they know to follow up. We do not identify an Importer to an Exporter, or reveal that an Importer viewed a profile, unless that Importer has already reached out to that specific Exporter — browsing profiles you have not contacted stays anonymous to everyone.

5. Cookies, local storage, Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Fromerica does not set its own tracking or advertising cookies. Your login session (for Exporters, Importers, Professionals, and administrators), your language preference, and — only if you click Accept in our cookie notice — a randomly generated anonymous visitor ID used only for internal traffic analytics are stored in your browser's local storage, not in a cookie, and are never sent to third parties by us. See our Cookie Policy for full detail, including the cookies placed by embedded third-party services such as Google Maps and reCAPTCHA.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. Fromerica follows the EFF Do Not Track Compliance Policy (version 1.0), published unmodified on both www.fromerica.com and api.fromerica.com. If your browser sends a "Do Not Track" (DNT: 1) or Global Privacy Control (Sec-GPC: 1) signal: (a) no anonymous visitor ID is created and any existing one is deleted, and the cookie notice is not shown; (b) we do not record page views, the daily pseudonymous identifier used to count directory searches, or your "online now" status, and profile views are counted without recording who viewed them — even if you are logged in; (c) Google Maps loads only when you ask for it (the "Show the map" button on the directory, or when you start filling in the exporter registration form), and reCAPTCHA loads only when you start using a login or registration form. What we still keep is what the policy allows: your login session and the content you choose to submit (transactions), records of requests that look like attacks (security), and counts that do not identify anyone (aggregates). Our hosting provider's request logs, which include IP addresses and browser type, are kept for no more than 10 days. A GPC signal is also treated as a valid request to opt out of any sale or sharing of your personal information and of targeted advertising — which we do not engage in.

6. Who we share information with

We share information only as necessary to operate the Platform, and we never sell it. Our service providers process information on our behalf, under contracts that limit its use to providing their services to us:

• Railway (hosting of our servers and database, and storage of our encrypted backups, in the United States).
• Stripe, Inc. (payment processing; we never receive your full card number).
• Resend (delivery of the emails described in this policy).
• Google (Maps and Places, for address lookup and map display; reCAPTCHA, for spam and bot prevention). reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
• U.S. Census Bureau geocoder (the business address of an Exporter or Professional is sent to this public government service to place the company on the map).
• ipwho.is (for requests our security system flags as a possible attack, and at each registration for the sanctions check described in Section 3: only the IP address is sent, to obtain its approximate country and network).
• Anthropic (AI provider: used internally by our administrative team for support and moderation tooling, and, when enabled, to generate the replies of the public Fromerica AI assistant from the messages you type there). Under Anthropic's commercial terms, this content is not used to train its models.

We also share information with other users of the Platform, to the extent you choose to message them or as your public profile is designed to be shown to them (including through our public API and AI-assistant connector); with professional advisors (lawyers, accountants) under confidentiality obligations; and with any successor entity in the event of a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets. We may also disclose information where required by law, subpoena, or valid legal process, or where necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Fromerica, our users, or the public. We check names and countries against U.S. government restricted-party lists using a copy of those lists stored on our own servers: your information is not sent to the government for that check.

7. International users and data transfers

Because Importers may be located anywhere in the world, information you submit will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where our servers and service providers are located, and which may not have the same data-protection laws as your country. By using the Platform you consent to this transfer and processing. If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with its own data-protection framework, you may have additional rights under that framework; we will honor legally required rights requests submitted to info@fromerica.com to the extent applicable.

8. California and other US state privacy rights

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA), gives you the right to know what personal information we have collected about you (including the categories, sources, purposes and recipients), to request deletion or correction of it, to limit the use of sensitive personal information, and to opt out of its "sale" or "sharing." Fromerica does not sell your personal information, does not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising (we run no third-party ad-targeting pixels), and does not use sensitive personal information for purposes that would give rise to a right to limit, so there is no sale, sharing or limitation to opt out of. Summary of the last 12 months:

• Identifiers and contact details (name, business name, email, phone/WhatsApp, business address, IP address): collected from you and your device; used to provide accounts, listings, messages, security and compliance checks; disclosed to the service providers listed in Section 6.
• Commercial information (plan, subscription and payment status; requests for quote and quotes): from you and Stripe; used to provide the service and for accounting; disclosed to Stripe and, as designed, to the users you transact with.
• Internet activity (pages visited, searches, profile views and clicks): from your device; used for analytics, statistics shown to Exporters and Professionals, and security; not disclosed to third parties except our hosting provider.
• Professional or employment information (job title, licenses and certifications you declare): from you; used for your public profile.
• Sensitive personal information: only your account password (stored as a salted hash) and, for payments, data handled directly by Stripe. We do not collect Social Security, driver's license or passport numbers, precise geolocation of individuals, or health data.

You may submit a request to know, delete, or correct your information, or designate an authorized agent to do so on your behalf, by emailing info@fromerica.com. We will confirm receipt within 10 business days and respond within 45 calendar days (extendable once by 45 days with notice), after verifying your identity by matching information we already hold (usually by confirming control of the email address on the account). We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights. Residents of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon and other US states with comparable privacy laws have similar rights, which we honor on the same basis; if we decline a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision, and we will answer the appeal within the period required by your state's law.

9. Data retention

We keep personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy:

• Accounts and public profiles: while the account is active. If you delete your account or request deletion, we deactivate and remove your public profile and de-identify your account record; deleted items are permanently erased from the trash after 30 days.
• Payment and billing records: at least seven (7) years, for U.S. tax and accounting recordkeeping.
• Supplier requests: thirteen (13) months after the request; a request that is not confirmed within seven (7) days is deleted.
• Sanctions and export-control screening records: ten (10) years, as required for U.S. sanctions recordkeeping (31 CFR 501.601) and export recordkeeping (15 CFR part 762).
• Security logs (IP address, browser, request details of blocked or suspicious requests): one (1) year; expired IP blocks: 90 days after they end. Server error logs: 30 days.
• Analytics (page views and profile views/clicks with an anonymous visitor ID): 13 months. Directory search terms: 90 days.
• Tariff alerts: unconfirmed requests are deleted after 7 days; confirmed alerts are kept until you unsubscribe, and unsubscribing deletes the email address and code from our alert list.
• Expired login sessions: 7 days after they expire.
• Hosting request logs (IP address, browser type and the page requested, kept by our hosting provider for operating the service): no more than 10 days.
• Unsubscribe requests: if you unsubscribe from all optional emails, we keep only your email address and the date, for as long as needed to keep honoring your request.

Message and rating content associated with other users' accounts may persist as part of their own records after you delete your account. Information may remain in encrypted database backups for up to 90 days (they are deleted automatically after that); backups are kept only to restore the service after a failure and are not otherwise used, and if a backup is ever restored, information deleted in the meantime is deleted again.

10. Your choices and rights

You can review and update most of your account information directly from your dashboard. Every email we send, except security messages such as login codes and password resets, includes a link to unsubscribe from all optional Fromerica emails (alerts, reminders and summaries), and most alerts also include a link to stop that specific alert; most email apps also show a one-click "Unsubscribe" button. Unsubscribing is free, takes effect immediately (and in any case within 10 business days, as required by the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation), and the link keeps working for years. After unsubscribing from all optional emails you will still receive messages about your account, payments and security, which you need to use the Platform. You can also unsubscribe by writing to info@fromerica.com. You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, or object to certain processing, by emailing info@fromerica.com; we will respond within a reasonable time and in any event within the period required by applicable law. We may decline a deletion request to the extent retention is necessary for legal compliance, fraud prevention, or to complete a transaction already in progress.

11. Security and breach notification

We apply reasonable safeguards appropriate to the information we hold, including HTTPS encryption in transit, password hashing (bcrypt), encrypted backups, two-factor authentication for administrators, rate limiting and a web application firewall, tamper-evident security logs, and restricted access to production systems. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for any activity under your account resulting from your failure to do so.

If a breach of security affects your personal information, we will notify you, and the authorities where required, without unreasonable delay and within the time required by applicable law (for example, within 30 days under Florida Statutes § 501.171).

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time by posting the revised version here with a new effective date. Material changes will be additionally notified to registered users by email. Your continued use of the Platform after a change becomes effective constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy or requests regarding your data: info@fromerica.com.

Fromerica LLC — a Florida limited liability company.
Registered Agents Inc., 7901 4th St N, Ste 300, St. Petersburg, FL 33702.