Dust Whisperers LLC (“Dust Whisperers,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates a residential cleaning business in Dallas, Texas. This Contractor Privacy Statement explains what personal information we collect about our applicants and independent contractors (“you”), why we collect it, how we protect it, and the choices you have. It covers information handled through our contractor platform — the application, your account, the screening step, onboarding, and, once engaged, the scheduling and communication tools. It is separate from, and more detailed than, our customer-facing Privacy Statement, because we necessarily hold more sensitive information about the people who do the work. We will never sell your personal information. For any privacy matter, contact admin@dustwhisperers.com.
- ◆Account and contact information: your name, email address, and mobile phone number, used to create and secure your account and to communicate with you.
- ◆Application information: your home address, work authorization, experience, insurance status, availability, preferences, and the free-text answers you give.
- ◆Authentication: if you choose to sign in via Google, X (Twitter), or Facebook, we receive basic profile information (name, email, and, where available, phone) to create or update your account. We also offer email one-time passcodes. Those providers handle authentication themselves; we do not access your accounts with them beyond this.
- ◆Sensitive identity information for screening: to run a background check, our screening provider collects your date of birth and Social Security number. See Sections 3 and 4.
- ◆Background-check results: we receive and store the outcome of your check (a status and a coarse result), never the underlying report.
- ◆Onboarding, tax, and payment-setup information: to engage and pay you, we collect the information needed to complete your Independent Contractor Services Agreement, an IRS Form W-9 (including your taxpayer identification number), and to set you up with our banking/payments provider. A certificate of insurance is collected where applicable.
- ◆Communications: messages you exchange with us by text, email, or through Slack for work coordination. We may retain records of these.
- ◆Content you submit: application answers and, once engaged, photos and notes documenting work, used for quality and training.
- ◆Technical and usage data: IP addresses from standard system logging and anonymized analytics about how the Platform is used.
We treat your Social Security number and date of birth with heightened care. We collect them only at the relevant step — after an interview, not at the application stage. We use your SSN to run your background check and to prepare your year-end 1099 tax forms, and your date of birth to verify your identity for the background check. Your Social Security number is encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption, and all information is transmitted over encrypted connections. We limit access to this information to those who need it.
Background checks are performed by a third-party consumer reporting agency. Before any check, you are given a standalone disclosure and asked to provide your written authorization, separately from your application. If information in a report may lead us not to engage you, you have rights under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), including to receive a copy of the report and a “Summary of Your Rights” and to dispute inaccurate information. Submitting your application does not initiate a check.
We use your information to: evaluate your application and communicate with you; schedule and conduct your interview; run identity and background screening; onboard you (agreement, tax forms, and payment setup); once engaged, assign and coordinate work and process payouts; improve the Platform through anonymized analytics and your feedback; and comply with our legal obligations, including tax reporting (for example, issuing a Form 1099 where required) and the FCRA.
We share limited information only with service providers, strictly to run our hiring and operations:
- ◆Our background-screening and identity-verification provider — to perform the check.
- ◆Our banking and payments provider — to set up and issue your payouts.
- ◆Google — reCAPTCHA security verification.
- ◆Slack — internal work coordination.
- ◆Our address-verification providers — to validate addresses.
- ◆Our email and SMS delivery providers — to send messages you have opted into or that are essential to the process.
We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with any third party for advertising or marketing. We may disclose information where required by law or legal process. If you are interested in the specific companies that provide Dust Whisperers these services, please contact us at admin@dustwhisperers.com.
We use industry-standard safeguards, including encrypted connections across the Platform. Sensitive identity information used for screening is protected with heightened measures, and we store only the outcome of a background check rather than the underlying report. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information consistent with its sensitivity.
We keep your information only as long as needed for the purposes described here or as required by law.
- ◆Tax and payment records (such as Form W-9 and 1099 information) are retained for the period required by law (currently 4 years).
- ◆Background-check records and outcomes are retained and then securely disposed of in accordance with applicable law (currently 2 years).
- ◆Other applicant information is retained as long as needed to evaluate your application and for a reasonable period afterward; general Platform data is retained only as long as necessary.
Because of these legal obligations, some information cannot be deleted on request (see Section 9).
- ◆Opt out of communications: manage your preferences at any time, and reply STOP to opt out of texts.
- ◆Access your data: request a copy of the personal information we hold by emailing admin@dustwhisperers.com; we will respond within 30 days.
- ◆Delete your data: request deletion by emailing us. We will delete what we can, but some information must be retained to meet legal obligations (for example, tax and background-check records) and cannot be deleted on request.
- ◆Complaints: direct any privacy concern to admin@dustwhisperers.com.
If you convert from a 1099 contractor to a W-2 employee, additional employee-related information (such as tax-withholding forms) will be collected and handled under the applicable employee data practices, and standard employment tax forms and withholding will apply.
We may update this Statement from time to time. We will notify you of material changes and, where appropriate, ask you to acknowledge the updated Statement before you continue to use the Platform. The effective date above reflects the current version.
For any question about this Statement, contact admin@dustwhisperers.com.
