Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how Emerald Business Solutions, LLC, doing business as PayNet by Supportworks ("PayNet," "we," "us," or "our"), collects, uses, shares, and protects information about you when you visit supportworkspaynet.com, apply for or use our payment processing services, or otherwise interact with us.

PayNet sells to businesses in the Supportworks dealer network and to other contractors. If you are a customer making a purchase from a business that uses PayNet, that business controls your personal information; please refer to its privacy policy. For any individual who uses our services for personal, family, or household purposes, the Financial Privacy Notice section below serves as our notice under the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

1. Our role in payments

Emerald Business Solutions, LLC, dba PayNet by Supportworks, is a registered Independent Sales Organization of Citizens Bank, N.A., Providence, RI. Your account is sponsored by that member bank, and your payments are handled by our processing partners and gateways, including the EmeraldPay Gateway and, for legacy dealers, eProcessing Network.

We help you accept cards from the major networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover), digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, ACH and electronic checks through EmeraldCheck, and tap to pay on the phones your team already carries. Each network and partner has its own role in handling payment data and operates under its own rules, contracts, and privacy practices.

2. Who this policy covers

This policy applies to three groups: visitors who browse supportworkspaynet.com or fill out a form; applicants, meaning the business owners and authorized representatives who submit an application for an account; and active dealers, meaning businesses with a live account along with their authorized contacts and signers. Our services are directed to businesses, not to individual consumers, and we do not maintain consumer accounts on our website.

3. Information we collect

Information you give us

When you fill out a form, request an account review, or contact us, we collect your name, business name, email address, phone number, message content, and anything else you choose to share. When you apply through our application (the Merchant Processing Application, or MPA), we collect your legal business name and any DBA, business address, phone, email, tax ID or EIN, industry, and ownership structure; for beneficial owners and authorized signers, legal name, home address, date of birth, Social Security number, and a government-issued photo ID; banking details such as bank name, account number, and routing number; expected processing volume and average ticket; and supporting documents such as formation papers, a voided check, and prior statements.

Information we collect automatically

When you visit the site, we collect your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring page, the pages you view, the time spent, links you click, and email open and click events, through cookies, server logs, and similar technologies.

Information from other sources

We may receive information from our processing partners and sponsor bank (application status, underwriting, account standing), from the card networks (transaction activity, chargebacks, network alerts), from identity verification and fraud vendors, from consumer reporting agencies (a soft credit check disclosed in the application), from public and government business registries, and from marketing partners who refer interested businesses to us.

4. How we use information

• To review applications and set up, service, and support your account
• To process transactions, settle funds, and manage refunds and chargebacks
• To verify identity and meet Customer Identification Program, OFAC, anti-money-laundering, IRS Form 1099-K, card network, NACHA, and PCI DSS obligations
• To detect and prevent fraud and unlawful activity, and to enforce our agreements
• To respond to your questions and communicate about your account, statements, and service updates
• To send you relevant communications where permitted, and to measure and improve our site and services
• To evaluate corporate transactions and respond to lawful legal requests

We will not use your personal information for a materially different purpose without first providing notice and, where required, obtaining your consent.

5. Sensitive information

Some of the information above, such as a Social Security number, government ID number, or financial account number, is treated as sensitive under state privacy laws. We collect it only through the secured application, never through the public website, and we use it only to verify identity, perform the soft credit check disclosed in the application, fund and bill your account by ACH, meet OFAC, anti-money-laundering, and IRS obligations, and prevent fraud. We do not use sensitive information to infer characteristics about you, and we do not use it for advertising.

6. Cookies and tracking

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used and to improve it. These tools set cookies and similar identifiers in your browser, some set by us and some by Google as part of providing the service. We do not currently run third-party advertising or remarketing pixels on supportworkspaynet.com; if that changes, we will update this policy.

You can manage or delete cookies through your browser settings, though disabling some cookies may affect how parts of the site work. We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as a valid opt-out of any sale or sharing for advertising for that browser and device. We do not respond to Do Not Track signals, because there is no consistent industry standard for them.

7. How we share information

We share information with the payment ecosystem needed to provide your services, including our sponsor bank Citizens Bank, N.A., our processing partners and gateways, and the card networks and wallet providers, each of which uses the information for its own legal and operational purposes under its own rules. We share with service providers who work on our behalf, such as hosting, support, e-signature, and analytics providers, who are contractually limited to using the information only for the services we engage them for. We may share when required by lawful process, to protect our rights or the safety of others, or in connection with a sale, merger, financing, or reorganization of our business. We also share at your direction or with your consent.

We do not share your personal information with corporate affiliates for their own marketing purposes.

8. Sale and sharing

We do not sell your personal information in exchange for money, and we do not currently share it for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined under California and other state laws. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone we know to be under 16. If our practices ever change, you will have the right to opt out, which you can exercise at any time using the contact details below or by sending a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser.

9. Text messaging

If you opt in to text messages, by checking an SMS box on a form, replying to a confirmation, or otherwise affirmatively opting in, we send messages related to your account and the programs you enroll in. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Message frequency varies, and message and data rates may apply depending on your carrier and plan. Reply STOP to any message to unsubscribe, or HELP for assistance. We do not share your mobile number, opt-in status, or consent data with third parties for their own marketing; mobile information is shared only with the providers needed to deliver the messages you requested.

10. Underwriting and decisions

When you submit an application, it is sent to our processing partner and sponsor bank for underwriting and a sponsorship decision. This includes identity and Know Your Customer checks, OFAC and watchlist screening, and a soft credit check on the principal owner performed with your written consent in the application. A soft credit check does not affect your personal credit score. Risk-scoring tools may flag, decline, or approve an application without immediate human review.

If your application is declined or affected by information from a consumer reporting agency, you have rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, including the right to an adverse action notice identifying the agency and explaining how to obtain your report and dispute inaccuracies. You may also request to be told when a decision was made through automated processing, request meaningful information about the general logic, and request human review of a decision that has a significant effect. To request human review of an underwriting decision, contact us using the details below.

11. Financial Privacy Notice (GLBA)

This section is our notice under the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and applies to any individual who uses our services for personal, family, or household purposes. Because PayNet sells to businesses, for most dealers these consumer protections do not apply, since the information is collected for a business purpose.

Federal law lets you limit only sharing for affiliates' everyday business purposes regarding creditworthiness, affiliates using your information to market to you, and nonaffiliates marketing to you. Because we answer No to each of these, there is currently nothing for you to limit. To protect your information we use security measures that comply with federal law, including computer safeguards and secured files and buildings.

12. Card data and PCI

We do not store full card numbers, magnetic stripe data, CVV values, or PINs on PayNet's own systems. Cardholder data is handled by our processing partners and the gateways, terminals, and software used to capture transactions, and it is transmitted using strong encryption. Cardholder information is used only for processing, settlement, fraud prevention, chargeback handling, and other purposes permitted by card network rules and law.

PayNet maintains the PCI DSS controls that apply to our role, and we help dealers keep their own PCI compliance current, including the annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire appropriate to how cards are accepted. If you are a cardholder with a question about a transaction, please contact the business where you made the purchase; your card-issuing bank can also help through its standard dispute process.

13. Data retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes in this policy and to meet our legal obligations. Account and Customer Identification Program records are kept for the life of the account and at least five years after it closes, in line with card network and Bank Secrecy Act rules. Transaction records are kept at least five years to support chargebacks, audits, and tax reporting, and IRS Form 1099-K records at least four years. Underwriting and adverse-action records are kept at least five years under Fair Credit Reporting Act rules. Marketing contacts are kept until you opt out or after 24 months of inactivity, and website analytics for 14 months by default in Google Analytics 4. When information is no longer needed, we delete or de-identify it.

14. Data security

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss and unauthorized access, including encryption in transit and at rest where appropriate, access controls, network monitoring, employee training, secured forms and signing, and vendor management, along with the PCI DSS controls that apply to our role. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so while we use commercially reasonable means we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a security incident affecting your personal information, we will notify you and applicable regulators within the timeframes required by law.

15. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to know or access the personal information we hold about you, to delete it (subject to records we must keep under financial laws), to correct inaccurate information, to receive a portable copy, to opt out of any sale or sharing or of profiling with a significant effect, and to not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. States with these rights include California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Iowa, Delaware, New Jersey, and others.

To submit a request, contact us using the details below with the subject "Privacy Rights Request." We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding and will not use verification information for any other purpose. You may use an authorized agent with written permission. We will acknowledge your request within 10 business days and respond within 45 days, with one possible 45-day extension if needed. If we decline, you may appeal by replying to our response. California residents may also ask whether we have shared personal information for third parties' direct marketing; we do not.

16. Business contacts

PayNet sells to businesses, and most information we collect is provided in a business-to-business context by an owner, officer, signer, or representative for the purpose of evaluating, opening, or operating an account. Most state privacy laws exclude business-context information from the rights above; California is an exception, and we treat California-resident business contacts accordingly.

17. Children's privacy

Our site and services are intended for businesses and adults. We do not direct them to children and do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

18. Users outside the United States

Our services are offered in the United States only. If you access the site from outside the US, your information will be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country. We do not target our services to the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland and do not act as a controller under the GDPR; if you believe we hold your information and wish to exercise rights, contact us and we will respond appropriately.

19. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or the law. When we make material changes, we will update the date at the top and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

20. Contact us

For questions about this policy or to exercise your rights, reach us through our contact page or at:

Emerald Business Solutions, LLC, dba PayNet by Supportworks
Attn: Privacy Officer
1420 Celebration Blvd, STE 200
Celebration, FL 34747

Emerald Business Solutions, LLC, dba PayNet by Supportworks, is a registered Independent Sales Organization of Citizens Bank, N.A., Providence, RI.