How Cathy finds details
Cathy helps teams using CathyCall find small businesses to contact. This is where the details come from, what is kept and how to have them removed.
What is looked for
Businesses of the kind and in the area a team has chosen, for example hairdressers in a municipality. Only businesses, never private persons.
Where the details come from
Map data from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), which lists businesses with and without a website, and a web search find the businesses. The app then reads the business's own website and public business pages in directories chosen by the service's provider. Pages that ask robots in robots.txt to stay away are not read, pages about private persons are not read, and sign-ins or blocks are never got around. Only details shown on the page are used. Whether an email domain receives mail is checked in DNS.
The app also reads public business pages in directories whose terms of use forbid robots or automated collection. This is a deliberate decision by Rothman Solutions AB (Aron Stenlund, 9 October 2026), which takes responsibility for it. There too robots.txt is followed, pages about private persons are not read, blocks are never got around, and each directory is read slowly, at most one page a second. The directories and their terms:
- bokadirekt.se: terms of use
- hitta.se: terms of use
- reco.se: terms of use
- 118100.se: terms of use
- merinfo.se: terms of use
What is kept
Only what is needed to contact the business, as it appears on the business's own website or on a directory's page about the business: name, address, phone, email, website and line of business. Each detail is kept with a link to its source and a date. A missing detail is left empty; nothing is guessed.
Sole traders
When a business is run in a person's name, its details count as personal data. They are marked Sole trader, a home address is not kept and the person is not assessed. The team can export or delete the details per person.
How long
A search's review list is deleted after 30 days. A team reuses only its own checked details, for at most 30 days (7 days for sole traders). What a team has added to its register stays until the team removes it.
Having details removed
Do you want details about your business removed, or not to be contacted again? Tell the business that contacted you. It is responsible for its register and can, with one click, delete the details and put your number and email on its do-not-contact list, so you are not found or imported again.
Questions about the service: ask the business that got in touch with you.
Last changed 19 October 2026.