Privacy policy

Draft for legal review, 29 October 2026. Placeholders are in [square brackets].

#Who we are

HomeBuyerGuide is run by [Company name], [registered address], company number [number]. We are the controller of your personal data. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number [ICO number].

Contact us about privacy at [privacy email].

#The short version

• Your photos and videos stay on your phone. We only note which photo belongs to which home.
• We never record a viewing. Voice notes are turned into text and the recording isn't kept. On most iPhones this happens on the phone itself; on iPhones without on-device speech recognition, Apple's speech service does it (Apple, not us, receives the audio).
• Files you add, like the seller's forms, stay on your phone. We read their text and keep only what it says.
• Your own words only go to our AI provider if you say yes. The first time you save notes after a viewing, paste an agent's reply or add a document, the app asks you first. You can change your answer in Where you stand › Privacy.
• The places you go often stay on your phone.
• We keep what the app needs to work: the homes you add, the facts about them, your scores and notes, and your buying position.
• We don't sell your data. We don't use advertising or third-party tracking.
• You can delete your account and data in the app at any time.

#What we collect

Your account

The app creates an account for you automatically, without your name or email. If you choose Sign in with Apple, Apple tells us a user identifier. We don't ask Apple for your name or email.

Homes you add

When you share a listing, the app reads the listing page on your phone and sends us the facts: address, price, size, tenure, lease details, council tax band, EPC rating and the agent. For 30 days, or until the home is taken off the market if that's sooner, we also keep the listing's description text and the web addresses of its photos and floor plan. After that we keep only the facts and our results.

What you tell us

• Your scores, and when you viewed each home.
• Viewing details: date and time, the agent, and the first name of the person you spoke to if you add it.
• What you said after a viewing, as text, and the summary we make from it.
• Answers the agent gave you, if you add them.
• When you paste an agent's reply: which questions it answered and how. We don't keep the email itself.
• Your buying position: for example first-time buyer or moving home, your budget, whether you have an Agreement in Principle and its amount, and whether you're buying jointly.
• If you buy with a partner, your first names and the invite code.
• Facts from the seller's forms you add, like the TA6.

Your photos

We store a reference to each photo on your phone and the time it was taken, so the right photos appear with the right home. The photo itself never leaves your phone.

How you use the app

We record simple events, like "a listing was saved" or "a viewing was scored", with counts but not content. We use them to see which parts of the app work. We don't use third-party analytics.

Purchases

If you buy a plan, Apple handles the payment. We receive the transaction details we need to check the purchase and unlock the plan. We never see your card details.

#What we don't collect

• Photos, videos or voice recordings.
• The files you add.
• Your contacts, or your location while you use the app.
• Your mortgage or bank documents. The app lists what an agent will ask for, and you attach them yourself from your phone.

#Why we use your data, and our lawful basis

• To provide the app you asked for: reading listings, checking them against our rules and public records, organising viewings, drafting emails and offer letters, and sharing a journey with your partner. Lawful basis: contract.
• To keep the service working and secure, prevent misuse, and limit costs, for example by capping how many homes are read each month on the free plan. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
• To understand which features help, using our own simple event counts. Lawful basis: legitimate interests. You can ask us for a copy of our assessment.
• To handle purchases and keep records we are required to keep. Lawful basis: contract and legal obligation.

• To sort your notes after a viewing, match an agent's reply to your questions, and check a document you add against what you were told, using our AI provider, Anthropic. Lawful basis: consent. The app asks before the first time, and you can withdraw it in Where you stand › Privacy. If you say no, your notes are saved as you wrote them without sorting, and agent replies and documents aren't sent.

Phone permissions (calendar, photos, microphone, speech) are asked for by iOS. You can say no, or change your mind in Settings, and still use the rest of the app.

We don't ask for special category data, such as health or religion. Please don't include it in your notes. If you do, we only use it to provide the service you asked for.

#Automated checks

The app checks listings automatically against rules and public records, and suggests flags, questions and a price comparison. These are information for you. They don't make decisions about you, and you decide what to do.

#Who we share it with

We use these service providers. They act on our instructions and must protect your data.

• Supabase: hosts the app's data and the services that run it, in Ireland, in the EU (AWS eu-west-1). The UK recognises the EU as giving adequate protection, so no extra transfer safeguard is needed.
• Anthropic: provides the AI that reads listing text and photos, sorts your notes, sorts an agent's reply you paste, and reads the text of seller's forms. Your notes, pasted replies and document text only go to Anthropic if you have said yes in the app. Deep dive also uses the sorted summaries of viewing notes and the agent answers recorded for that home, but only from people on the journey who have said yes; without that, it works from the listing and public records alone. Listing text and photos are read for every home you add. Anthropic processes this in the United States. Under its commercial terms it doesn't use our data to train its models and keeps it only for a limited period. [Lawyer: confirm the retention period and the UK transfer mechanism.]
• Apple: Sign in with Apple, App Store purchases, and Apple Maps for travel and walking times. Travel times for your saved places are worked out by Apple Maps on your phone.

To look up public records, we send a home's postcode or map position to public data services, such as the Land Registry, the EPC register, police.uk, the Environment Agency and postcodes.io. Map features around a home (roads, power lines, fire stations) come from our own copy of OpenStreetMap, so that position isn't sent to OpenStreetMap. We don't send your name or account details. The full list of sources is in Help, under "Where our numbers come from".

If you buy with a partner, your partner sees the homes, viewings, scores (after the day's last viewing), the summaries of your notes and your buying position, including budget and Agreement in Principle. The words you said after a viewing stay yours.

We never put your budget or Agreement in Principle amount into emails to agents. Emails to agents are sent from your own email app.

We may share data if the law requires it, or to protect our rights or the safety of others.

#How long we keep it

• Listing description text and photo web addresses: 30 days, or until the home is taken off the market if sooner.
• Everything else in your account: until you delete your account.
• Backups: [Supabase backup period, for example 7 days], then deleted.
• Purchase records: as long as the law requires.

#Deleting your account

Go to Where you stand › Privacy › Delete my account and data. We delete your account and your data. If you share a journey with a partner, the shared homes stay with your partner. Deleting your account doesn't cancel an App Store subscription; cancel it in Settings › your name › Subscriptions.

#Your rights

You have the right to:

• see the data we hold about you;
• correct it;
• delete it;
• object to how we use it, or ask us to limit it;
• get your data in a format you can take elsewhere.

Most of this you can do in the app. For anything else, email [privacy email]. We'll reply within one month.

If you're unhappy with how we use your data, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or 0303 123 1113.

#Children

HomeBuyerGuide is for people aged 18 or over. We don't knowingly collect data from children.

#Cookies

The app doesn't use cookies or advertising identifiers. [Website cookies, when the website exists.]

#Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app.