Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

LeadBuoy is a software product for licensed real-estate professionals. It gives licensed real-estate professionals early notice of the public records that indicate a residential property is likely to come to market: foreclosure and other court filings, liens and tax delinquency, ownership and equity changes, and listing activity. It also carries the records behind each signal and the tools to make contact lawfully.

LeadBuoy is independent software. It is not a brokerage, not affiliated with any brokerage, and not a lead marketplace. Nothing in the product is legal, tax, or financial advice.

2. Whose information this covers

Two groups, treated differently.

Agents

People who hold an account and use LeadBuoy to work leads. They give us their information directly.

Homeowners

People named in the public court, tax, lien, and property records that LeadBuoy reads. They did not ask to be contacted, and they gave us nothing before an agent reached them. Sections 3 through 7 exist because of that. The one exception is a homeowner who chooses to opt in to text messages: they give us their mobile number and their consent directly, and only for that purpose. See sections 3 and 5.

3. Where information comes from

Homeowner information comes from four kinds of source, and from nowhere else:

• Public government records. Court dockets, recorded instruments, property tax rolls, and municipal records, each of which is public by law.
• Licensed real-estate listing data. Listing history and status, accessed under license.
• Licensed contact-data providers. Telephone numbers, email addresses, and mailing addresses appended to a confirmed owner, with the provider and the date of the check recorded against the lead.
• The homeowner themselves, if they opt in to text messages. Completing the consent form gives us the name and mobile number they enter; replying with the opt-in keyword gives us the number they sent it from. In both cases we also keep the consent record described in section 6. This is the only information a homeowner gives us directly, and it is used only to send the messages they asked for.

We do not buy marketing lists, we do not scrape social media, and we do not infer sensitive characteristics about anyone.

4. How homeowner information is used

Homeowner information is used for one purpose: to let a licensed agent who is responsible for that lead see the situation accurately and make contact through a channel the law allows. That includes matching a source record to the right person and property, showing the evidence behind the lead, recording what outreach happened, and enforcing the limits described in sections 5 and 7.

Homeowner contact information is never sold, rented, or licensed.

We do not use homeowner information for advertising, and we do not build audiences or profiles for anyone else's marketing.

5. Mobile numbers and text messaging

Mobile information is shared only with the service providers that carry out the messaging on our behalf, and only so far as is needed to deliver a message the recipient has asked for or to provide customer support. Those providers are contractually barred from using the information for any other purpose. Text-messaging opt-in data and consent records are excluded from every other sharing arrangement described in this policy.

A telephone number that appears in a public record, or that a data provider appends to a lead, is not consent to receive text messages. LeadBuoy does not send marketing or solicitation texts on that basis. The Text control in the product stays disabled, and our backend refuses the send, until a recipient has given prior express written consent themselves, either by completing the consent form an agent sends them or by replying with the opt-in keyword HOME.

A recipient may end messaging at any time by replying STOP, and can reach a human by replying HELP. An opt-out is applied immediately and permanently to that number across every campaign and every agent in the account. No one inside the product can lift it. Message frequency varies with the conversation. Message and data rates may apply to messages you send or receive.

The full text messaging program terms are set out on the text messaging terms page, and the way consent is collected is documented at messaging consent.

6. Consent records

When someone opts in to text messages we keep the evidence of it: the wording that was shown, the date and time, the channel it was given through, and the number it applies to. We keep an equivalent record when consent is withdrawn.

These records exist so that we can show why a message was permitted and honor a withdrawal. They are kept for as long as we need in order to demonstrate compliance, and are not used for any other purpose.

7. Do-not-call lists

Each agent using LeadBuoy is responsible for their own outreach and holds their own subscription to the National Do Not Call Registry, together with any applicable state list. Telephone numbers are screened against those lists before the product permits a call or a text.

List data is used for one thing only: suppressing contact that would otherwise be made. It is never used for lead scoring, ranking, filtering, targeting, analytics, or resale, and it is never disclosed to anyone other than the agent whose subscription produced it. Where screening data is missing or out of date, the product blocks the channel rather than allowing the contact.

8. Agent account information

For agents we hold name, work email address, telephone number, brokerage, license details, the territories assigned to the account, and a record of actions taken in the product. Access is by invitation and authenticated through an identity provider; we never see or store your sign-in password.

Registering for a do-not-call subscription requires a taxpayer identification number. Where you ask us to handle that registration, the number is transmitted and held encrypted, is not shown to anyone who does not need it, and is deleted once the registration is complete.

9. Sharing information

We use a small number of service providers to operate the product, covering functions such as hosting and data storage, authentication, message and email delivery, and product analytics. Each receives only the information it needs for that function, is bound by contract to use it for no other purpose, and may not sell it or pass it on. A current list of these providers is available to customers on request under our subprocessor terms.

Beyond that we share information only where the law requires it, or to establish or defend a legal claim. If the business is ever sold or reorganized, information may transfer with it, subject to this policy.

10. Retention and security

Public records are kept for as long as they remain relevant to an open or recently closed matter. Appended contact details are refreshed and re-dated rather than accumulated. Outreach activity and consent evidence are kept for the period we need in order to demonstrate compliance.

Information is encrypted in transit and at rest, and staff access is limited to what a role requires.

11. Your choices

If you are a homeowner and LeadBuoy has been used to contact you, you can stop it:

• Texts. Reply STOP. It takes effect immediately and permanently for that number.
• Calls. Tell the caller to put you on their do-not-call list, or register your number on the National Do Not Call Registry and any state list. Either one blocks the channel in our product.
• Email. Use the unsubscribe link in any message. It applies across every campaign in the sending account.
• Mail, and everything else. Write to the address below and ask to be suppressed. We will suppress every channel for you and confirm when it is done.

You can also ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Public records themselves stay public. We can remove them from our product, but we cannot remove them from the courthouse. Depending on where you live you may have further rights under state privacy law, and we will honor them; we do not sell personal information as that term is used in those laws.

Agents may export or delete their own account data by asking us.

12. Changes and contact

If we change this policy we will post the new version here with a new effective date and version number. Where a change materially affects how homeowner information or mobile data is handled, we will say so plainly rather than quietly re-dating the page. Previous versions are retained.

Questions, requests, and suppression demands:

See also the Terms of Service and the text messaging terms.