Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information Townhouse collects when you use the app and the website at townhouse.app, what we do with it, and the choices you have. We try to keep it short and in plain English.

Who we are

Townhouse is the home-finding app you use on your phone, plus this website. For UK data protection law, we’re the data controller for the personal information described here. You can reach us at privacy@townhouse.app.

What we collect

Information you give us

• Account details. Your email address (used to send you a one-time sign-in code) and the first name you tell us during onboarding.
• Your brief. The preferences you set when you onboard or change in settings: budget and how you’re funding the move, bedrooms, period style, areas you’re looking at, time horizon, what you’d compromise on, whether you’re working with a buying agent, and any free-text notes you add.
• Things you do in the app. Properties you save, view or open the assistant for; the conversations and any voice dictation you send to the assistant.

Information we collect automatically

• Device and push token. If you turn on notifications, we store the push token your device gives us so we can send you your daily drop and saved-property updates.
• Approximate location (optional). If you grant location permission, the app uses your location to centre the map on where you are. Your precise location isn’t sent to our servers or stored.
• Microphone (optional). If you choose to dictate to the assistant, the app records audio while you’re talking and turns it into text. Audio isn’t stored beyond what’s needed to produce the transcript.
• Basic technical logs. Errors, crash diagnostics and timing information so we can keep the app working.

Information about properties

Townhouse pulls property listings, agent details and related context (such as nearby planning applications, flood-risk indicators, and recently sold prices) from publicly available sources. That information isn’t personal data about you, but it’s used alongside your brief to choose what to show you.

How we use your information

• To run the Service and keep it working.
• To put together your daily drop of properties and personalise what we show you, based on your brief and what you’ve saved or opened.
• To answer your questions in the assistant, and to remember relevant context across conversations.
• To send notifications (your daily drop, updates on saved properties) where you’ve allowed them.
• To prevent abuse and keep accounts secure.
• To improve Townhouse: understanding what works, fixing what doesn’t, and shaping new features.
• To meet our legal obligations.

Legal bases (UK GDPR)

We rely on the following legal bases:

• Performance of a contract, to provide the Service to you under our Terms.
• Legitimate interests, to keep the Service secure, to improve it, and to make it relevant to you. We balance these against your rights and only rely on this where we’ve decided it’s fair to do so.
• Consent, for things like push notifications, location, and the microphone. You can change these permissions at any time in your device settings.
• Legal obligation, where we need to keep or share information to comply with the law.

Who we share it with

We don’t sell your personal information. We share it only with a small number of carefully chosen processors who help us run the Service:

• Supabase for secure database, authentication and edge function hosting on the app’s backend.
• Anthropic, the AI provider behind the assistant. Your brief and the messages you send to the assistant are sent to Anthropic so they can generate replies. Anthropic doesn’t use this content to train its models.
• Mapbox to render the maps you see in the app.
• Apple, whose App Store delivers the app and relays push notifications through Apple Push Notification service.
• Expo for app updates and push notification infrastructure.
• Vercel for hosting this marketing website.

We may also share information if we have to in order to comply with the law, enforce our Terms, or protect the rights, property or safety of our users or others.

Where your data is stored

Your data is stored on servers operated by the providers above, typically in the UK, EU or the US. Where data leaves the UK, we rely on the providers’ standard contractual clauses and adequacy arrangements to protect it.

How long we keep it

• Your account, brief, saved properties, and assistant conversations: while your account is open, plus a short period after you delete it so we can complete any final clean-up.
• Push tokens: until you turn notifications off or delete the app.
• Logs and diagnostics: typically up to 90 days.
• Anything we’re required to keep for legal or accounting reasons: for as long as the law requires.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• correct anything that’s wrong;
• delete your account and associated personal data;
• object to or restrict certain processing, and to withdraw consent where we rely on it;
• portability of the data you’ve given us.

You can delete your account from within the app. For anything else, email privacy@townhouse.app and we’ll get back to you. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk), though we’d appreciate the chance to put things right first.

Children

Townhouse isn’t aimed at people under 18, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us their information, please contact us and we’ll delete it.

Cookies

This website uses only the cookies needed to load and serve the pages. We don’t use marketing cookies or third-party analytics here.

Changes to this policy

We’ll update this policy from time to time. When we make a material change we’ll flag it in the app or by email before it takes effect.

Contact

For anything privacy-related, email privacy@townhouse.app.