Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026

Lease Lantern (“we,” “us”) is a free tool for researching affordable and income-based housing. We believe privacy is part of trust, so we collect as little as possible and never sell your personal information. This policy explains what we collect, why, and your choices.

Information we collect

We only collect information you choose to give us, plus privacy-friendly, anonymous usage statistics:

• Email address — if you join our waitlist or updates list.
• Contact & request details — your name, email, phone (if given), and message when you submit an availability request, a data-licensing inquiry, or a general contact form. We also record whether the email we sent on your behalf was delivered or bounced, so we can tell you if it didn’t get through.
• Housing updates (optional) — if you tick the box on an availability request, we may occasionally email you about affordable-housing openings and resources near the area you asked about. Every such email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can opt out any time by emailing hello@leaselantern.com. Untick the box and we only send the confirmation of your request.
• Reviews — the content you submit, and a display name if you provide one (you may post anonymously).
• Property-manager listings — if you claim a property, the details and photos you upload.
• Anonymous usage data — aggregate page views and referrers, via privacy-first analytics (see below). This does not identify you.

How we use it

To respond to your messages, send confirmations you asked for, publish reviews you submit, operate property-manager listings, and understand which pages are useful so we can improve the site. That’s it.

Analytics & cookies

We use Plausible Analytics and Clicky, privacy-focused tools configured to run without tracking cookies; neither collects personal data or tracks you across sites. Clicky’s script is served from our own domain rather than a third-party one. The cookies we set ourselves are functional — for example, a secure session cookie if you verify a property claim, or an admin login cookie for our own staff.

Advertising

Some pages display ads served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies or similar technologies to serve and measure ads, including ads based on your prior visits to this or other websites. We do not share your name, email, or anything you submit through a form with advertisers — ad serving is handled entirely by Google and we receive only aggregate performance data.

You can opt out of personalized advertising in Google My Ad Center, and manage broader opt-outs at aboutads.info. Visitors in the EEA and UK are asked for consent before any advertising cookie is set.

Because this site serves people looking for affordable housing, we block advertiser categories that disproportionately target and harm low-income renters — including payday and short-term lending, debt relief and credit repair, rent-to-own, and “guaranteed approval” offers. If you ever see an ad here that looks predatory or deceptive, please tell us at hello@leaselantern.com and we will block it.

We never show ads inside the property-claim flow, availability requests, or our contact and data-licensing forms.

How your information is shared

We do not sell your personal information. We use a small number of trusted service providers to run the site: Vercel (hosting), Neon (database), Resend (sending email you request), and Vercel Blob (storing landlord-uploaded photos), and Google (advertising). They process data only to provide these services. We may disclose information if required by law.

Data sources on property pages

Information shown about properties — inspection scores, flood zones, income limits, and so on — comes from public government records (HUD, FEMA, the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, and others), not from private individuals. See our About page for the full list of sources.

Your choices

You can unsubscribe from emails at any time, and you can ask us to access or delete the personal information you’ve given us by emailing hello@leaselantern.com.

Children

Lease Lantern is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Changes

We may update this policy; we’ll revise the “last updated” date above when we do.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hello@leaselantern.com or use our contact page.