Privacy policy

What we collect, and what we don't.

Last updated 15 October 2026

wheretolive.xyz is a personal project run by Troy Tang, who is the data controller for the personal data described here (contact: [email protected]). This page spells out exactly what we collect, why, how it's used, and how you can delete it. UK/EU GDPR applies.

What we collect

  • Account info (optional): if you sign up, we store your email and a hashed password via Supabase, used for login and for the emails described under “Emails” below. Most features work without an account.
  • Things you actively submit: postcodes you evaluate, listing URLs you check, commute destinations, AI-chat messages, feedback form content — all used to generate the result you asked for.
  • Preferences: saved postcodes, view history, language, theme (theme/language keys in localStorage).
  • Anonymous page views: URL + timestamp + de-identified visitor id. No IPs stored (only used at the Cloudflare edge for bot filtering; logs not retained).
  • AI chat logs: if you use /chat, we retain messages so your history shows up next visit.

What we don't collect

  • Precise location (only postcodes, which resolve to a street block at best)
  • Third-party tracking cookies / ad cookies
  • Browser fingerprints
  • Anything you didn't actively submit or authenticate

Arden browser extension

  • Arden only reads the Rightmove rental page you already have open. The listing's description, address, photos and agent details are processed in your browser and never sent to us.
  • To show council tax, crime and commute, the extension sends us the listing's postcode and the commute destination you enter. We don't record which listing a request was for.
  • It sends anonymous usage counts (panel opened, “Get help” clicked) with a random install ID and no listing ID.
  • If you use “Get help with this listing”, we keep the name, email, question and listing number you submit, only to contact the agent for you and reply to you. Email us to have it deleted.

AI assistant connector (MCP server)

  • The public, read-only MCP server at https://wheretolive.xyz/mcp needs no account, sets no cookies and serves only district-level summaries of official open data (see /developers).
  • We don't store your questions, tool arguments or answers. We keep daily counts only: requests, the methods and tool names called, and the name of the client software (for example “claude-ai”).
  • Your IP address is held in memory for a few minutes to apply the rate limit and is not written to any log or database. Traffic passes through Cloudflare, as for the rest of the site.

Emails

  • Radar alerts: if you set up a Radar, we email the new homes and price cuts it finds to your account's address, only when there is something new and at most once a day. New Radars have it on by default and we tell you when you create one; for Radars created before 14 October 2026 we turned it on, and the first email says so.
  • You can stop at any time: “Unsubscribe from all Radar emails” at the bottom of every email, your mail app's Unsubscribe button, or “Email alerts” on the Radar's page. The link and button in the email need no sign-in and take effect at once.
  • Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: telling you what the Radar you set up has found. The emails contain only your Radar's results, no advertising.
  • Rent Radar alerts: all of the above applies to rent Radars too. The difference is that they email when there are new listings: at most one an hour, none between 10pm and 7am London time, and at most 10 a day. You can switch to one a day or turn them off on the rent Radar page.
  • Newsletter: if you subscribe in the footer, we keep your email address and when you confirmed. Nothing is sent until you click the link in the confirmation email, and every issue has a one-click unsubscribe. Our lawful basis is your consent.
  • We keep each email we send (recipient, subject, content, time sent) and records of unsubscribes, bounces and spam reports, to check what you received and to make sure we stop when you unsubscribe. Addresses that bounced or reported spam stay on a do-not-send list. Deleting your account deletes these records, except the do-not-send list.
  • We don't track whether you open our emails. Links carry utm tags, used only to count visits that came from email. Emails are sent through Resend (see “Third-party services”).

Third-party services

  • Supabase — accounts, saved data. Data stored in EU region.
  • Resend — sends our emails (sign-in confirmations, Radar alerts, newsletter). A US company; we use its EU (Ireland) sending region. It processes recipients' addresses and email content.
  • Cloudflare — hosting + basic access analytics via cloudflareinsights.com (anonymous).
  • Mapbox — map tiles on /map; subject to Mapbox's own privacy policy.
  • Public APIs: TfL, UK Police API, ONS, EA (Environment Agency), EPC, HM Land Registry, DfE, Mapbox Geocoding — queried without identifying you.
  • Property listings — listing information is collected automatically each day from adverts publicly displayed on Rightmove, and again when you ask us to check a specific listing. Some adverts include estate agent or branch names; we obtained these from publicly accessible Rightmove adverts. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests. To ask us to correct or remove anything, email [email protected].

Journalists and media contacts

  • If you are a journalist or editor, we may email you about our data, including our Data Notes. We keep your name, work email address, publication and our correspondence with you.
  • We got your contact details from public sources: your publication's contact or author pages, or articles you have written.
  • Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: offering data that may be useful to your reporting. Our email is hosted by Google Workspace, and incoming mail is routed through Cloudflare Email Routing.
  • We keep these details for up to two years after our last exchange. Reply to say you'd rather not hear from us and we'll stop, keeping only your address on a do-not-contact list so we don't email you again. You can also ask us to delete everything, or object, at [email protected].

Retention

  • Account: kept until you delete it
  • Browse history: 12 months (auto-pruned)
  • AI chat: 30 days
  • Anonymous page views: 12 months (aggregated monthly)
  • Cached evaluation data: 7–90 days on the server depending on dataset

Your rights (GDPR)

You can request: access to the data we hold on you, correction of anything wrong, a data export, or permanent deletion of your account and all linked data. Email [email protected] — we'll reply within 30 days.

Cookies

The site uses these localStorage keys: theme (dark/light preference), language (EN/zh), wtl-route (last route visited), chat.messages (local cache of AI chat). Supabase may set an HttpOnly session cookie if you're signed in. No third-party advertising cookies.

Data breach

If there's a breach, it'll be reported to the UK ICO within 72 hours per GDPR, and affected users notified. The site will carry a banner.

Contact / complaints

Questions or complaints about privacy: [email protected]. You can also complain to the UK ICO (Information Commissioner's Office).