Privacy notice

For questions about how Finger Lakes ADU handles your information, email the team or call (281) 235-5708.

Address research and follow-up questions

The property checker sends the address you submit through our server to the U.S. Census Bureau’s public address service to find a location and likely municipality. Census street matching does not verify a parcel boundary. For supported Penfield addresses, our server also checks the Town’s published parcel and zoning maps. We do not request owner names or contact records.

You can instead search by municipality name and state. Our server searches a local copy of the Census Gazetteer for the 50 states and the District of Columbia; the name search does not send a request to OpenAI, Firecrawl or the Census address service. When you select a place to investigate, live research can examine its general published rules. A city, town, county or statistical-area selection identifies the research subject, not a property boundary, zoning district or HOA. Any reviewed guidance already on file is also available.

When live research is available, our server uses OpenAI to investigate public municipal rules, zoning sources, and available HOA or deed restrictions. OpenAI processes the property address, your question, recent questions, property context and relevant source material. Its web search receives queries generated for the investigation. When the document-reading service is enabled, Firecrawl receives public source URLs and returns page or PDF content; a property-record URL may contain address information. Some records are private, unavailable or inconclusive. The checker shows open questions and source links; a search result is not a permit decision or confirmation that no restrictions exist. If live research is unavailable, the page identifies its reviewed-guidance mode.

During a free checker conversation, the address, questions and results displayed in your browser clear when you reload or leave. We do not save that conversation in browser storage, put it in web addresses, write it to application console logs or keep it in a research database. Follow-ups include an encrypted research record, valid for up to two hours, so our server can continue the same property or municipality investigation. A separate service request can save the limited information you agree to submit, as described below. OpenAI requests are configured not to save a response for later retrieval; this does not eliminate provider security or operational retention. The checker does not load optional analytics or session recordings. Hosting, mapping and research providers process requests under their own policies; clearing the page does not delete their operational records. A temporary request counter helps prevent abuse without retaining the question or address. A separate private spending ledger keeps service totals and random transaction references; it contains no address, question or conversation text.

Searching or chatting does not send an inquiry to our team or sign you up for email. You can optionally include an editable property summary in a separate project inquiry. The inclusion checkbox starts unchecked, the summary is shown before it is copied, and the conversation itself is not copied. The contact form still requires your details and permission to reply before you send it. Avoid including sensitive personal information in a research question.

Separately requested research services and payments

Buying a report or requesting human research is a separate action from searching or chatting. The service form asks for your name, email, property or selected municipality, the question or project you want reviewed, and permission to handle that request. A report request also submits an encrypted checker record so the server can validate the findings you chose to save. The order keeps only the selected findings, source links, review dates and open checks; it does not save the full chat, hidden model reasoning or provider credentials. Human research requests keep the details you submit and any scope and report agreed afterward.

Service requests and orders are stored in private Vercel Blob storage, including your contact details, submitted location and question, consent, agreed scope and delivery date, selected findings, report, payment references and order status. These records let Justin review requests, deliver the agreed work, answer order questions and reconcile payments. Submitting a human-service request does not authorize a payment. Your private order page shows the accepted scope and price before you choose checkout.

Online card payments take place on Stripe’s hosted checkout. Finger Lakes ADU does not receive or store your full card number or security code. Stripe receives the information you enter there, plus the service amount, order reference and email needed for checkout. Our server receives payment and refund status and provider references so it can update the order. A return from checkout alone does not establish that a payment succeeded.

A necessary, secure order-access cookie lets the same browser reopen an order for up to 30 days. It contains an access reference, not your contact details or report. A private access code or requested access link can reopen the order on another browser. Anyone with that code or link can view the order, so keep it private. Order pages use an opaque order reference in their address, not your property address or email; an access link’s private fragment is removed after the page reads it. Service request and private order pages do not load optional analytics or session recordings.

Resend handles requested access emails and transactional messages about an accepted scope, payment or report when that messaging is available. These messages concern the service you requested and are separate from marketing or regulation updates. A service request or payment does not subscribe you to an updates list or authorize unrelated sales messages. Check your email address before submitting it; a request does not verify that you control the inbox.

We keep order records as needed to provide the service, handle corrections or billing questions, and maintain necessary business records. Closing a browser or clearing the free conversation does not delete a submitted order. Contact the team to request access, a correction or deletion; records needed for an active order or a legal obligation may need to be retained. Downloads and delivered email copies remain under your control or the recipient provider’s policies. See the research service terms for scope, delivery and order help.

The property checker and inquiries

The checker shows researched rules before asking for contact details. You can then ask about a project, with an optional updates choice at the last step, or follow the separate updates-only link. The project inquiry flow asks for a ZIP and state, and a municipality if known, followed by your name and email. It asks for project type, relationship to the property and timing, with choices for early exploration or uncertainty. Intended use, model interest, budget, house size, street address, phone and notes remain optional. These project questions are not required to read the research or request updates. We never infer a municipality from your ZIP alone.

The separate contact form lets you ask about a project without going through the rules checker. It asks for a property ZIP, project type, timing and relationship to the property, followed by your name, email, preferred reply method and permission to reply. “Not sure yet” choices are available. A phone number is required only if you choose a phone call or either email or a call; otherwise it is optional. Town, notes, budget and street address are optional. A town you enter is self-reported, not a verified municipality or approval to build.

The dedicated updates page asks for your email, explicit updates permission and the area you want to follow so the emails stay relevant. First name is optional. It does not ask for a phone number or project planning answers. Its ZIP and municipality describe an area of interest, not where you live or whether you own property. Joining the updates list is not a public comment, petition signature or statement of support for a policy.

Your answers stay in the page in your browser until you choose to send them or explicitly allow progress saving. The website does not save your answers in browser storage or put them in web addresses. A link from a home model may contain that public model’s name to preselect it; the link does not contain your contact or property details.

In email-draft mode, the website prepares a message in your browser and you send it from your own email app to our business inbox, hello@fingerlakesadu.com. You can review the recipient before sending. A draft does not register you for updates. With direct delivery, your answers go to that inbox through Resend, our email provider. The inbox uses Google Workspace and forwards a copy to Justin's personal Gmail for follow-up. Justin handles inquiry follow-up and coordinates with the construction team.

Where automatic email is available, a submitted request is first saved in private Vercel storage and email work is queued. “Received” means the website accepted the request; it does not confirm inbox delivery, human review or ownership of your email address. A project request with permission to reply can receive a receipt with next steps and a link to book an intro call. Email can take a few minutes. The page tells you when a request uses the older delivery path without an automatic receipt. Reviewing or opening an email draft does not trigger these automatic messages.

Permission to reply about a project is separate from permission to send ADU rule-change and local research emails. The updates checkbox starts unchecked and is optional for a project inquiry; it is required for an updates request. A new updates subscription needs a separate email confirmation of your address and area of interest before updates begin. Updates permission does not authorize a project invitation, call or text. A project idea, property answer or phone number does not replace the separate contact choice.

If you choose to book an intro call, the link opens Google’s scheduling page; Google processes the booking details you enter and the appointment in Justin’s calendar under Google’s privacy policy, and booking does not subscribe you to regulation updates.

We also track inquiry and update requests in a private Google Sheets register accessible to authorized project team members. It records contact details, the information you submit, your separate contact and updates permissions, request status and follow-up notes. The team uses this register to manage requests and honor your choices; it is not a public directory or an additional permission to send marketing.

A scheduled OpenAI Codex automation is configured to check website inquiry emails and submitted Meta forms daily through our connected email and Windsor.ai accounts. It copies new requests into that private register, checks for duplicates and retains recorded permissions for Justin’s review. That register check is separate from the automatic receipt and confirmation service described here; the check itself does not send replies or enroll people in updates.

Please leave out financial account numbers, government identifiers, medical information and other sensitive details. We keep request emails and register entries only as long as needed to reply, manage your update request or manage a project that follows. You can ask us to stop updates or delete your information by replying to an email or contacting the team.

Facebook and Instagram updates and project forms

If you submit an updates form on Facebook or Instagram, Meta processes the form under Meta's privacy policy and shares your first name, email, area of interest and updates preference with Finger Lakes ADU. We do not ask for your home address or require a phone number.

Choosing Yes requests email about ADU rule changes and new local research from Finger Lakes ADU. A new subscription starts after you confirm your email and area of interest through a separate confirmation link. Choosing No, closing the form or leaving it unfinished does not give permission to send updates. Choosing an area does not confirm residence or property eligibility. Signing up is optional; our research is free to read. It is not a petition, public comment, policy endorsement or request for sales contact, and does not authorize unrelated political messages.

If you submit a project form on Facebook or Instagram, Meta shares your first name, email and the project answers requested by that form with Finger Lakes ADU. Our expanded project form asks for the project's town or city, ZIP, project type, timing and your relationship to the property; a phone number is optional. Earlier forms asked only for a broad area and project idea. We do not ask for a street address in these Meta forms. Choosing Yes for a project reply gives Justin permission to email you about that request. Providing an optional phone number does not authorize calls, texts or marketing. The optional updates Yes/No choice is separate: Yes allows ADU rule-change and local research emails; No does not allow updates or cancel a project reply you requested.

Our direct Meta connection can notify Justin of a submitted request through Resend. Pending owner alerts are held in private Vercel storage while delivery is attempted. That alert's message content is removed after provider acceptance or a hold for manual review; a limited Meta submission receipt prevents duplicate alerts. For new requests eligible for automatic email, a separate private record can queue a project receipt only with project reply permission, or an updates confirmation only with updates permission. An updates-only request does not receive a project invitation. Older submissions are not automatically replayed into customer email.

We retrieve submitted requests for our private Google Sheets register through Windsor.ai or authenticated owner notifications from the direct Meta connection. The expanded form's notification preserves its project answers and separate choices. Missing choices remain ungranted; we do not infer permission from a project idea, phone number or earlier form. Justin reviews requests and the recorded choices. A submitted form does not verify control of an inbox or activate an updates subscription.

Automatic email and your preferences

The automatic email service keeps private contact records, the purpose and source of permission, areas of interest, delivery work and limited delivery receipts in Vercel storage. Contact references in storage paths are keyed hashes rather than email addresses. Pending work can contain your submitted details needed for that message. These records are separate from the private Google Sheets register and help prevent duplicate email and honor withdrawals. Resend and recipient inboxes retain delivered email under their own policies.

Project contact and regulation updates have separate preferences. Email links let you review and confirm the relevant choice. Opening a preference link does not change it: the page asks you to confirm. These private pages load no optional analytics or session recordings. Treat a preference link as private because it can authorize a change for its intended purpose.

Use the relevant unsubscribe link to stop that purpose, reply to an email or contact the team. We keep the minimum suppression and consent history needed to respect your choice. A new generic form submission does not undo a project opt-out. Delivery failures or complaints can stop all automatic email to an address; signing up again does not remove that protection. A new explicit updates request can ask for a fresh confirmation, subject to limits that prevent repeated mail. Suppressed or already active addresses may receive no duplicate message.

Regulation updates are limited to your confirmed interests and reviewed research. They do not guarantee that we cover every change in a municipality. Automated receipts, confirmation links and regulation updates are separate from human project correspondence. Ask the team to correct or delete your records, or to stop contact about an active request.

Optional saving of an unfinished project inquiry

The website project forms offer a separate, initially unchecked choice to save your progress and allow Justin to email once about an unfinished inquiry. Saving starts only after you select that choice and enter a valid email address. It sends the contact and project details you have entered to private Vercel storage, and updates them as you edit. This does not submit your final inquiry, join an updates list or grant permission for calls or texts. Without this choice, we do not collect unfinished form answers.

After at least 15 minutes without a saved change, our scheduled service can email Justin an incomplete-inquiry notice through Resend. It checks about every five minutes, so the notice is not immediate. Submitting your final inquiry closes the associated draft; withdrawing the saving choice removes its saved answers and stops future draft alerts. The page confirms whether withdrawal succeeded. An alert already being sent cannot be recalled, so the team must check for a completed request or withdrawal before following up.

Draft answers are removed from private storage when the notice is accepted for delivery, the draft is completed or you withdraw permission. Any remaining draft data expires after seven days and is removed by scheduled cleanup. Limited references and delivery receipts remain until that cleanup; email providers and recipient inboxes retain delivered copies under their own policies. The browser holds draft answers and the private saving reference in page memory only. Reloading or closing the page clears that local copy but does not withdraw a draft already saved; contact the team to withdraw or delete it. Incomplete inquiries are kept separate from submitted leads and are not counted as advertising conversions.

Your project preparation brief

The project brief helps you organize goals, open questions and next steps without signing up. Your answers stay in the current page. This tool does not send them to our team or save them in browser storage. It does not load optional analytics or session recordings. Public municipality guidance is part of the page; selecting an area does not look up a property or determine eligibility.

Printing or downloading a brief creates a copy under your control. Review it before sharing it with a builder or municipal office. Closing or reloading the page clears unsaved answers. Creating a brief does not submit an inquiry or join the updates list.

Optional Penfield property reports

The Penfield report checks the street address you enter against the Town’s published parcel and zoning layers. Our server sends that address query to the Town’s public ArcGIS mapping service and receives the parcel boundary, map district and basic property facts needed for the answer. It does not request owner names or contact records. The report explains reviewed rules and identifies unchecked site details; it is not a permit decision.

You can read and print the result without giving a name or email. The website keeps the entered address and result in the current page only: we do not place them in web addresses, browser storage, application console logs or a property-report database. The report area is excluded from Clarity recordings. Public mapping and hosting providers still process the technical requests needed to supply the result.

If you explicitly request one email copy, we ask for your first name and email; last name is optional. A short-lived signed record lets our server recheck the same official information before sending the report, including its property address, to the email you supplied through Resend. The requested copy is sent only to that recipient, without a staff notification or a new lead-register entry. Email providers and your inbox retain email according to their own policies. We do not verify control of the destination inbox, so check it carefully before requesting a copy.

A report-copy request is separate from marketing consent. It does not join the updates list, reserve a project or authorize follow-up sales messages. To request future updates, use the separate updates form. If email delivery is unavailable, the on-screen report remains available to print.

Optional website analytics

With your permission, we use Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site. Clarity records page activity such as clicks and scrolling, using cookies and technical browser and device data; it reconstructs the page rather than filming your screen. Google Analytics measures visits, traffic sources and fixed events such as checker steps. We send Google only public page paths, recognized social, search or own-site referring origins and approved campaign codes; we strip URL queries and fragments. Unrecognized referring hostnames are excluded.

With the same permission, Vercel Web Analytics measures eligible public-page visits and Vercel Speed Insights measures loading, responsiveness and layout stability. These measurements include technical browser and device information and approximate location. We send Vercel only a public page address without query parameters or fragments. Web Analytics is skipped when a referring address might expose private details; only recognized public internal paths and bare origins from a short list of common social and search sites qualify. Private report pages and designated test visits are excluded from both Vercel tools. We do not send inquiry fields or use Vercel’s visitor-identification features.

The property checker, its results and message drafts are masked before Clarity loads. Private email drafts stay out of page link addresses and open only when you choose the email-app button. Our custom events never include names, email addresses, phone numbers, ZIP codes, addresses, answers or messages. An “accepted” project event means the server accepted the request, either saved for delivery or accepted by the email provider. It does not mean inbox delivery, human review or a completed project.

These optional analytics tools load only after you choose “Allow analytics.” Declining leaves them off, and we keep them off if your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track. Analytics permission alone does not enable Google or Meta ad measurement. Google Signals and ad personalization remain off. Your analytics choice is stored in your browser for up to 180 days; use “Privacy choices” at the bottom of any page to change it. Turning an active tool off reloads the page and clears any unsent inquiry. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services, Microsoft’s privacy statement, Clarity’s retention information and Vercel’s Web Analytics and Speed Insights privacy information.

Optional Google ad measurement

The separate, initially unchecked “Allow Google ad measurement” choice lets Google measure accepted project inquiries against our advertising. It enables advertising cookies and the sharing of advertising click identifiers, eligible page and referring addresses, IP addresses and technical browser data with Google. You can allow selected ad tools without analytics, or allow analytics with your selected ad choices. Existing analytics or Meta permission does not grant Google advertising permission.

The Google Ads destination stays off until you opt in. We restrict it to eligible public pages and recognized addresses and campaign fields; private pages, designated tests and addresses containing unrecognized details are excluded. An accepted inquiry is a server-accepted project request, not a qualified prospect, inbox delivery or sale. We send a random inquiry reference to prevent duplicate conversions, never your form answers or contact details. Drafts and updates subscriptions are not advertising conversions. Enhanced conversions, customer matching, remarketing and ad personalization are off.

This choice is stored separately for up to 180 days. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track keep Google Ads measurement off. Use “Privacy choices” to withdraw it; the page reloads to stop the loaded tool. We keep a limited set of random inquiry references in this browser tab for up to two hours for duplicate prevention. Declining never prevents an inquiry. Google handles received measurement under Google’s privacy policy.

Optional Meta ad measurement

The separate, initially unchecked “Also allow Meta ad measurement” choice enables the Meta Pixel on eligible public pages. It tells Meta when a page is viewed and when our server accepts a project inquiry, so we can measure Facebook and Instagram advertising. An accepted inquiry is not inbox delivery, a qualified prospect, a booked appointment or a sale. We do not send your form answers, name, email, phone, ZIP or address to this Pixel. Automatic advanced matching, automatic event detection and server-side Conversions API delivery are off.

Meta processes technical browser and device information, IP addresses, cookies and eligible page and referring addresses. Approved public campaign codes and a Meta advertising click identifier may be included in those addresses. We keep this tool off when a page or referring address contains unrecognized query details, on private pages and on designated test visits. Meta may associate the measurement with activity on its services under Meta's privacy policy.

This choice is stored separately for up to 180 days. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track keep the Pixel off. Use “Privacy choices” to withdraw permission; a reload stops the loaded tool. To avoid counting the same accepted request twice, we retain a limited set of random request references in this browser tab for up to two hours. No form answers are stored with those references. Blocked measurement or a declined choice never prevents you from sending an inquiry.

Display preference

When you choose light or dark mode, we save that display preference in your browser’s local storage under “fladu-theme.” It contains only “light” or “dark” and remembers your choice on this device until you change it or clear the site’s browser data. This display setting works independently of optional analytics.

Campaign information

The site keeps only approved public campaign codes from tagged links for the life of the browser tab so an inquiry can retain its source after you navigate. It does not store referring hostnames, advertising click IDs or arbitrary campaign text in that buffer. Approved codes may also be held for up to 30 minutes while you decide about analytics, shared with analytics only if you allow it, and cleared if you refuse. Request records retain only known source, medium, campaign and content codes. These submitted clues help compare campaigns; they are not proof of a referral or your identity.

Hosting and other providers

Vercel hosts and protects the site. Its operational monitoring measures server requests, errors and response times to keep the site working; this is separate from optional browser analytics. We do not write inquiry bodies or contact details to application console logs. Email providers process inquiry messages, and Google Sheets stores the private request register described above. Fonts and images are served from our own hosting. These providers have their own privacy policies. We have not set up call recording. Automatic messages follow the separate purposes and choices described above.

Your choices

You can always call or email the team instead of using the checker. Ask us to correct or delete your inquiry information or to stop contacting you. Correspondence needed for an active project or a legal obligation may need to be kept. We never sell or share inquiries with other builders.