Privacy Policy

“Own Ahead” is the name of this service. The operating legal entity, its registered address and a dedicated privacy mailbox are being finalised and are deliberately not stated here rather than guessed at. Until they are published, all privacy communications run through our in-app request centre, which is monitored.

Own Ahead does not yet publish a dedicated legal or privacy mailbox. Until one is in place, send any legal, privacy, accessibility, copyright or security message through the privacy and requests centre. Requests submitted there are logged for review, and you do not need an account to use it.

• Account and profile data — name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash by our authentication provider), optional phone number, and the optional buyer descriptions you select such as first-time buyer or self-employed.
• Marketplace activity — saved homes and notes, saved searches, alert preferences and frequency, and the homes you recently viewed (stored in your own browser).
• Inquiries — name, email, optional phone, buyer type and your message when you contact a seller or representative about a property.
• Seller and listing data — the display name, company, contact details, optional licence number and listing content you submit when you list a property.
• Listing claim data — your stated relationship to a property, name, company, contact email and phone, optional licence number, and any proof link or note you provide to support the claim, together with our review outcome and internal review notes.
• Subscription and payment metadata — plan, status, billing period, cancellation flag, and the customer, subscription and price identifiers issued by Stripe. Card numbers are entered on Stripe-hosted pages; Own Ahead never receives or stores full card details.
• Device and log data — IP address, browser and device information, pages requested, timestamps and error diagnostics generated by our hosting and error-reporting layer.
• Cookie and consent data — your cookie category choices, the consent version and the date you made them, plus any Global Privacy Control signal your browser sends.
• Communications and support — privacy, accessibility, copyright and security requests you submit, and the correspondence and administrative notes related to them.

• To operate the marketplace: show listings, run searches, save homes and searches, and send the alerts you ask for.
• To create and authenticate your account, keep sessions secure and support password resets.
• To detect, investigate and prevent fraud, abuse, false listing claims, scraping and security incidents.
• To take payment for Own Ahead Pro, manage renewals and cancellations, and decide what private listing detail your account is entitled to see.
• To respond to inquiries, support messages and privacy, accessibility, copyright or security requests.
• To review listing claims so that a claimed representative relationship is checked before it is shown publicly.
• To comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful requests and enforce our terms.
• Analytics: Own Ahead does not currently run any analytics or product-measurement tool, so no analytics processing takes place.

Own Ahead is built on a small number of providers. We have listed only those actually involved in the service today.

When you send an inquiry about a property, the details you submit are made available to Own Ahead administrators and, where applicable, to the seller or approved representative for that listing so they can respond to you.

Own Ahead does not sell personal information for money, and does not currently use cross-context behavioural advertising or share personal information for targeted advertising.

The following are not part of the service today:

• Google Analytics, or any other analytics or product-measurement SDK
• Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn or other advertising pixels
• Cross-context behavioural advertising or retargeting
• Selling personal information for money
• Data brokers or list purchases
• Marketing email or SMS platforms

We still provide a standing preference mechanism on the privacy choices page so that your choice is already on record if the law or our practices change. If that ever changes, we will update this policy before starting.

• Account, profile, saved home and saved search data: for as long as your account is open, and then deleted or anonymised after closure except where we must keep records.
• Inquiries and listing claim records: kept while the listing relationship is active and for a reasonable period afterwards for dispute, fraud and audit purposes.
• Subscription and billing records: kept as long as required for tax, accounting and chargeback purposes.
• Log and error data: kept for a short operational period for security and debugging.
• Privacy requests: kept as a record that the request was received and handled.
• A documented, per-data-type retention schedule is being finalised as part of launch preparation.

We use encrypted connections, database access rules that restrict who can read private fields such as exact street addresses and representative contact details, least privilege for administrative access, and server-side entitlement checks before private listing detail is released. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. See our security page for more.

• You can update your profile, saved homes, saved searches and alert settings from your dashboard at any time.
• You can switch alerts off without closing your account.
• You can cancel Own Ahead Pro from your account page; see the subscription terms for what happens to access.
• You can ask us to delete your account and associated personal information through the privacy request centre. Some records may be retained where we are legally required to keep them.

We may disclose information where we reasonably believe it is required by law, legal process or a lawful government request, or where necessary to protect our rights, users or the public, or to investigate fraud or a security issue.

If Own Ahead is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing or sale of assets, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction, and we will require the recipient to honour this policy or give you notice of a material change.

Listings may reference third-party sources and websites. We do not control those sites, do not endorse them, and their privacy practices are their own.

Own Ahead is a United States focused service and our providers may process and store data in the United States and other countries. Where information is transferred from the UK, EEA or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the standard contractual clauses used by our providers. Data protection laws in the receiving country may differ from those where you live.

Own Ahead is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a minor has given us information, contact us through the request centre and we will delete it.

Depending on where you live, state privacy laws such as those in California, Texas, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and other states may give you the following rights:

• Know and access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate personal information.
• Delete personal information we hold about you.
• Obtain a portable copy of the information you provided to us.
• Opt out of targeted advertising, of the sale or sharing of personal information, and of profiling used for decisions with significant effects. Own Ahead does not currently carry out any of those activities, and you can still register a standing preference.
• Not be discriminated against for exercising your rights — the price and functionality of Own Ahead do not change because you made a request.
• Appeal a decision we make about your request. If we decline, you may appeal through the same form by choosing 'Appeal a prior privacy decision', and where your state provides one you may also complain to your state attorney general.

An authorised agent may submit a request on your behalf where the law allows; we may ask for proof of their authority.

Where UK or EU data protection law applies to our processing, the operator of Own Ahead acts as the controller for the personal information described in this policy. We do not claim to have appointed a UK or EU representative or a data protection officer, because neither has been appointed.

Our lawful bases are:

• Performance of a contract — creating and running your account, saved homes and searches, and providing Own Ahead Pro.
• Legitimate interests — securing the service, preventing fraud and abuse, reviewing listing claims, improving the marketplace and responding to your messages.
• Consent — non-essential cookies, where you allow a category, and any optional marketing you actively opt into. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal obligation — tax, accounting and responding to lawful requests.

You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing, to data portability, to withdraw consent, and to lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority, including the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

You do not need an account to submit a privacy request. To protect you, we may need to verify that a request genuinely comes from you before we act on it, particularly for access, correction, deletion and portability. We will do this using information we already hold, such as confirming control of the email address on record. We do not ask for Social Security numbers, government identity documents or other highly sensitive identity documents through the web form. If additional verification is needed, we will arrange it separately and explain why.

We will update this policy when the service or the law changes, and we will change the “last updated” date at the top. Material changes will be highlighted in the service. If we add an analytics or advertising provider, we will update the cookie policy and reset the consent banner so you can make a fresh choice.

Own Ahead does not yet publish a dedicated legal or privacy mailbox. Until one is in place, send any legal, privacy, accessibility, copyright or security message through the privacy and requests centre. Requests submitted there are logged for review, and you do not need an account to use it.