Privacy Policy

Who we are

Choate House Row - LLC (“we”, “us”) operates a small rental business offering houses on Choate Street near the University of Delaware. This policy covers this website and the online tenancy-application process.

Questions about privacy can be sent through the contact details on our Contact page.

Information we collect

We practice data minimization — we collect only what we need to respond to you and review applications:

• The email address you apply with, which you use to receive a one-time sign-in link and which we use to contact you about your application.
• Application details you submit on the online form: property/unit selection, full name, cell phone, current address, current landlord and lease-end details, optional student details (major, student status, and expected graduation date if you are a student), optional note, smoker answer, felony-conviction answer, and any felony explanation you choose to provide.
• The names and email addresses of people in an application group. Another applicant may provide your name and email address before you submit your own application.
• Records of required acknowledgements, including permission to verify listed information; acknowledgement that units are smoke-free, pets are prohibited, and service and assistance animals are not pets; group contact permission when applicable, accuracy certification, and acceptance of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.
• Limited technical data — your IP address, browser user-agent, and request timestamps — used for security, abuse prevention, rate limiting, and audit logging.

Cookies

We use no analytics, advertising, or third-party cookies, and no cross-site tracking. The site sets two strictly necessary first-party cookies, and only when you use the sign-in and application flow:

• sessionid — keeps you signed in while you complete your application. It is Secure (HTTPS only) and HttpOnly (not readable by scripts). It ends when you close your browser and never lasts more than 8 hours.
• csrftoken — protects form submissions against cross-site request forgery. It is Secure and lasts up to one year.
• We do not use browser local storage for the application flow or for tracking.
• Blocking the necessary cookies will prevent the online application from working; browsing listings requires none of them.

Information we do NOT collect

The online application does not ask for, and we do not collect through it, any income or financial statements, Social Security numbers, payment-card or bank-account details, or uploaded documents.

How we use your information

• To review and respond to tenancy applications and inquiries.
• To match applications submitted by members of the same group and to send group invitations and notices when the group's applications are complete.
• To communicate with you about applications, showings, and leasing next steps.
• To operate, secure, and maintain this site, including preventing abuse.
• To comply with our legal obligations.

Verification and sharing

Applications are reviewed only by authorized staff. We do not sell your personal information.

With your permission (such as the permission you grant on our application form), we may verify the information you provide with references you list — for example, current or prior landlords, the University of Delaware, and the City of Newark — and only the items listed on the application are discussed.

Felony-conviction answers receive an individualized manual review that considers the nature and gravity of the offense, elapsed time, rental and property-safety relevance, rehabilitation, and the applicant's context. They never cause an automatic or blanket denial.

Group invitation emails show the declaring applicant and invited members in the visible To field and do not copy staff. Group-completion emails show all visible group members in To and send a monitoring copy to our business inbox using Bcc. By declaring or joining a group you share your email address with its other members.

We use a small number of service providers that process data on our behalf under contract and only on our instructions — for example, for website hosting and infrastructure, email communications, and delivery of transactional email such as sign-in links and application notifications. Application data is shared with these few partners only as needed to keep the application process secure and effective. We may disclose information where required by law.

How long we keep it

• Application records are retained for a limited period after a decision and then deleted automatically: decided applications are purged after 365 days, and still-submitted applications are purged after 730 days.
• Passwordless applicant accounts left with no remaining applications are deleted during the application purge, removing the account email from the user table.
• Passwordless applicant accounts that verified a sign-in link but never submitted an application are deleted once both the account's creation and its last sign-in are more than 90 days old.
• Names and email addresses in an application group are deleted once all associated applications have reached their applicable retention limit and been purged.
• One-time sign-in links expire 30 minutes after they are issued and can be used once; spent or expired links are purged after 7 days.
• Security audit records are kept minimal — they never store passwords, tokens, or full application contents — and are retained for approximately 730 days.

Your choices and rights

You can ask us to access, correct, or delete personal information associated with your application. Contact us using the details on our Contact page. We aim to respond within 30 days.

Because applications are reviewed by people, deleting your data may end an in-progress application.

We may retain information needed for an active security investigation or legal obligation until that need is resolved, even after a deletion request.

How we protect your information

We use encryption in transit (HTTPS), restrict access to authorized staff, store application data on access-controlled systems, and keep audit logs of security-relevant actions. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take reasonable measures appropriate to the data we hold.

Eligibility

This site and the application process are intended for prospective adult tenants (18 or older). It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the age of 18 at the time of their visit to the website.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by a new effective date above.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data? Reach us using the details on our Contact page.