Privacy
Last updated October 26, 2026
The address you search tells us which home you might buy, so we keep as little as we can. There are no accounts, no ads, and we don't sell or share your data.
The addresses you search
- To build a report, the address goes to the US Census Bureau's geocoder, which finds it on the map. The map point and parcel numbers then go to the government sources listed in the report (the county appraisal district and tax office, the city, FEMA, the State of Texas and others) to look up their records.
- A finished report is cached for up to 6 hours so a repeat search doesn't ask every source again, then it's deleted. The cache is looked up by a one-way scrambled (hashed) form of the address, not the address itself. Public map layers that rarely change, such as parcel and flood-zone lookups, are kept for a few days for the same reason. We don't keep a search history.
- Our logs and statistics never contain the street address. For each report they record only the state, county and ZIP code, the verdict, whether it finished, and how long it took.
Cookies
We set two cookies, both only for this site. Neither is used for advertising, shared with anyone, or used to follow you to other sites.
hc_vid: a random ID, made up the first time you visit, plus the date you were last here. It lets us count how many different people use HouseDirt and how often they come back, without knowing who anyone is. It isn't built from your device or browser, and it isn't linked to your name, email or IP address. It lasts a year.hc_session: set after the "are you a person" check. It only shows that you passed the check and expires after 15 minutes.
To clear them, delete this site's cookies in your browser's settings (or use a private window). You'll get a new random ID next time, and nothing connects it to the old one.
Usage statistics
To see whether HouseDirt works and who it helps, we keep anonymous statistics in Cloudflare's Analytics Engine. For each page view and each report we record:
- the random
hc_vidID and whether it's a first or repeat visit - your approximate location (country, state or region, and city), as estimated by Cloudflare from your connection. We never store the IP address itself.
- whether you're on a phone, tablet or computer
- for a report: the county and ZIP code searched (never the street address), the verdict, the number of red and yellow flags, how long it took, whether any source failed, whether it came from the cache, and whether the "are you a person" check was shown
We don't record names, email addresses, IP addresses or street addresses. Only the people who run HouseDirt can see these statistics, behind a password. Cloudflare deletes them automatically after about 3 months.
We also count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is cookieless: it doesn't set cookies or use local storage, and it doesn't fingerprint your browser or follow you across sites. It records page views (without the address in the link), not who you are.
We don't show a cookie banner because these cookies are first-party, anonymous, used only to run and improve this free Texas service, and never used for advertising or shared. If you'd rather not be counted, delete the hc_vid cookie whenever you like; reports work the same without it. (Don't block every cookie for this site, though: the verification check needs hc_session, and searches can't start without it.)
The verification check
To keep the free service from being flooded by bots, searches pass through Cloudflare Turnstile. Cloudflare looks at signals from your browser to tell people from bots, under its Turnstile privacy addendum. It doesn't show ads or track you for advertising.
Other services your browser contacts
The page loads a few things from other servers. Like any website, they see your IP address and browser type:
- Google Fonts (the Inter typeface)
- unpkg (the Leaflet and MapLibre map code)
- OpenFreeMap (the map tiles), or the USGS National Map if your browser can't draw them
- Cloudflare (hosting, the verification check and analytics)
On your own device
Your light/dark choice and the questions and checklist items you tick off are saved in your browser's local storage, on your device only. They never reach us. Clearing your browser's site data removes them.
Contact
Privacy questions or requests: support@housedirt.com. General: hello@housedirt.com.
Changes
If we change how we handle data, we'll update this page and the date at the top.