Privacy Notice

DownPaymentMap is published by 3rdVentures LLC. Questions about privacy go to tyler@3rdventures.com.

• We do not have accounts or sign-ups. The only form is “Report a mistake”, where an email address is optional.
• We do not use advertising or social media tracking tools. The only cookies are Google Analytics’, described below; PostHog sets none.
• We do not sell or rent personal information, or share it for targeted advertising.
• We do not ask for your location from your browser or device.

Our hosting provider, Vercel Inc., delivers the site and protects it from abuse. Like any web host, it receives technical information with every request, such as your IP address, browser type, the page you asked for and the page that linked you there. It keeps this in short-lived server logs. We use these logs only to run, fix and secure the site.

We use Google Analytics, a service of Google LLC, to learn how many people visit, which pages they read and how they found the site, so we can make it more useful. When it runs, your browser sends Google information such as the pages you view, your browser and device type, your approximate location (city or region, worked out from your IP address) and the site that referred you, and Google sets cookies (named _ga) to count you as one visitor across visits. We see only totals and trends, not who you are.

• We have turned off Google’s advertising features for this site: Google signals and ad personalization. We do not use the data for advertising.
• If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, Google Analytics does not load at all.
• You can also block it with your browser’s settings or Google’s opt-out add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Google handles this information under its own privacy policy.

We also use PostHog, a service of PostHog, Inc. in the United States, to see how people use the site so we can fix what is confusing: which pages they view, which links and buttons they click, and recordings of how a visit moved through the pages (scrolling, clicks and the screen as it changed). When it runs, your browser sends PostHog this activity with your browser and device type, screen size, approximate location (worked out from your IP address) and the site that referred you.

• PostHog sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device: it keeps a random visitor code in memory for your visit only.
• Recordings hide everything typed into a form field. On the “Find programs” page, PostHog records only that the page was viewed: no clicks and no recording.
• Page addresses are sent without anything after a “?” or “#”.
• We do not connect this activity to your name or email, and we do not use it for advertising.
• If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, PostHog does not load at all.

PostHog handles this information under its own privacy policy.

When you answer the questions on the “Find programs” page, your answers (such as your household size, income, price range, credit range, and whether you belong to a group some programs serve) are sent to our server only to work out which programs may fit, and the result is sent back to you. We do not store them, we do not put them in the page’s address, and they are not sent to Google Analytics, PostHog or anyone else. On this page PostHog records only that the page was viewed. The place you enter is looked up as described below; only the county and city it is in go with your answers.

When you search a place on the home page or in the eligibility check:

• ZIP codes are looked up on our own server. They are not sent to anyone else.
• Addresses you type are sent from our server to Mapbox, Inc. to suggest matching addresses as you type, and to the U.S. Census Bureau’s public geocoder to find the county and city the address is in. Our server makes these requests, so they receive the address text but not your IP address.
• We do not save your searches or link them to you. Addresses are sent inside the request, not in the web address, so they do not appear in our hosting provider’s request logs.

Mapbox and the Census Bureau handle what they receive under their own privacy policies.

Your browser loads the map’s background images directly from OpenFreeMap, a free map service that uses OpenStreetMap data. Like any website your browser contacts, OpenFreeMap receives your IP address and which part of the map is shown. It handles this under its own privacy policy.

When you use “Report a mistake” on a program page, we receive what you write, the part of the page you chose, which page and version of the program record you were looking at, and your email address if you give one. To stop the form being flooded, we also keep a scrambled, one-way code made from your IP address, which lets us count reports from the same connection but does not reveal the address. Reports are stored in our program database, hosted by Neon, Inc.

A person reads every report. To check it against the program’s official sources, the text you wrote is also read by an AI service, Claude by Anthropic, PBC. Your email address and the IP code are never sent to it. We use your email only to reply to you, and we keep reports only as long as we need them to check and correct program facts. Please do not include Social Security numbers, account numbers or other sensitive financial details.

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to answer you, and we keep it only as long as we need it for that.

Only the service providers named above, which host the site, measure visits, power the search and map, and store and check reports; our email provider, for messages you send us; and anyone we are required to share it with by law, or to protect the rights, safety or property of our users, the public or 3rdVentures LLC. If 3rdVentures LLC or the site is sold or reorganized, the information we hold may transfer with it, under this notice.

The site is served only over encrypted connections (HTTPS). No system is perfectly secure, but because we do not keep accounts or personal profiles, there is very little about you for anyone to take.

The site is meant for adults and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

Because we keep no accounts or profiles, we usually hold nothing we can connect to you, apart from any email you sent us or gave with a report. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what personal information we have about you, to have it corrected or deleted, and to opt out of its sale or use for targeted advertising (we do neither). To make a request, email tyler@3rdventures.com. We will not treat you differently for asking. We honor Global Privacy Control: when your browser sends it, Google Analytics and PostHog do not load (PostHog also stays off under Do Not Track). We do not track you across other sites.

If we change how the site handles information, we will update this notice first and change the date at the top. If we ever add a feature that collects personal information, such as a sign-up form, this notice will describe it before the feature goes live.