1. Who We Are
SecurityDeposit.co is operated by Blue Swan Consulting, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"). We provide document preparation services to assist residential tenants in the United States who are seeking the return of their security deposits. Our registered address is [REGISTERED AGENT ADDRESS — Delaware]. Our principal place of business is [BUSINESS ADDRESS].
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit securitydeposit.co (including all state-specific subpages such as securitydeposit.co/california) or use any of our services (collectively, the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information You Provide Directly
We collect the following categories of information that you provide when using the Service:
| Contact information | Your full legal name, current mailing address, and email address. |
|---|---|
| Case information | Your rental property address, security deposit amount, move-out date, forwarding address, length of tenancy, and the reason for your dispute. |
| Landlord information | Your landlord's or property management company's name, mailing address, and email address (if provided). |
| Supporting documents | Photographs, inspection checklists, or other files you upload to support your case. |
| Payment information | Billing details submitted at checkout. Payment card data is processed directly by Stripe, Inc. and is not stored on our servers. We receive only a tokenized reference and the last four digits of your card. |
| Account credentials | Email address and password used to access your case dashboard. |
| Communications | Any messages you send to us via email or support channels. |
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
When you visit the Service, we automatically collect certain technical data, including:
- IP address and approximate geographic location (used for state auto-detection on the questionnaire)
- Browser type, version, and operating system
- Pages visited, time spent on pages, and referring URLs
- Device identifiers and session identifiers
- Cookie data (see Section 8)
2.3 Information We Infer
Based on your answers to the questionnaire, we derive inferences about your case — for example, whether your landlord has exceeded their statutory deadline, the applicable state statute, and an estimated recovery range. These inferences are used solely to generate your document package and personalize the Service. They do not constitute legal advice.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use your information for the following purposes:
| Service delivery | To generate your personalized demand letter and any additional documents included in your purchased package. |
|---|---|
| Case management | To populate your case dashboard, track follow-up dates, and deliver scheduled email reminders tied to your case timeline. |
| Payment processing | To process your purchase through Stripe and maintain transaction records as required by law. |
| Account management | To create and maintain your account, authenticate logins, and issue magic links for session resumption. |
| Communications | To send transactional emails (purchase confirmation, document delivery, case follow-ups) and, if you have not opted out, marketing emails related to our services. You may unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time. |
| Service improvement | To analyze usage patterns, test new features, and improve the quality and accuracy of our document templates. Any analysis of case data for this purpose uses aggregated, de-identified data only. |
| Legal compliance | To comply with applicable laws, respond to lawful requests from government authorities, and enforce our Terms of Service. |
| Fraud prevention | To detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and abuse of the Service. |
We do not use your personal information to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models, and we do not sell your personal information to third parties for any purpose.
4. How We Share Your Information
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only in the following limited circumstances:
4.1 Service Providers
We share information with third-party vendors who process data on our behalf and are contractually bound to use it only for the services they provide to us:
- Stripe, Inc. — Payment processing. Stripe's privacy policy is available at stripe.com/privacy.
- [EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER] — Transactional and marketing email delivery. We share your email address and, for case-specific emails, your case summary data with this provider.
- [ANALYTICS PROVIDER] — Usage analytics.
- [HOSTING / INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDER] — Cloud storage and compute. Your data is stored on servers operated by this provider in the [REGION].
4.2 Legal Requirements
We may disclose your information if required to do so by law, court order, or governmental authority, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our users, or the public.
4.3 Business Transfers
If Blue Swan Consulting, Inc. is involved in a merger, acquisition, asset sale, or bankruptcy proceeding, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will provide notice via a prominent posting on the Service and, where feasible, direct email notification at least thirty (30) days before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
4.4 With Your Consent
We may share your information with third parties when you have given us explicit consent to do so.
5. Sensitive Information
5.1 Domestic Violence and Safety Situations
If you indicate during the questionnaire that you vacated your rental due to domestic violence, a safety concern, or a similar protected circumstance, we treat that indication with heightened care:
- Your new or forwarding address is not stored in our case management system and does not appear in any generated document.
- Your new address is not shared with any third party, including our email service provider, except as necessary to deliver documents directly to you.
- Your selection of this status is stored only as a flag to trigger protective document handling — not as a narrative data field.
- If you contact us for support related to a domestic violence situation, that communication is treated as confidential and handled separately from standard case records.
We encourage users in safety-sensitive situations to use a PO Box, a trusted third party's address, or a legal aid organization's address as the return address on their demand letter.
5.2 Financial and Dispute Information
Information about your security deposit, your landlord's conduct, and any supporting financial records you provide is used solely to generate your documents and manage your case. It is not shared with your landlord, any third party adverse to you, or any credit reporting agency.
6. Data Retention
We retain your personal information for the following periods:
| Account and case data | [X years — suggest 3 years from last login] from the date of your last account activity, or until you request deletion, whichever comes first. |
|---|---|
| Uploaded documents | Same as account and case data. Deleted from our servers upon account deletion. |
| Payment records | Transaction records retained for [7 years] as required for tax and accounting compliance. |
| Email communications | Support email threads retained for [2 years]. |
| Anonymous analytics | Aggregated, de-identified usage data may be retained indefinitely. |
| Abandoned sessions | Questionnaire data from sessions with no purchase and no email is deleted after [90 days]. |
7. Security
We implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, loss, alteration, or disclosure. These measures include:
- TLS 1.2 or higher encryption for all data transmitted between your browser and our servers
- Encryption of data at rest on our hosting infrastructure
- Access controls limiting employee access to personal data on a need-to-know basis
- Payment card data is never transmitted through or stored on our servers — it flows directly to Stripe's PCI-DSS-compliant infrastructure
No method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have reason to believe your account has been compromised, please contact us immediately at [SECURITY EMAIL].
8. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
8.1 What We Use
| Strictly necessary | Session cookies required for the questionnaire to function (state pre-fill, progress saving, magic link tokens). Cannot be disabled without breaking the Service. |
|---|---|
| Functional | Cookies that remember your preferences (e.g., state selection) across visits. |
| Analytics | Cookies placed by [analytics provider] to help us understand how users navigate the Service. |
| Advertising | Cookies placed by [Google Ads / Meta Pixel] to measure the effectiveness of our advertising. |
8.2 Your Cookie Choices
You may control cookies through your browser settings. Note that disabling functional cookies may prevent the questionnaire from saving your progress between sessions. For advertising cookies, you may use the opt-out tools at optout.aboutads.info or optout.networkadvertising.org. We honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals where technically feasible.
9. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on your location, you may have the following rights with respect to your personal information:
| Access | Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. |
|---|---|
| Correction | Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information. |
| Deletion | Request deletion of your personal information, subject to our legal retention obligations. |
| Portability | Request your case data in a structured, machine-readable format. |
| Opt-out of marketing | Unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time via the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us directly. |
| Withdraw consent | Where processing is based on consent, withdraw that consent at any time. |
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [PRIVACY EMAIL]. We will respond within thirty (30) days. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.
10. California Residents — CCPA / CPRA
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), affords you additional rights. In the past twelve months, we have collected personal information in the categories described in Section 2. We have not sold or shared personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes.
California-Specific Rights
- Right to Know: You may request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
- Right to Delete: You may request deletion of personal information we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
- Right to Correct: You may request correction of inaccurate personal information.
- Right to Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing: We do not sell or share your personal information.
- Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: We do not use sensitive personal information for purposes beyond those permitted by the CPRA without your consent.
- Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA/CPRA rights.
To submit a CCPA request, contact us at [PRIVACY EMAIL] or call [TOLL-FREE NUMBER]. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by providing written authorization.
11. Children's Privacy
The Service is intended for use by adults who are at least 18 years of age and who are parties to a residential lease agreement. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under the age of 18. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a minor, we will promptly delete it. If you believe we have collected information from a minor, please contact us at [PRIVACY EMAIL].
12. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the updated policy on this page and updating the effective date. For changes that materially affect how we process your personal information, we will provide at least thirty (30) days' advance notice by email (to the address associated with your account) before the changes take effect.
We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Prior versions will be archived and available upon request.
13. Contact Us
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our handling of your personal information, please contact us:
| [PRIVACY EMAIL — e.g. privacy@securitydeposit.co] | |
| Blue Swan Consulting, Inc. Attn: Privacy [BUSINESS MAILING ADDRESS] | |
| Response time | We aim to respond to all privacy inquiries within 30 days. |