beforeyoutour has no accounts, no analytics, and no server of ours that receives your information. It reads the building address off the listing page you are already viewing, asks New York City's public data servers about that building, and shows you what they say. The one thing it saves is any note you choose to write yourself, and that note stays on your own browser.
Where the extension runs
Only on listing pages at these five sites:
- streeteasy.com
- zillow.com and trulia.com
- apartments.com
- realtor.com
It does not run on any other website. On those sites it only activates on an individual listing or building page, not on search results, saved searches, agent profiles, or the homepage.
What it reads from the page
- The building address shown on the listing
- The apartment number, if one is shown
- The bedroom and bathroom count, if shown
- Whether the description uses terms like "flex" or "convertible," which relate to whether a room is a legal bedroom
It reads the page as it already appears in your browser. It does not access any listing site's internal systems or accounts.
Where that address is sent
To two public New York City government services, and nowhere else:
- NYC Planning GeoSearch (geosearch.planninglabs.nyc), which turns a street address into the city's building identifier
- NYC Open Data (data.cityofnewyork.us), which returns that building's public records
These are the City of New York's own servers, and their handling of requests is governed by the City. No analytics provider, advertiser, or data broker receives anything from this extension.
What is saved on your device
The Reviews tab lets you write a note about a building for your own reference. If you write one:
- It is saved in your browser's local extension storage, attached to that building's tax lot number
- It is visible only in your own browser, on the device where you wrote it
- It is not uploaded, published, shared, or transmitted anywhere. There is no shared review board in this version
- You can remove everything by uninstalling the extension
Nothing else is saved. The extension does not keep a history of the buildings you look at, does not set cookies, and does not record which listings you visited.
What we do not do
- We do not sell or transfer your data to anyone
- We do not use your data for any purpose unrelated to showing a building's public record
- We do not use your data to determine creditworthiness, or for lending, insurance, employment, or housing eligibility decisions
- We do not track your browsing across websites
- We do not collect names, email addresses, or payment information
Permissions, and what each is for
- Side panel
- The panel is the entire interface. There is no other way to display the records.
- Tabs
- To read the web address of the tab you are currently viewing, so the panel knows which listing to look up and can tell when you move to a different one. It is not used to read, collect, or store browsing history.
- Storage
- To save notes you write yourself, on your own browser, as described above.
- Scripting
- To read the listing address from the page you are viewing on the five supported sites.
- Access to the five listing sites
- To read the building address from a listing page. The extension runs on no other site.
- Access to geosearch.planninglabs.nyc and data.cityofnewyork.us
- New York City government servers, queried for the building's public records.
Accuracy
Everything shown comes from New York City's public records. Those records reflect what was reported to or inspected by the city, and they lag real conditions by weeks. A finding is not a statement about the condition of any apartment, and an absence of findings is not a guarantee that a building has no problems. Notes written in the Reviews tab are unverified personal opinion and are not checked against anything.
Changes
If a future version stores anything else, or contacts any service not listed here, this page will be updated before that version is published, and the change will be described plainly rather than buried.
Contact
Questions about this policy: B4youtour@gmail.com