Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 October 2026

BackyardADU is a static informational site serving California homeowners researching accessory dwelling units. This policy explains what we collect, what we share with advertising and analytics partners, and how you can opt out — including the rights you have as a California resident under the CCPA/CPRA.

Notice at collection

When you visit BackyardADU, the following categories of personal information may be collected automatically through your browser:

• Identifiers — IP address, advertising/analytics cookies, Google AdSense advertising ID.
• Internet or other electronic activity — pages viewed, click paths, referring URL, approximate page-load timing.
• Geolocation (approximate) — city- or region-level location inferred from IP, used by analytics and ad partners.
• Device information — browser type, operating system, screen size.

Google Analytics is set to keep event-level data, such as individual page views, for 2 months, and user-level data linked to its cookie for 14 months after your most recent visit; Google deletes expired data in a monthly process. These settings do not apply to the aggregated reports in Google Analytics, which show totals rather than individual visitors. We delete the records made by our own analytics script (see “Our own analytics” below) 14 months after they are made, and after that keep only daily totals that cannot be linked to a visit or a visitor ID. We do not collect Social Security numbers, government IDs, financial-account numbers, biometric data, precise geolocation, contents of communications, or sensitive personal information. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16.

How we use and share information

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) — for traffic measurement. Aggregate visit counts and page-popularity reports only. You can opt out site-wide via the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
• Google AdSense — serves advertisements (when active). AdSense uses cookies and the advertising ID to choose which ads to show; under California law (CPRA), behavioural advertising of this type is treated as sharing personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. See “Your California privacy rights” below for the opt-out mechanism. Manage ad personalisation in Google Ads Settings.
• Affiliate links (when active) — some outbound links may contain an affiliate identifier so the destination site can attribute the visit back to BackyardADU and we may earn a commission. The affiliate identifier is set by the destination site, not by us, and only activates when you click the link. See our affiliate disclosure.
• Lot checker — the city or address you type into the lot checker, or into the form on our homepage, is sent from your browser to Mapbox, a mapping service, to work out which city it is in (Mapbox privacy policy). We do not receive, log or store the city, address or lot size you type, and those values are never added to a page address or sent as analytics fields. Our analytics may record that the lot-check form was submitted. The homepage form passes what you typed to the lot checker through your browser's session storage, not through us.
• Introduction requests — if you ask the lot checker or the cost calculator for an introduction to a builder, the details you enter (name, email, optional phone, city, ZIP Code, jurisdiction, approximate lot size, project type, timeline, rough budget band, your relationship to the property, notes, and a reference code we generate for the request; from the calculator, also the estimate on screen when you sent it: region, ADU type, size, finish level and cost range) are stored by Netlify, our hosting provider, and emailed to us. We pass them to one builder, or one builder-matching service, that serves your area, on your request, and we do not pass them to anyone else for that request. A matching service shares them with the contractors it matches you with, under its own policy. That company may contact you by email or, if you gave a number, by phone or text, and may pay us a referral fee. If we cannot make an introduction when you ask, we keep the request for up to 12 months and ask you again before sharing it later. We delete our copy sooner on request: reply to any email from us, or write to the address on our contact page. If we have already introduced you, that company holds its own copy under its own privacy policy, and you would contact it separately.
• Email updates — if you ask the lot checker to email you instead of introducing you (when California’s 2027 ADU rules take effect, or if a builder or builder-matching service that serves your area joins our network), your email address, the city and ZIP Code from your result, and which updates you ticked are stored by Netlify and emailed to us. We use them only to send the updates you ticked. We never sell them or share them with a builder or anyone else; Netlify and our email provider process them only to run this. An introduction needs its own request. You can stop the emails by replying to any of them in any words. We delete the sign-up (the stored form and the email it sent us) once the last update you ticked has been sent, or 12 months after you signed up, whichever comes first, and sooner if you ask; copies of the update emails we sent you stay in our sent mail as the record of what we sent.
• Newsletter — if you sign up on a city, ADU-type or article page to be notified when ADU rules change, your email address, the page or city you signed up on, and a topic label (city, type or article) are stored by Netlify and emailed to us. We use them only to email you when something material changes (state-law changes, cost-data refreshes or new local rules), at most a few times a year. We never sell them or share them with a builder or anyone else; Netlify and our email provider process them only to run this. To unsubscribe, reply to any of our emails in any words, or write to the address on our contact page: we then delete your sign-ups, here and for the email updates above, and cancel any email not yet sent. Otherwise we keep your sign-up until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. Copies of emails we sent you stay in our sent mail as the record of what we sent.
• Email correspondence — if you email us, we retain that email for as long as necessary to address your message. We never add it to a marketing list without explicit consent.

We do not sell personal information for money. We do, however, share information with the advertising and analytics partners listed above as part of normal site operation, and CPRA's broad definition of “sharing” includes the AdSense flow. The opt-out path below covers both.

Our own analytics

As well as Google Analytics, this site uses a small analytics script that we run ourselves. Each time you load a page or interact with it, the script sends a short record to our hosting provider, Netlify, where it is stored. A record contains: the time; the page address without anything after a "?"; the page's type and, where the address names one, the listing, article or tool it shows; the website that sent you here (its address up to the domain, nothing more); your device type (mobile, tablet or desktop) and browser family; and, if the link you followed had them, its utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign campaign tags, which are kept for the rest of your visit. It also records when you click a phone, email or external link (for external links, the destination website's domain; never the phone number or email address), when you submit a form (the form's name or ID, never what you typed), labelled results that a tool on the page reports, whether you scrolled past 50% and 90% of a page, and whether the page was visible for 30 seconds.

Netlify tells us which country your connection comes from; we do not store your IP address. Your browser's user-agent is used to work out its browser family and to flag automated traffic such as search-engine crawlers; the user-agent itself is not stored. To group page views into visits, the script keeps a random visitor ID in this site's local storage that is replaced each day (UTC), and a random session ID in session storage that is replaced after 30 minutes of inactivity or when you close the tab. If your browser blocks storage, a temporary ID is used for that page only. The script sets no cookies, is not used for advertising and does not link your visits to other websites. The data is processed and stored by Netlify on our behalf and is not sold. We delete these records 14 months after they are made; after that we keep only daily totals, such as how many times a page was viewed, which cannot be linked to a visit or a visitor ID. You can remove the stored IDs at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser.

Your California privacy rights — including Do Not Sell or Share

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), gives you the following rights at no cost:

• Right to know — request what categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of recipients.
• Right to delete — request deletion of personal information we have collected from you (subject to legal retention requirements).
• Right to correct — request correction of inaccurate personal information.
• Right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information — including the cross-context behavioural advertising done by Google AdSense and any future affiliate-network tracking.
• Right to limit use of sensitive personal information — we do not collect any, but the right exists.
• Right to non-discrimination — we will not deny you service, charge a different price, or provide a lower quality of service for exercising any of these rights.

How to exercise the “Do Not Sell or Share” right

You have three independent ways to opt out:

1. Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal. If your browser or extension transmits a GPC signal (Brave, DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, Firefox with the GPC pref enabled, the OptMeowt extension, etc.), we treat that as a verified Do Not Sell or Share request for the device. AdSense honors the GPC signal where applicable in California.
2. Google AdSense controls. Visit Google Ads Settings and disable Personalised Ads. AdSense will continue to show non-personalised ads on this site for that browser/device.
3. Email request. Email us at hello@decisionlab.com.au with subject “Do Not Sell or Share — BackyardADU”. Include the IP address or browser/device you'd like the request applied to. We will respond within 15 business days.

Authorised agents may submit requests on your behalf with verification of authority. To exercise any of the other rights above, email hello@decisionlab.com.au; we will respond within 45 days.

Cookies

This site uses cookies set by Google Analytics, Google AdSense (when active), and Google Fonts. You can disable cookies via your browser settings; the site works without them. Disabling cookies disables ad personalisation for that browser.

Third-party links

We link to external sites including the California HCD, CSLB, UC Berkeley, and individual builders. We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Affiliate-link destinations have their own privacy policies and trackers — review theirs before signing up or sharing personal information.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, contact hello@decisionlab.com.au and we will delete it.

Changes

We will update this page if our practices change. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be flagged on the homepage for at least 30 days.