Privacy Policy

• Homages are public. That’s the point of the site. Your username is shown on them unless you post anonymously.
• We collect what it takes to run Homage: your account, what you post, and how the site is used.
• We don’t sell your personal information.
• We don’t keep your internet (IP) address when you rate a place without an account, only a scrambled stand-in to stop repeat ratings.
• You can edit or delete your Homages any time, and ask us to delete your account.

Your account. Your email address, your password (kept by our login provider in a scrambled form we can’t read), your username, a security question with a scrambled version of your answer, and anything you choose to add: a bio, a profile picture, where you live now.

What you post. Each Homage: the address, an optional unit, the years you lived there, an optional rent, your star rating, a title and your story.

What you do on the site.

• Upvotes are tied to your account. Who upvoted what is private; only the totals are shown, plus a badge once you’ve upvoted 100 Homages.
• Quick star ratings. With an account, a rating is tied to your account. Without one, we don’t store your IP address. We keep a scrambled code made from it, so we can allow one rating per place and a few per day. Either way, we store where the rated place is.
• Reads. We count how many times each Homage is opened, but not who opened it.
• Reports you file are tied to your account and seen only by us.
• Feedback you send through the site is kept with the page you sent it from. It isn’t tied to your name unless you include it.

Searches and location. Addresses you type are sent to our map provider to find matches. If you tap “Use my location,” your browser asks first. Your position is then sent to the map provider once to find the street address, and we don’t store it. We also work out day or night from your time zone (never your location) to choose the map’s colors.

Visit statistics. We use Vercel Web Analytics, which doesn’t use cookies, and Google Analytics, which does. They tell us how many people visit, which pages they view, and roughly where from (country or city), so we can see what’s working.

On your own device. Your browser keeps a few things for you: unfinished drafts, and which Homages you’ve read or places you’ve rated (so we don’t count you twice). This stays on your device, and clearing your browser’s site data removes it.

• To run Homage: show Homages, maps, ratings, badges and profiles, and keep you signed in.
• To keep it fair and safe: limit repeat ratings, review reports, and stop spam and abuse.
• To get in touch about your account, like a sign-up confirmation or password reset.
• To understand how the site is used and make it better.
• To follow the law and protect Homage and the people who use it.

Anyone, signed in or not, can see:

• Every Homage on the map: its story, address, unit and rent if you gave them, years, rating, upvotes and reads.
• Your username on your Homages, unless you post anonymously. Anonymous Homages show no name, but we still know they’re yours.
• Your profile: username, bio, picture, your badges, and a map and timeline of the places from your non-anonymous Homages.
• Quick ratings made with an account, which can show your username in the map’s “Most recent” list.

Public Homages can be shared, linked, copied or saved by others, and may show up in search engines. Please don’t put anything in a Homage you wouldn’t want strangers to read.

A few companies handle information for us, only to provide their service:

• Supabase: our database and sign-in system.
• Vercel: hosting, plus visit statistics without cookies.
• Google Analytics: visit statistics.
• Mapbox (and, as a backup, OpenStreetMap): maps, address search and building outlines.
• Resend: sends emails to us, like new-Homage and report notices.
• Our email provider, for messages you send us.

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect people’s safety, or if Homage is ever sold or handed to someone else (they’d be bound by this policy).

We don’t sell your personal information.

Homage may show ads in the future. If we do, ad partners may use cookies or similar tools to show and measure them. Before that starts, we’ll update this policy to name them, explain what they collect, and tell you how to opt out.

• Sign-in cookies keep you logged in.
• Google Analytics sets cookies to count visits. Your browser’s settings or privacy extensions can block them.
• Your browser’s own storage holds drafts and your read and rated marks, as described above.

• Your account and Homages are kept until you delete them or ask us to.
• Archived Homages stay hidden from everyone else until you bring them back or delete them.
• Removed or deleted information may linger in our backups for a limited time before it’s overwritten.

• Edit, archive or delete any of your Homages from the Homage’s page.
• Post anonymously, change your username, and edit your bio and picture from your profile.
• Ask for a copy of your information, a correction, or for your account to be deleted. Email homageusahomage@gmail.com from the address on your account. When we delete an account, we delete or anonymize its Homages, whichever you prefer.

Depending on where you live (California, for example), you may have legal rights over your personal information, like knowing what we hold or having it deleted. We’ll honor those requests. We won’t treat you differently for asking.

Homage is for people 13 and older. We don’t knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has signed up, tell us at homageusahomage@gmail.com and we’ll delete the account.

We use reputable services and protect your information with encryption, scrambled passwords and security answers, and strict limits on who can see what. No system is perfect, though, so please use a strong, unique password.

Homage is run from the United States, and information is stored and processed in the U.S. If you use it from elsewhere, your information comes here.

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. For bigger changes, we’ll make sure you know, for example with a notice on the site.

Homage is run by one person in Florida. Questions or requests about your information: homageusahomage@gmail.com. See also our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.