Privacy Policy
Effective September 25th, 2026
The short version
We're a small product development firm, and we don't make money from your data. We don't sell it, we don't use it for advertising, and we don't give it to anyone except the services that help us run our website, email, and surveys, or if the law requires it. If you take part in one of our surveys or interviews, your answers are used only for our housing-affordability research, we report them only in ways that can't identify you, and you can ask us to delete anything you've given us at any time. The rest of this page is the detail.
If you take part in our research
Participation is always voluntary. You can skip any question or stop at any time. Some questions may ask about your household, your housing situation, or your finances; answer only what you're comfortable sharing. Our surveys are for U.S. residents aged 18 or older.
We run surveys using tools such as SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, and Pollfish, and we sometimes hold interviews by phone or video. The survey tool stores your responses on our behalf and may use them only to provide that service to us. If you reached one of our surveys through Pollfish, its own privacy policy also applies to how it collected your answers, and we don't receive your name or contact details.
We use your responses only for research aimed at improving housing affordability. When we share findings, we combine responses or remove identifying details so that no one can tell who said what, and we won't publish anything that identifies you unless you've told us that's okay.
If you give us your name, email, or phone number, we use it only to reach you about a follow-up interview or a more detailed survey. If we offer a thank-you gift card for completing a survey, we collect only what we need to deliver it, usually an email address, and we don't use it for anything else. You can opt out of further contact at any time by emailing info@integral-methods.com.
If you visit our website
Like most websites, ours is hosted by a company (Squarespace) that automatically records some information about each visit: your IP address, the approximate location that address points to (city, region, country), the type of device and browser you're using, the pages you view, the date and time, and the website that sent you here. We review these records and keep our own copy of them.
We also use Google Analytics, which sets cookies to help us understand how people find and use the site: which pages are popular, how visitors arrive, and whether the site works well on their devices. Google says it doesn't log or store visitors' IP addresses in Google Analytics, and we don't use Google's advertising features. You can read how Google uses data from sites like ours at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and you can opt out with Google's browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
We use website visit information to improve the site, to protect it and our business from fraud, abuse, and security threats, and to understand which regions and organizations are interested in our work. We don't use it for advertising.
If you email us or use a form on our site, we keep your message so we can reply and follow up.
Cookies and "do not track"
Squarespace sets cookies needed for the site to work and cookies for the visit statistics above; Google Analytics sets its own. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and the site will still work. Because we don't sell personal information or share it for advertising, "Do Not Track" and Global Privacy Control signals have nothing to opt you out of, and the site doesn't otherwise change its behavior in response to them. Apart from Google Analytics, we don't allow other companies to collect information about you on our site.
Who we share information with
Only these:
The services that run our website, email, and surveys: Squarespace (hosting and visit statistics), Google (analytics, and Google Forms when we use it), Microsoft 365 (email and file storage), and the survey tools named above. They may use your information only to provide those services to us.
Anyone we're legally required to share it with, such as in response to a valid legal request, or where sharing is needed to protect the safety or rights of our participants, visitors, or business.
A successor if our business is ever sold or transferred, in which case this policy still applies.
We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for advertising.
How long we keep information
Website visit records: up to 5 years in full. After that, we remove the IP address and device details and keep only anonymous statistics. Google Analytics keeps its own detailed data for up to 14 months.
Research responses: for the life of the project and up to 5 years afterward, after which we keep only de-identified results.
Contact information: until you ask us to remove it, or until the project ends and we no longer need it for follow-up.
Emails and messages: as long as needed to reply and keep our records.
Your choices
Wherever you live, you can ask us what personal information we have about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or ask us to stop contacting you. Email info@integral-methods.com with "Privacy" in the subject line and we'll respond within 30 days. One honest caveat: website visit records usually can't be linked to a specific person, so we may not be able to find records that are yours, but we'll honor every request we can.
Children
Our site and research are meant for adults. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll post the new version here with a new effective date. For significant changes, we'll also add a notice at the top of this page for at least 30 days.
Contact
Integral Methods LLC