Homeabouts

Privacy, in plain words

Independent, not the city. Free, no account. Homeabouts is a BYU Law student project testing an idea. It is not a service of Provo City, BYU or the State of Utah. This page lists everything Homeabouts keeps or sends from the app, the sign-up page and the Facebook sign-up form. If the code does something with your information, it is on this page.

The short version

Your address, in the app

When you type an address, the app sends what you type to Homeabouts to find it in Provo's address list and to look up your street: trash day, your council member, what is nearby. Homeabouts answers and does not keep or log the address. It is never saved in the database, with or without your email.

Your phone keeps the address so it can show your street again next time you open the app. It also keeps the last answer about your street for up to 14 days, and shows that saved copy, marked with its date, if the connection is down. "Delete your data" clears both.

From October 14, 2026, "Use my location" is on the first screen for everyone (before that, only on pages opened from an ad). If you tap it, your phone asks you first. If you allow it, your location is sent once to Homeabouts to find the nearest Provo addresses in the city's list. It is not kept, logged or sent anywhere else. You then confirm your address, or type it instead. After that the app knows only the address you confirm, kept on this phone like a typed one.

To show reports near you, Homeabouts asks SeeClickFix, the city's reporting service, about a square of a few blocks around your street. SeeClickFix never gets your address.

Your email

The app works without an email. On the sign-up page and in the app, you can ask for these emails:

Those are the only emails from the sign-up page and the app. Emails from the Facebook form are described under "The Facebook sign-up form" below.

With an email saved in the app, Homeabouts keeps the day it was saved and which kind of link you first came from (an ad, a card, a shared link). For a date or a sample, it also keeps that item's id or the sample's name. Never your address, and never the visit code.

If you tap "Tell me when the council sets a date" on an item and save your email, Homeabouts keeps your email and that item's id. It sends you one email when the City Council sets a date for that item, and nothing else. If your email was already on file (from another phone or the sign-up page), the item's id is added to it. A sample works the same way, with the sample's name.

If you ask the app to remind you about something, it remembers that item on your phone, and, only if you have asked for an email, a note with Homeabouts of which item you asked about. Because items are near your address, that note shows roughly which part of Provo you live in.

Count me in

From October 14, 2026, your street's screen in the app has a card: "Want your bill, passes and outage alerts here too?" They need Provo City to connect them. If you leave your email and tap "Count me in", Homeabouts counts you as asking Provo to connect, in your council district.

What Homeabouts keeps: your email; your council district (the number, 1 to 5, or none, which the app already knows from your address); whether you ticked "One email a month about what is changing near you" and "Invite me to try new parts first"; the day you signed up; and the day you pressed "Confirm my email", if you do. Never your address, your street, your location or your name. One sign-up per email: a second "Count me in" with the same email changes nothing and sends nothing.

The thank-you email: Homeabouts sends one email, once, to the address you typed, from hello@homeabouts.com, through Cloudflare's email service. It says you are counted, has a link to confirm the email address is yours, and a link to stop any email. Opening the confirm link changes nothing until you press "Confirm my email" on that page. The email has no pictures and nothing that tells Homeabouts whether you opened it.

If you leave "One email a month" unticked, Homeabouts sends you no other email from this card. "Invite me to try new parts first" is kept as your choice; no invite has been sent yet. Totals by council district appear on the public counts page (see "Counts, in the open" below), where any number under 11 shows as "fewer than 11". Homeabouts does not give your email to Provo City.

Say where you stand on a council item (switched off for now)

This part of the app is switched off. When it is on, you can add an answer to some council items without your name: For, Mixed, Against, Need more information, or Does not affect me.

Counts, in the open

The page homeabouts.com/counts shows, to anyone, the same numbers for everyone: the answers on council items (while that part is switched on) and the "Count me in" sign-ups, by council district. Every count there is a number of phones or sign-ups, never people. Any number under 11 shows as "fewer than 11", a number that would let someone work out a smaller one is hidden too, and there are no percentages. The page is updated once a day. Opening it is not counted and nothing about the visit is kept.

Drafted with AI

From October 14, 2026, some council cards and project lines are drafted overnight by Claude, an AI model from Anthropic, using only Provo's public documents: the council agenda and the planning map's public summaries. Nothing you type, no address and no email is ever sent to it. Each drafted line is checked against the city's own words by code and by a second model; anything that fails is not shown. Drafted cards say "Drafted with AI · not yet checked by a person". A person's name on an application is left out and becomes "the applicant".

If you came from a Facebook or Instagram ad

If you came from a Facebook or Instagram ad, Homeabouts tells Meta (the company behind those apps) when your visit set an address (typed, or found with "Use my location") or tapped "Count me in", so the project can see which ads work. Homeabouts sends Meta the click code Meta put on the ad's link, the time it happened, and your browser type (the line every browser sends to every website, naming the browser, its version and the phone's system). Homeabouts never sends Meta your address, your location, your email, your council district, your connection address (IP address) or anything you type.

Your phone keeps the click code for 7 days from the tap on the ad, and only to pass it on, so a visit a few days later that sets an address still counts for that ad (Meta credits an ad for 7 days after a tap). After 7 days, or when you tap another Meta ad, or use "Delete your data", it is gone. Homeabouts' server, not your phone, tells Meta, at most once for an address and once for "Count me in" for each tap on an ad. Homeabouts does not keep the click code; it counts only whether Meta was told, and which ad's link it came from (see "What the app counts"). Meta made the click code when you tapped its ad, so Meta can connect what it is told to the account that tapped the ad, and keeps it under its own terms. A visit that did not come from a Meta ad sends Meta nothing. A visit marked as a test is never sent as a real one.

The sign-up page (homeabouts.com)

Your email address, always. A ZIP code, if you choose to add one (it is optional). Who pays the city utility bill where you live, and whether you have followed a city council meeting in the last year: the main sign-up form asks both and requires an answer; a few test cards skip them. If you tick "I'd do a paid 45-minute test session," that is also saved, and we will email you once about it. Anything you type in the optional "one thing you'd want it to tell you" box. Please do not put personal details in that box.

The page also records where a visit came from (an ad, a printed card, or typed in directly), so the project can tell which way of reaching people works. It does not record your IP address or details about your phone or computer.

The app's own email sign-up asks only for your email. It never asks who pays your bill, whether you follow the council or your ZIP code.

The Facebook sign-up form

From October 11, 2026, Homeabouts runs ads on Facebook and Instagram with a "Sign up" button. It opens a form inside Facebook or Instagram, called a Meta Instant Form. It is not the app.

The form collects:

All three optional boxes start unticked:

Everyone who submits may also get one email if Provo City agrees to connect it. Homeabouts sends no other emails from this sign-up. Every email has a way to stop them.

Homeabouts downloads the entries from Meta. Meta keeps its own copy under Meta's terms. Homeabouts uses your street address to find your council district (1 to 5) and count one entry per address. Homeabouts never gives your street address to Provo City.

If you tick the box to share your name, Homeabouts gives Provo City staff your name and council district in a list of residents who asked. If you do not tick it, Homeabouts gives staff only counts by council district, with no name. In reports, any total under 11 is shown as "under 11". Homeabouts never sells these entries, uses them for advertising or shares them beyond what is described here.

Homeabouts deletes its copy within 12 months, or sooner if the idea is not taken forward. To be removed sooner, email hello@homeabouts.com from the email you used on the form. Homeabouts deletes its copy within a week.

The form's entries stay apart from the app's counts and its visit code. If you tap the form's button to open the app, the app treats it like any other ad link. The link's code says which ad brought you. The app does not get your name or email from the form.

What your phone keeps

The app keeps these in its own storage on your phone. They stay there, except where a count below says it carries one of them. "Delete your data" clears all of them, except the test marker.

While a page opened from an ad stays open, it also remembers that ad's code and item, so a reload opens the same item, and which steps of the visit it already counted, so a reload does not count them twice. Closing the page clears these, and so does "Delete your data". If the ad was on Facebook or Instagram, the phone also remembers, for 7 days, the click code Meta put on the link, the time the page first saw it, which ad's link it was, and whether Meta was already told about an address or "Count me in". After 7 days it is gone; "Delete your data" clears it at once.

If you split a bill, the amounts you type stay on your phone and Homeabouts never sees them. The message you send does include the amount, and you can read and change it before it goes. The link in it has no amount.

Alerts

If you turn on alerts, Homeabouts keeps the push address your browser gives it for this site, its two keys, your council district (the number, 1 to 5, the app finds from your saved address; the address is not sent with it), the day you turned them on and how many alerts you got this week. Alerts are about what the City Council takes up in your council district, at most two a week and never at night. Turning alerts off deletes it.

What the app counts

The app also counts, without your name, email or address. Here is every kind of count, in plain words:

The visit code

From October 10, 2026, the counts above carry a random code that the app makes on your phone: 20 letters and numbers, picked at random. It lets the project see how one visit leads to the next. For example: did someone who read an item come back a few days later and set an address?

The code is not your name, email, phone number or address, and nothing in it comes from you or your phone. It is kept only with the counts, never with an email, and the counts sent when you save an email carry no code. It goes only to Homeabouts, never to Meta, Google, SeeClickFix or the city. After 14 days your phone replaces it with a new code, and nothing connects the two. "Delete your data" clears it. Counts from before October 10, 2026 have no code.

What this means for you: for up to 14 days, the counts from your phone can be put together. Together they show one phone's steps, such as which ad brought it, its council district, its trash type and what it tapped. Because the items it opened are near its address, the steps together can show roughly which part of Provo it is in. Never a name or an address. If you open the app in another browser, or first inside Facebook or Instagram and later in Safari, each one gets its own code.

Times, tests and totals

Each count from the app keeps only the hour it happened, and an email saved in the app or a reminder note keeps only the day. The sign-up page's entries and visit counts, and the count made when a printed card or ad link is opened, keep the full time. Counts from one phone can be matched to each other for up to 14 days through the visit code. The app's counts and emails are kept apart and never put together: the app's counting never reads the email list.

A link marked as a test (for 7 days) and the same check used against automated visits on the sign-up page keep test and bot traffic out of these counts. Totals may appear in a report to Provo City or to the project's grant, and any total under 11 is shown as "under 11". The Facebook form's list of names and council districts is separate and includes you only if you tick the box to share your name.

The ads

Homeabouts takes no side on any council item. Its ads say the same facts more than one way so more neighbors see them. Some ads open the Facebook sign-up form. Ads that link to the app use a short code that says which ad it was. Meta's tracking pixel is not on this page or in the app. What Homeabouts tells Meta about a visit from its ad is under "If you came from a Facebook or Instagram ad" above.

Who sees it

The BYU Law student running Homeabouts and the software tools used to run this page and the app, which include AI tools, handle your information. The AI model that drafts council cards and project lines (Anthropic's Claude) gets only Provo's public documents, never your information. Cloudflare's email service carries the "Count me in" thank-you email. Meta is told when a visit from its ad set an address or tapped "Count me in", as described above. Homeabouts never sells or rents your information. Homeabouts shares it only as described on this page. This includes your name and council district with Provo City staff only if you tick that box on the Facebook form. Meta also keeps its own copy of the form's entries under its terms.

Where it is stored

The sign-up page and the app use a database hosted by Cloudflare, a US company that also serves this page and the app. The database service keeps a restore copy for 30 days, and it cannot be switched off. For those 30 days, someone with access to the Homeabouts account could restore an earlier copy and see what the database held then, for example roughly when a count changed. Homeabouts downloads the Facebook form's entries from Meta, which also keeps its own copy under its terms. No advertising tracker or outside script runs on this page or in the app.

How long

Homeabouts deletes its copies of sign-ups and one-email entries within 12 months, or sooner if the idea is not taken forward. Backups can take up to 30 days to clear after a deletion. Deletion also happens sooner when you ask (see "Your choices" below).

One sign-up per email, on the sign-up page and in the app

If an email is already on file, a second sign-up or one-email request with the same address is recorded as a repeat (so we know you tried again), but no new, separate entry is created, and the app is not given a key to change or delete that earlier entry on its own. If that happens to you in the app, email us (below) to make any change or deletion.

Your choices

From the sign-up page or the Facebook form: to be removed at any time, email hello@homeabouts.com from the email you signed up with. Homeabouts will delete its copy within a week.

From the app: Settings has a "Delete your data" button. If the app has a key for you (you asked for an email and it was a new email), this deletes your email, your "Count me in" sign-up and anything you asked to be reminded or emailed about from our side at once, and clears everything this phone remembers, the visit code included. (A backup copy can still exist for up to 30 days; see "How long" above.) If the app has no key (you never asked for an email, or your email was already on file from somewhere else), this only clears what this phone remembers; for anything held on our side, email hello@homeabouts.com.

Counts already sent by the app stay counted. They carry no name, so they cannot be found or removed.

Questions

hello@homeabouts.com

Last updated October 14, 2026.