Privacy Policy
Parcel & Grid is operated by Parcel & Grid ("we"). This policy explains what information this site handles, where it goes, and your choices. The short version: the free tools keep your work in your own browser, we do not sell personal information or use analytics tools, and Google AdSense advertising is currently disabled; if enabled later, it is limited to eligible content pages and never loads on the tools (see section 4).
1. The free tools (land check, map, Desktop CIA, Diligence Reader)
No account and no cookies. These tools do not ask for your name or email to run and do not set cookies. The permit packet on the land report asks for applicant details (name, company, address, phone, email, project) so it can pre-fill the forms; those details are used in your browser to build the PDF and are never sent to us or anyone else.
Stored in your browser, not on our servers. View settings and the last location you checked are kept in your browser's local storage on your device, and the permit-packet details are kept there only if you tick "Remember these on this device". We cannot see them. Clearing your browser data deletes them.
Location checks go from your browser straight to public agencies. When you click a spot or type coordinates, your browser sends those coordinates directly to the public map services listed in section 3 (FEMA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, USGS, the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Land Management, the USDA soil survey, the Texas Water Development Board for Texas points, and the Esri-hosted transmission-line, critical-habitat and power-plant layers). Those services receive the coordinates and your IP address, as any website you visit would. The coordinates do not pass through our servers, with the exceptions described below (parcel lookups, address lookup and the parcel map layer).
Texas parcel lookup. For points in Texas, your browser sends the coordinates to our server, which asks the Texas Geographic Information Office for the parcel at that point. The state's service returns every field in its records, including full owner names, mailing addresses, and values. Our server keeps only the property and geographic IDs, acreage, the appraisal-district legal description, county, tax year, and the parcel outline. It also asks the state how many other parcels within about two miles have the same owner record and returns only that count and their total acreage. Owner names, addresses, and values are removed and never reach your browser. The coordinates travel in the body of the request, not the web address, and our server does not log or store them or anything it receives from the state.
Parcel lookup in other states. For points in the 26 other states whose GIS office publishes a statewide parcel layer without a key (listed on the methodology page), the same arrangement applies: your browser sends the coordinates to our server, our server asks that state's service, and only acreage, the parcel number, the legal description where the state publishes one, and the outline come back. Owner names, mailing addresses, and values are removed on our server; nothing is logged or stored. No same-owner count is made outside Texas.
Address lookup. If you type a street address instead of coordinates, your browser sends it to our server, which asks the U.S. Census Bureau's public geocoder for the matching point; if the Census finds no street address, it asks OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service once for the place name. Our server returns only the matched text and its coordinates and does not log or store what you typed. The Census Bureau's and the OpenStreetMap Foundation's own privacy terms govern their side of those requests.
Parcel map layer. When you zoom in on Texas land with the "Parcels (Texas)" layer on, your browser sends the area you are viewing to our server, which asks the Texas Geographic Information Office for the parcels there and returns only their outlines, IDs, acreage, and a group number marking parcels in that view that share an owner. Owner names are used on our server only to form those groups and are not returned. The area you view is not logged or stored.
Diligence Reader and Desktop CIA. The Diligence Reader page sends the documents you choose from your browser directly to Anthropic's API (api.anthropic.com) using an API key you supply; no Parcel & Grid server is involved, and we receive none of them: not the documents, the key or the results. Anthropic's terms for your own API account govern that request. Your key is held in the page's memory, or on your device if you choose "remember in this browser"; the "Forget key" button removes it. The Desktop CIA export is generated in your browser from the land report and is not sent anywhere.
Shared reports live in the link. A land report is stored entirely in its web address, after the "#" mark. Browsers do not send that part of an address to any server, so we never receive it. Anyone you give the link to can read its contents, including the location, so share it only with people you intend to.
2. How long we keep it, and your choices
The site has no sign-in, so there is nothing of yours stored on our side. What the tools store stays in your browser until you clear it. Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs for a limited time (section 3). If you email us, we keep the correspondence as long as needed to answer you. To ask what we hold about you or to have it deleted, email email.
3. Service providers and other parties that receive information
| Provider | What it receives |
|---|---|
| Vercel (hosting) | Standard request information such as IP address and pages requested, as with any website host |
| Public agency map services: FEMA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, USGS (elevation and base maps), U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Land Management, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (soils) | Coordinates you check or map areas you view, and your IP address, sent directly from your browser |
| Texas Geographic Information Office (parcels) | For Texas points and the parcel map layer: the coordinates or map area, sent by our server, not your browser. The state does not receive your IP address from these lookups. |
| Texas Water Development Board (flood planning and mapping-gap layers) | For Texas points: the coordinates you check, and your IP address |
| Esri ArcGIS Online (hosts the public transmission-line, critical-habitat and power-plant layers) | The coordinates you check and map areas you view, and your IP address |
| cdnjs (Cloudflare) | Your IP address and browser information when the map's open-source code libraries load. Fonts are served from this site, so they reach no one else. |
| Google Maps | Only if you click a "See the spot" link, which opens Google Maps with that location |
| Buttondown (the Brief's email list) | Only if you subscribe to the ERCOT Queue Brief: the email address you type, sent by your browser straight to Buttondown, which stores it after you confirm by email and sends the issues. We do not keep a copy on this site. Buttondown's privacy policy covers its side; every issue carries an unsubscribe link. |
| Google AdSense (advertising) | Standard browser and device information and cookies on pages that show ads, as described in section 4 |
We do not sell or rent personal information. Apart from the advertising cookies described in section 4, we do not share it for advertising. We may disclose information if required by law or to protect the security of the service.
4. Advertising
Google AdSense advertising is currently disabled while the site is under review. If enabled later, ad code will load only on indexable content pages that include an explicit ad placement, such as eligible guide, permit, interconnection, market, county, and developer pages. It will not load on the land check, map, pages marked noindex, the Diligence Reader, or the public-companies page. Advertisers have no say over what we publish.
Cookies from Google and its partners. If AdSense is enabled, third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet. Learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Your choices. You can opt out of personalized advertising in Google's Ads Settings, and learn about opting out of other vendors' personalized ads at aboutads.info/choices. If ads are enabled, visitors from the European Economic Area, the UK, and Switzerland would be asked for consent through Google's certified consent message before personalized ads are shown, and visitors in U.S. states with privacy laws would be offered the choices those laws require.
What we do not share. Ads do not receive the locations you check or anything the tools store in your browser.
5. Do Not Track
We do not track visitors across other websites ourselves. On pages with ads, Google and its partners may use cookies as described in section 4; you can limit this with the choices listed there. Because there is no common standard for browser Do Not Track signals, this site does not respond to them.
6. Security
The site is static, has no sign-in, and is served over HTTPS; the only server-side steps are the parcel lookups (Texas and the 26 other states), the address lookup and the parcel map layer described in section 1, none of which is logged. The Brief signup form posts to Buttondown, not to this site. No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you as required by law.
7. Children
This site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
8. California and other state privacy rights
California residents may request to review and correct the personal information we hold about them by emailing email. The same process is available to everyone.
9. Changes
When we change this policy, we will update the effective date above and post a notice on the site.
10. Contact
Parcel & Grid · email