Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 17, 2026

1. Overview

Permit Lookup (permit-lookup.lifeofabit.com), operated by Life of a Bit, is a free homeowner resource that provides building permit requirement information for residential construction projects across the United States. We are committed to protecting the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy describes the information we collect when you use this site, how we use it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over that information.

By using this site you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please discontinue use of the site.

2. Information We Collect

a. Analytics Data — Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors find and use our site. When you visit a page, GA4 automatically collects the following types of information:

The pages you visit and the time you spend on each page
Your general geographic location at the city or region level (derived from your IP address — the full IP address is not stored by GA4)
The device type, browser, and operating system you are using
How you arrived at our site (for example, via a search engine, a direct URL, or a link from another site)
Aggregated interaction data such as scroll depth and link clicks

GA4 uses cookies to collect this data (see Section 3). Google processes and stores this analytics data on its own servers. For full details on how Google handles analytics data, see Google's Privacy Policy at policies.google.com/privacy.

b. Infrastructure Logs — Amazon CloudFront

Our site is served via Amazon CloudFront, a content delivery network. CloudFront automatically records technical information about each request it handles, including:

Your IP address at the time of the request
The URL and HTTP method of the request
Your browser's User-Agent string (which indicates your browser type and version)
The date, time, and HTTP response code for each request
The size of the response and the time taken to serve it

These logs are used solely for security monitoring, abuse prevention, debugging, and general operational purposes. They are not used for advertising, profiling, or sale to third parties.

c. Contact and Form Submissions

Currently, this site does not include any forms that collect personal information. The only contact mechanism is the email address listed on our Contact page. If you choose to email us, we will receive whatever information you include in that email and will use it only to respond to your inquiry.

If a contact form or any other data-collection feature is added to this site in the future, this Privacy Policy will be updated before any new collection begins.

3. Cookies

We currently use only the cookies listed below. We do not use advertising cookies, social media tracking pixels, or session-replay tools.

Cookie name	Purpose	Duration
`_ga`	Google Analytics — distinguishes unique visitors across sessions	2 years
`_ga_[property-id]`	Google Analytics — stores and counts pageview sessions	2 years

You can prevent GA4 cookies from being set by using your browser's private / incognito mode, by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, or by configuring a cookie-blocking browser extension.

4. Third-Party Advertising (Future)

We may include third-party advertising networks — such as Google AdSense — on this site in the future. If and when advertising is enabled, those networks may serve cookies and collect usage information in accordance with their own privacy policies in order to serve relevant advertisements to visitors. We will update this Privacy Policy before activating any advertising network, and we will clearly label ad placements on the site.

5. Affiliate Links

Some links on this site may be affiliate links. Clicking an affiliate link does not place additional tracking cookies on your device beyond those described in Section 3, and does not transmit your personal information to us. If you proceed to a third-party site through an affiliate link, that site's own privacy policy governs any information collected there.

See our Affiliate Disclosure for full details on how affiliate relationships work on this site.

6. How We Use Your Information

We use the information collected to:

Understand which permit guides and cities are most useful to homeowners
Monitor site performance and page load reliability
Identify and resolve technical errors or broken links
Improve the accuracy, coverage, and organization of permit information
Detect and prevent security incidents or abusive traffic

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties except as necessary to operate the site (for example, infrastructure providers such as Amazon Web Services), or as required by applicable law, legal process, or governmental request.

7. Data Retention

Google Analytics 4 data: Retained for 14 months (Google's default setting), after which it is automatically deleted from Google's analytics systems.
CloudFront server logs: Retained for 90 days, then deleted. Logs are stored in Amazon S3 with access restricted to site operators.
Email correspondence: Retained for as long as necessary to resolve your inquiry and for reasonable archival purposes, typically not more than two years.

8. Your Privacy Rights

California Residents — California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the CCPA:

Right to Know: You may request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
Right to Delete: You may request that we delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
Right to Opt Out of Sale: We do not sell personal information. If this changes, we will provide an opt-out mechanism before doing so.
Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights.

To submit a CCPA request, contact us at contact@lifeofabit.com.

EEA and UK Residents — General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you have the following rights under applicable data protection law:

Right of Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate personal data.
Right to Erasure: Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
Right to Restriction: Request that we restrict processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
Right to Object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
Right to Lodge a Complaint: You may lodge a complaint with your national data protection supervisory authority.

Our legal basis for processing analytics data is our legitimate interest in understanding how visitors use the site so we can improve it. To exercise any of the rights above, contact us at contact@lifeofabit.com.

9. Children's Privacy

This site is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 13, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

10. Third-Party Links

This site contains links to external sites, including official city permit portals and third-party platforms. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those external sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any site you navigate to from here.

11. Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect the information we hold. However, no internet transmission or electronic storage method is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will indicate when changes were made. We recommend reviewing this page periodically. Continued use of the site after any update constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact

For privacy-related questions, requests, or concerns:
Email: contact@lifeofabit.com
Operator: Life of a Bit