Privacy Policy: Data Collection, Cookies & Your Rights

Did you know that in a recent survey, 80% of users stated they would switch providers for better data privacy practices? As founders building commercialleasecost.com, we understand that trust isn't just a buzzword, it's the bedrock of any successful online service. This document outlines our approach to your personal information, last updated on 2026-05-02.

Our Approach to Your Information

Here at commercialleasecost.com, which we refer to as "the site" or "we," our core principle is transparency regarding your data. We gather standard website usage statistics, contextual advertising details, and any information you willingly provide to us. A critical point for us: we do not engage in selling your personal data. We also actively respect signals like Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. For residents of California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah, specific data rights are outlined in detail below. Our aim is to build a service that respects your privacy from the ground up, not as an afterthought.

What Information We Gather

Understanding what data flows through our systems is key to building trust. Here's a breakdown of the information we acquire:

Automatically Collected Data

When you interact with commercialleasecost.com, our systems automatically gather certain pieces of information. This isn't about identifying you personally, but rather understanding how our service is used and how we can make it better.

• Internet Protocol (IP) address (truncated for analytics): We log your IP address, though we immediately truncate it. This means the last part of your IP is removed, making it impossible to link back to your specific device. For example, if your full IP is 192.168.1.123, we might only record 192.168.1.0. This helps us understand broad geographic usage without pinpointing individuals.
• Browser type, operating system, screen resolution: We observe technical details about your browsing environment. These data points are crucial for ensuring our website renders correctly across various devices and for troubleshooting any display issues you might encounter.
• Pages viewed, time on page, referrer URL: We track which pages you visit on our site, how long you spend on each, and the referral source that brought you to us. This aggregated usage data provides insights into content popularity and user navigation paths, guiding our product development efforts.
• Calculator inputs entered (anonymized for product improvement): Any inputs you enter into our calculators are also recorded, but they are anonymized immediately upon collection. This allows us to analyze usage patterns and improve the calculator's accuracy and functionality without ever tying specific calculations back to an individual user.
• General location at city/region level (from IP): We derive a general location, typically at a city or regional level, from your truncated IP address. This helps us understand our audience demographics on a broad scale, informing decisions about localized content or features, without ever identifying your precise whereabouts.

Information You Voluntarily Provide

Sometimes, you choose to share information with us directly. This data is always provided with your explicit consent for a specific purpose.

• Email address: If you reach out to us via our contact form or decide to subscribe to our newsletter, you’ll provide your email address. We use this solely for the purpose you intended.
• Calculator inputs (stored locally in your browser): When you use our calculators, the inputs you enter are stored locally within your web browser. This means they remain on your device and are not transmitted to us unless you explicitly opt-in to share them for specific features or troubleshooting.
• Name and message content: Should you submit a contact form, we collect your name and the details of your message. This enables us to respond to your inquiry effectively and provide the support you need.

What We Do Not Collect

Just as important as what we collect is what we actively choose not to collect. Our philosophy centers on minimizing data collection to only what is necessary for providing our service.

• Sensitive personal data: We never ask for, nor do we collect, highly sensitive information such as financial account numbers, Social Security Numbers, or government identification numbers. This type of data has no place in our operational model.
• Contact information beyond what you provide: We won't seek out additional contact details for you beyond what you willingly share with us for specific interactions.
• Behavioral data across other websites: We are not involved in cross-site tracking. This means we do not monitor your activities on other websites to build a profile of your online behavior. Our focus remains solely on your interactions with commercialleasecost.com.

How We Utilize Your Information

Every piece of information we gather serves a clear purpose, aimed at enhancing your experience and maintaining the integrity of our service.

• Operate the site and calculator: The primary use of collected data is to ensure the smooth functioning of our website and its core tools, like the commercial lease calculator.
• Analytics for site improvement (aggregated, anonymized): We rely on aggregated and anonymized analytics data to understand site performance, identify areas for improvement, and inform future feature development. This data helps us make the site more intuitive and useful without compromising individual privacy.
• Respond to your inquiries: When you contact us, the information you provide allows us to address your questions, comments, or support requests efficiently and accurately.
• Send newsletter only to subscribers: If you've opted into our newsletter, we use your email address exclusively for that purpose, delivering updates and insights directly to your inbox.
• Display contextual advertising via Ezoic: To support the free services we offer, we display contextual advertisements through Ezoic. This means ads are chosen based on the content of the page you are viewing, not on your personal browsing history or profile. For more details, please refer to the "Ad partners" section below.

What we emphatically do not do with your information:

• Sell personal information: We maintain a strict policy against selling any personal data we collect. Your privacy is not a commodity to us.
• Share contact information with marketers: Your contact details are never shared with third-party marketers or other unsolicited communication services.
• Use AI to profile you for targeted advertising: Our advertising model is contextual, not behavioral. We do not employ artificial intelligence to create personal profiles for targeted ad delivery.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

Like most websites, we use cookies to make your experience better. These small text files are stored on your device and serve various functions.

• Essential cookies: These are fundamental for the website to function correctly. They handle things like remembering your preferences, ensuring secure logins (if applicable), and generally keeping the site running smoothly. Without them, parts of the site might not work as expected.
• Analytics cookies: We utilize Google Analytics 4 for understanding how users interact with our site. Critically, we configure this service to anonymize IP addresses and do not use demographic targeting features. These cookies help us track site traffic, identify popular content, and measure performance, all in an aggregated, non-personally identifiable way.
• Advertising cookies: Our ad partners, primarily Ezoic, may use cookies to serve contextual advertisements. These cookies help ensure that the ads you see are relevant to the page content. More information about this is available in the "Ad partners" section.

You always have control over cookies. Most web browsers allow you to disable cookies through their settings. Be aware, however, that turning off certain cookies, especially essential ones, might limit some site functionality or impact your user experience.

Our Advertising Partners

To keep commercialleasecost.com accessible and free, we partner with Ezoic to deliver contextual advertisements. Ezoic, along with its associated ad partners, may employ cookies to present ads that are relevant to the content you are consuming. We encourage you to review Ezoic's privacy policy for a comprehensive understanding of their data practices.

We've also put specific guidelines in place for how ads are displayed on our platform, balancing revenue generation with a positive user experience:

• We do not reserve ad space above the fold, ensuring primary content is immediately visible.
• There's a minimum distance of 150 pixels between advertisements and any interactive elements on the page, preventing accidental clicks.
• You won't encounter intrusive interstitial or pop-up ads on our site.
• We prohibit autoplay video ads with sound, ensuring a quiet and respectful browsing environment.

AI Negotiation Coach Data Handling

Our AI Negotiation Coach is a tool designed to assist you with commercial lease negotiations. When you use this feature, your input is sent to Google's Gemini API for processing. It's important to understand our data retention policy for this tool: we do not retain your inputs after the response has been generated and delivered to you. This means your specific negotiation queries are not stored on our servers. Google's data handling practices for the Gemini API are governed by Google's Cloud privacy commitments, which you can review for further details.

We strongly advise against entering specific deal-confidential information into the AI Coach. This includes named landlords, specific brokers, or precise property addresses. Instead, use generic descriptions to frame your queries. For example, instead of "My landlord John Doe at 123 Main Street," use "Class A office in downtown Seattle, 5,000 SF, 5-year term." This approach allows you to leverage the AI's capabilities effectively while safeguarding sensitive business details.

Your Data Rights

As a founder, I recognize the importance of empowering users with control over their personal data. Various regulations grant you specific rights, and we are committed to upholding them.

California Residents (CCPA / CPRA)

If you are a resident of California, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) provide you with robust data privacy rights:

• Right to know: You have the right to request what specific pieces and categories of personal information we have collected about you, the sources from which it was collected, the purposes for collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
• Right to delete: You can request the deletion of personal information that we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions. We will honor such requests promptly.
• Right to opt out of "sale" or "share": While we do not "sell" personal information in the traditional sense, nor do we "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising, we fully honor opt-out requests for such activities as defined by California law.
• Right to non-discrimination: You will not face any discrimination for exercising your privacy rights. This means we won't deny you services, charge different prices, or provide a different quality of service simply because you've exercised your CCPA/CPRA rights.

Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah Residents

For residents in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah, your state's respective data privacy laws, including the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA), Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA), and Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA), grant you similar comprehensive rights. These typically include:

• Right to access: The ability to confirm whether we are processing your personal data and to obtain a copy of that data.
• Right to correction: The power to request that we correct inaccuracies in your personal data.
• Right to deletion: The right to request the deletion of personal data provided by or obtained about you.
• Right to opt-out: The option to opt-out of the processing of personal data for targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you.

These state-specific laws ensure a consistent level of data protection across various jurisdictions, reflecting a growing global emphasis on individual privacy.

EU/UK Residents (GDPR / UK GDPR)

If you reside in the European Union or the United Kingdom, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK GDPR provide you with extensive data protection rights:

• Right to access, correct, delete personal data: You can request access to your personal data, ask for inaccuracies to be corrected, and demand the deletion of your data under certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability: You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit that data to another controller without hindrance.
• Right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
• Right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority: If you believe your data protection rights have been violated, you have the right to file a complaint with a supervisory authority in your country of residence.

How to Exercise Your Rights

Exercising your data rights is straightforward. We've streamlined the process to ensure your requests are handled efficiently.

To make a request, please send an email to [e-mail] with the following details:

• Your specific request: Clearly state whether you are requesting access, deletion, correction, or opting out of specific data processing activities.
• Your name and contact email: This helps us identify you and communicate effectively regarding your request.
• Verification information: If your request pertains to account-specific data, we may ask for additional verification information to confirm your identity and protect your data from unauthorized access. This might involve confirming details only you would know.

We commit to responding to your request within 30 days of receipt. For some requests from California residents, a response might take up to 45 days, as permitted by law. We believe that empowering you with control over your data is not just a legal obligation, but a fundamental aspect of a trustworthy online service. Handling these requests does involve operational overhead; for example, a single data deletion request might involve $50 (engineer time) + $20 (legal review) + $10 (communication) = $80 in internal costs. This is a cost we happily bear to ensure your rights are respected.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

We respect your privacy preferences. Our systems are configured to acknowledge and respond to Do Not Track (DNT) and Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals. When we detect one of these signals, we interpret it as an explicit opt-out of any "sale" or "share" of personal information, aligning with broader privacy standards. This means that if your browser is configured to send a DNT or GPC signal, we will automatically adjust our data processing practices accordingly, even if you don't send us a separate request.

Data Retention Policies

We only retain data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. Here are our retention periods:

• Analytics data: We retain anonymized analytics data for a period of 26 months, which is the default setting for Google Analytics. This duration allows us to analyze long-term trends and seasonal variations in site usage.
• Email subscriber data: Your email address remains in our subscriber list until you choose to unsubscribe. Once you opt out, your email is removed from our active mailing lists.
• Contact form messages: Messages submitted through our contact forms are kept for 12 months. This period allows us to reference past communications for continuity, unless there's an ongoing case that requires longer retention.
• Calculator inputs: As mentioned, calculator inputs are not retained server-side. They are processed anonymously for product improvement or stored locally in your browser, depending on the context.

Data Security Measures

Protecting your data is a top priority. We implement a variety of security measures to safeguard the information we collect, though it's important to remember that no system is entirely foolproof.

• HTTPS site-wide: All communication between your browser and our website is encrypted using HTTPS. This ensures that data transmitted is secure and protected from eavesdropping.
• Secure hosting: Our website is hosted on Firebase Hosting, which operates on Google Cloud's robust and secure infrastructure. This provides a high level of physical and network security.
• Reasonable administrative controls: We employ administrative safeguards, including access controls and regular security reviews, to protect against unauthorized access to our systems and data.

While we take extensive precautions, no online system can guarantee 100% security. We also recommend that you practice good password hygiene for any accounts you create with us or any other online service.

Children's Privacy

Our website is not designed for or directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect any personal data from individuals under 13 years old. If a parent or guardian believes that their child has provided us with personal information without their consent, please contact us immediately at [e-mail]. We will take prompt steps to investigate and delete such information from our records.

Updates to This Policy

The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and so too might our privacy practices. We reserve the right to modify this policy as needed. We will post any material updates directly on this page, accompanied by a revised "Last updated" date at the top. For significant changes, we will also announce these updates in the site footer for a period of 30 days, ensuring you have ample opportunity to review them.

Reach Out to Us

For any questions or requests related to your privacy or this policy, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at [e-mail]. We are here to help.

If you have commercial real-estate questions that are not privacy-related, please use our general contact form.

It's important to note that the information provided on this site, including our privacy policy, is not financial or legal advice. Commercial real estate is a highly localized and deal-specific field, and professional counsel should always be sought for individual circumstances. Full data + interactive calculator: commercialleasecost.com