Privacy policy

Studio Northing is a free service that helps people across the US understand how to hire a licensed architect and get matched with one for a project. We are not an architecture firm, and we do not provide architectural, engineering, or legal advice.

This privacy policy covers information you submit through our website, especially through our get matched form. It also covers basic website data such as cookies and general analytics.

Rules about privacy can vary by state. This page is meant to explain our general practices in clear terms.

We collect the information you choose to give us when you fill out a form, contact us, or ask to be matched with a licensed architect. This usually includes contact details and project details only.

Contact details may include your name, phone number, email address, city, and state. Project details may include your project type, timeline, budget range, property type, whether you own the property, and anything else you write in the form about your goals.

We do not ask for financial account numbers through our matching form. That includes bank account numbers, credit card numbers, debit card numbers, and similar payment account information. Please do not submit that kind of information through our website.

If you browse our site, we may also collect limited technical information such as device type, browser type, pages viewed, referring page, and general location based on IP address. This helps us understand how people use the site and improve it.

We use the information you submit to review your request and, if appropriate, match you with one or more licensed architects who may be a fit for your project. We may also use your information to respond to questions, follow up on your request, and improve how our service works.

For example, we may use your city, state, project type, and budget range to help identify architects who work in that area and on that kind of project. We may also use your comments to better understand what kind of help you are looking for.

We may use aggregated or de-identified information for internal reporting, planning, and site improvement. That means information that does not directly identify you.

We do not sell your financial account information because we do not collect it through our form. We also do not need sensitive banking details to connect you with an architect.

If you ask us to help you find an architect through our get matched form, we share the contact and project details you submitted with one or more licensed architects we believe may be relevant to your request.

That sharing is the core purpose of the service. Without it, we cannot connect you with architects. The architects who receive your information may contact you directly about your project, availability, and next steps.

We try to limit sharing to the information needed for a reasonable introduction. Even so, once your information is shared with a matched architect, that architect may handle your information under their own privacy practices. We encourage you to review those practices and verify the architect's state license before hiring.

We may also share information with service providers that help us operate the website or manage communications, such as hosting, form, email, analytics, or customer support tools. Those providers are expected to use the information only to provide services to us.

When you submit your information through our website, you are asking us to contact you about your request and to connect you with licensed architects. By providing your phone number and email address, you agree that Studio Northing and the architects we match you with may contact you by phone call, text message, and email about your project inquiry.

Those communications may include follow-up questions, introductions, scheduling, and other messages related to your request. Message and data rates may apply if you receive text messages, depending on your mobile plan.

Your consent to receive calls, texts, or emails is not a condition of buying anything, because our matching service is free. You can opt out of marketing or non-essential communications at any time. For texts, you can usually reply STOP. For emails, you can use the unsubscribe link if one is provided, or contact us directly.

Please note that even if you opt out of marketing messages, we may still contact you about an active request you started, unless you also ask us to stop processing that request.

Like many websites, we may use cookies and similar tools to keep the site working, understand traffic patterns, and improve the user experience. Cookies are small files stored on your device. Some are needed for basic site functions, and some help us understand which pages people visit, such as our services and guides pages.

We use analytics in general terms to measure things like page visits, device type, broad location, and which pages help people find useful information. We do not use this data to make promises about outcomes, and we do not need financial account numbers for analytics.

We keep personal information for as long as reasonably needed to operate the service, make introductions, keep basic records, resolve disputes, comply with legal obligations, and improve our process. The exact retention period can depend on the type of request, whether a match was made, and whether we need the information for recordkeeping.

When we no longer reasonably need personal information, we aim to delete it or de-identify it. Some information may remain in backups for a limited time as part of normal system maintenance.

You can ask us to stop contacting you, stop sharing new matches, or delete the personal information you submitted, subject to any legal or operational reasons we may need to keep limited records. If you want to make one of these requests, contact us through the website and clearly state what you want us to do.

If you ask us to delete your information, we will work to delete it from our active systems within a reasonable time, unless we need to keep certain records for legal compliance, fraud prevention, security, or similar business reasons. If we already shared your information with a matched architect, you may also need to contact that architect directly to ask about deletion from their records.

You can also ask what information you submitted through our form or ask us to correct basic inaccuracies. To protect your privacy, we may need to verify that the request is really from you before we act on it.

If you do not want us to share your details with architects, please do not submit the matching form. You can still use our educational content to learn more about the process.