Skip to content
Get the app

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 10 October 2026

Who we are

Roost is a London rental property alert service run by Roost Homes Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17466827) with its registered office at 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. Roost Homes Limited is the data controller for the personal data described on this page. We aggregate listings from publicly available estate agent websites, score them using AI against your personal preferences, and deliver a curated feed via our iOS and Android apps.

What we collect

  • Account information — your name and email address, provided via Sign in with Apple or Google, or by a sign-in link we email to you. Sign in with Apple is available on iOS only. When you sign in with Apple or Google, we also receive an account identifier from them. If you use Apple's private relay, we receive only your relay email address.
  • Search preferences — the London areas, bedroom count, price range, and feature preferences you set during onboarding. When you search for an area, we also keep what you typed to find it.
  • Property interactions — which listings you save, skip, or mark as viewing. This helps us understand what you're looking for.
  • Things you write — notes on homes in your tracker, comments in a shared tracker, and feedback you send us. The other members of a shared tracker can see your comments.
  • Device tokens — your Apple Push Notification token on iOS, or your Firebase Cloud Messaging token on Android, used solely to send you property alerts.
  • Device identifiers — a random identifier that PostHog creates in the app, so we can link the events from one install together. On Android, Firebase Cloud Messaging also uses a Firebase installation identifier to deliver your notifications. Roost does not use your device's advertising identifier.
  • Subscription information — your Apple In-App Purchase transaction identifiers on iOS, or your Google Play purchase token on Android, and your subscription status. We do not store payment card details.
  • Usage and diagnostic data — how you use the app (such as screens viewed and actions like saving or skipping a listing), your device model, operating system, and app version, plus crash reports, technical logs (the method, path, and status of API requests), and session recordings. A session recording shows the app screens as you used them, including anything you type into the app, such as notes and feedback. Payments happen in Apple's and Google's own screens, outside the app, so they never appear in a recording. This data is linked to your account, including your name and email address. We don't keep your IP address, but we do keep the approximate location it points to: a town or city and a country.
  • Website visits — when you visit roost.rentals, we record the pages you view, your browser and device type, the same approximate location, and session recordings of the site. The website sets no cookies for this. A visit stays anonymous unless you follow a link from the website into the app, in which case we link that visit to your account.

How we use your data

  • Personalised scoring — your preferences are used to score properties on a 1–10 scale so you see the most relevant listings first.
  • Push notifications — we send alerts when new high-scoring properties match your criteria.
  • Service improvement — we analyse usage patterns, performance, and crashes to understand how people use Roost and to improve scoring accuracy and product features. This analytics data is linked to your account, including your name and email address, so we can see how one person uses Roost from start to finish. It is never used for advertising or to track you across other apps and websites.

Third parties

We share data with the following third-party services, only as necessary to provide the Roost service:

  • Apple — authentication (Sign in with Apple) and payment processing (In-App Purchase).
  • Google — authentication (Sign in with Google), and on Android, payment processing (Google Play Billing) and push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging).
  • Google Cloud Platform — hosting, database storage, and image analysis of property photos.
  • OpenAI — text analysis of property listing descriptions to extract features, transport links, and condition assessments.
  • PostHog — product analytics, crash and performance diagnostics, technical logs, and session recordings, used solely to understand and improve Roost. PostHog processes this data on our behalf on servers located in the European Union. What we send includes your name, your email address, and your account identifier, together with the usage data and session recordings described above. PostHog does not keep your IP address. This data is not used for advertising or to track you across other apps and websites.
  • Resend — sends our emails, including the sign-in links.

We do not sell your personal data to anyone. We do not use your data for advertising.

Where data comes from

Property listings are aggregated from publicly accessible estate agent websites. We do not access any private or restricted data sources. The information displayed in the app is derived from content that is freely available on the open web.

Data storage and security

Your data is stored on Google Cloud Platform servers in London (europe-west2). Database backups are encrypted and retained with point-in-time recovery enabled. All data in transit is encrypted via TLS. Authentication tokens are stored in your device's secure Keychain. On Android, they are encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore, and the app leaves them out of device backups.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to:

  • Access your personal data — the app displays your preferences and saved listings directly.
  • Delete your account and all associated data — available in the app under Settings > Profile > Delete Account, or on the web at roost.rentals/delete-account. This is immediate and irreversible. Records of past purchases are kept without your identity to meet accounting and fraud-prevention obligations.
  • Rectify inaccurate data — you can update your preferences at any time in the app.
  • Object to processing or request restriction — contact us at the email below.

Data retention

Your account data is retained for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, your personal data is permanently deleted: profile (name and email), sign-in identities and sessions, preferences, saved listings, device tokens, feedback, notification history, and your tracker votes and comments. Shared trackers you were part of continue for their remaining members, with your contributions removed. Records of Apple and Google Play purchase transactions are retained with your identity removed, to meet accounting and fraud-prevention obligations. Session recordings held by PostHog are deleted after 30 days. Other analytics and diagnostic data held by PostHog, including the name and email address on it, is kept for up to seven years. You can ask us to delete it sooner at any time (see Your rights).

Children

Roost is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via the app or email. Continued use of Roost after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

For privacy-related enquiries, contact us at [email protected].