Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is given by Greenstein Property Tax LLC, doing business as Austin Tea Party, at 313 West Milton Street, Unit B, Austin, Texas 78704. In this Privacy Policy, we, us, and our mean Greenstein Property Tax LLC, doing business as Austin Tea Party. You and your mean the person whose personal data we hold.

It covers atxteaparty.com and everything we do with personal data in connection with residence homestead exemption filings, property tax protests, home inspection reports we receive from inspection companies we contract with, and property valuation work. It applies to Texas residents and Texas property. We do not offer these services outside Texas.

Section 541.002(a)(3) of the Texas Business and Commerce Code applies the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act to a person that is not a small business as defined by the United States Small Business Administration, except to the extent that Section 541.107 applies. We follow the practices this Privacy Policy describes whether or not that exemption reaches us, and we act as a controller, which means the business that decides what personal data is collected and why. We are a data broker as Chapter 510 of the Business and Commerce Code defines that term, because we process and transfer personal data that we did not collect directly from the individuals it describes. We are registered with the Texas Secretary of State as a data broker, registration number 20260168, we renew that registration each year within the ninety (90) days before it expires, and we post the notice the Secretary of State requires on our Texas Data Broker Notice page, linked from the footer of every page of this site, and in this Privacy Policy. You can confirm the registration yourself on the Secretary of State's website.

If you choose texts, we collect the mobile number you type on atxteaparty.com and a record of your consent: the time, your IP address, the page, and the exact wording of the box you checked.

We use that number only to send texts about your own account: that you are signed up, that we filed your homestead exemption or protest, a reminder to update your driver's license address, and your result. About six texts a year. We send no marketing texts. Message and data rates may apply.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

We do not share, sell, or provide your mobile phone number or messaging consent data to third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.

We never text a number we received from anyone else, and no one else collects texting consent for us.

Reply STOP to any text to stop, or HELP for help. You can also email help@atxteaparty.com or call 512-598-4967. See our SMS Terms.

• To identify your property and your appraisal district account.
• To prepare and file your exemption application and your agent designation.
• To review your appraised value each year, decide whether a protest is worth filing, build the evidence, and represent you at the informal conference and the appraisal review board hearing.
• To calculate the fee, invoice you, and take payment.
• To send you service messages about filings, deadlines, hearings, and your account.
• To keep the audit and consent records that Texas law and our agreements require.
• To improve our methods and our models, in de-identified form, as Section 18 describes.
• To secure the site, prevent fraud, and comply with law.

Section 541.001(2)(A) of the Texas Business and Commerce Code treats personal data revealing a mental or physical health diagnosis as sensitive data, and Section 541.101(b)(4) bars us from processing it without your consent. The only sensitive data we handle is proof of a disability or a service-connected disability rating, and only where you ask us to file the disabled person or disabled veteran exemption. We ask for that consent on its own control, we use the document only to file the exemption, and we delete it once the exemption is granted or denied and any appeal period has run. You may withdraw that consent at any time.

We sell no sensitive personal data, we neither collect nor sell biometric personal data, and we collect no precise geolocation data. We do not ask for information revealing your racial or ethnic origin, religious belief, sexuality, citizenship, or immigration status, or genetic or biometric data processed to identify you.

Section 11.43(f) of the Tax Code requires a residence homestead applicant to give the applicant’s name and driver license number, personal identification certificate number, or social security account number, and Section 11.43(j)(4) requires a copy of the driver license or state-issued personal identification certificate unless the applicant resides in a facility that provides services related to health, infirmity, or aging or participates in the address confidentiality program the attorney general administers. We collect the number and the copy for that filing and for nothing else. We store it encrypted, we restrict access to staff who need it to file, we never sell it, we never use it for marketing, and we destroy it when the business purpose ends and the retention period in Section 16 expires. It is protected as sensitive personal information under Chapter 521 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code, which is why Section 17 exists.

We run analytics on our own domain. We record pages viewed, the site that referred you, your general region, and your device and browser type. We hash your internet address and do not store it in readable form. We set one cookie holding a random identifier so that we can recognize a return visit and know which page brought you here, and it expires after thirteen (13) months. We do not use third-party advertising cookies, we do not run cross-site tracking, and we do not use analytics data for advertising.

Your browser can block or delete cookies. Blocking ours does not prevent you from using the site. We honor a browser or device signal that carries your choice to opt out. Section 14 explains it.

We share personal data with the categories of recipients below, for the purposes stated and nothing else. Section 541.102(a)(4) of the Business and Commerce Code requires us to state the categories of personal data we share with third parties, and those categories are identity and contact data, property and account data, government identifiers, age and household data, disability documentation, inspection information, authorization and consent records, communications, and service and billing data. In this section, identity and contact data does not include a mobile number given to us for text messages or the record of consent to those messages. Every recipient other than a government body is bound by a written contract that limits the use to that purpose, requires confidentiality and security measures, requires deletion or return at the end of the engagement, and passes the same limits to any subcontractor.

• Appraisal districts, appraisal review boards, and taxing units. To file your exemption, your designation, and your protest, and to correct the appraisal roll.
• Our affiliate, Arkana Intelligence LLC, which operates the software and analytics platform behind this service, runs the Inspector Ally program, and is under common ownership with us. If you said yes to repair pricing, we give Inspector Ally your inspection report and its photographs so that it can get prices for the work the report identifies. Inspector Ally does not give your name, email address or telephone number to any repair company. Any communication between you and a repair company goes through Inspector Ally. It is bound by every limit in this Privacy Policy.
• Home inspection companies or service providers we contract with. We receive your report and contact fields from them. We return only the status of the review we agreed to perform. We do not send them anything about your tax matter beyond the information provided in the report.
• Service providers. Hosting, email and text delivery, electronic signature, payment processing, mailing, and support vendors.
• Professional advisers, insurers, and auditors. Under a duty of confidentiality.
• Government and legal. Where a subpoena, a court order, or a law requires it, and to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim.
• A successor. In a merger, a reorganization, or a sale of the business, subject to this Privacy Policy.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties. We send text messages only to a mobile number whose user checked a text-message box on atxteaparty.com. We never text anyone based on an agreement signed with a home inspection company or any other third party.

The entity maintaining this website is a data broker under Texas law. To conduct business in Texas, a data broker must register with the Texas Secretary of State (Texas SOS). Information about data broker registrants is available on the Texas SOS website.

Read our Texas Data Broker Notice.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties. We send text messages only to a mobile number whose user checked a text-message box on atxteaparty.com. We never text anyone based on an agreement signed with a home inspection company or any other third party. We do not sell sensitive personal data or biometric personal data.

We use a statistical model on public appraisal district and market data to decide which accounts to protest and what evidence to build. Section 541.001(11) of the Business and Commerce Code defines profiling as any form of solely automated processing performed on personal data to evaluate, analyze, or predict personal aspects concerning an identified or identifiable individual, and Section 541.051(b)(5)(C) gives you an opt-out only where profiling furthers a decision that produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you. That analysis produces an internal work decision, not a decision about your eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing, education, or any other legal or similarly significant matter. If we ever use profiling in a way that does produce such a decision, we will say so here first and give you the right to opt out of it before we start.

• We do not give inspection findings, defect data, or condition information about your property to any insurance company, and we take no compensation from any insurance company.
• We take nothing of value, directly or indirectly, for referring you to a provider of a settlement service in connection with a federally related mortgage loan, which Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, 12 U.S.C. Section 2607, prohibits. We make no introduction of any kind to a title company, a mortgage lender, a mortgage broker, or an insurer, and we take no compensation from any of them.
• We are not a consumer reporting agency. We do not assemble or furnish information about you for use in determining your eligibility for insurance, credit, employment, housing, or any other purpose covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
• We do not use your personal data to train a model in any form that identifies you or your property. Section 18 governs de-identified use.

Section 541.051(b) of the Business and Commerce Code sets out the rights below, and we honor those rights whether or not the exemption in Section 541.002(a)(3) reaches us. Section 541.101(b)(3) bars a controller from charging for them, from requiring you to create an account to use them, and from treating you differently because you used them, and we follow those limits.

• Confirm and access. Ask whether we process your personal data and get a copy of it.
• Portability. Get a copy in a portable and, where technically feasible, readily usable format, for data you gave us.
• Correct. Have inaccurate personal data corrected, taking into account the nature of the data and why we process it.
• Delete. Have personal data about you deleted, subject to Section 16, which explains the records we must keep.
• Opt out of the sale of your personal data. See Section 9.
• Opt out of targeted advertising. See Section 9.
• Opt out of profiling. Where profiling furthers a decision that produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you. See Section 10.

Use either method. Both reach the same team.

• Online. The request form at atxteaparty.com/privacy-request, reachable from the Your Privacy Choices link in the footer of every page.
• Email. privacy@atxteaparty.com, with your name, the property address, and what you want us to do.

We will verify that the request is yours before we act on it, using information we already hold. If we cannot verify it with reasonable effort, we will ask you for what we need and tell you why. As Section 541.052(b) of the Business and Commerce Code requires, we answer without undue delay and in no case later than the 45th day after we receive the request. If we need more time because the request is complex or you sent several, we may take one additional forty-five (45) days, and we will tell you within the first forty-five (45) days that we are doing so and why. We answer free of charge at least twice in any twelve-month period. If a request is manifestly unfounded, excessive, or repetitive, we may charge a reasonable administrative fee or decline it, and we carry the burden of showing that it was.

You may use an authorized agent to opt out of the sale of your personal data or of targeted advertising, including through a browser extension, a device setting, or another technology that carries your choice. We honor the Global Privacy Control signal. Section 541.055(e) of the Business and Commerce Code allows an authorized agent to make those two opt-out requests on your behalf, and Section 541.055(f)(2) requires that a platform, technology, or mechanism we recognize not use a default setting, so the signal has to reflect a choice you made. We may need to verify your identity and the agent’s authority before we act on other kinds of requests.

Section 541.053 of the Business and Commerce Code requires an appeal process that is conspicuously available and similar to the process for making a request. If we refuse to act on your request, we will tell you within 45 days, explain why, and give you instructions for appealing. Appeal by emailing privacy-appeal@atxteaparty.com or by using the same form you used to make the request. The appeal route is as easy to use as the request route.

We will tell you in writing what we decided on the appeal, and why, no later than the 60th day after we receive it, which Section 541.053(c) requires. If we deny the appeal, we will give you the online mechanism through which you may submit a complaint to the Texas Attorney General, currently at texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection/file-consumer-complaint, as Section 541.053(d) requires. You may complain to the Attorney General whether or not you appeal to us first.

• Service records, filings, and communications. For the life of the matter and the account, and for five (5) years afterward.
• Consent and authorization records. Five (5) years, including the document version, the language displayed, and the timestamp. We keep these records to prove what you agreed to, so a withdrawal of consent does not delete them.
• Your driver license number and any disability documentation. Only as long as the exemption filing requires, then destroyed.
• Analytics cookie. Thirteen (13) months.
• Anything under a legal hold. Until the claim, the audit, or the regulatory inquiry ends.

When a retention period ends, we destroy the records or de-identify them under Section 18.

We maintain a written information security program with administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that are sized for our business and to the volume of data we hold. It covers a named person responsible for the program, staff training, risk assessment, access controls, encryption of sensitive fields in transit and at rest, vendor diligence, physical security, incident documentation, and a review at least once a year.

If an unauthorized person acquires your sensitive personal information, Section 521.053(b) of the Texas Business and Commerce Code requires us to notify you without unreasonable delay and not later than the 60th day after we determine that the breach occurred, except as Section 521.053(d) provides for a law enforcement request and except as the time needed to determine the scope of the breach and to restore the reasonable integrity of the data system requires. If the breach involves at least 250 Texas residents, Section 521.053(i) requires us to notify the Texas Attorney General electronically as soon as practicable and not later than the 30th day, and to give the Attorney General a detailed description of the breach, the number of Texas residents affected, the measures we have taken and intend to take, any measures we intend to take after the notice, whether law enforcement is engaged, and the number of affected residents we have notified. We will tell you what happened, what data was involved, and what we are doing about it.

We use photographs, measurements, observations, findings, and public county data in de-identified or aggregated form, stripped of your name, your contact information, and your property address, to improve our methods, to train and evaluate our models (which include artificial intelligence), and to publish statistical and market information.

Section 541.106(a) of the Business and Commerce Code requires us to take reasonable measures to ensure that de-identified data cannot be associated with an individual, to commit publicly to maintaining and using the data in de-identified form without attempting to re-identify it, and to contractually obligate every recipient of the de-identified data to comply with that chapter. We do each of those. Section 541.106(d) also requires us to exercise reasonable oversight to monitor compliance with those contracts and to take appropriate steps to address any breach of them, and we do. We will not represent that any de-identified data describes your property.

This site is for property owners and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child gave us information, email privacy@atxteaparty.com and we will delete it.

We serve Texas residents and Texas property only. We do not direct this site to residents of other states or of other countries, and we do not transfer your personal data outside the United States. If you contact us from outside Texas, we will tell you that we cannot serve you and delete what you sent, subject to the records Section 16 requires us to keep.

We may update this Privacy Policy. The effective date and the version number at the top tell you which one you are reading. If a change affects what we collect, why we use it, whom we share it with, or your rights, we will email you at least thirty (30) days before it takes effect and post the change here. We keep prior versions and will send you one on request.

The Austin Tea Party. Attention: Privacy, 313 West Milton Street, Unit B, Austin, Texas 78704 (our legal name is in our Terms of Service).

• Privacy requests and questions: privacy@atxteaparty.com
• Appeals: privacy-appeal@atxteaparty.com
• Stop all contact: stop@atxteaparty.com
• Telephone: 512-598-4967
• Text support: reply HELP, or 512-598-4967