TowerBinder
Check a building

Privacy Policy

Last updated Oct 19, 2026.

Who we are

TowerBinder is run by WISEPLAN INC. (“we”). This policy covers this website, its free building check and its sign-up forms, and the TowerBinder app at app.towerbinder.com.

The free building check

The address, ZIP code or BIN you type is sent to our server, which asks NYC Planning’s GeoSearch which building it is and reads DOHMH’s and OATH’s public records about that building from NYC Open Data. Those services see our server, not you. The answer is about the building, not about you; we keep it to answer the next person who asks about the same building and refresh it after an hour.

We do not store your IP address, and we do not keep what you typed next to anything that identifies you. To hold each visitor to 30 checks a day we count them under a salted hash of the IP address that changes every day, and delete the counts after a week.

The sign-up forms

When you ask us to watch a building, or join early access, we store:

  • your email address
  • the building’s BIN, if you asked us to watch one
  • if you give them, your role and how many cooling tower systems you look after
  • the page and the form you signed up on, and the country your request came from

We do not store your IP address. Signing up again with the same email for the same building replaces your earlier answers. We use what you give us only to tell you about TowerBinder: the alert emails for the building you watch, and your early access when it is ready. Each alert email has a link that stops them in one click; for the rest, reply or write to us. We send no newsletters.

Your account and your team

For each person on an account we keep their name, email address, role, whether the daily alert email is on, which version of the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy they accepted and when; for the account, its name. For each building the account adds we keep its BIN, tax lot, address and the latest check of DOHMH’s and OATH’s public files, replaced every morning. Sign-in codes are emailed by Supabase through Resend, and your browser keeps you signed in. Owners invite people by email; an invited address gets one invitation and nothing more unless that person signs in. The app also keeps a log of what its server did (a building added, an invitation, the morning run and its errors), with the account and the person it concerns, and counts each person’s lookups per day to stop misuse.

The records

An account whose records are open keeps its cooling towers’ records here: water readings, weekly checklists, dip slides, Legionella samples and their results, inspections, cleanings, treatments, startups and shutdowns, the actions after a result, and the filings. Each record says who saved each one and when. Records are kept as written: a correction is kept with the original, with its reason, and a record removed as entered by mistake stays in its history. A record saved without signal waits on the phone until it uploads, in the browser’s own storage on that phone, and is gone from there once it is sent. The morning email also says when a deadline from the records falls due or is overdue, and when DOHMH does not show a sample 7 days later.

A record can carry files: lab reports, chains of custody, the portal’s receipts and photos, as PDF, JPEG or PNG, 10 MB a file; a photo is made smaller on the phone before it is sent. Files are kept with their record, in a private store only the account’s people can open, and are never changed. A file saved without signal waits on the phone like a record. After each sync the app keeps the account’s records on the device for inspection mode without signal, and opening inspection mode keeps the system’s documents there too (up to 100 MB, photos excepted); they are deleted from the device when the person signs out, and when the account no longer has them. The binder and the filing documents are made on the device and saved where the person chooses.

Business contacts from public records

We may email the owners and the managing agents of buildings with a registered cooling tower about those towers, using the business names, addresses and email addresses the City publishes on NYC Open Data, such as DOHMH’s cooling tower registry and HPD’s building registrations. Each such email says where we found the address, gives our postal address, and has a link that stops further emails; we keep the addresses that ask us to stop, so they are not emailed again. We do not buy or sell lists of contacts.

Payments

When an owner chooses a plan, Stripe, the merchant of record through its Managed Payments service, takes the payment: it collects the name, email, billing address and card at its checkout, with Link, its payment service, under its own privacy policy, and we never see or keep the card. Stripe tells us the plan, its status, its renewal or end date and a customer number, and we keep these with the account. The app logs when an owner opened a checkout and which version of the terms they accepted.

Alert emails

Every morning we read DOHMH’s and OATH’s public files for the buildings on accounts and on the watch list, and email what changed: the 31 days running short, a sample overdue if the system is operating, a new summons, a hearing two weeks ahead. We keep which alerts each account and each watcher was sent, so none goes twice. People on an account turn the email off in the app’s Settings; watchers stop it with the link in the email.

Who processes it for us

  • Cloudflare hosts this website, its free building check and its sign-up form, and keeps the check’s results and its visit counts (D1).
  • Vercel hosts the app and runs its server, its daily check of the buildings and its emails.
  • Supabase keeps the app’s accounts, people, buildings, checks, records and their files, and this website’s sign-ups, and sends the sign-in codes.
  • Resend sends the sign-in codes, invitations and alert emails.
  • Stripe sells the paid plans as the merchant of record (Managed Payments, receipts from Link): it takes the payment and the billing details at its checkout and tells us the plan’s status.
  • Plausible counts visits to this website without cookies or personal data.
  • Google measures ads with cookies on this website, only after you choose “Allow”.

They process it only on our instructions. We do not sell or share personal information, and we do not use it for advertising beyond the measurement described below.

How long we keep it

A building’s check is refreshed after an hour, and the daily counts are deleted after a week. Sign-ups stay until you ask us to delete them, or until we close the list they belong to; a watcher who stops the emails stays on file as stopped, so they stay stopped. An account, its people, its buildings and the record of its alerts stay until the account asks us to delete them. Records are kept 10 years from the day they are about, the time an inspector, an insurer or a court can ask for them; when an account closes, its owners can ask us to delete them sooner. Our hosting provider keeps request logs, which include IP addresses, for a short time for security and troubleshooting. Deleted data can remain in our providers’ backups until those expire.

Analytics and cookies

We count visits with Plausible, which uses no cookies and collects no personal data.

When we run ads, a cookie notice at the bottom of the page asks first. Nothing from Google loads until you choose “Allow”; then Google’s ads measurement tag loads and may set its cookies. “Only necessary” keeps it off, so does a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser, and “Cookie settings” in the footer changes the choice at any time. This website keeps only your cookie choice in your browser.

Security

Everything travels encrypted, and the database behind the check and the forms is reachable only by our server. If you find a weakness, write to us. If a breach affects your information, we tell you as the law requires.

Your rights

You can ask us what we hold about you, for a copy, to correct it, or to delete it. We answer within 30 days, after confirming the request comes from the email address concerned. California residents have these rights under the CCPA, and we do not sell or share their information or treat them differently for using them. If you are in the EU or the UK, we rely on our legitimate interest for the sign-up lists and for security, and on your consent for ads cookies; you may object, withdraw a consent at any time, and complain to your data protection authority.

Children

This website is for adults who own, manage or service buildings; we do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes

We email the people on our lists about a material change before it applies. The date at the top shows which version this is.

Contact

WISEPLAN INC., 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Suite 934, New York, NY 10013. Email: hello@towerbinder.com.