Hearth is operated by Kamsi Anienwelu, a sole proprietor based in Ithaca, New York. Hearth helps independent landlords coordinate off-campus student housing. Students and guarantors interact with Hearth by ordinary text message.
Hearth is currently in a pre-revenue pilot. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share phone numbers or message content with third parties for marketing purposes.
Hearth involves two groups of people, and they are treated differently.
Landlords and their staff are our customers. They create an account, add properties, and use the operator dashboard.
Students and guarantors do not create accounts with Hearth. Their information is provided to us by their landlord, and they interact with Hearth by texting a phone number assigned to their property. This policy explains their rights as well.
| Category | What it includes | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Contact details | Name, mobile phone number, role (student, guarantor, landlord) | Provided by the landlord during setup |
| Housing details | Property address, room assignment, lease group, academic year, rent share | Provided by the landlord |
| Lease documents | The lease or FAQ a landlord uploads for a property | Uploaded by the landlord |
| Message content | Text messages sent to and from the Hearth number, including timestamps and delivery status | Created by you when you text Hearth |
| Photographs and video | Images of room condition sent by text, tied to a person and room | Sent voluntarily by students |
| Operational records | Requirement completion, arrival windows, key status, escalations, call logs | Generated by use of the service |
| Consent records | Whether a person has opted in or out of messaging, and when | Recorded automatically |
We do not collect payment card details, bank account information, government identification numbers, or credit history. Hearth does not process rent, hold deposits, or screen applicants.
We use the information above only to operate Hearth:
We do not use message content, photographs, or lease documents to train artificial intelligence models, and we do not sell or license this information to anyone.
Access is deliberately limited.
A student receives answers about their own lease and their own obligations. Hearth does not disclose another occupant's information to them.
A guarantor receives information only about the student they guarantee — for example, that student's payment status or requirements. Hearth does not disclose information about other occupants of the house to a guarantor.
A landlord can see the full record for properties they own, including messages, escalations, condition photographs, and operational status.
A person we cannot identify — a text from an unrecognised number — receives a neutral reply and no property or personal information.
During the current pilot, Hearth is operated directly by its founder. This means a Hearth operator can view messages, photographs, and property records in order to run the service, provide support, and correct errors. We are stating this plainly because it is unusual and material. Access is limited to what is necessary to operate the service.
Hearth relies on a small number of providers to function. They process information on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
| Provider | Purpose | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Twilio | Sending and receiving text messages | Phone numbers, message content, media |
| Anthropic | Generating answers from a property's lease | Message content, lease text, and the sender's role |
| Supabase | Database and private file storage | All service data, including photographs and lease files |
| Netlify | Website and application hosting | Technical request data |
Message content is sent to Anthropic in order to produce an answer. Anthropic does not use this content to train its models under our API terms.
Hearth sends messages only to people whose landlord has added them to a property and who have not opted out.
You can opt out at any time by replying STOP to any Hearth message. This is recorded in our own systems as well as at the carrier level, and no further automated messages will be sent to that number by any part of the service. Reply HELP for assistance. Message and data rates may apply.
We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.
This applies to every number Hearth holds, whether provided by a landlord or received when you text a Hearth number. Hearth is the trading name of Kamsi Anienwelu, sole proprietor, the registered brand behind these messages.
Opting out stops messages but does not delete existing records. To request deletion, see section 9.
Hearth is not an emergency service and does not monitor messages continuously. If a message describes a fire, gas leak, flood, injury, break-in, or any other emergency, Hearth will tell you to call 911 and will alert your landlord. Never rely on Hearth in an emergency.
We retain a property's records for seven years (84 months) after the end of the lease term, and then delete them.
This period is deliberate. In New York, a security deposit dispute is treated as a breach of contract, and a claim can be brought for up to six years after the deposit should have been returned. Deleting sooner would destroy the record while the underlying exposure is still live, which would defeat the purpose of keeping it. Seven years covers that window with a margin.
When a landlord stops using Hearth, we offer a complete export of their property record and delete the data on request.
Any student or guarantor may request deletion of their personal information by emailing ka@hearthassist.com. We will honour the request unless we are required to retain specific records by law, and we will tell you if that applies.
Wherever you live, you may ask us to tell you what information we hold about you, correct it if it is wrong, delete it, or stop messaging you. Email ka@hearthassist.com and we will respond within 30 days.
If you are a California resident, you additionally have rights under the CCPA/CPRA to know, delete, correct, and opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined, so there is nothing to opt out of, but the other rights apply and we will not discriminate against you for exercising them.
Data is stored in access-controlled databases with row-level security enabled. Lease documents and photographs are held in private storage and are reachable only through short-lived links. Message webhooks are cryptographically verified. Credentials are held server-side and never exposed in the browser.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you and any required authority as the law requires.
Hearth is intended for people aged 18 and over. Off-campus student housing is generally leased by adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If a landlord adds a person under 18, that person's parent or guardian may contact us to review or delete their information.
We may update this policy. If we make a material change to how we use information, we will post the updated policy here with a new date and notify landlords by email before the change takes effect. Information collected under an earlier version remains governed by the version in force when it was collected, unless you agree otherwise.
Hearth · Kamsi Anienwelu, sole proprietor · Ithaca, New York
ka@hearthassist.com