This privacy policy explains how ESA Letter US (“we”, “us”) handles personal information on esaletterus.org. We are a letter-only service: we collect what an independent, state-licensed mental health professional needs in order to evaluate you and decide whether an emotional support animal letter or psychiatric service dog letter is appropriate, plus what we need to take payment and support you afterwards. We do not sell registrations, certificates or ID cards, and we do not sell your personal information to anyone.
Two things are worth saying up front, because they are the questions people actually write in about. First, your diagnosis is never shared with your landlord, property manager or housing provider — a compliant accommodation letter states that you are a person with a disability-related need and that the animal provides disability-related support, and nothing more. Second, the clinical record of your evaluation belongs to the clinician who performed it, not to us, and is handled under their own professional and legal obligations.
Plain-English summary. We collect your contact details, your state, your animal’s details and what you tell a clinician during an evaluation. We use it to deliver your letter and support you. We share it only with the clinician evaluating you and with the vendors who process payments, send email and SMS, and measure site usage. We never sell it. You can ask us for a copy, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it at support@esaletterus.org, subject line “Privacy request”.
Information we collect
We only ask for what the service actually needs. Most of it comes directly from you when you complete the assessment on our qualification form, hear from a clinician, or email or call our support team.
Contact and account information
Your full name, email address, phone number, the state you live in and your ZIP code. Your state matters legally, not just logistically: your letter has to come from a professional licensed in the state where you live, and five states set a minimum relationship period before a letter can be issued.
Information about your animal
The species, breed, weight, name and age of the animal, and whether you are requesting a letter for more than one animal. Housing providers are entitled to reliable documentation of a disability-related need, so the animal’s identifying details appear on your letter.
Health information you share for an evaluation
To evaluate you, a clinician will ask about your mental or emotional health, any current or past diagnosis or treatment, current medications where relevant, and how your animal helps with the effects of your condition. You provide this information for the purpose of a clinical evaluation. You are never required to give it to us to browse the site, and you can stop at any point before the evaluation is complete.
Payment information
Card payments are captured and processed by our PCI-compliant payment processor. We do not receive or store your full card number, expiry date or security code. What reaches us is the transaction outcome, the last four digits, the card brand, the billing name and postal code, and the amount — for example $99 for an ESA housing letter, $139 for a PSD letter, $199 for the combined package, $79 for a renewal, or $25 for each additional pet added to a letter.
Device and usage information
Like most websites, we automatically log IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring page, the pages you view, and timestamps. We use this to keep the site working, detect fraudulent or abusive activity, and understand which pages help people and which ones do not.
Support correspondence
Emails, SMS messages, contact-form submissions and notes from phone calls with our support team, including any documents you send us when a housing provider questions your letter. If a call is recorded for quality or training, you are told at the start of the call.
How we use your information
- To route your request to a mental health professional licensed in your state and to schedule your evaluation.
- To prepare, deliver and store the PDF of your ESA letter or PSD letter.
- To take payment, issue receipts, and process refunds under our refund policy.
- To support you afterwards — answering questions from your landlord’s office, confirming that your clinician holds an active license, and reissuing a letter when a detail is wrong.
- To remind you when your letter is approaching twelve months old, since most housing providers expect documentation dated within the last year.
- To detect and prevent fraud, chargeback abuse and misuse of the service, and to keep the site secure.
- To comply with our legal obligations, including tax and accounting records, and to establish or defend legal claims.
- To improve the service — measuring which pages and forms people complete, and testing clearer wording.
We do not use your health information to target advertising, and we do not build advertising profiles from what you tell a clinician.
Health information and independent clinicians
ESA Letter US is not a medical provider, a clinic or a law firm. We operate the platform that connects you with independent, state-licensed mental health professionals. That distinction matters for your privacy in three concrete ways.
- The clinical record is the clinician’s. Your evaluation notes, your diagnosis and the clinician’s professional reasoning are held by that clinician as part of their own records, subject to their licensing board’s rules and applicable state and federal law. Requests for the clinical record itself go to the clinician; we will tell you who to contact.
- We apply HIPAA-aware practices. Where we handle health-related information on a clinician’s behalf, we do so under written agreements, we restrict access to staff who need it to do their job, we log access, and we encrypt data in transit and at rest — whether or not a given record is technically covered by HIPAA.
- Your diagnosis never goes to your landlord. A compliant Fair Housing Act accommodation letter confirms a disability-related need for the animal and is signed by a licensed professional. It does not name your condition, and we will not disclose your diagnosis, symptoms or treatment to a housing provider, property manager, HOA or university housing office. A housing provider may verify that your clinician holds an active license; that is the extent of what they get from us.
How we share information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share it only in these situations:
- The clinician evaluating you. They receive your intake responses, contact details and animal details so they can conduct the evaluation and issue a letter if appropriate.
- Payment processors. Card data goes directly to our processor; we receive only the transaction result and the limited details listed above.
- Email, SMS and telephony providers. Used to deliver your letter, appointment reminders, receipts and support replies.
- Hosting, storage and security vendors. Infrastructure providers that host the site and store documents under contract, with no right to use your data for their own purposes.
- Analytics providers. Aggregate and device-level usage data only. Health information and intake responses are not sent to analytics tools.
- Professional advisers. Accountants and attorneys, bound by confidentiality, where genuinely needed.
- Legal and safety disclosures. Where required by law, subpoena or court order, or where disclosure is necessary to address fraud or an imminent risk to someone’s safety.
- A business transfer. If the business is sold or merged, information may transfer with it; the buyer remains bound by this policy for information collected under it, and we will post notice on this page.
Cookies and analytics
We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies keep you signed in, remember your place in a form and protect against cross-site request forgery; the site will not work properly without them. Preference cookies remember choices such as a dismissed notice. Analytics cookies measure page views and form completion so we can see where people get stuck.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and most browsers offer a “do not track” or global privacy control signal. We honor a Global Privacy Control signal sent by your browser as a request to opt out of any sharing of your information for targeted advertising, where state law recognizes it. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may prevent you from signing in or completing an assessment.
Marketing communications and opting out
Transactional messages — evaluation scheduling, letter delivery, receipts, refund notices and security alerts — are part of the service and are sent to every customer. You cannot opt out of these while your order is active, though you can close your account.
Separately, we may send renewal reminders and occasional educational email about housing rights and documentation. Every one of those carries an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect promptly and does not affect your transactional messages. If you gave us a mobile number and agreed to SMS, reply STOP to any message to end texts and HELP for assistance; message and data rates may apply. To turn off renewal reminders without unsubscribing from everything else, email support@esaletterus.org and say so.
How long we keep information
| Type of information | How long we keep it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account and contact details | While your account is open, then up to 24 months | So you can retrieve past letters and renew without starting over |
| Issued letters (PDF) | Up to 7 years, unless you ask us to delete sooner | Landlord disputes and reissue requests often arrive long after purchase |
| Intake and health responses | Retained by the clinician under their professional obligations | State licensing boards set clinical record retention, not us |
| Payment and tax records | 7 years | Tax, accounting and chargeback obligations |
| Support correspondence | 3 years | To resolve follow-up questions and refund requests |
| Server and analytics logs | Up to 14 months | Security investigation and traffic analysis |
When a retention period ends, we delete the information or irreversibly de-identify it so it can no longer be linked to you.
How we protect information
We use TLS encryption for data in transit and encryption at rest for stored documents, role-based access controls so staff only reach records their job requires, access logging, multi-factor authentication for internal systems, and regular review of vendor security. Letters are emailed to the address you gave us, never posted at a public URL.
No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities within the timeframes the law requires. Please help us by keeping your email account secure and telling us at once if you think someone else has seen your letter or your information.
Your privacy rights
Wherever you live in the United States, you can ask us to:
- Access — get a copy of the personal information we hold about you and a description of how we use it.
- Correct — fix information that is wrong or out of date, including a misspelled name or animal detail on an issued letter.
- Delete — have your information erased, subject to records we must keep for tax, fraud-prevention or legal reasons, and to clinical records held by your clinician.
- Port — receive the information you gave us in a portable, machine-readable format.
- Opt out — stop marketing email or SMS, and object to any sharing for targeted advertising.
Residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon and other states with comprehensive privacy laws have these rights under those statutes, including the right to appeal if we refuse a request and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them — we will not charge you more or give you a worse service for making a request. California residents may also ask what categories of personal information we collected, the purposes, and the categories of third parties we disclosed them to in the preceding twelve months.
Do not sell or share. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of — but you are welcome to submit a request anyway and we will confirm this in writing.
To exercise any right, email support@esaletterus.org (our privacy team monitors this address; you may also write to privacy@esaletterus.org) or call (832) 979-0181. We will verify your identity using information already associated with your account, respond within 45 days, and tell you if we need a permitted extension. An authorized agent may act for you with written permission that we can verify.
Children’s privacy
Our service is for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and our assessment is not designed for minors. A parent or legal guardian who believes a child has given us information should contact us and we will delete it promptly. Where a letter is requested for a household that includes a minor, the request must come from an adult who can consent on their own behalf.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when our practices, vendors or legal obligations change. The date at the top always shows the current version. If a change materially affects how we use information you already gave us, we will email customers with an active account and post a notice on this page before it takes effect. Continuing to use the site after an update means you accept the revised policy.
How to contact us
Privacy questions, access requests and deletion requests go to privacy@esaletterus.org, or to support@esaletterus.org with “Privacy request” in the subject line. For anything else — order status, landlord questions, refunds — use support@esaletterus.org or call (832) 979-0181, seven days a week, 8am–10pm ET. You can also reach us through the contact page.
This policy sits alongside our terms of service and refund policy. Questions about what an ESA letter does and does not do are answered on our FAQ page.
Ready to see if you qualify?
Answer a few questions and a licensed professional in your state will review your situation. An ESA housing letter is $99, a PSD letter $139 and both $199, with a full refund if you are not approved.