Zillow keeps your personal data for as long as it says it needs to, with no specific timeframes stated, and the length depends on what type of information it is and why it was collected.
This analysis describes what Zillow's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
Without specific retention periods, users cannot know how long their home search history, financial data, or contact information will be held, and broader retention windows increase the risk of data exposure in security incidents.
Interpretive note: The exact retention language in the document is summarized based on standard Zillow policy structure; specific verbatim text was not fully extractable from the provided document. The vagueness of the formulation is the source of interpretive uncertainty.
Zillow does not specify concrete retention periods for different data categories, meaning your personal information including financial data and home search history may be retained indefinitely until you request deletion or Zillow determines retention is no longer necessary.
How other platforms handle this
We keep information for as long as we need it to provide our products, comply with legal obligations, or for other legitimate purposes, such as to maintain safety, security, and integrity.
After your account is deleted, we keep data about interactions you've had on our service to prevent abuse, ban evaders and others in an effort to protect and ensure the safety and security of our service and our members.
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. The specific retention periods depend on the type of information and the purposes for which it is processed.
Monitoring
Zillow has changed this document before.
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"We retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide our services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. The specific retention period depends on the type of information and the purpose for which it was collected.— Excerpt from Zillow's Zillow Privacy Notice
1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: CCPA/CPRA requires that retention periods, or the criteria used to determine them, be disclosed to consumers. The policy's current formulation ('as long as necessary') may not satisfy CPRA's requirement for specific disclosure of retention periods per data category. The FTC has also signaled expectations for data minimization and defined retention practices. GLBA imposes record retention requirements for financial data that may inform minimum retention periods for mortgage-related data. 2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. Vague retention language is common in the industry but creates compliance exposure under CPRA, which requires that policies disclose retention periods or the criteria for determining them. The California Privacy Protection Agency has indicated that generic 'as long as necessary' language is insufficient to satisfy CPRA's disclosure requirements. 3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: California has the most specific retention disclosure requirements under CPRA. Virginia, Colorado, and Connecticut also require that retention practices be disclosed. For financial data under GLBA, federal record retention requirements set minimum floors that may conflict with deletion requests from California users. 4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Data retention policies should be harmonized across vendor agreements to ensure that shared data is subject to consistent retention and deletion schedules. Vendors receiving inquiry or financial data should be contractually required to delete data upon Zillow's instruction or within defined timeframes following relationship termination. 5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Compliance teams should develop a data retention schedule specifying retention periods or criteria for each major data category and update the privacy policy accordingly to meet CPRA's disclosure requirements. Deletion request workflows should be tested to confirm that data is purged within statutory timeframes across all storage systems and vendor repositories.
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Without specific retention periods, users cannot know how long their home search history, financial data, or contact information will be held, and broader retention windows increase the risk of data exposure in security incidents.
Zillow does not specify concrete retention periods for different data categories, meaning your personal information including financial data and home search history may be retained indefinitely until you request deletion or Zillow determines retention is no longer necessary.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 7 platforms. See the full comparison.
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