Source: 🛜 Follow Up Boss Terms of Service
Source: 📥 Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Captured March 22, 2026
Note: 📒 Screenshots 💁🏻♀️ in this chapter were captured on March 22, 2026, except as otherwise noted.
In the Follow Up Boss Terms of Service, Zillow introduces its “AI/ML Activities.” AI and ML are acronyms for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Why is Zillow using AI?
Tech 101 — Artificial Intelligence or AI
Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA Corporation, is among the most authoritative voices on AI. He personally delivered the world’s first purpose-built AI supercomputer, the DGX-1, to the OpenAI team in August 2016.
In 2026, NVIDIA designs and builds AI Factories, the integrated hardware and software that power large-scale AI systems.
What Is AI?
In its most fundamental form, AI is the capability of a computer program or a machine to think and learn and take actions without being explicitly encoded with commands. AI can be thought of as the development of computer systems that can perform tasks autonomously, ingesting and analyzing enormous volumes of data, then recognizing patterns in that data. The large and growing AI field of study is always oriented around developing systems that perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence to complete—only at speeds beyond any individual’s or group’s capabilities. For this reason, AI is broadly seen as both disruptive and highly transformational.
Source: 🛜 NVIDIA | Artificial Intelligence — What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
What Is Machine Learning And How Does It Work?
In simplest terms, machine learning trains a machine to learn without being explicitly programmed how to do so. As a subset of AI, machine learning in its most elemental form uses algorithms to parse data, learn from it, and then make predictions or determinations about something in the real world.
Source: 🛜 NVIDIA | Machine Learning — What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
Zillow Defines its Customer
FUB Terms of Service
Follow Up Boss (“FUB” or “Follow Up Boss” is a brand of Zillow, Inc. (“Zillow,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) These Follow Up Boss Terms of Service, together with our Acceptable Use Policy, Privacy Policy, Good Neighbor Policy, and any Order, collectively constitute a binding agreement (collectively, the “Terms”) between Zillow and you or the legal entity you represent (“Customer,” “you” or “your”), concerning the Services (defined below).
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Customer Defined
Jean Scott Homes is defined as Zillow’s Customer. It feels like Zillow’s victim.
Everything But the Kitchen Sink
1. Definitions
“AI/ML Activities” means designing, developing, pre-training, training, fine-tuning, evaluating, validating, testing, red-teaming, benchmarking, deploying, operating, monitoring, using for inference, optimizing, and otherwise improving machine-learning, statistical, and AI systems (including predictive, recommendation, ranking, classification, and generative systems) and related components (e.g., embeddings, feature vectors, retrieval indices, prompts, safety filters).
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Section 1 Definition AI ML Activities
This definition is all-encompassing. Only the kitchen sink is missing.
Cross-Reference II
1. Definitions
“Customer Data” has the meaning provided in the FUB Addendum to the Zillow Privacy Notice.
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Customer Data Defined
No document carries the title “FUB Addendum to the Zillow Privacy Notice.” The hyperlink takes me to the “Follow Up Boss Privacy Notice Addendum”:
Follow Up Boss Privacy Notice Addendum
2. Definitions
“Customer Data” means any data or information about a Customer or Authorized User provided, submitted, posted, or transmitted by or on behalf of a Customer or its Authorized Users in connection with the Services, or collected through the Services from a Customer or Authorized User, as well as Personal Information of Visitors.
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Privacy Notice Addendum — 2. Customer Data Defined — Captured March 30, 2026
The Runaround
The Follow Up Boss Privacy Notice Addendum (covered in Chapter 3.1) references this Follow Up Boss Terms of Service for the definition of “Customer.”
The Follow Up Boss Terms of Service references the “FUB Addendum to the Zillow Privacy Notice” for the definition of “Customer Data.” That definition is found in the Follow Up Boss Privacy Notice Addendum.
Back-and-forth cross-references and mismatched titles run throughout Zillow’s policies and terms.
Zillow gives the consumer an incessant, mind-numbing runaround. She is exhausted, gives up, and never knows about Zillow’s covert incursion into her privacy.
The Compliance Problem
4.1 Compliance with Applicable Laws.
You are solely responsible for: (a) collecting and maintaining your Contact List and other Customer Data in accordance with Applicable Laws; (b) providing notice and obtaining consent from your End Customers as required under Applicable Laws for use of the Services in accordance with these Terms, including any Customer Communications through the Services; and (c) ensuring that all Customer Marketing Content and the content of any Customer Communications comply with Applicable Laws and the Terms.
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Section 4.1 Compliance with Applicable Laws — Captured Nov. 8, 2026
I cannot obtain our customers’ consent for it all. I can provide notice to as many as possible.
The Hotel California Problem
6.2 Retention of Customer Data.
After your account is terminated or you otherwise stop using the Services, Zillow may retain Customer Data as long as required to comply with Applicable Laws and our Terms. Provided such termination was not due to your breach of the Terms, Customer may contact Zillow at support@followupboss.com within thirty (30) days following termination and Zillow will provide reasonable assistance in obtaining a copy of your Contact List from Zillow systems. Notwithstanding anything in the Terms, Zillow has no obligation to store or backup your Customer Data following termination of your account, and you are solely responsible for backing up your Customer Data. Zillow is not required to delete data that has been derived from Customer Data if such data is de-identified or anonymized such that it cannot reasonably identify a specific individual.
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Section 6.2 Retention of Customer Data
Zillow keeps calls, texts, emails, notes, real estate transaction documents, and business records — everything of value. The real estate professional gets a contact list.
Zillow makes the professional solely responsible for backing up her data. Zillow makes it impossible. Chapter 6 , Chapter 7 , and Chapter 8 make that self-evident.
A Follow Up Boss customer can check out anytime she wants. Her intellectual property may never leave.
The Mission Impossible Problem
6.3 Prohibited Data.
You agree that Customer Data will not contain any of the following categories of data: (a) government issued identifiers (e.g. social security or driver’s license numbers); (b) other than the contents of communications, sensitive personal information as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) or other Applicable Laws, such as other state privacy laws; (c) personal information of children as defined under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) or similar Applicable Laws related to children’s privacy and data; (d) nonpublic personal information subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or similar Applicable Laws related to financial privacy and data; or (e) personal health information as defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and we will have no liability under the Terms for any of the foregoing types of data.
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Section 6.3 Prohibited Data
Rendering the Platform Useless
The Prohibited Data provision renders Follow Up Boss impossible for Jean Scott Homes to use effectively.
Prohibited Data Examples
Data that may not be contained in Customer Data includes:
I met [Name] at the open house today at [address]. She is getting divorced and needs to find a new home close enough to her current home to co-parent their children. She has a preapproval letter from [bank name] for $400,000 (attached here), 10% down payment, maximum property tax and HOA dues expense is $500 per month.
I met [Husband] and [Wife] at their home today for a listing appointment. [Husband] lost his job and got an offer to work for [company name in city]. They need to be in their new home by [date]. List price agreed to is $450,000 and they will net $175,000 after expenses. [Wife] confided that moving to [city] is difficult for her and their two girls, 13 and 15.
[Name] met me at the office today for a buyer consultation. Her husband died recently in an accident, and she cannot continue living in the home. Her 10-year-old son is on the autism spectrum. She needs to buy a home within about 10–15 minutes of Hometown Middle School, because it has a great program for him. Fortunately, there is life insurance. She is paying cash and we will sell the current home after they have moved into their new one.
The Real Estate Team OS — Follow Up Boss
The best real estate businesses start with a solid foundation
See why 41 of the top 50 teams in the US use Follow Up Boss to win more deals, impress clients and move faster.
Source: The Real Estate Team OS — Follow Up Boss — Undated, Captured Nov. 20, 2025 by Archive.org
Zillow advertises that 41 of the top 50 real estate teams use Follow Up Boss, then prohibits entering the types of data that real estate teams keep.
The Taking of Jean Scott Homes’ IP
6.4 License.
Customer grants Zillow a non-exclusive, non-transferable (except pursuant to an assignment as set forth in Section 19), worldwide, royalty-free license to host, copy, process, transmit, and otherwise use Customer Data to (a) provide the Services; (b) improve and develop the Services; (c) enforce our rights under these Terms; (d) as permitted with your consent; and (e) as otherwise set forth in these Terms, Zillow’s Privacy Notice, and the FUB Addendum to the Zillow Privacy Notice. For clarity, the foregoing license includes any logos, trademarks, trade names and other similar identifying material that you provide through the Services.
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Section 6.4 License
Zillow grants itself “a non-exclusive, non-transferable... worldwide, royalty-free license” to Jean Scott Homes’ IP, including its logos and trademarks, without its consent or consideration.
Jean Scott Homes paid $4,990 for a year of continued use of the Follow Up Boss Service. It received no new consideration in exchange for said license.
Subsection (e) means I have to reference two other documents.
“For clarity” is used exactly once in the document’s 7,068 words.
For clarity, Jean Scott Homes unequivocally retains ownership of its IP in its entirety, in equity and law, and reserves all rights.
The Play to Intercept Customer Communications
Two Datasets on Paper
The Follow Up Boss Privacy Notice Addendum (sourced in Chapter 3.1) defines two datasets:
“Customer Data” means any data or information about a Customer...
“End Customer Data” means personal information about your End Customers... and the content of your communications (e.g., texts, phone calls, emails) with End Customers.
One Dataset in Reality
Communications
If “End Customer Data” includes the content of communications, then “Customer Data” must include the same content of communications. Communication, by its very nature, is between two or more people at the same time.
The Contact List
Section 2 of the Follow Up Boss Privacy Notice Addendum (sourced in Chapter 3.1) reads,
“End Customer Data” means personal information about your End Customers... such as your Contact List...
Section 4.1 of the Follow Up Boss Terms of Service (sourced above ) reads,
You are solely responsible for: (a) collecting and maintaining your Contact List and other Customer Data...
The Contact List is a subset of both “End Customer Data” and “Customer Data” at the same time. “End Customer Data” and “Customer Data” must be the same dataset.
Sensitive Personal Information
Section 6.3(b) of the Follow Up Boss Terms of Service (sourced above ) prohibits, with an exception, “sensitive personal information” from “Customer Data.”
Why would a professional upload her own sensitive personal information into her own CRM? Obviously, she would not. The sensitive personal information being described must refer to her customers — “End Customer Data.”
The Contents of Communications Exception
Section 6.3(b) of the Follow Up Boss Terms of Service (sourced above ) makes an exception to the sensitive personal information prohibited from “Customer Data”:
(b) other than the contents of communications
The professional cannot control what information a consumer shares with her in a phone call, text message, or email.
That exception allows phone calls, text messages, and emails containing sensitive personal information to remain inside “Customer Data” without violating Section 6.3.
The Interception
Section 6.4 of the Follow Up Boss Terms of Service (sourced above ) reads,
6.4 License.
Customer grants Zillow a non-exclusive, non-transferable... worldwide, royalty-free license to host, copy, process, transmit, and otherwise use Customer Data...
Because “Customer Data” and “End Customer Data” are the same dataset, that license includes the contents of customer communications.
The Plaintext Recap
- “End Customer Data” includes “the content of your communications.”
- “End Customer Data” and “Customer Data” are the same dataset.
- “Customer Data” includes “the content of your communications.”
- Sensitive personal information is permitted in “the contents of communications.”
- The professional grants Zillow a worldwide, royalty-free license to “otherwise use Customer Data.”
The All-Party Consent Problem
About 11 states primarily have all-party consent requirements for recording. These states are California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan (at least for recordings made by a third party who is not involved in the conversation), Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington. These laws require consent of all parties involved in a conversation before it can be recorded. These laws are sometimes called “two-party” consent laws, but technically they require all parties’ consent.
Source: 🛜 Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press | Introduction to the Reporter’s Recording Guide
In Florida, Zillow may not intercept a phone call, text message, or email without each party’s prior consent.
Think FedEx for electronic communications.
I cover this topic in Chapter 4 .
The Purported Consumer Consent
Consumers’ consent is purportedly twofold:
- An effectively encrypted provision buried a mile deep into the 8,668-word “Zillow Group Website Privacy Notice.” I cover this topic in Chapter 3.4 .
- A generic recorded disclosure played upon connection of a Follow Up Boss phone call.
The Disclosure — Some Calls Recorded
I had set up Jean Scott Homes’ call recording disclosure. Jean recorded “Some calls recorded” and I uploaded the mp3.
Shortly after the Follow Up Boss acquisition closed in late 2023, the recording disclosure was changed to a generic announcement that the call is being recorded, and the ability to upload a custom mp3 removed.
Some customers were unhappy with the change and the number of hang-ups on outbound calls spiked. Jean Scott Homes sounded like a telemarketing call center.
I made a request to Follow Up Boss support to restore the ability to customize the recording or make it more professional. My request was rejected out of hand.
By November 2025, the reason was clear. The generic call recording disclosure fits into the entire operation and gives Zillow cover.
Full Stop — Recorded By Whom?
A consumer calling Jean Scott Homes would accurately conclude that the call recording would be in the possession of Jean Scott Homes. That is who she called, after all.
No caller would imagine that Jean Scott Homes’ call recordings would land in the possession of Zillow. And yet, they do.
The call recording disclosure should state, “This call is being recorded by Zillow to use for AI/ML, in connection with the sale of assets, and otherwise.”
The Time Machine Problem
6.5 Deidentified or Aggregated Data.
You agree that both before and after the term of the Terms, Zillow may collect, analyze, use, and retain Customer Data you submit or make available to the Services that does not directly or indirectly identify you, your End Customers, or any natural person, for the purpose of operating, analyzing, improving or marketing the Services, developing new products or services, including to perform AI/ML Activities, or for other purposes.
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Section 6.5 Deidentified Data
Section 6.5 is in force before the Terms of Service becomes effective. The Terms do not define how far before.
Zillow fabricates a time machine clause to claim retroactive permission to collect, analyze, use, and retain Jean Scott Homes’ IP prior to the effective date, without its knowledge, consent, or consideration.
Unfortunately, Jean Scott Homes does not have its own time machine.
Indemnification I
9.1 Indemnification.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Zillow, our affiliates, and our respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from any and all claims and demands made by any third party due to or arising out of: (a) your access to or use of the Services; (b) your breach of these Terms; (c) your violation of any law or the rights of a third party; (d) any dispute or issue between you and any third party; (e) any Customer Communications or Customer Marketing Content you upload to, send or otherwise make available through, the Services; ...
Source: 💁🏻♀️ Follow Up Boss Terms of Service — Section 9.1 Indemnification
Zillow writes that the professional agrees to indemnify Zillow against claims arising from “any Customer Communications or Customer Marketing Content you upload to, send or otherwise make available through, the Services.”
A professional makes Customer Communications available through the Services by using her Follow Up Boss-connected phone number or email address.
Zillow collects the contents of phone calls, text messages, and emails through dubious, covert consent. In the event a third-party legal liability arises from a professional’s use of the communication features of Follow Up Boss, Zillow offloads that liability to the professional. She is simply using the service she pays for as advertised.
Article text and tables licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source documents belong to their owners.
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