Privacy and rules · Build the USA

In short: we read the public comments on our posts, take your @, the time and the place you wrote, and put a symbolic house with your @ on the map. We never ask for your address. You can hide your @ or remove your house at any time.

The rules of the game

One free house per account. Your first comment with a city or town and state creates the house. Repeating the comment doesn't add houses, and a later comment doesn't move your house by itself.

Founder: the first account with a valid comment from each place, by the comment's timestamp; ties go to the older comment ID. If that comment is later removed, the title passes to the next house in that place.

A "place" is an official U.S. Census Bureau place (city, town, village, borough or census-designated place) or, when there is none, a county subdivision (town/township) or a USGS community. Neighborhoods count toward their city: "Brooklyn, NY" is a house in New York City, with Brooklyn noted on it.

If the place is ambiguous ("Springfield", "Portland", "Kansas City" without a state), the comment goes to manual review. We never guess.

Your house sits on a symbolic lot inside your town's model, not at your home. Once placed, it doesn't move.

Alaska and Hawaii have their own panels, at their real places. Puerto Rico and the other territories are not on the map yet.

The map updates in batches, not live. The time of the last update is at the bottom of the map. Rankings and "last 24 hours" use exactly that update's time window.

Following the account is an invitation to watch the next episodes; the map does not check who follows.

Houses and Founders are always free. Sponsored local businesses are a separate, clearly labeled layer and never change houses, Founders or rankings.

What data we use

From the comment: username (@), account ID when available, text, time and comment ID. From the profile: only the total follower count.

The site shows only your @, your place and your symbolic house. Comment text is not published on the site.

This site uses Google Analytics to count visits in aggregate (country, approximate city, where you came from, which pages are used). We don't send your @ or what you type in the search box. Google may use cookies; you can block them in your browser or with the opt-out add-on.

We don't sell or share data.

Hide your @, remove your house or fix your place

Send a direct message to @buildtheusa3d from the account that commented. Options:

Hide my @: the house stays and shows as "reserved house". If you were the Founder, the title stays without your name.

Remove my house: it disappears at the next update. If you were the Founder, the title passes to the next account in that place.

Fix my place: your house moves; for the Founder title, the time of the correction counts.

Sources and credits

U.S. Census Bureau: 2025 Gazetteer files (places and county subdivisions), 2025 cartographic boundary files (states and places), 2020 Census population (POP100).

U.S. Geological Survey: Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), populated places.

Neighboring countries (background only): Natural Earth (public domain). Terrain of the model (visual only): Terrain Tiles — Mapzen / AWS Open Data (SRTM, GMTED2010, ETOPO1 and others).

Typeface: Archivo (SIL Open Font License). 3D engine: three.js (MIT).