Porchlight
DRAFT. This is a starting draft, not legal advice. An attorney must review it before Porchlight launches with real users or real money.

Privacy Policy

Draft version 2026-10-b

This policy explains what [Company legal name], doing business as Porchlight ("we"), collects when you use porchlightgigs.com (the "Service"), how we use and share it, and your choices. It's part of our Terms of Service.

Children under 13

Porchlight is not for children under 13. If someone enters a birth date under 13 at signup, we don't create an account and we delete their sign-in. If we learn we collected information from a child under 13, we delete it. Contact support@porchlightgigs.com if you believe this happened.

What we collect

  • Everyone: name, email, date of birth, town, what you write in your profile, and how you sign in (email and password, or Google).
  • Teens: skills, experience, interests, and a parent or guardian's email.
  • Posters: identity verification results from Persona (which checks a photo ID and a selfie) and background check results from Checkr. Those providers collect your ID images, selfie, and Social Security number under their own privacy policies; we receive the outcome, not the images or numbers.
  • Parents: identity verification results from Persona (which checks a photo ID and a selfie before you can approve a teen's account). Persona collects your ID images and selfie under its own privacy policy; we receive the outcome and the name and birth date read from the ID, which we use to confirm you're 18 or older and that the name matches your account. We keep the name from the ID only if it doesn't match, so our safety team can review it. Parents don't go through a background check. We also keep payout account details, collected and stored by Stripe.
  • Jobs and activity: jobs (including the private street address), applications, messages, reviews, reports, payments, and consent records (for example, the background-check authorization and parental approval).
  • Technical data: IP address, browser and device type, and sign-in times, collected by our hosting and security providers. We use only the browser storage needed to keep you signed in; we don't use advertising cookies or trackers.

What others can see

  • Teen profiles show first name, last initial, age, town, skills, bio, and reviews, and only to verified adults while the Teen is "Looking for work."
  • We never show a Teen's birth date, last name, email, school, or address to other users.
  • A job's street address is shown only to the Poster, the hired Teen, and that Teen's Parent. Maps show only an approximate town area.
  • A Teen's Parent can read all of the Teen's messages.
  • Porchlight's safety team can view accounts, jobs, and messages to review reports, investigate safety concerns, and enforce our Terms. Every admin action is logged.

How we use it

To run the Service; verify adults; keep Teens safe (including automatic screening of messages and job posts); process payments; send service emails (such as parent approvals, job updates, and important announcements about the Service); respond to reports and support requests; prevent fraud and abuse; and meet legal obligations. We don't sell or rent personal information, we don't share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we don't use Teens' information for advertising.

Who we share it with

  • Service providers that run parts of the Service for us under contract: Google Firebase (hosting, sign-in, and database), Persona (identity verification), Checkr (background checks), Stripe (payments and payouts), Resend (email), and our map tile provider (which sees your IP address when it loads map images).
  • Other users, only as described in "What others can see."
  • Law enforcement and child-safety organizations, such as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, when required by law or when we believe in good faith that someone may be at risk.
  • A successor if Porchlight is involved in a merger, sale, or reorganization, under this policy's protections.

How long we keep it

We keep account information while your account is open. When an account is deleted, we delete the sign-in and profile, but we keep messages, reports, admin records, payment records, and consent records for [N] years (or longer if the law requires, or if they relate to an open safety matter or legal claim), because they may be needed to protect Teens, investigate reports, or meet tax and legal obligations. [Attorney: confirm retention periods.]

Your choices and rights

  • You can view and edit your profile in the Service, and turn "Looking for work" off at any time.
  • You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to delete your account by emailing support@porchlightgigs.com. We'll verify your identity before acting.
  • A Parent can review their Teen's information, revoke approval, and ask us to delete the Teen's account at any time.
  • Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under state privacy laws; we'll honor them as required.

Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, including encryption in transit, access rules that limit who can read each record, and third-party providers that specialize in sensitive data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security. To the extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for unauthorized access caused by events beyond our reasonable control or by the failure of a third party's systems. If a breach of your personal information occurs, we'll notify you and the authorities as required by law, including Rhode Island's Identity Theft Protection Act. Keep your password private and tell us right away at support@porchlightgigs.com if you think your account was misused.

Third-party sites and services

Verification, background checks, payments, and sign-in with Google happen on our providers' services, under their own terms and privacy policies. We're not responsible for their practices.

Where data is stored

The Service is run in the United States and is intended for users in the United States. Your information is stored and processed in the U.S.

Changes

We may update this policy. If a change is material, we'll notify you by email or in the Service before it takes effect. The version date at the top shows when it last changed.

Contact

[Company legal name], [mailing address], support@porchlightgigs.com