Porchlight for Communities
Privacy Policy
Last updated June 16, 2026. This policy explains, in plain language, how Porchlight (a product of Levelbrook Consulting) handles the audio recordings, personal stories, and account information entrusted to it. It is provided as standard policy copy; the binding terms for a given community are set out in our written agreement with that community.
Who this policy is for
Porchlight is sold to assisted-living and senior-care communities (“communities”) and used by three groups of people: residents who record their life stories, community staff (activity directors and coordinators) who use the dashboard, and family members who listen and reply. This policy describes how each group's information is handled.
What we collect
- Resident content. Audio recordings of life-story answers, transcriptions of those recordings, and AI-generated summaries, highlights, and topic tags.
- Resident profile facts. Basic facts used to make the interview gentle and relevant (for example, hometown, or whether the resident was married or served in the military), provided by the community.
- Family content. Voice messages recorded by family members for a resident, and the contact details (name, email, phone, relationship) used to connect and notify them.
- Staff account data. The name, email, and password (stored only as a salted hash) of community staff who sign in.
- Operational data. Notification logs and basic technical information needed to deliver and secure the service.
Who owns the stories
The life stories belong to the residents and the families they come from. The community and its authorized staff act as stewards of that content within Porchlight. We do not sell resident or family data, and we do not use resident recordings to advertise to anyone.
Who can access content
- Coordinators at a resident's community can see that resident's stories, summaries, and highlights to support enrichment programming.
- Family members see only the residents they have been connected to, through a private, per-family access link. Family and public pages can be password protected.
- Porchlight staff access content only as needed to operate, support, and secure the service, and under confidentiality obligations.
- Access runs through private links and tokens rather than a public directory. We never make resident recordings publicly searchable.
Service providers
To deliver the product we use a small set of trusted processors: speech-to-text transcription, an AI model that selects interview questions and writes summaries, email and SMS notification providers, and our hosting and payment processor. These providers handle data only to perform their function for us, and are not permitted to use resident or family content for their own purposes.
Security
We apply reasonable, industry-standard safeguards appropriate to a service handling sensitive personal stories: encrypted transport, access controls so that staff and family see only what they are authorized to see, hashed passwords for staff accounts, and token-gated (and optionally password-protected) family pages. No system is perfectly secure, but protecting elders' voices and families' messages is central to how we build.
Retention and what happens to a story over time
Recordings are meant to last — that is the point of the product. We retain resident content while a community's account is active, and we honor the wishes of the community and the family regarding ongoing access, export, or removal of content, including after a resident passes away. We treat requests about a late resident's stories with particular care.
Participation is voluntary
Recording is always voluntary. A resident may decline or stop at any time, and the audio toggle lets those who prefer reading skip the spoken prompts. Communities decide which residents are enrolled and which families are connected.
Children
Porchlight is intended for use by communities, their adult staff, adult residents, and the family members they connect. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.
Not a medical service
Porchlight is a life-story, enrichment, and family-connection tool. It is not a medical device and does not provide clinical, diagnostic, or therapeutic services. It is meant to work alongside the judgment of a community's care and life-enrichment staff.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the product evolves. Material changes will be communicated to the communities we serve.
Contact
Questions about privacy or a request regarding a resident's or family's content can be sent to levelbrookteam@gmail.com.