Porchlight Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 11, 2026

Porchlight is a small, private app for checking in with family. It is made by Whip Development Inc. for a few families and is not sold or advertised. This page explains what the app stores, where, and who can see it.

The short version

  • No ads, analytics, tracking or third-party SDKs. We don't sell or share your data with anyone.
  • Your check-in scores, your name, your followers' names and phone numbers, and the kind of help you ask for are end-to-end encrypted. They are locked on your phone, and only you and the people you invite can unlock them. Our server and Apple can't read them.
  • To deliver alerts on time, our server does see when things happen (for example, that a check-in arrived at 9:05), but not what they say.
  • You can delete everything at any time from the app.

What Porchlight stores, and where

On your phone

  • Your settings, check-in times, recent check-ins and help requests, and the names and phone numbers of the people you share with.
  • Your safety plan. It never leaves your phone (it travels only inside your own device backup).
  • Your private keys and the key that encrypts your content. These are kept in your phone's keychain and travel only inside your own encrypted or iCloud backup.

On our relay server (run by us on Cloudflare), so that alerts reach your family even when your phone is off or out of signal:

  • Encrypted, unreadable to us: check-in scores, your name, each follower's name and phone number, and the type of each help request.
  • Readable by us, because the server needs it to work:
    • when each check-in, skip or help request happened, and whether it was sent, arrived and was seen;
    • your check-in schedule, time zone and the delay before family are alerted about a missed check-in;
    • random IDs for you and each follower (no names, emails or phone numbers), and a scrambled copy (hash) of each secret access token;
    • for each of your devices: its push-notification token, its type (for example "iPhone"), whether notifications are allowed, and when it last connected.
  • We don't collect your email address, location, contacts, or any account login. Porchlight has no accounts or passwords.

Apple Push Notification service delivers alerts to your devices. Alert text is generic ("Porchlight: new check-in"); the app on the receiving phone unlocks and shows the details. Apple's handling of push notifications is covered by Apple's privacy policy.

Cloudflare hosts our relay. Like any web host, it handles basic connection information (such as IP addresses) to deliver requests. Our relay doesn't log request contents, tokens or push tokens.

Who can see your information

  • People you invite. When you share Porchlight with someone, they can see your check-ins and help requests, and your name. You can see who follows you at any time, and remove anyone. Followers never see each other.
  • Us. Only the timing and technical data listed above, and only to run and fix the service. We can't read your encrypted content.
  • No one else. We don't share data with anyone, except if required by law, and even then we can only hand over what we can read (timing and technical data, never your encrypted content).

How long we keep it

  • Check-ins: for as long as your Porchlight account exists, so you can see your long-term trend.
  • Help requests and their delivery status: 7 days.
  • Invites: until used, cancelled, or 7 days.
  • When you remove a follower, or they stop following: their record and device tokens are deleted at once. A note that they were removed (a random ID and a date) is kept for 30 days so their app can say "no longer sharing".
  • When you delete your Porchlight: everything on the relay is erased (your check-ins, help requests, followers and devices). We keep only a note that the account was deleted (its random ID and the date), so an old copy of the app is told it was removed instead of quietly setting up again.

Your choices

  • See who follows you and remove anyone, from the app.
  • Stop following someone at any time.
  • Delete everything from the app's settings. To delete the copy on your phone too, delete the app (and, if you want, its data from your backups).
  • Turn notifications off in iOS Settings at any time.

Important: Porchlight is not an emergency service

Porchlight helps family stay in touch. It is not a medical or crisis service, and alerts can be delayed or fail, for example if a phone is off or has no signal. If you or someone else is in danger, call your local emergency number. In the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) at any time.

Children

Porchlight is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change affects what is stored, we'll say so in the app's update notes.

Contact

Questions or requests: info@whipdev.com.