Front Porch Privacy Policy

What stays on your iPhone

The ZIP code and address you enter, causes you follow, letter drafts, notes, reminders and camera sightings are saved in the app on your iPhone. Recordings are saved in the app’s own protected folder. Settings › Erase all Front Porch data removes all of it, including your saved key, cached lookups, reminders and recordings. Deleting the app also removes it.

Lookups and where they go

When you use a feature that needs public data, Front Porch contacts that source directly from your iPhone:

• Your districts: the address you type, or your location if you tap Use My Current Location, goes to the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder.
• Members of Congress: the public congress-legislators list is downloaded whole; nothing about you is sent.
• State legislators (optional): your location and your own OpenStates key go to OpenStates.
• Public meetings: your city or county’s name goes to its Legistar system.
• Protests and actions: your ZIP code goes to Mobilize to find nearby events.
• The map: the area you are viewing goes to OpenStreetMap’s Overpass service and the Census Bureau’s TIGERweb service, and Apple Maps draws the map. Results are kept on your iPhone for a day.
• Barcode scan: the barcode number goes to Open Food Facts. The boycott list is built into the app, so nothing about your scan goes anywhere else.

These requests use a private connection with no cookies or saved web cache. Each service sees an ordinary request from your iPhone, including its internet address, and applies its own privacy policy.

What the App Store privacy label shows

Front Porch lists four kinds of information that leave your phone during a lookup. None is linked to you or used for tracking. Each is used only to answer your request, and none reaches us.

• Precise Location: when you tap Use My Current Location, your coordinates go to the Census Bureau geocoder, and to OpenStates if you added your key. The area you view on the map goes to OpenStreetMap’s Overpass service and the Census Bureau’s TIGERweb service.
• Coarse Location: your ZIP code goes to Mobilize. Your city or county’s name goes to its Legistar system.
• Physical Address: the street address you type goes to the Census Bureau geocoder.
• Search History: a barcode you scan goes to Open Food Facts. Searches of your city’s legislative record go to its Legistar system.

Your sightings, drafts, notes, saved places and recordings stay on your iPhone.

Location

Front Porch uses your location only when you tap Use My Current Location, once, to look up your districts. It is never tracked or kept in the background. You can also type a ZIP code or address instead.

Camera, microphone and recordings

The camera is used only when you record video or scan a barcode, and the microphone only when you record. Recordings stay in the app until you choose Save Video (which adds that one video to your photo library) or share it. Front Porch never uploads a recording. The emergency text opens Messages with a short note for you to send; it does not include your location.

Your OpenStates key

If you add your own free OpenStates key, it is kept in your iPhone’s Keychain on this device only, and is sent only to OpenStates with your lookups.

Writing help

Optional writing help uses your device’s writing tools on supported iPhones. Your draft is not sent to us or to any server. Suggestions never change your position, and you accept or reject each one.

Reminders

Meeting and campaign reminders are local notifications scheduled on your iPhone. They only remind you; they send nothing.

Children

Front Porch is designed for teens and adults. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Other services’ policies

U.S. Census Bureau · OpenStreetMap Foundation · Apple