Effective date: September 20, 2026
PorchLight is a product of 605media LLC ("PorchLight," "we," "us"). This policy explains what we collect and how we use it when homeowners, board members, and community managers use PorchLight and its websites.
Information we collect
- Account & enrollment information — name, property address, community/HOA name, email address, and mobile phone number, provided by you or by your HOA when enrolling your property.
- SMS opt-in information — your mobile number, the date and time you consented, the consent language shown to you, and your confirmation reply.
- Board and community representative contact details — the email address and, if they choose to receive alerts by text, the mobile number of a board member or manager using PorchLight on behalf of a community. A board member's mobile is subject to the same opt-in and opt-out process as a homeowner's: we text it only after it has replied to confirm, and STOP ends it.
- Inspection records — inspection results, notes, and photographs of the exterior of properties, observed from the public street by authorized HOA representatives.
- Homeowner responses — if you respond to a notice (for example by scanning the QR code printed on it), the photographs, messages, and any request for additional time or statement of dispute that you choose to send. You decide what to submit; nothing is collected from your device automatically, and you do not need a PorchLight account to respond.
- Usage information — basic technical data such as device, browser, and IP address, used to operate and secure the service.
How we use information
- To operate PorchLight for your community, including inspections, records, and notifications.
- To pass what you submit in response to a notice to your homeowners association for review, and to show you the board's decision.
- To send text messages you have opted in to receive, such as inspection and property notices.
- To maintain records of consent as required by law and carrier rules.
- To alert board members about activity in their community that needs their attention, such as a homeowner responding to a notice, using only the channels each of them has turned on.
- To secure, support, and improve the service.
SMS messaging
If you opt in, we send text messages through Twilio on behalf of your homeowners association. Message frequency varies, and message & data rates may apply. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP, or get help by replying HELP or emailing hello@605media.net. Opting out of texts does not affect your HOA membership. See our Terms & Conditions for full program terms.
How information is shared
We share information only as needed to run the service: with your homeowners association and its authorized representatives; with service providers who process data on our behalf under confidentiality obligations (for example, hosting, database, and SMS delivery); and when required by law. We do not sell your personal information.
Data retention
While your community is an active PorchLight customer, we retain its account, inspection, notice, and homeowner-response records so the board keeps a continuous history. Anything you submit in response to a notice is retained alongside the notice it answers.
If your community's subscription ends, its records are not deleted right away. For 30 days we actively prompt the board to download a complete copy of everything we hold for them. The records themselves are retained for 365 days from the end of the subscription, and the ability to export them stays available for that entire period — we will not hold a community's records while refusing to hand them back. After that window, the community's records become eligible for permanent deletion.
Consent and opt-out records for text messaging are kept separately from the above and are retained for at least five years, as required by law and carrier rules. They reflect the current state of your consent: a community can export a copy of its own sign-up records, but restoring an old backup never rewrites them, so a withdrawn consent stays withdrawn.
Security logs
When someone signs in to a PorchLight account — a board member, an inspector, or our own staff — we record the account, the time, the IP address the sign-in came from, and the browser or app used. We do this for one reason: so that if a community's records are ever accessed by someone who should not have them, we can establish who, when, and from where. It is not used for advertising, analytics, or tracking anyone's activity in the product.
These sign-in records are kept for 90 days and then automatically deleted. They are never visible to other communities, and they are not part of the data a community exports — a board can see who is on its own roster and when they were last active, but not the addresses anyone connected from.
This applies only to people who hold an account. If you are a homeowner responding to a notice, you do not sign in at all: the link in a notice opens a page that needs no account, and no sign-in record is created for you.
Your choices
- Opt out of texts anytime by replying STOP.
- Request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information by contacting us.
- Ask your homeowners association, or us, for a copy of what you submitted in response to a notice.
Contact us
605media LLC
Frederick County, Maryland, USA
hello@605media.net