Privacy, Terms & Consent

Privacy Policy

We collect only what we need to run the porch: the email you sign up with, the content you choose to share, and basic account settings. Your private journal entries are yours — they are not displayed to other users or used for any purpose beyond your own writing.

Anonymous story submissions are stored separately from your account. If you submit while logged in, your account identity is not attached to the public story unless you explicitly choose to publish under your name.

We do not sell your data. We use a secure payment processor (Stripe) for memberships and purchases; we never see or store your card details.

Terms of Service

By using The Front Porch you agree to share honestly, follow the Community Guidelines, and respect the privacy of others. You retain ownership of what you write; you grant the permissions you select at the time of submission (see Consent below).

We may moderate, remove, or decline content that violates these terms. Membership fees support the community and the writing; paid memberships renew until canceled, and lifetime founding access covers current and future premium features subject to reasonable changes to the service.

Story Submission Terms

Submitting a story does not automatically grant any use. You choose, checkbox by checkbox, exactly what you allow: publishing anonymously in the app, on the website, sharing excerpts on social media, inclusion in digital collections, inclusion in printed compilations, and reasonable editing for clarity.

No submitted story is published without an editor's review and your explicit permission. You may request that a published story be removed by contacting us.

Consent & Content Permission Information

Consent is not one big switch — it's a set of separate choices. When you submit, we record: the date and time you consented, the specific permissions you selected, your submission ID, and the version of the consent language shown to you.

You can withdraw a permission at any time by contacting us, and we'll do our best to honor it going forward (note that printed compilations already distributed cannot be recalled).

The porch distinguishes between private journal content (never shared, never used) and user-submitted content you've explicitly permitted for publication. Anonymous submission is never treated as blanket permission.

Contact & Support

Questions about your data, a submission, or your membership? Reach us through the Contact page. We read everything.