porchlight

Terms of service

Last updated October 13, 2026

Draft. This page still has details to fill in and hasn't been reviewed by a lawyer. It isn't in force yet.

These terms are an agreement between you and Porchlight Local Search ("we", "us") about your use of porchlightscore.com and the reports and tools on it (the "Service"). By using the Service you accept them. If you don't accept them, don't use the Service.

Who can use it

You must be at least 18. If you use the Service for a business, you're confirming you may act for that business. You may request a report about a business you don't own, because it's built from public information, but doing so doesn't make you that business's representative and doesn't give you any rights over its profile.

What the Service does

We gather information that's already public: Google Business Profile data, map rankings, public reviews, the business's website, published census statistics, and answers AI assistants give to buying questions, and turn it into a report with suggested actions.

  • Each business location gets one free report. We may change, limit or withdraw the free offering at any time.
  • Free tools that don't need an email are provided the same way, as-is.
  • We may change what a report contains as data sources change.

What it doesn't do

Rankings and results are not guaranteed. Search results differ by person, device, exact location and time, and they change constantly. Our map grid samples specific points at one moment, our review and profile data comes from third-party vendors that may be incomplete or out of date, and our AI-answer checks are sample questions asked on your behalf, not a measurement of what every person sees. Treat the report as informed analysis, not a promise about traffic, calls, rankings or revenue. Acting on its suggestions is your decision.

We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google, Microsoft, Apple, OpenAI, Anthropic or any other company named in a report. Their names and trademarks belong to them.

Using the Service responsibly

You agree not to:

  • use automated means to request reports, or work around our rate limits, verification or one-report-per-location rule;
  • use another person's email address, or an address you don't control;
  • resell, white-label or redistribute reports as your own without a written agreement with us;
  • interfere with the Service, or try to access parts of it that aren't yours;
  • use the review link or QR code we generate in ways that break Google's review policies. In particular: don't offer anything in exchange for reviews, and don't ask only customers you expect to be happy ("review gating"). Doing so can get reviews removed and profiles penalized, and that's between you and Google.

Your information

When you give us an email address and a business to analyze, you allow us to use them to produce and deliver your report. Our privacy policy explains what we collect and how long we keep it.

Reports and who owns what

We own the Service, including our scoring, wording and design. You may use the report we give you for your own business purposes, including sharing it inside your company or with your agency. The underlying public data stays subject to the terms of whoever published it.

Paid plans

Paid plans are priced per location and billed in advance, monthly or yearly, through our payment provider, Stripe. Each location has its own plan, and an account with several locations gets a percentage discount on all of them. Prices, the discount and the total are shown before you pay, and sales tax may be added where it applies. A subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel it.

  • Adding a location, or moving one to a higher plan, takes effect straight away. We charge the card on file a prorated amount for the rest of the current billing period, and the change applies once that payment goes through. If the change moves your account into a bigger discount, the new discount applies to the added location straight away and to your other locations from your next renewal.
  • Moving a location to a lower plan, or removing one, takes effect at your next renewal. Until then the location keeps its current plan, and there's no credit or refund for the rest of the period. You can undo the change before it takes effect. If it moves your account into a smaller discount, that also applies from your next renewal.
  • Cancelling: you can cancel at any time from your account page. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you've paid for and doesn't renew.
  • If a renewal payment fails, Stripe retries it over the following days. Your plan stays active while it does, and may end if the payment still doesn't go through.
  • Fees already paid aren't refundable except where the law requires it.

If anything shown to you at checkout, or before you confirm a change, differs from this page, what you were shown applies.

No warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or accurate.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, business or goodwill, arising from your use of the Service. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or US$100. Some states don't allow certain exclusions, so parts of this may not apply to you.

Indemnity

You agree to cover our reasonable losses and legal costs if they arise from your misuse of the Service, your breach of these terms, or your violation of someone else's rights or of Google's policies.

Ending access

You can stop using the Service at any time and ask us to delete your information. We may suspend or end access if these terms are being broken, or if use of the Service threatens its cost or stability. The disclaimers, liability limits and indemnity survive.

Changes

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows the last change, and continuing to use the Service after a change means you accept it. If a change is material and we have your email address, we'll tell you.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The state and federal courts located in North Carolina have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, and you and we each consent to their jurisdiction.

Contact

Questions about this page: james@porchlightscore.com (Porchlight Local Search).