Legal
Biometric Data Policy
Last updated September 22, 2026
This Biometric Data Policy explains how Kinward, Inc. ("Porchside") collects, uses, stores, and destroys biometric information in connection with the optional selfie verification feature of the Service. It supplements our Privacy Policy. We provide it to comply with biometric privacy laws that may apply, including the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (CUBI), and Washington law.
1. What We Collect and How It Is Processed
When you choose to use selfie verification, the app captures a photograph of your face (a selfie). The selfie is uploaded to our storage so that our server can process it, and the selfie and your existing profile photo are then sent to Amazon Web Services (Rekognition), which detects whether each image contains a usable face and compares the two. The comparison returns a similarity percentage. We do not create, receive, or store a facial-geometry template or scan, and we enroll no face in any searchable collection. Our service provider processes the two images to answer the comparison and handles them under its own terms; we do not ask it to retain them.
2. Why We Use It
We use biometric information for a single purpose: to check that the person taking the selfie is the person in the profile photo, which supports trust and safety in the community. We do not use it to identify you against any other database, for advertising, or for any other purpose. We ask our service provider only for the signals needed to tell whether the photo is usable, such as whether a single, uncovered face is visible, and we do not request or use estimates of age, gender, emotion, or other characteristics.
3. Consent
We collect and process your biometric information only after you choose to start verification. Before you start, the verification screen tells you that a selfie will be taken, compared with your profile photo by our service provider, and then deleted, and it links to this Policy, which tells you what is captured, why, who processes it, how long anything is kept, and how to have it destroyed. Starting verification is your written consent to the processing described here, and we record that consent, with the version of our legal documents in force when you consented and the date, before any selfie is processed. You are not required to use selfie verification, nothing in the Service is withheld from you if you do not, and you can use Porchside without it.
4. Disclosure
We do not sell, lease, trade, or otherwise profit from your biometric information. We do not disclose it to any third party except Amazon Web Services, the service provider that performs the detection and comparison on our behalf, and except where required by law or valid legal process. We do not disclose it for advertising. Your verification badge (verified or not) is visible to other members; your selfie and your similarity score are not.
5. Retention and Destruction Schedule
The selfie. Your selfie is destroyed as part of the verification, as soon as the comparison finishes, whether it succeeds or fails. A selfie that is uploaded but not processed, for example because the upload was interrupted, is deleted automatically and promptly. The verification record. We keep a verification status, the similarity percentage, and the time of verification on your profile. These are numbers and a flag, not an image, and they cannot reconstruct your face. We keep them while your account exists, so that your verification status can be displayed, and they are cleared when you delete your account. Your right to have it destroyed sooner. Email support@porchside.co and ask us to delete your verification record and we will do it and tell you when it is done. Running verification again replaces the previous record. In all cases, we destroy biometric information no later than the deadlines applicable law sets, including within three years of your last interaction with us where BIPA applies.
6. Data Security
We protect biometric information using the same or greater safeguards than we use for other confidential information, including encryption in transit and at rest.
7. Your Choices
You may decline to use selfie verification, ask us to delete your verification record, run verification again to replace it, or delete your account at any time. For questions or a request, contact support@porchside.co.
8. Contact
For questions about this Biometric Data Policy, contact us at support@porchside.co. Kinward, Inc. Austin, Texas