Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Lantern (“we,” “us,” “our”) collects, uses, shares, and protects information in connection with the Lantern websites, applications, console, voice features, and related services (the “Service”), available at lanterncare.app. It covers information about Caregivers (family members and helpers who use the Service) and Elders (the people the care is about), whose information is typically provided by their family with the Elder’s consent or their representative’s lawful authority.

1. Scope; roles

This Policy applies to information processed through the Service — today’s waitlist, sign-in, family console, and live demo, and product features as they roll out (home signals, daily calls, coordination, marketplace). Some demonstrations run on fictional personas and simulated data; this Policy governs real personal information wherever it is collected. Supplemental notices — our Consumer Health Data Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice — form part of this Policy.

2. Information we collect

Information you (or your Care Circle) provide

• Waitlist and contact data — name, email address, and anything you tell us about your family’s situation when you reach out.
• Account and sign-in data — email address, magic-link sign-in records, and passkey credentials (we store the public key and metadata; the private key never leaves your device). Roles and permissions within a Care Circle.
• Elder care records — the Elder’s profile, and what the family chooses to track: medication lists, schedules, and confirmations; vitals entries; meals; appointments; activity notes; anomalies and their resolutions; interactions and coordination notes; and service providers the family works with.
• Check-ins and visits — call and check-in records, and visit check-ins which may include precise location at the moment of check-in, only for members who opt in (family members have location privacy too).
• Communications with us — support requests, feedback, and consent records.

Information from sensors and integrations (when your family connects them)

• Home signals — events with timestamps from starter-kit sensors: fridge/door contacts, motion by room, smart-plug use (kettle/microwave), and an optional bed-occupancy mat. These are presence and activity events — sensors, not video feeds; cameras appear only in video-call features under the Elder’s control.
• Device and platform data — if you connect a smart-home account, wearable, or phone integration, the event data you authorize through that platform (for example, a watch’s fall-detection event).

Information we derive

• Wellbeing insights — baselines, trends, anomaly flags, alerts, digests, summaries, and any composite wellbeing measures. These are inferences about daily functioning and are treated as sensitive, health-related data. See the Consumer Health Data Privacy Notice.

Information collected automatically

• Device and usage data — IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, and log data, via the technologies described in the Cookie Notice.

3. Voice check-ins and the live demo

Some features involve talking — to an AI assistant, or with family. For those features:

• The public live demo: with your microphone permission, your conversation with the demo caretaker is processed in real time by our AI speech provider, transcribed, summarized by an AI model, stored with the demo session, and — if you request a report — emailed to the address you provide. The demo persona and her “data” are fictional; your side of the conversation is real data, so say only what you are comfortable sharing.
• AI check-in calls (as offered): scheduled calls with the Elder are transcribed into signals (answered/missed, self-reported sleep, meals, medications, mood) only with the consents described in our Terms — including every-party consent where state law requires it. The family sees a short digest; transcripts are retained as configured for the Care Circle.
• AI processing: we use third-party AI providers (for speech, transcription, and summarization) as service providers under contracts that do not permit them to use your content to train their models.

4. How we use information

• To provide the Service: maintaining the shared care space, computing baselines and insights, delivering alerts and digests to the authorized Care Circle, and placing scheduled calls the family sets up.
• To operate accounts, Care Circles, roles, and permissions, and to honor configuration choices.
• To respond to waitlist requests and support, and to send service communications (sign-in links, security notices, changes). Marketing only with any legally required consent, always with an opt-out.
• To maintain safety and integrity: securing the Service, preventing abuse and unauthorized monitoring, verifying consent claims, and enforcing our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.
• To improve the Service, using de-identified or aggregated data wherever feasible.
• To comply with law, respond to lawful requests, and protect rights, safety, and property — including, where permitted, disclosures to protect an Elder from suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation.

We do not use health-related data — care records, home signals, transcripts, or insights — for advertising, and we do not make fully automated decisions about anyone that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Insights inform human decisions by families; they do not replace them.

5. How information is shared

• Within the Care Circle (the product’s purpose). Information about an Elder is visible to the members of that Elder’s Care Circle according to the roles and per-module permissions the family configures. Care activity contributed by members (for example, visit check-ins or commitments) is visible to the circle as configured. The Elder can see their own information — Lantern is built for two-way transparency.
• Service providers. Vendors that host our infrastructure and database, deliver email, provide AI speech/transcription/summarization, provide telephony, and provide analytics and error monitoring — each bound to use data only to provide services to us.
• Integrations and services you connect or book. If you link a third-party platform or arrange a third-party service through Lantern, we share what is needed to fulfill your request; the third party’s own privacy policy applies to what it receives.
• Legal and safety. To comply with law or legal process; to enforce our agreements; or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to prevent serious harm — including reporting suspected elder abuse, neglect, or exploitation to authorities such as Adult Protective Services where permitted or required.
• Business transfers. In a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, subject to this Policy’s commitments.
• With consent or at your direction.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

6. Health-related information; HIPAA

Lantern is a consumer service. We are generally not a “covered entity” or “business associate” under HIPAA, and information in the Service is generally not protected health information under HIPAA. Care records (medications, vitals, meals) are entered by the family for coordination; we do not receive medical records or clinician communications. If we later integrate with pharmacies, providers, or health systems, those flows will be governed by the required business associate agreements and additional notices. Until then, we protect health-related data under this Policy, our Consumer Health Data Privacy Notice, and applicable consumer-health-privacy laws.

7. Elders: consent and rights

Monitoring and care tracking must rest on the Elder’s informed consent or the lawful authority of their representative — a condition of using the Service (see Terms of Service § 6 and the Elder Notice & Consent). An Elder (or their legal representative) may at any time:

• ask what categories of information the Service holds about them and request a copy;
• request correction or deletion of their information;
• withdraw consent to monitoring or call transcription, which stops collection and, on request, removes their space; and
• ask who is in their Care Circle and what each member can see.

We honor verified requests from Elders even when the account is held by someone else, subject to confirming identity (and, where relevant, legal authority). Withdrawing consent may mean the Service can no longer be provided for that Elder.

8. Your privacy rights (U.S. states)

Depending on your state of residence (including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Tennessee, and others), you may have some or all of the following rights, which we extend to all U.S. users as a matter of practice:

• Know / access — confirm whether we process your data and obtain a copy in a portable format.
• Correct — fix inaccurate personal information.
• Delete — request deletion, subject to legal exceptions.
• Opt out — of sale, sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising, targeted advertising, and certain profiling. (We do none of these today.)
• Limit sensitive data use — we already limit sensitive data to providing the Service and legally permitted purposes.
• Non-discrimination — we will not discriminate against you for exercising rights.
• Appeal — if we decline a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision; if the appeal is denied, you may contact your state Attorney General.

To exercise rights, email sardoru@gmail.com with the subject “Privacy Request.” We will verify your identity (and authority, for agent or representative requests) and respond within the time required by law. Authorized agents may submit requests with proof of authorization. We honor opt-out preference signals such as Global Privacy Control where required.

9. Cookies and analytics

We use strictly necessary cookies for sign-in sessions, a local preference for your theme, and privacy-respecting, cookieless analytics to understand aggregate usage. Details and controls are in the Cookie Notice.

10. Data retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes above: waitlist data until you ask us to remove you or the waitlist phase ends; account data for the life of the account; care records, signals, and transcripts for as long as they are needed to serve the Care Circle (baselines and history), or until the family or the Elder deletes them; demo transcripts and reports for a limited period to operate and improve the demo; and consent records for as long as needed to demonstrate compliance. When data is no longer needed, we delete or de-identify it. Residual copies may persist briefly in backups before being purged on schedule.

11. Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the data — encryption in transit, passkey-based and magic-link authentication, access controls scoped to Care Circles with role and per-module permissions, default-deny database policies, and least-privilege service access. No system is perfectly secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affecting your information occurs, we will notify you and regulators as required by law.

12. Children

The Service is for adults. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Accounts may be created only by people 18 or older. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

13. De-identified and aggregated data

We may create and use de-identified or aggregated data (for example, to validate and improve signal and insight quality). We commit to maintaining such data in de-identified form, not attempting to re-identify it, and requiring the same of anyone we share it with.

14. International users

The Service is operated from the United States and intended for U.S. users. If you access it from elsewhere, you understand your information will be processed in the U.S., where privacy laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction.

15. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. Material changes will be announced with reasonable advance notice (for example by email or in-product notice), and the “Last updated” date above will change. Material changes to how we handle health-related data will be subject to any consent required by law.

16. Contact us

• Email: sardoru@gmail.com
• Mail: Lantern, Attn: Legal, 9 N 2nd St, Memphis, TN 38103, USA

If you have an unresolved privacy concern we have not addressed satisfactorily, you may also contact your state Attorney General’s consumer protection office.