Privacy Policy

Working Draft — Subject to Legal Review

Effective Date: September 9, 2026

Homesteaders Circle (“Homesteaders Circle,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates a membership-based service that helps adults discover and connect with other people for dating, friendship, homesteading connections, and skill sharing.

This Privacy Policy describes how information is collected, used, disclosed, and managed when you use the Homesteaders Circle mobile application, website, and related services.

Operator: Homesteaders Circle is operated by Luce Consulting Group LLC

Contact: privacy@homesteaderscircle.com

1. Information You Provide

Depending on how you use Homesteaders Circle, you may provide information including: Name; Email address; Date of birth; Gender; Profile photographs; City and state; Biography; Connection intentions; Dating preferences where applicable; Search-distance preferences; Homesteading experience; Interests; Skills you have; Skills you want to learn; Connection requests; Private messages; Reports and safety information; and information submitted to customer support.

Your full date of birth is used for age and account purposes and is not intended to be publicly displayed.

2. Location Information

Homesteaders Circle uses location-related information to help recommend relevant members and Circles. This may include information such as your city, state, search radius, and generalized geographic information derived from those selections. Homesteaders Circle is designed not to publicly display your street address or exact residential location.

3. Membership and Purchase Information

If you purchase a membership through Apple or Google, payment processing is handled by the applicable app store. Homesteaders Circle may receive information necessary to determine membership status, such as membership plan, purchase status, renewal or expiration status, billing platform, and transaction or entitlement references.

Homesteaders Circle does not need to store your full payment-card information to provide app membership access. RevenueCat may be used to help manage and verify subscription entitlements across supported platforms.

4. Authentication Information

Homesteaders Circle uses an authentication provider, currently Clerk, to support account creation, sign-in, email verification, password recovery, and session management. Authentication providers process information according to their own privacy practices. Homesteaders Circle does not store your account password in its member-profile database.

5. Information Generated Through Use of the Service

We may generate or maintain information associated with use of Homesteaders Circle, including: Account status; Profile completion; Recommendations; Approximate match explanations; Connection status; Message status; Circle memberships; Block records; Reports; Moderation actions; Membership entitlement status; Notifications; and security and operational logs.

6. How We Use Information

We may use information to create and manage your account; verify age eligibility; provide dating and friendship discovery; recommend relevant members; provide location-based recommendations; match shared interests and complementary skills; provide Circles; facilitate connection requests; provide private messaging; provide and verify membership access; prevent fraud, abuse, and unauthorized access; investigate reports; enforce Community Guidelines and Terms; provide customer support; maintain security and reliability; comply with applicable legal obligations; and improve the service.

7. Member-to-Member Information

Other members may see public profile information you choose or are permitted to display through the service. This may include first name, age, profile photographs, general city/state or approximate area, biography, homesteading stage, interests, skills, connection intention, and compatibility or shared-interest explanations.

Homesteaders Circle does not intend to expose your personal email address, full birth date, exact residential coordinates, authentication identifiers, or internal account identifiers through normal public member profiles.

8. Private Messages

Private messages are available to authorized connected members. Homesteaders Circle does not provide unrestricted moderator access to private conversations. Relevant messages may be reviewed by authorized personnel when necessary in connection with a user report, safety investigation, abuse prevention, legal obligation, or enforcement process.

9. Reports and Blocking

Members may report or block other members. Reports may contain information about the reporting member, the reported member, report reason, additional information submitted with the report, and relevant conversation or message evidence. The identity of a reporter is not intended to be disclosed to the reported member through normal member-facing functionality.

10. How Information May be Shared

Information may be shared with service providers that help operate Homesteaders Circle, such as providers of authentication, hosting and cloud infrastructure, data storage, subscription management, Apple and Google app-store billing, email delivery, security, and customer support. These providers may process information on our behalf or according to their own applicable terms and privacy policies.

Information may also be disclosed when required by law; in response to valid legal process; to investigate suspected fraud, abuse, threats, or safety concerns; to protect the rights and safety of users or others; and in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, sale, or similar business transaction, subject to applicable law.

11. Sale and Advertising

Homesteaders Circle is designed as a paid membership service rather than an advertising-supported social network. We do not currently sell personal information for monetary compensation or use member profiles to provide third-party behavioral advertising. If these practices change, this Privacy Policy should be updated as required.

12. Data Security

We use administrative, technical, and organizational measures intended to protect personal information. However, no online service can guarantee absolute security. Members are responsible for protecting their account credentials and should notify support if they believe their account has been compromised.

13. Data Retention

Information is retained for as long as reasonably necessary to operate the service, maintain account relationships, meet legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent fraud, and protect users. When an account is deleted, personal profile information is designed to be deleted or anonymized as appropriate.

Limited information may be retained where reasonably necessary for legal obligations, fraud prevention, billing and transaction records, safety investigations, moderation history, dispute resolution, and security. Retention practices should be periodically reviewed and minimized where practical.

14. Account Deletion

Members may initiate account deletion within the app:

Profile → Settings → Delete Account

Members who no longer have access to the app may visit: https://homesteaderscircle.com/delete-account

Deleting a Homesteaders Circle account does not necessarily cancel an Apple or Google subscription. Store subscriptions must be managed separately through the applicable platform.

15. Only for Adults 18+

Homesteaders Circle is intended only for individuals age 18 or older. We do not knowingly permit individuals under 18 to maintain an account. If we learn that an account belongs to a person under 18, we will take steps to suspend or remove it and address associated information as appropriate.

16. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, applicable law may provide rights regarding personal information, which can include rights to request access, request correction, request deletion, request a copy of certain information, object to or limit certain processing, and appeal certain privacy decisions. Rights vary by jurisdiction and may be subject to exceptions.

Requests may be sent to: privacy@homesteaderscircle.com

We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.

17. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Homesteaders Circle changes. When appropriate, we will update the effective date and provide notice of material changes.

18. Contact

Questions about privacy may be directed to: privacy@homesteaderscircle.com