Privacy Policy
Last updated: June 14, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Hearth ("Hearth," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and shares information when you use the Hearth website and mobile app (together, the "Service"). Hearth is operated by Matthew McCausland, a sole proprietor based in Ontario, Canada.
If you have questions, contact us at support@lightthehearth.com or by mail at 32 Faith St. #5 Cambridge, ON N1T0E8.
By using the Service, you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
1.
The short version
- Hearth helps you track home systems (like your furnace and water heater) and reminds you when maintenance is due.
- We collect the details you give us about your home, your account email, and some usage data.
- When you submit a photo or a description of a system, we send it to our AI provider (Anthropic) to identify it. Anthropic does not use this data to train its models.
- We do not sell your personal information.
- We earn money through Amazon affiliate links, not by selling your data.
- You can ask us to access, correct, export, or delete your data at any time.
The rest of this document is the detailed version.
2.
Information we collect
2.1 Information you give us
- Account information — your email address and password. Passwords are managed by our authentication provider (Supabase) and are stored in hashed form; we never see your plaintext password.
- Home profile — details you provide about your home, such as home type, year built, square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and postal/ZIP code and province/state.
- Home systems and consumables — information about your appliances and systems (for example, furnace or water heater brand, model number, installation year, and filter sizes), and the dates you last performed maintenance.
- Photos you submit — images of system labels or equipment that you upload so Hearth can identify the system (see Section 3 on AI processing).
- Free-text descriptions and questions — the plain-language descriptions of your home you write during setup, and any questions you ask Hearth's AI assistant about a task.
- Support messages — the contents of any message you send us through the in-app support form, along with context such as your account email and which page you contacted us from.
- Notification preferences — your choices about which email reminders you want to receive.
2.2 Information collected automatically
- Usage and product analytics — through Amplitude, we collect information about how you use the Service: pages visited, features used, actions taken, device and browser type, and approximate location derived from your IP address.
- Session Replay — we use Amplitude's Session Replay feature, which records a reconstruction of your interactions with the app (such as taps, scrolling, and navigation) to help us understand and improve the experience. You should assume that information visible on your screen during a session may be captured.
- Cookies and local storage — see Section 6.
2.3 Information from the mobile app
- Push notification token — if you use the iOS or Android app and grant notification permission, we store a device push token so we can send you reminders. We do not access your photo library or camera except when you choose to take or select a photo for system identification.
2.4 Information we do not collect
- We do not ask for or store payment card numbers, bank details, or government IDs. Hearth has no subscription and takes no payments.
- We do not retain the photos you submit for AI identification beyond what is needed to process them (see Section 3).
3.
How we use AI, and what happens to your photos and descriptions
A core feature of Hearth is identifying home systems from a photo or a written description. To do this:
- When you submit a photo, your home description, or a question, we send that content to our AI provider, Anthropic (the Claude API), which returns a structured identification or a set of instructions.
- Under Anthropic's commercial API terms, Anthropic does not use the data we send through the API to train its models.
- Photos are processed transiently. We send the image to Anthropic to read it, and we store only the resulting text (for example, the brand, model, and a short written summary). We do not save the original photo to your account record.
- The text results, your home details, and your maintenance history are stored in your account so the Service works across sessions.
4.
How we use your information
We use the information described above to:
- Create and maintain your account and authenticate you.
- Identify your home systems and build a maintenance schedule.
- Send you reminder emails and push notifications (according to your preferences).
- Show you relevant product links for consumables you need (for example, the correct furnace filter size).
- Respond to your support requests.
- Understand how the Service is used, fix problems, and improve features.
- Protect the Service against fraud, abuse, and security threats, and comply with our legal obligations.
5.
How we share your information
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only in these situations:
5.1 Service providers (subprocessors)
We use trusted third parties to operate the Service. Each receives only the data needed for its function:
| Provider | Purpose | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, authentication, hosting of your data | Account credentials, home and system data, maintenance history |
| Anthropic (Claude API) | AI identification of systems and AI-generated instructions | Photos, home descriptions, and questions you submit (processed, not used to train models) |
| Resend | Sending reminder and transactional email | Your email address and reminder content |
| Amplitude | Product analytics and Session Replay | Usage data, device/browser info, IP-derived approximate location, session interactions |
| Vercel | Application hosting and delivery | Technical request data (e.g., IP address, request logs) |
| Apple / Google | Mobile push notification delivery | Your device push token and notification content |
We encourage you to review each provider's own privacy policy. We may add or change providers; we will keep this list current.
5.2 Amazon affiliate links
Hearth earns referral fees through the Amazon Associates program. When you click a product link in the Service, you are taken to Amazon, and Amazon may set its own cookies and collect information about your visit and any purchase. That activity is governed by Amazon's privacy policy, not ours. We receive aggregate commission information from Amazon; we do not receive your individual Amazon purchase details.
5.3 People you share a home with
Hearth lets you share a home with another person via an invite link. If you invite someone, they can see the home, its systems, and the associated maintenance information you've added. Only invite people you trust with that information.
5.4 Legal and safety
We may disclose information if required by law, to respond to lawful requests, or to protect the rights, safety, and property of Hearth, our users, or the public.
5.5 Business transfer
If Hearth is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any change in ownership or control of your personal information.
6.
Cookies and tracking technologies
We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies:
- Essential — a secure, session-only cookie that keeps track of which home you currently have active. The Service does not work without it.
- Local storage — used to remember things like whether you've seen the intro screens.
- Analytics and Session Replay — set by Amplitude to measure usage and reconstruct sessions.
- Affiliate cookies — set by Amazon when you click a product link.
You can opt out of analytics and Session Replay at any time by emailing us at support@lightthehearth.com. Amazon's affiliate cookies are controlled by Amazon; you can manage them through your browser settings and Amazon's own controls.
7.
Data retention
We keep your account and home data for as long as your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from within the app, which erases your personal data. Residual copies in encrypted backups are purged within 30 days. We may retain limited information where we must do so to comply with legal obligations or resolve disputes, and analytics data may be retained in aggregated or de-identified form.
8.
How we protect your information
We rely on reputable infrastructure providers and apply access controls, encryption in transit, and database-level row security so that you can only access data belonging to homes you're a member of. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your information using reasonable safeguards.
9.
Your privacy rights
You have rights over your personal information. The specific rights depend on where you live, but we honour the following for all users, regardless of location:
- Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correction — ask us to fix inaccurate information (you can also edit most of it directly in the app).
- Deletion — ask us to delete your account and personal data.
- Portability — request your data in a portable, machine-readable format.
- Withdraw consent — opt out of reminders and, where applicable, analytics.
For users in Canada (PIPEDA)
You have the right to access and correct your personal information and to challenge our handling of it. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
For users in California and other US states (CCPA/CPRA and similar)
You have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it, the right to delete it, the right to correct it, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights. We do not sell or "share" your personal information as those terms are defined under California law.
How to exercise your rights
You can delete your account and data directly in the app at any time. For all other requests, email support@lightthehearth.com from the address associated with your account. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law (generally 30 days). We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.
10.
International data transfers
Hearth is operated from Canada, and our providers may process and store data in Canada and the United States. These countries may have data protection laws different from your own. By using the Service, you understand that your information may be processed in these locations. We use reputable providers that apply industry-standard protections.
11.
Children's privacy
Hearth is intended for users 16 years of age and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child under 16 has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
12.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date and, where appropriate, notify you in the app or by email. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.
13.