These terms explain the rules for using Porchlight, the social media marketing and chat automation platform built by Pylogix. We kept them as plain as we can. Please read them before you create an account.
1. Who we are
Porchlight is built and run by Pylogix, a software development company with offices at 1717 Saint James Place #628, Houston, TX 77056, United States, and 346 Kensington High Street, London W14 8NS, United Kingdom. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean Pylogix, and "you" means the person or organization using Porchlight.
By creating an account or using Porchlight, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.
2. Who can use Porchlight
Porchlight is a tool for businesses and creators. You must be at least 18 years old, or old enough to sign a contract where you live. If you use it for a business or other organization, you confirm that you are allowed to accept these terms for it.
3. Your account
Give us accurate details when you sign up and keep them up to date. Keep your password private. If you sign in with Google or Facebook, keep those accounts secure too. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account, including what your team members do, so tell us straight away through our contact page if you think someone else has got in.
4. What the service does
Porchlight connects to your Facebook Pages and Instagram business accounts through Meta's official APIs. It lets you build Messenger and Instagram chatbots, reply to comments automatically, schedule posts, send broadcasts, run a store inside Messenger, reach contacts by email and SMS, and see reports. We improve the service over time, so features may be added, changed or removed. If we plan to remove something you rely on, we will try to tell you in advance.
5. Meta and other platforms
Much of Porchlight depends on Meta's platforms and APIs, which Meta can change, limit or switch off at any time. You must follow Meta's terms, policies and messaging rules, including the limits on when and how you can message people on Messenger and Instagram. We are not responsible for actions Meta takes on your Pages, accounts or apps, or for features that stop working because Meta changed its platform. The same applies to email and SMS providers you connect.
6. Plans and trials
New accounts start on a trial plan with the limits shown when you sign up. If we offer paid plans, we will show the price and what it includes before you buy, and we will update these terms first. Nothing will start costing money without your agreement.
7. Your contacts and customers
You may only message, email or text people in ways the law and each platform allow. You must:
- only send marketing messages to people who agreed to receive them, and honour every opt-out
- follow anti-spam and telemarketing laws, such as CAN-SPAM and the TCPA in the US, and UK and EU privacy rules
- tell your customers what data you collect through your bots, forms and store, for example in your own privacy policy
- only upload contact lists you are allowed to use
For the personal data of your subscribers, contacts and customers, you are the controller and we process it on your behalf. Section 9 explains how we handle it.
8. Acceptable use
You must not use Porchlight to:
- break the law or any platform's rules, or help anyone else do so
- send spam, scams, phishing or misleading messages, or pretend to be someone else
- post or send content that infringes someone's rights, sexual content involving minors, or content that promotes violence or harassment
- sell restricted goods through the Messenger store where that is not allowed
- connect Pages or accounts you do not own or manage
- overload, probe, scrape or attack the service, or get around its limits or security
We look into reports of misuse. We may pause bots, campaigns or posts, or suspend accounts that break these rules. When there is a serious risk to people, to your connected accounts or to the service, we may act without warning.
9. How we handle your customers' data
When we process your subscribers', contacts' and customers' data for you, we:
- only use it to run Porchlight for you, following your settings and instructions
- keep it confidential and limit who at Pylogix can access it
- protect it with the security measures described in our Privacy Policy
- use only the service providers listed in our Privacy Policy, under similar obligations
- help you answer requests from those people where we hold their data
- tell you without undue delay if we become aware of a breach that affects it
- delete it when you delete it, disconnect the account it came from, or close your account, apart from copies in backups, which are overwritten on a regular cycle
If you need a signed data processing agreement, send us a message through our contact page.
10. Your content
"Your content" means the bots, messages, posts, products, images, videos, contact lists and settings you add to Porchlight. You own it, and you are responsible for it. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, copy, send and publish your content, only as needed to run, secure and improve Porchlight. This license ends when you delete the content or your account.
11. Copyright complaints
If you believe content published with Porchlight infringes your copyright, send us a notice through our contact page. Please include your contact details, a description of the work, where the content appeared, a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorized, a statement that your notice is accurate and that you own the rights or may act for the owner, and your physical or electronic signature. We review every notice and act where appropriate. Accounts that repeatedly infringe will be closed.
12. Our property
The Porchlight software, design, name and logo belong to Pylogix and its licensors. These terms let you use the service as intended. They do not give you any other right to use our brand or code.
13. Ending your account
You can stop using Porchlight at any time and ask us to close your account through our contact page. You can also remove Porchlight from your Facebook account under Settings, then Apps and Websites. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms or puts other people or the service at risk. If we close an account for any other reason, we will try to give notice first. Sections that are meant to last, such as ownership, disclaimers, limits on liability and disputes, continue after an account ends.
14. Disclaimers
We work hard to keep Porchlight online, fast and secure. Even so, we provide it "as is" and "as available". As far as the law allows, we do not promise that it will always be available or free of errors, that every message or post will be delivered, that it suits a particular purpose, or that reports are complete and exact.
15. Limits on liability
As far as the law allows, Pylogix is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue or data, that come from your use of Porchlight, including actions a platform takes on your Pages or accounts. Our total liability for any claim about the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or US$100.
Some places do not allow these limits, so they may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot legally be limited, such as liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
16. Claims caused by misuse
If you break these terms, a platform's rules or the law, for example by messaging people who did not agree to it, and someone makes a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and costs from that claim, including legal fees, as far as the law allows.
17. Law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to its conflict of law rules, and disputes will be handled by the state or federal courts in Harris County, Texas. If you are a consumer in the United Kingdom or the European Union, you keep the protections of the country where you live and can bring a claim in your local courts. Before starting a formal dispute, please contact us so we can try to put things right.
18. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the service or the law changes. If a change is significant, we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect. If you keep using Porchlight after that, you accept the updated terms.
19. Contact us
Questions about these terms? Send us a message through our contact page and a person will reply.