Privacy Policy

Version 1.0 · Effective 2026-09-08

How LKN Concierge LLC collects, uses, shares, and protects information about families and caregivers.

Contact for privacy requests: hello@local-bell.com

[NOT LEGAL ADVICE] This Privacy Policy is a plain-English draft prepared for LKN Concierge LLC. It is not legal advice. Have a licensed North Carolina attorney review before you publish or accept users. State and federal privacy laws change frequently and this document must be kept current.

1. Who we are and what this Policy covers

This Privacy Policy explains how LKN Concierge LLC, which operates Local Bell ("Local Bell," "we," "us," or "our") handles information collected through our website, mobile app, text messages, and any other services we operate at https://local-bell.com (collectively, the "Services"). LKN Concierge LLC is a North Carolina limited liability company operating an online marketplace that connects families in the Lake Norman area with independent babysitters and nannies for the care of children under 18.

This Policy applies to families ("Care Seekers"), independent caregivers ("Caregivers"), and anyone who visits our website or downloads our app. It does not apply to third-party websites, background-check providers, payment processors, or other services we link to — those have their own privacy policies.

[PARENT — internal note] "Local Bell" in this Policy includes our parent company and affiliates as those terms are defined in our Terms of Use. See Section 8 below for how we share information with them.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you give us directly

Account and profile: your name, email address, profile photo, and a short bio. When you sign in with Google, Facebook, or Apple, we receive your name, email address, and account identifier from that provider, and your profile photo from Google or Facebook. If you sign in with Apple and choose to hide your email address, we receive an address that Apple forwards to yours instead.
Caregiver-specific: years of experience, the credentials you list (for example CPR, first aid, or early-childhood education), availability, rates, the towns you work in, and languages spoken. If you choose to have a background check, we also collect your legal name, phone number, and home address to send to our screening provider.
Care Seeker-specific: your home address (optional), and your children's first names and ages. Anything else about your children — routines, allergies, house rules — is only what you choose to write in booking notes, job posts, or messages.
Bookings and messages: dates, times, the care address, rates, notes, and the content of messages and photos you send through the platform.
Payments: we do not store full payment-card numbers. Cards are entered directly with our payment processor, Stripe, Inc. We receive the card brand, last four digits, and expiry date. Caregivers enter their bank details with Stripe, and we keep only Stripe's identifier for the caregiver's payout account.
Photos you upload: profile photos, photos sent in messages, and photos added to a case. We remove the hidden data in photo files, including any location.
Reports, case statements, and survey answers you give us, and other communications with us.

2.2 Information others give us about you

Background-check status and results from our screening provider, Checkr, Inc. Checkr collects your date of birth and Social Security number directly on its own form; we do not receive or store them.
Reviews that other users post about you.
Reports of policy violations submitted by other users.

2.3 Information we collect automatically

Device data: your device's platform and model, the app version, a random identifier created when the app is installed, and a push-notification token. We use these to show you your signed-in devices and to send notifications.
Consent records: when you accept one of our policies, we record the date, the version you accepted, your IP address, and your browser or app details, as evidence of your consent.
Server logs: our servers record IP addresses and the requests they receive, to keep the Services running and secure.
Activity in the app: the sitters you like or save, your bookings and the steps in them, and the searches you run (search terms are used to answer the search and are not saved to your account).
Our website: when you open our "get the app" page, we record which link or QR code brought you there and when. We do not record who you are.
We do not collect your device's location, and we do not use analytics, advertising, or crash-reporting tools in the app.

2.4 Information we do NOT collect

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. Information about children is collected only from their parent or legal guardian in connection with a booking, and is used solely to enable safe care by the Caregiver. This design is intended to comply with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6506. See Section 10 for more.

3. How we use information

To create and maintain accounts, verify identity, and run background checks.
To match Care Seekers with Caregivers and facilitate bookings, messages, and payments.
To provide customer support and respond to questions and complaints.
To detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, safety incidents, and violations of our Terms of Use or Community Guidelines.
To send transactional messages (booking confirmations, receipts, safety alerts, policy updates).
To send marketing messages, only with your consent where required by law, and always with an unsubscribe option.
To improve the Services, including by asking new accounts which other services they would like us to offer.
To comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful requests from law enforcement, and enforce our Terms.
To defend legal claims and protect the safety of our users, the public, and our business.

4. How we share information

4.1 With other users of the Services

By design, a Caregiver's profile (name, photo, bio, towns, rates, credentials, languages, and reviews) is visible to anyone signed in to the app. A Care Seeker's name, photo, town, and children's first names and ages are visible to Caregivers the Care Seeker is talking to or has booked. Job posts are visible to Caregivers browsing open jobs. They show the children's ages; the children's first names appear only to Caregivers the Care Seeker is talking to, has booked or hired, or who have applied to one of the Care Seeker's jobs. The care address is shared with a Caregiver only once a booking is confirmed. Do not include information in your profile, posts, or messages that you do not want other users to see.

4.2 With service providers

We share information with vendors who help us run the Services, under written contracts that limit their use of the data:

Checkr, Inc., for background checks.
Stripe, Inc., for card payments and caregiver payouts.
Microsoft Azure, which hosts our servers, database, and stored photos.
Google, for Sign in with Google and for address search (the text you type when searching for a meeting place).
Meta, for Facebook Login.
Apple, for Sign in with Apple.
Expo, Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, and Apple Push Notification service, to deliver push notifications. A notification can include a preview of a message sent to you.
Professional advisors (lawyers, accountants, auditors, insurers).

4.3 With our parent company and affiliates

We may share information with our parent company and affiliates (as defined in the Terms of Use) for shared services such as accounting, legal, insurance, tax, and administration. Those affiliates are bound by this Policy.

4.4 For legal reasons

We will disclose information when we believe in good faith it is necessary to comply with a subpoena, court order, statute, or lawful government request; to enforce our Terms; to investigate suspected fraud, abuse, or safety incidents; to protect the rights, property, or safety of Local Bell, our users, or others; or to defend legal claims.

North Carolina statutes require reports to the county Department of Social Services and to law enforcement in defined situations involving child abuse, neglect, or a missing child (N.C. G.S. § 7B-301 and § 14-318.5). We will make and cooperate with such reports as required by law.

4.5 In a business transaction

If Local Bell is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, information may be transferred to the successor entity, subject to this Policy or a successor policy with materially similar protections.

4.6 What we do NOT do

We do not sell your personal information for money.
We do not "share" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined under California, Colorado, Connecticut, or Virginia privacy law, unless you are notified and given an opportunity to opt out.
We do not use the personal information of any child (a user's minor children) for advertising or profiling of any kind.

5. Your privacy choices and rights

5.1 Choices available to everyone

Update or correct your account information from your profile settings.
Delete your account in the app (Account → Edit profile → Delete account at the bottom), or follow the steps at https://local-bell.com/delete-account. Section 7 explains what is kept afterward.
Unsubscribe from marketing email using the link in any marketing email.
Reply STOP to any text message to stop non-transactional SMS.
Adjust browser and device settings for cookies, notifications, and location.

5.2 State-law privacy rights

North Carolina does not currently have a comprehensive consumer privacy statute, but Local Bell extends the following rights to all users regardless of state of residence. Where a state law (California CCPA/CPRA, Colorado CPA, Connecticut CTDPA, Virginia CDPA, Utah UCPA, Texas TDPSA, Oregon OCPA, Montana MCDPA, Delaware DPDPA, and other later-enacted statutes) grants stronger rights, that state law controls for residents of that state.

Right to know what personal information we hold about you and how we use and share it.
Right to access a copy of your personal information in a portable, machine-readable format.
Right to correct inaccurate personal information.
Right to delete personal information, subject to legal-retention exceptions in Section 7.
Right to opt out of sale, sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising, and profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
Right to appeal a denied request within 45 days of the denial.
Right to be free from retaliation for exercising these rights.

Submit requests by email to hello@local-bell.com. We will verify your identity before responding and will respond within 45 days of receipt, extendable by a further 45 days where reasonably necessary and with notice to you. Authorized agents may submit requests on your behalf with written authorization.

5.3 California-specific disclosures

For California residents, the categories of personal information we collect, the categories of sources, the business or commercial purposes for collection, and the categories of third parties with whom we share each category are set out in Sections 2, 3, and 4 above. We do not knowingly sell or share personal information of California residents under 16.

6. Communications: email, SMS, and push

We send transactional messages (booking confirmations, safety alerts, receipts, policy updates) as part of the Services. You cannot opt out of transactional messages while your account is active. Marketing communications are sent only where you have opted in as required by law. See the companion SMS/Text Consent and our Cookie Notice for details on those channels.

7. How long we keep information

We retain personal information for as long as your account is active.

When you delete your account, we delete your name, email address, profile photo, bio, sign-in connections, signed-in devices, home address, your children's names and ages, your saved cards, your caregiver listing, the legal name, phone number, and street address held for a background check, and any photos you added to a case. A deleted account cannot be reactivated; signing in again starts a new account.

Some information is kept after deletion, because other people or the law still need it:

Messages you sent stay in the other person's conversation, shown as from "Deleted account." Photos you sent in messages are deleted 100 days after your account is deleted.
Records of bookings, payments, refunds, and cancellations are kept to comply with tax and financial-record laws (generally seven years), meet insurance and audit obligations, and defend legal claims.
Records of the policies you accepted are kept as evidence of your consent. The IP address and device details in them are removed after seven years.
Background-check records (when the check was authorized and paid for, and its outcome) are retained as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act and by our screening provider's agreement.
Case records stay with the case. Reviews you wrote stay on the caregiver's profile.

You cannot delete your account while a booking, meet and greet, ongoing role, case, or background check is still in progress; the app tells you which one to finish first. Stripe and Checkr keep their own records under their own privacy policies. Aggregated or de-identified information may be kept indefinitely.

8. Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information — including encryption in transit, access controls, employee training, and vendor due diligence. No online service is 100% secure. If we experience a security incident affecting your personal information, we will notify you and applicable regulators as required by North Carolina's Identity Theft Protection Act (N.C. G.S. § 75-65) and any other applicable state or federal law.

9. International users

The Services are intended for use in the United States, and specifically in North Carolina. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States.

10. Children's privacy (COPPA)

The Services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from any child under 13. Information about a Care Seeker's children is collected from the parent or legal guardian as part of a booking and is used only to enable safe care by the Caregiver. If we learn we have collected personal information directly from a child under 13 in violation of COPPA, we will delete it promptly.

If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13, contact us at hello@local-bell.com and we will investigate and act promptly.

11. Third-party links and integrations

The Services may contain links to third-party websites, apps, and services (for example, payment processors, background-check portals, social-media login providers). Those third parties have their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for how they collect, use, or share your information.

12. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. If we make a material change, we will notify you by email or in-app notice at least 30 days before the change takes effect. Non-material changes and clarifications take effect on posting. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

13. Contact us

For privacy questions, requests, or complaints:

Email: hello@local-bell.com

Mail: LKN Concierge LLC, Attn: Privacy, [PO BOX PLACEHOLDER — e.g., PO Box XXX, Mooresville, NC 28117]

Registered office (for legal service): [Registered agent street address — required by N.C. G.S. 55D-30; use a commercial registered agent's NC street address]