1. Who we are
Tethr (“Tethr,” “we,” “us,” “our”) operates jointethr.app and app.jointethr.app from Davis, California. We refer families to independent caregivers. We are running a small invite-only pilot in Davis; families in the pilot have an access code, and everyone else is on the waitlist. If you have any questions, email us at tethrsupport@gmail.com.
2. Information we collect
If you join the waitlist (families)
Your first name, email address, phone number, and ZIP code, along with your answers to the short quiz (who you are looking for care for and how soon), and whether you choose to receive text messages from us. We use the ZIP code to work out which areas to open in first.
If you apply to be a caregiver
Your name and email address, your written answers to our questions, a profile photo, your Home Care Aide registration number if you have one, and two references with a way to reach them. We deliberately do not ask for your date of birth, your exact age, or your Social Security number anywhere in the application.
If you use the pilot app (families)
Your name, email, phone and pronouns, and the address the caregiver comes to — including the building, the unit, and anything they need in order to get in, such as which door or a gate code. Who to call in an emergency. And about the person the visit is for: their name, age, pronouns, a photo if you add one, their conditions and medications in your own words, how they like to be helped, and any notes you want the caregiver to have.
We hold the conditions and the medications because the person walking into the house should know them. If you are entering someone else’s details, please make sure they are happy for you to share them with the caregiver who visits.
If you use the pilot app (caregivers)
While a visit is running, your phone shares where you are, so the family can see you on their way. It stops when the visit ends and we do not keep it afterwards. You can decline; the family’s map then simply shows the visit address. We also keep the note you write at the end of a visit, which goes to the family.
If you contact us
If you send us a message through the contact form, we receive the name and email address you enter and the message you write. We use them only to read your message and reply, and the message is emailed to our team. Sending a message does not add you to the waitlist or to any marketing list.
Automatically
When you submit a form, our anti-spam check receives your IP address to confirm you are a person and not a bot. Our hosting provider also processes standard technical information, such as your browser type and request details, to serve and protect the site.
We do not ask for card numbers, Social Security numbers, or government IDs anywhere. The most sensitive thing we hold is what a family tells us about the person being cared for.
3. How we use your information
- To add you to our waitlist, or to review your caregiver application.
- To arrange a visit: to show a caregiver what is being asked of them, and to give the one who accepts what they need in order to arrive and to do it well.
- To contact you by email, and by text if you opted in, about a visit, your place in line, your application, and our launch.
- To understand demand, such as which areas families are asking about, so we can decide where to launch next.
- To keep the site secure and to prevent spam and abuse.
We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not sell it.
4. Who sees it
The caregiver who takes your visit
This is the sharing that matters most, so it is first. Before a caregiver accepts, they see a first name, pronouns, how the person likes to be helped, and roughly which part of town — not the street, and none of the health information. Once they accept, they get the address and how to get in, your phone number, your emergency contact, and what you have written about the person they are visiting, including the conditions and medications. A caregiver who declines never sees any of it.
The companies that run the app
- Supabase stores the data behind the app.
- Loops stores waitlist contact details and sends our email.
- Cloudflare hosts both sites, runs our forms, provides the anti-spam check (Turnstile), and, if you upload a résumé to the waitlist form, stores that file.
- Stripe handles payments. It holds card details; we never see them. During the pilot Stripe is in test mode, so no real money moves — but the payment form is live, which means Stripe’s own cookies are set when you reach it.
Address lookup and maps
When you type an address, what you have typed so far goes to an address service so it can suggest the rest — today Smarty and Google, and OpenStreetMap when neither has a match. Nothing else goes with it. When a map is on screen, your browser fetches map images from OpenFreeMap and Esri, and a driving route from the OSRM routing service; those requests carry your IP address and the area being shown, as any map on any website does.
These providers process your information only to provide their service to us. We do not sell your data and we do not share it for anyone’s marketing. We may disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect our rights and the safety of others.
5. Cookies and tracking
We do not use advertising cookies, and there are no third-party trackers on either site. Four things set cookies, and all four are needed for the thing you asked for: the app’s own session cookie, which is what keeps you signed in; two short-lived signed cookies used only while you are signing in; our hosting and anti-spam providers, to keep the site secure and confirm you are human; and Stripe, whose fraud checks set two cookies of their own as soon as a payment form loads. None of them is something we ask about, because refusing any of them would mean the thing they support cannot happen.
Counting visits. On this marketing site only, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page visits. It sets no cookies and writes nothing to your browser at all, it does not follow you to other sites, and it does not build a profile of you. We are told how many people came and which pages they read, and nothing that identifies anyone. Because it stores nothing on your device and we neither sell nor share what it produces, we do not ask permission for it. It runs on the signed-in app at jointethr.app/app under no circumstances.
To stop it, block static.cloudflareinsights.com in your browser or use any content blocker. Nothing on this site depends on it, so blocking it changes nothing else.
Do Not Track. Some browsers can send a “Do Not Track” signal. There is no common industry standard for what a site should do when it receives one, so we do not respond to these signals at this time. We do not follow you across other websites, and we do not let anyone else use this site to collect information about what you do online over time or on other sites.
6. Text messages
If you give us your phone number and opt in, we may text you about your place on the waitlist and our launch. Message and data rates may apply. You can stop at any time by replying STOP, and you can ask us to remove your number by emailing tethrsupport@gmail.com.
7. How long we keep it
We keep waitlist and application information for as long as you are on the waitlist or your application is active, and for a reasonable period afterward so we can reach you when we launch. You can ask us to delete it sooner at any time (see below).
If you close your pilot account, we clear your details, your care profiles, your contacts and your saved places, and your access code stops working. We keep the record of visits that already happened. A visit is not only yours — a caregiver went to a house and spent time there — so deleting it on one side’s say-so would destroy the other person’s record of their own work.
8. Your choices and rights
- Unsubscribe from emails using the link at the bottom of any message.
- Opt out of texts by replying STOP.
- Download everything we hold about you from Settings in the app, or by emailing us.
- Access, correct, or delete the information we hold about you by emailing tethrsupport@gmail.com, and we will take care of it.
If you live in California, you have additional rights under California privacy law, including the right to know what personal information we hold, to request its deletion, and not to be treated differently for exercising those rights. Because we do not sell or share personal information for advertising, there is nothing to opt out of on that front. To make a request, email tethrsupport@gmail.com.
9. Security
We use reputable providers and reasonable safeguards to protect your information, and we limit who can see it. No method of transmission or storage is ever completely secure, but we work to keep what you share with us safe. If information about you is ever exposed, we will tell you.
10. Children’s privacy
These sites are meant for adults. They are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has given us information, email tethrsupport@gmail.com and we will delete it.
11. Changes to this policy
As the pilot grows and we begin offering care more widely, we will update this policy and post the new version here with a new date. If the changes are significant, we will do our best to let you know.
12. Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information? Email us at tethrsupport@gmail.com. Tethr, Davis, California.