Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 21, 2026

We take your privacy seriously and are committed to safeguarding your personal information. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your data when you interact with our services. By using our website or services, you agree to the terms and practices described in this policy.

1. Our Role: Hometown Grid provides its platform to utilities. When you report an outage or receive a message from your utility through our service, we handle that information on your utility's behalf and at its direction. As between Hometown Grid and the utility, the utility owns its data, including customer records, outage reports, messages, voicemails, and meter data. Hometown Grid claims no ownership of it. See our Terms of Service for details.

2. Information Collection and Use: We may collect certain personal information from you, such as your name, email address, phone number, service address, and any other information you voluntarily provide to us. This data is collected when you fill out the contact form on our website, when you report an outage by text or phone, or when your utility provides it to us as part of its customer records. We use this information to communicate with you, provide the services you requested, send important updates and notifications, and personalize your experience with us. Your data will not be shared with third parties for marketing purposes for any reason, and we do not sell personal information.

3. Text Opt-In: By providing your phone number and opting in, you consent to receive text messages from Hometown Grid for informational purposes. Message and data rates may apply. You can opt-out of receiving text messages at any time by replying 'STOP' to any message you receive from us. By opting in, you acknowledge that you are the authorized user of the provided phone number and agree to receive communications related to our services.

4. Service Providers: We rely on third-party providers that process information on our behalf and under contract, solely to deliver the service. These include cloud hosting and storage, text messaging and telephone service, address geocoding and mapping, and the artificial intelligence providers described below. These providers are not permitted to use your information for their own purposes. We do not share your information with third parties for any purpose beyond delivering the service.

5. Artificial Intelligence: Certain features use artificial intelligence to interpret and respond to outage reports, transcribe voicemails, and summarize or categorize what was reported. These requests are sent to third-party model providers, currently OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, which process them on Hometown Grid's behalf. Under those providers' business and API terms, information submitted is not used to train or improve their models by default, and they claim no ownership of it. Those providers may hold the submitted text for a limited period, generally up to thirty days, for abuse monitoring before deleting it. Hometown Grid does not use one utility's data to train models or build features for another. The providers listed here are current as of the last revision of this policy and may change; equivalent ownership and non-training terms are a condition of any provider we use.

6. Data Security: We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Data is encrypted in transit, and data at rest is encrypted in our databases and file storage. However, no method of data transmission over the internet or electronic storage is entirely secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Customer data provided by utilities remains confidential and is not shared with other utilities or third parties beyond what is necessary to provide the service.

7. Compliance with Laws: Hometown Grid complies with all applicable data protection and communication laws, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), to ensure your rights are safeguarded.

8. Policy Updates: We may update this policy from time to time, and any changes will be posted on our website. It is recommended to review this policy regularly to stay informed about how we handle your personal information.

If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy practices or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact us here.