Privacy Policy

1. ABOUT CRADLEY

Parent Studios, LLC operates Cradley at searchcradley.com. Cradley is an online marketplace that helps new and expecting parents and their families find and connect with pregnancy, postpartum, and newborn care providers. These providers include people such as birth and postpartum doulas, lactation consultants, pelvic floor specialists, sleep coaches, maternal mental health professionals, and night nannies or newborn specialists, as well as other providers who support families during pregnancy, birth, and the newborn period.

This Privacy Policy applies to searchcradley.com and the services Cradley provides through it. Cradley is based in the United States and is intended for people in the United States.

Cradley is a directory and connection service. We are not a healthcare provider, and we do not provide medical care, diagnosis, or treatment. Using Cradley does not create a doctor patient or similar clinical relationship, and Cradley is not a healthcare provider, health plan, or business associate covered by HIPAA, the federal health privacy law. Providers are responsible for their own credentials, licenses, and services, and Cradley does not supervise or guarantee the care they provide.

Cradley helps you find and contact independent providers. Those providers are not owned or controlled by Cradley. When you connect with a provider, whether through Cradley or afterward on your own, that provider decides how it handles the information you share with it, under its own privacy practices rather than this policy. We encourage you to ask a provider about its privacy practices before sharing sensitive information.

Cradley is free for parents and families. Families do not pay providers through Cradley, and we do not process payments for care. Providers pay Cradley for membership, as described in If You Are a Provider below.

2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The information we collect depends on how you use Cradley and whether you are a parent or family member, a provider, or a visitor who is only browsing.

a. Information You Give Us. The information you provide to us includes:

• Account information. When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and a password. If you sign in with Google instead, Google shares your name, email address, and profile photo with us so we can create and secure your account. We also record whether you are a parent or a provider. Your use of Google sign in is also subject to Google's own privacy policy.
• Contact details. Parents can add a phone number to their profile. Providers give us business and contact details as part of building a profile, described below.
• Your due date or birth date (optional). Parents can choose to add the month and year their baby is due or, if their baby has already arrived, the month and year their baby was born. This is optional, we ask for your permission before saving it, and we explain how we handle it in the next section.
• Provider profile information. If you are a provider, you give us the information you choose to publish on your public profile, such as your business and personal name, biography, credentials and certifications, languages, the services you offer, pricing, whether you accept insurance, Medicaid, or a sliding scale, your service area, website, phone number, and a profile photo.
• Things you write. This includes messages you send through Cradley, reviews and ratings you post, providers you bookmark, the care team you build, provider FAQs and peer endorsements that providers create, and anything you type into a free text field such as a waitlist message. Some of these are private and some are public, as explained later.
• Planning tool information. If you use one of our free planning tools, such as the meal train planner, new baby visitor scheduler, or baby announcement, we collect the details you enter to create your plan, along with your name and email address. See Planning Tools below.
• Email sign ups. If you sign up for our emails, we collect your email address and, if you provide it, your first name.
• Billing information. If you are a provider with a paid membership, our payment processor collects your payment details, and we receive limited billing information. See If You Are a Provider below.

b. Information We Collect Automatically. When you use Cradley, we automatically collect:

• Usage information. With your consent, we collect information about how you use the site, such as pages viewed and actions taken, to understand and improve the service. See Cookies and Analytics below.
• Device and connection information. We collect technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, and language preference. We use this to operate the site, keep it secure, and troubleshoot problems.
• Approximate location. We can infer an approximate location, such as your general area, from your IP address. When you search for providers, you can enter a ZIP code or choose to use your device's location, which your browser converts to a ZIP code. We do not receive or store your precise location. See Location Information below.

3. PREGNANCY AND OTHER SENSITIVE INFORMATION

Some of the information connected to Cradley is sensitive, because it can reveal something private about your health or your pregnancy. We want to be clear about how we handle it.

• Your due date or birth date. If you choose to share the month and year your baby is due or was born, that information can reveal that you are pregnant or have recently given birth. Sharing it is entirely optional, and you can add, change, or remove it at any time. This date stays in Cradley's own systems. We do not share it with analytics providers, advertising companies, marketing tools, or customer support tools, and we do not use it to advertise to you. We use it only to help tailor your experience within Cradley.
• Your searches and care choices. The types of providers you search for, the providers you bookmark, and the care team you build can suggest something about your care needs or interests. We keep this activity within Cradley to run and personalize the service. The usage statistics we log for our own analytics are stripped of details that could identify you or reveal your specific search, as described under Cookies and Analytics.
• Health details you volunteer. We do not ask you for health, medical, or mental health information. You may still choose to include such details in a message or a review, for example when you describe your situation to a provider. When you do, that information is treated as part of the message or review it appears in. Please share only what you are comfortable sharing.
• Planning tool details. Some details in a plan, such as food restrictions or the fact that a family has a new baby, can be sensitive. We use planning tool details only to run the tool you are using. We do not use them for advertising, and we do not send them to our marketing or customer support tools.

When you create an account, Cradley asks only for the optional month and year your baby is due or was born. Account signup does not ask for your trimester, postpartum stage, diagnoses, medications, or insurance details. Some of our free planning tools ask for limited details about your family, such as a baby's name or, for a baby announcement, an optional birth date, as described under Planning Tools. Otherwise, this kind of information exists only if you choose to write it into a message, review, or free text field.

We ask for your permission. Before we save your due date or birth date, we ask you to check a box confirming that you agree to our using it as described in this policy. The box is unchecked by default, and we do not save the date unless you check it. Including health details in a message, review, or planning tool is always your choice, and we use those details only to deliver the message, publish and screen the review, or run the tool. You can withdraw your permission at any time by removing the information or by contacting us, and we will stop using it going forward.

4. INFORMATION YOU CHOOSE TO SHARE IN MESSAGES, REVIEWS, AND PLANNING TOOLS

a. Messages. Cradley lets you message providers directly on the platform. Messages you send are stored by Cradley so that you and the provider can see your conversation. Messaging is a convenience feature, not a secure or clinical channel, so please avoid sharing sensitive medical information where you can, and share only what you are comfortable sending.

The people in a conversation can read it: you and the provider you are messaging, including members of that provider's organization. Cradley may also access message content where needed to operate the service, provide support, keep the platform safe, or meet a legal obligation.

When you send a message, we send the other person an email letting them know they have a new message. That email includes the sender's name and a link, but not the content of the message.

b. Reviews. Parents can leave a public review and rating on a provider's profile. Reviews are visible to anyone who visits that provider's profile, including people who are not logged in. Because reviews are public, please avoid including sensitive health details, other people's private information, or children's names.

When you post a review, we notify the provider by email, and that notification may include part of your review text. Your review is shown publicly along with your first name, last initial, and a generic avatar.

We may remove or limit a review that breaks our rules, for example if it appears to be fake, contains private health information or another person's personal information, or is abusive. We do not remove reviews simply because they are negative, and providers cannot pay to have reviews removed or changed.

c. Planning Tools. Cradley offers free planning tools, such as our meal train planner, new baby visitor scheduler, and baby announcement, that you can use without an account. When you create a plan, we collect the details you enter, which may include a family or baby's name, dates and times, household size, food preferences, and a note for helpers. For a baby announcement, this includes the baby's name and the family or parent name, along with any optional details you choose to add, such as the baby's date of birth, additional details, a welcome message, and short text updates. We also collect your name and email address so we can send you a private link to manage your plan. If you provide a ZIP code, we use it to show you relevant local support and providers.

Each plan has its own link, and anyone with the link can see it. Please share your link only with people you trust, and do not include addresses, phone numbers, health details, or anything else you would not want others to see. If you create a plan for someone else, please make sure they are comfortable with what you include. Before you create a baby announcement, we ask you to confirm that you are a parent or have the family's permission to share the details. Baby announcement pages use a long, random link that cannot practically be guessed, and we tell search engines not to index them. We also exclude baby announcement pages from session recording and replace their web addresses with a placeholder in our analytics.

We use planning tool details only to run the tool. We will send you marketing emails only if you separately sign up for them. You can ask us to delete a plan at any time by contacting us. You can also edit or delete a baby announcement yourself using its private editing link, and we automatically delete a baby announcement 90 days after its last update.

5. HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We use the information we collect to:

• Create and secure your account and sign you in.
• Operate the marketplace, including search, provider profiles, and helping parents connect with providers.
• Operate our free planning tools, including sending you your private link and updates about your plan.
• Enable messaging between parents and providers.
• Personalize your experience, such as suggesting providers based on your bookmarks and activity within Cradley. These suggestions are generated by simple rules, not by profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects about you.
• Send you service related emails, such as verification, password, and notification emails.
• Send you newsletters and other marketing emails if you sign up for them. Every marketing email includes a way to unsubscribe.
• Respond to your questions and provide support.
• Understand and improve how the service is used, using analytics you have consented to.
• Keep Cradley secure, prevent abuse, and enforce our terms.
• Comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.

We do not use your information to advertise to you on other sites or apps. We do not use your due date, birth date, planning tool details, or other sensitive information for marketing or advertising.

We may also create and use de-identified or aggregated information, such as overall usage trends, that does not identify you. We maintain de-identified information without trying to re-identify it.

6. HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION

• With providers you contact. When you message a provider, that provider can see your name, your profile image, and what you write. When you post a review, it is public on the provider's profile.
• With service providers who help us run Cradley. We use a small number of trusted companies to host the site and store data, deliver our emails, manage customer support requests and the marketing emails you sign up for, process provider membership payments, provide consent based analytics, support sign in, and, for reviews, help screen review text as described in the next section. These companies may handle your information only to perform services for us, except that our payment processor, Stripe, may also use payment information as described in its own privacy policy, for example to help prevent fraud. Our providers are based in the United States, and your information is stored in the United States.
• For legal and safety reasons. We may disclose information if we believe it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, subpoena, or other legal process, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of our users, the public, or Cradley.
• In a business transfer. If Cradley is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will continue to protect it consistent with this policy.

What we do not do. We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your personal information for targeted advertising or cross context behavioral advertising. We do not use advertising trackers or pixels, and we do not build advertising audiences based on your information or upload our email lists to advertising platforms. If that changes, we will update this policy before it takes effect.

7. AI ASSISTED REVIEW SCREENING

To help keep public reviews from accidentally exposing private information, we use an automated screening step before a review is published.

When you submit or update a review, the full text of your review is sent to an automated screening service that we access through Vercel's AI Gateway. The service checks it and flags information you may not have intended to make public. This can include health information such as diagnoses, medications, or treatments, other people's personal information, children's names, or content that appears inappropriate. We only use screening models with zero data retention settings, which are designed so that the AI provider does not store your review text after screening it.

This screening is advisory. If something is flagged, you see a notice before your review is published, and you decide whether to edit your review or post it as written. The screening does not silently change or remove anything from your review, and it does not block you from posting.

We keep a record of whether a review was flagged and why, but that record does not include your review text. If the screening service is unavailable when you post, your review may be published without being screened.

Screening is a helpful safeguard, but it cannot catch everything, so it does not guarantee that sensitive information will never appear in a published review. The best protection is to avoid including information you would not want to be public.

8. COOKIES AND ANALYTICS

Cradley uses cookies and similar technologies. Some are essential to make the site work and to keep you signed in. Others, used for analytics, run only after you opt in through our cookie banner.

When you consent to analytics, we use a product analytics service to understand how the site is used, through information such as pages viewed and actions taken. This can include an optional session recording feature that captures how you interact with a page. Session recording is set up to hide what you type into forms, and it does not run on pages where you read or write messages or reviews or use our planning tools. Analytics and session recording do not run unless you opt in.

We take steps to keep sensitive details out of our analytics. Before analytics events are collected, we remove search terms, ZIP codes, and care category details from the web address, so that what you searched for is not passed to our analytics service.

• Global Privacy Control. If your browser or a browser extension sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as your choice to opt out, and we do not run analytics, session recording, or marketing cookies.

You can change your cookie choices at any time through the cookie settings on our site. For more detail about the cookies we use and your choices, please see our Cookie Policy.

9. PUBLIC CONTENT

Some content on Cradley is public and can be seen by anyone, including people who do not have an account:

• Provider profiles, including the information a provider chooses to publish, such as name, photo, credentials, languages, services, pricing, and the area they serve.
• Reviews and ratings that parents post on provider profiles.
• Provider FAQs and peer endorsements that providers create.
• Planning tool pages, which anyone with the link can view.

Please keep in mind that anything posted as public content may be viewed, copied, or shared by others. Provider profiles show the area a provider serves. Profiles show an approximate distance from your search location. Cradley does not display a provider's street address unless the provider chooses to include one in their own profile text.

10. IF YOU ARE A PROVIDER

If you create a provider profile, some additional points apply to you:

• Your profile is public. The information you choose to include, such as your business and personal name, photo, credentials, languages, services, pricing, and the area you serve, is displayed publicly to families searching Cradley. Please do not include anything you would not want to be public.
• Peer endorsements. Providers can write short endorsements of other providers. An endorsement is shown publicly only after the endorsed provider approves it.
• Billing. Provider memberships are paid, although some providers, such as early beta members, may receive a complimentary membership. Our payment processor, Stripe, collects and processes your payment card details, and we do not store your full card number. We receive limited billing information from Stripe, such as your billing contact details, the last four digits and expiration date of your card, and your payment and subscription status.

Your use of Cradley as a provider is also governed by our Terms of Service.

11. THIRD PARTY CONTENT AND LINKS

Cradley may contain links to websites and services that we do not operate, such as a provider's own website or a third party sign in service. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those third party sites. When you leave Cradley or use a third party service, that third party's own privacy policy applies to the information you share with it. We encourage you to review it before providing your information.

12. LOCATION INFORMATION

When you search for providers, you can enter a ZIP code so we can show providers near you. We may also infer an approximate location, such as your general city or region, from your IP address, which helps us operate and secure the service.

Our provider search also offers an optional "Use my location" button. If you click it, your browser will ask for your permission to share your device's location. If you allow it, your browser converts your location to the nearest ZIP code, and only that ZIP code is used for your search. Your precise location is not sent to Cradley or stored.

13. DATA RETENTION

We keep your information for as long as your account is active and as long as we need it to provide the service, resolve disputes, and meet our legal obligations.

You can ask us to delete your account or specific information by contacting us using the details below. When you make a request, we will remove your information from active use. Some information may remain in our systems, including in backups and internal records, for a period of time until it is fully removed. We handle these requests by hand, so please allow us time to respond.

Some content you have shared may remain visible to others even after you delete your account. For example, messages you have sent to a provider may remain in that provider's inbox, shown as coming from a deleted user, and public reviews may continue to appear unless we remove them.

14. SECURITY

We take reasonable steps to help protect your information. These include using encryption to protect information while it travels over the internet, storing information with established infrastructure providers, and limiting access to the people who need it to run Cradley.

No website or online service can be completely secure, so we cannot promise that your information will always be safe. If you have a security concern, please contact us.

15. YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES AND RIGHTS

You have choices about your information:

• You can view and update your profile, add or remove your phone number, and add, change, or remove your due date or birth date.
• You can manage which notification emails you receive, although essential security emails always send.
• You can manage your cookie and analytics choices through the cookie settings, and we honor Global Privacy Control signals.
• You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the link in any marketing email.
• You can ask us to delete your account or your information, as described under Data Retention.

Depending on where you live, you may also have rights under your state's privacy law, such as the right to access the information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a copy of it, and to opt out of certain uses. We honor these kinds of requests when we can, regardless of whether a particular law applies to us, and we will respond as required by applicable law and otherwise within a reasonable time. Where the law allows, you may use an authorized agent to submit a request for you.

How to appeal. If we deny a request you have made, you may ask us to reconsider by replying to our decision or contacting us again. If your state gives you a right to appeal and we deny your appeal, you may also be able to contact your state attorney general to raise a concern.

Because we do not sell personal information, use it for targeted advertising, or make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you, there is no such activity for you to opt out of. To exercise any choice or right, contact us using the details below. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

16. CHILDREN AND AGE RESTRICTIONS

Cradley is intended for adults 18 and older. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, including children under 13. We do not verify age when you sign up. If you believe a child has provided us with information, please contact us and we will take appropriate steps to remove it. Some planning tools let a parent or family member enter information about a baby, such as a first name. That information comes from the adult using the tool, and we use it only to run that tool.

17. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make a material change, we will update the effective date at the top and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

18. CONTACT US

If you have questions about this policy or your information, contact us: