Privacy Policy

1. Introduction & Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how The Phone Valet LLC (“The Phone Valet™,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, stores, and protects information when you visit https://thephonevalet.com (including our location pages and Planner Partner Portal at thephonevalet.com/planners), submit an event inquiry or quote request, communicate with our team via telephone, email, or SMS text message, or engage our white-glove phone check services for an event (collectively, the “Services”).

By using our website, submitting an inquiry, or communicating with us by phone, text, or email, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy. For terms governing your use of our website and communications, please also review our Terms of Use.

2. Our On-Site Event & Device Privacy Commitment

Because our core service involves checking phones, cameras, smartwatches, and smart glasses at the entrance of private celebrations, weddings, corporate summits, and NDA-governed gatherings, we maintain strict boundaries between physical device custody and digital privacy:

• Zero Digital Access to Checked Devices: Our white-gloved attendants act solely as physical custodians of checked devices. We never ask for device passcodes, and our personnel are strictly prohibited from unlocking, viewing, browsing, photographing, connecting to, or extracting any digital data from any guest’s device.
• Anonymous Claim Ticket Check-In: At events, guest devices are placed into individual compartments within serialized security vaults and matched to physical claim tickets. Guests are not required to register their names, email addresses, or phone numbers with us to check a phone at the door.
• Dedicated Parent & Emergency Event Line: When hosts utilize our monitored emergency event line (for example, allowing babysitters, family members, or caregivers to reach guests during an event), any inbound text messages or call logs received on the temporary event line are used solely during the active event to locate the appropriate guest and are purged following the conclusion of the event.
• Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs): For private VIP gatherings, celebrity events, and corporate summits, The Phone Valet LLC routinely executes client-provided Non-Disclosure Agreements protecting host identity, venue location, guest lists, and event proceedings.

3. Information We Collect

We collect only the information reasonably necessary to respond to inquiries, prepare tailored event quotes, coordinate logistics with hosts, planners, and venues, and improve our website.

A. Information You Voluntarily Provide

When you submit our “Reserve Your Date” form, submit our Planner Partner form, send us an email, call us, text our business line at (305) 389-9650, or inquire through social media lead forms (such as Instagram or Facebook), you may provide:

• Contact Identifiers: Your full name, email address, telephone/mobile number, and (for event professionals) your agency, firm, or company name.
• Event Details: Event date, event type (e.g., Wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Quinceañera, Sweet Sixteen, Corporate event, Private party, Private NDA event), event city/market, venue name, estimated guest count, event start and end times, and custom notes or special requests.
• Referral & Partnership Preferences: How you heard about The Phone Valet™ and how our event desk can assist you.
• Communications & Billing Records: Records of emails, SMS text messages, and phone calls exchanged with our event desk, as well as billing, contract, and payment confirmation records if you book an event.

B. First-Party Attribution & Technical Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our website, we automatically collect limited technical and marketing attribution information to understand how prospective clients discover our Services and to protect our forms against automated spam:

• Marketing Attribution & Session Breadcrumbs: When you arrive at our website, our script records first-party attribution parameters in your browser’s localStorage and sessionStorage (under the key tpv_attribution_v1). This includes standard UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content), advertising click identifiers (such as gclid, gbraid, wbraid, fbclid, ttclid, msclkid, twclid, li_fat_id, and epik), external HTTP referrer URL, initial landing page URL, a randomly generated first-party session identifier (visitor_id), and the sequence of pages or sections viewed on our site prior to submitting our inquiry form (path_history and referrer_history). This attribution data is transmitted to us only if and when you submit an inquiry form.
• Anti-Spam & Security Metadata: When you submit a form to our API endpoint (/api/book), our server temporarily processes your IP address in memory to enforce sliding-window rate limits (preventing automated abuse) and checks a hidden anti-bot honeypot field.
• Aggregate Website Analytics: We use Vercel Web Analytics to measure aggregate page views, referrer domains, device types, and Core Web Vitals performance without third-party cross-site tracking cookies.

4. How We Use Your Information

The Phone Valet LLC uses the information we collect for the following specific purposes:

• Providing Quotes & Proposals: Reviewing your event date, city, guest count, and hours to calculate staffing ratios and send you a customized quote or planner proposal.
• Client & Planner Communication: Contacting you via email, phone call, or SMS text message to answer questions, confirm date availability, schedule logistics walkthroughs, and coordinate event execution.
• Venue Compliance & Event Operations: Preparing event agreements, issuing customized Certificates of Insurance (COIs) naming your venue or agency as an additional insured, and coordinating load-in timelines.
• Invoicing & Payment Processing: Processing event deposits and balance payments through our secure payment processor.
• Security, Rate Limiting & Fraud Prevention: Protecting our website and inquiry endpoints from spam bots, malicious traffic, and unauthorized access.
• Analytics & Marketing Attribution: Understanding which search engines, directories (such as The Knot, WeddingWire, or PartySlate), social channels, or advertising campaigns generate client inquiries so we can allocate our marketing budget effectively.

5. SMS & Mobile Messaging Privacy (10DLC Compliance)

When you provide your mobile phone number on our website inquiry forms or initiate a text message conversation with our event desk at (305) 389-9650 (or any dedicated event number operated by The Phone Valet LLC), you consent to receive conversational and transactional text messages from The Phone Valet LLC related to your inquiry, quote, booking, or event logistics.

• Opt-Out (STOP): You may opt out of receiving SMS text messages from us at any time by replying STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, or QUIT to any text message you receive from us. After you text STOP, we will send one final confirmation message verifying that you have been unsubscribed, after which you will receive no further SMS messages unless you re-initiate contact.
• Support (HELP): For assistance with our messaging program, reply HELP to any text message, call us at (305) 389-9650, or email info@thephonevalet.com.
• Message Frequency & Rates: Message frequency varies based on your inquiry and event coordination needs. Standard message and data rates may apply according to your mobile carrier plan.

6. How We Share Information & Trusted Service Providers

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We disclose personal information only in the limited circumstances below:

• Infrastructure & Communications Service Providers: We engage trusted third-party service providers who process data solely on our behalf and under confidentiality obligations to operate our business:
  • Email Delivery: Twilio SendGrid (used to dispatch instant inquiry notifications and email confirmations).
  • Business Telephony & SMS: Quo (formerly OpenPhone) and underlying telecommunications carriers (used to send and receive business calls and SMS text messages with our event desk).
  • Website Hosting, Rate Limiting & Analytics: Vercel Inc. (website hosting, serverless API execution, and privacy-focused Web Analytics) and Upstash Redis (encrypted inquiry counter and rate-limiting state).
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) & Cloud Database: Google Cloud / Firebase Cloud Firestore (secure storage of client inquiries, quotes, and event fulfillment timelines for our internal team).
  • Payment Processing: Square, Inc. (used to process event deposits and invoice payments; your full payment card details are processed directly by Square and are never stored on our servers).
• Event Planners, Venues & Insurance Underwriters: When you book an event or ask us to coordinate with your wedding planner, event producer, or venue, we share necessary operational details (such as event date, load-in schedule, and Certificate of Insurance documentation) with those designated parties.
• Legal Compliance & Protection of Rights: We may disclose information if required to do so by law, subpoena, or court order, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect the safety, rights, or property of The Phone Valet LLC, our clients, our event guests, or the public.
• Business Transfers: In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of all or a portion of our business assets, client records may be transferred as part of the transaction subject to the promises made in this Privacy Policy.

7. Cookies, Local Storage & Tracking Technologies

We design our website to be fast, respectful of your privacy, and free from intrusive third-party ad-network clutter:

• First-Party Browser Storage (tpv_attribution_v1): As described in Section 3, we use your browser’s native localStorage and sessionStorage to remember the referral source, UTM parameters, ad click ID, and internal page path that brought you to our inquiry form during your visit. You can clear this data at any time through your browser settings ("Clear Browsing Data" / "Cookies and Site Data").
• Vercel Web Analytics: We use Vercel Web Analytics (/_vercel/insights/script.js) to collect anonymized, aggregate traffic metrics. Vercel Web Analytics does not use third-party cookies and does not track visitors across unrelated websites.
• Do Not Track & Global Privacy Control: Because we do not sell your personal information or share your personal data with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising, our website treats all visitors with high privacy defaults regardless of browser settings.

8. Data Retention & Security

Security Safeguards: We implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your information against unauthorized access, loss, or alteration. These measures include HTTPS/TLS encryption in transit (with Strict-Transport-Security preloading), HTML escaping and input sanitization on all form submissions, IP rate limiting, role-based access controls (RBAC) within our internal CRM, and HMAC signature verification on system webhooks.

Retention Periods: We retain inquiry and client records only as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which they were collected:

• Booked Client & Accounting Records: Retained for up to seven (7) years following the event date to comply with tax, accounting, insurance, and contract recordkeeping requirements.
• Unbooked Quote Inquiries: Retained for up to twenty-four (24) months to assist clients and planners whose event planning timelines span multiple seasons, unless you request earlier deletion.
• Temporary Event Hotline Texts: Messages sent by parents, babysitters, or family members to our dedicated on-site event line are deleted within seven (7) days after the event concludes.

9. Your Privacy Rights (U.S. State Privacy Laws)

Depending on your state of residence (including California under the CCPA/CPRA, Florida under the Florida Digital Bill of Rights, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, and other states with consumer privacy laws), you may have specific rights regarding your personal information:

• Right to Know & Access: You may request confirmation of whether we process your personal information and request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to Correction: You may request that we correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about you.
• Right to Deletion: You may request that we delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to standard legal exceptions (such as completing a contracted event, maintaining tax/invoice records, or complying with legal obligations).
• Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing: The Phone Valet LLC does not sell your personal information and does not share your personal information for third-party cross-context behavioral advertising.
• Non-Discrimination: We will never discriminate against you or deny services because you exercised any of your privacy rights.

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at info@thephonevalet.com or call (305) 389-9650. To protect your privacy, we will verify your identity (for example, by confirming control of the email address or phone number associated with your inquiry) before fulfilling your request, and we will respond within thirty (30) days.

10. Children’s & Teen Event Privacy

Website Inquiries: Our website and booking forms are intended solely for adults (18 years of age and older), such as event hosts, parents, corporate organizers, and professional event planners. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under the age of 13. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information online from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will promptly delete it.

On-Site Teen Celebrations: When The Phone Valet™ provides on-site phone check-in at youth and teen celebrations—such as Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, Quinceañeras, Sweet Sixteens, and school formals—teen guests check their devices using anonymous numbered physical claim tickets. We do not collect names, email addresses, or phone numbers from minor guests at the check-in station.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our operations, technology, or legal requirements. When we make changes, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. Any material changes will take effect upon posting to https://thephonevalet.com/privacy-policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, our data practices, or our on-site event privacy protocols, please contact us: