Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Layoff Lookout is an employment intelligence service that monitors WARN notices filed by employers with state labor agencies and sends you an email alert if your employer files one. It is operated as a sole proprietorship. Contact us at hello@layofflookout.com.

2. What Data We Collect

When you sign up, you give us your email address, employer name, and state. We use these to create your account and match WARN notices to your employer.

When you visit the site, we automatically collect your IP address, browser type, and pages visited through Google Analytics and our hosting provider Vercel. When you sign in, Clerk (our authentication provider) creates a session cookie.

When you pay for a subscription, Stripe generates a customer ID and subscription ID that we store to manage your billing. We never store your raw card number — Stripe handles all payment data directly.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your email to deliver layoff alerts, send service communications, and occasionally send product updates. We use your employer name and state to match WARN notices to your account. We use analytics data to understand how the site is used and improve it. We do not currently use your data for behavioral advertising.

See Section 4.5 for a full disclosure of future commercial uses we may introduce.

4. Who We Share Your Data With

We share your data only with the service providers necessary to run Layoff Lookout:

• Clerk — authentication. Processes your email, name, IP, device info, and session data.
• Stripe — payments. Processes payment card data, billing address, and transaction history.
• Brevo (Sendinblue) — email delivery. Processes your email address and engagement data (opens, clicks).
• Google Analytics — website analytics. Processes anonymized IP, pages visited, browser and device data.
• Vercel — hosting. Processes standard HTTP request logs including IP addresses.
• Railway — database hosting. Stores all account data listed in Section 2.

We do not currently sell your personal data, share it with advertisers, or use behavioral advertising pixels. We may disclose your data if required by law or court order.

4.5. Future Commercial Uses & Partnerships

This section discloses commercial uses we do not currently engage in but may introduce in the future. Before any of these become active, we will update this policy and notify you by email.

• Job placement and career partners — We may partner with job boards, staffing agencies, or career platforms to surface job opportunities to users affected by layoffs. If we do, we may share your email, employer, and state with those partners. You will be able to opt out before any sharing begins.
• Data licensing — We may license aggregated and de-identified WARN notice trend data to third parties for research or analytics. This data would not identify you personally. If we ever license data that could re-identify individuals, we will obtain your explicit consent first.
• Sale or sharing of personal information — We do not currently sell personal information. If we ever introduce a business model that constitutes a sale or sharing of personal information under applicable law (including CCPA), we will notify you before it takes effect and add a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link to our website footer.
• Marketing and promotional partners — We may promote products or services relevant to people navigating a layoff, such as resume services or financial tools. We will always give you the ability to opt out of partner marketing.

For any of the above, when introduced, you will receive advance notice and a clear opt-out before your data is used in a new way. You can always email hello@layofflookout.com to ask about or object to any planned data use.

5. Email Communications

We send layoff alert emails when we detect a WARN notice matching your employer and state. We also send account-related emails: confirmations, billing receipts, and critical service announcements. From time to time we may send product updates or promotional emails — these are optional.

Our emails are sent via Brevo, which embeds tracking pixels that tell us whether an email was opened and whether links were clicked. Data collected may include your IP at time of open, device type, email client, and timestamp. To disable email tracking, turn off remote image loading in your email client, or contact us to request plain-text emails.

Every promotional email includes an unsubscribe link. You can also email hello@layofflookout.com to manage your preferences.

6. Cookies and Tracking

We use a Clerk auth session cookie to keep you signed in — this is required for the service to work. We also use Google Analytics cookies (_ga, _gid, _gat) to understand how people use the site. These do not identify you personally.

You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings. Blocking analytics cookies will not affect your ability to use Layoff Lookout. You can also opt out of Google Analytics using Google's opt-out browser add-on.

7. Data Retention

We keep your account data while your account is active and for up to 90 days after deletion. Stripe retains transaction records for up to 7 years for financial recordkeeping. Google Analytics data is retained for 14 months then auto-deleted. Vercel server logs are retained for approximately 30 days.

8. Your Rights

Regardless of where you live, you can request a copy of your data, correct it, delete your account, or withdraw consent for marketing emails at any time. Email hello@layofflookout.com and we will respond within 30 days.

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the CCPA: the right to know what data we hold, the right to delete it, the right to correct it, and the right to non-discrimination for exercising these rights. We do not currently sell personal information, so there is no active "Do Not Sell" option — but if that changes, we will add the opt-out link and notify you first. To submit a California privacy request, email us with the subject line "California Privacy Request" and we will respond within 45 days.

Layoff Lookout is primarily offered to US users and is not currently directed at EU/EEA residents. If you are in the EU/EEA and use our service, you may have GDPR rights including access, rectification, erasure, and data portability. Contact us to make any such request.

9. Children and Minors

You must be at least 14 years of age to use Layoff Lookout. Our service is for people who are employed or entering the workforce, and the federal FLSA minimum employment age is 14. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 14. If you believe a child under 14 has created an account, contact us and we will delete it. Because our minimum age is 14 and not under 13, COPPA parental consent requirements do not apply.

10. Data Security

All data in transit is encrypted via HTTPS/TLS. Our database is not publicly accessible and requires authenticated connections. Authentication is handled by Clerk using industry-standard security. Payment data is handled by Stripe, a PCI DSS-compliant processor. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure — if you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately.

11. Third-Party Links

Layoff Lookout may contain links to external websites we do not operate, such as state labor agency WARN notice databases. This Privacy Policy applies only to Layoff Lookout. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page and notify you by email. Continued use of Layoff Lookout after a policy update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact Us

Questions about this policy or how we handle your data: hello@layofflookout.com. We will respond within 30 days.