Maybe it’s not her profile pic as I was just guessing it was. Never seen her profile page.
Not a lawyer, but I have written to the company stating my objections. Maybe if enough members did this they might change something but there are plenty of things that people cared about more where they didn’t listen to what paying members wanted.
It’s not illegal at least not in the US where there aren’t strong data privacy laws. Since this isn’t for housing or employment, there is no protection for age discrimination.
My initial reaction being in the US and having been subject to age discrimination in employment was not happiness when I noticed it was there. The reality is I don’t have much problem getting sits I want and probably the discrimination is worse for sitters under 25. (I can’t prove that. It’s a feeling). I do sometimes have to do things to undercut concerns and stereotypes with my profile, applications, and on chats.
Maybe we can start one of those online petitions. My main concern is privacy. It’s very easy to look me up based on my location, age, first name and profession. I had one interview for a sit that made me really uncomfortable. The male HO asked personal questions about why I was in his city, who I was visiting, what hotel I was staying at prior to his sit starting. After we hung up, and before his invitation to do to the house sit arrived, he texted me a photo from the cockpit of the jet he was flying in over Hawaii (he was a commercial pilot). Needless to say, I declined the sit but was very uncomfortable with the personal information I had shared with him. When I declined the sit, he didn’t respond on the platform (I felt strongly he should have kept correspondence about a declined sit on the platform.) He texted me asking why I declined. I obviously didn’t respond to him from my phone.
It’s true there are plenty of breadcrumbs left in both profiles and listings so that people could find people off site on the internet. That’s a whole other kettle of fish.
But If you uncomfortable with the information out there on the web and disturbed by this experience, you might consider going to member services and deleting your account. It’s hard to pinpoint something in your encounter that would actually break site rules, but you could speak with someone in member services so at least there is a record of it if something doesn’t sit right. It sounds like you had phone contact not video and he sent you a photo so you could see who he was and that he was really a pilot. He may have texted you simply because it’s easier than going through the messages. But it also seems like you picked up on something that made you uncomfortable.
Most sitters and homeowners using this site have probably had experience that made them uncomfortable where they were concerned because other parties they were in contact with or who contacted them through the site had information about them.
It’s a photo on my profile. My stretching cat picture used to be on my listing, but the stretching cat is now stretching on the other side of the rainbow bridge.
I actually still use a fake phone number for grocery accounts, etc. because when I was young and beautiful I had a couple of guys overhear me saying my real phone number and call me! That train has long left the station, thank goodness, but it can be tough being of childbearing age
!
I personally don’t have an issue with showing my age, on THS. I’m proud of who I am and where I am in my life, still being able to travel the world solo/healthy/relatively fit and sharing my life experiences with anyone that wants to listen. Age is but a number as they say and I find that the homeowners who have genuinely opened their doors to me have appreciated and respected exactly that and those are the people I want to sit for and be around. Anyone that judges me by my age is someone I wouldn’t be a good fit for.
Privacy concerns are not a concern for me on this site, never had an issue, nor do I even consider it. I’ve had more privacy problems with hacked credit cards, phone scams etc Who would want to tangle with a senior anyway, not like I have much to offer anyone! Too old, too broke, too feisty 
