Privacy Policy
KidBud is a family app, so almost everything in it is about children. We keep the list of what we store short on purpose, we do not sell it, and we do not show ads to anyone. You can download everything we hold or erase your account outright from Privacy & data in the app.
Who we are
KidBud ("we", "us") provides the KidBud mobile apps for iOS and Android. If you have a question about this policy or about your data, write to [email protected].
What we store
| What | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Your name and email address, from Google or Apple sign-in | To identify your account. Google or Apple handle sign-in, so we never see your password. The only exceptions are a few test accounts we create for app store reviewers, which sign in with an email and password held by Firebase. |
| Your mobile number, verified by SMS | To confirm you are a real person and to link family invitations to you. |
| Your home address and its coordinates | To calculate travel time so a "leave now" reminder arrives at the right minute. |
| Your phone's current location, shortly before a departure you have a reminder for | To time a "leave now" reminder from where you actually are. With your permission, the app checks your location in the background, even while the app is closed, only in the window before a reminder is due. We keep only the most recent position, which each new check replaces. |
| Each child's first name, date of birth, and interests, including any you type yourself | To assign a Track and match activities to the right age and interests. |
| Activities, calendar events, attendance history, and handoff arrangements | To run the schedule and show who is collecting whom. |
| Family feed posts, comments, reactions, and any photos you attach | To show your family what happened, visible only to your family members. |
| Events you host, and the guests you invite | To send invitations and collect RSVPs. |
| Irreversible fingerprints of contact phone numbers | To tell you which of your contacts already use KidBud. We store a salted, one-way hash, never the numbers themselves, and the hash cannot be turned back into a number. |
| Push notification tokens | To deliver reminders and family notifications to your device. |
| Product analytics events | To see which features are used and where the app breaks. Off by default in the UK and EEA until you turn them on; on elsewhere and switchable off at any time. See "Usage analytics" below. |
What we never do
- We do not sell or rent your data, or your children's data, to anyone.
- We do not show advertising in KidBud, and we do not target children with ads.
- We do not share your name, your children's details or your contact details with activity providers unless you ask us to.
- We do not store your contacts' phone numbers, only irreversible fingerprints of them.
- We do not ask for your password, because sign-in is handled by Google or Apple.
Children's data
KidBud is designed for parents and guardians, not for children. Accounts are created and controlled by an adult, and children do not sign in. All information about a child in KidBud is entered by their parent or guardian, who can change or erase it at any time. We collect the minimum needed to schedule and recommend activities: a first name, a date of birth, and chosen interests, including any interest you type yourself because it is not in our list. Deleting your account erases your children's records along with it.
Who we share it with
We use a small number of processors, and only for the purposes below.
| Processor | What it handles |
|---|---|
| Google Firebase | Sign-in, database, file storage, push notifications, and our server code. Also Firebase Crashlytics crash reports, sent only while usage analytics are on: they hold device and crash details, not your account, your name or your email address. |
| Google Places | Searching for activity providers and their addresses. We send the search text and an approximate area, not your children's details. |
| Google Gemini | Working out what an interest you type means, so we can find matching activities. We send only the words you typed, never your child's name or anything else about your family. |
| ACTIVE Network | Finding classes and camps near you. When you set your home address, our servers send ACTIVE Network the coordinates of your home address and a search radius, with nothing that identifies you or your family. |
| Superwall | Showing the subscription screen and recording purchases. Superwall receives your account identifier, your subscription status and purchases, and basic device details. Payment itself is handled by Apple or Google, so Superwall never sees your card. |
| PostHog | Product analytics, when you have usage analytics switched on. We send feature events, never a child's name, your address, or the contents of a feed post. With usage analytics on, PostHog also shows occasional one-tap questions about how the app worked for you; answering is optional and there are no free-text answers. Our servers also send PostHog anonymous counts of how reminders were delivered, such as how many were sent, how many went out late, and how often a traffic check failed. These counts are not linked to you, your family or your device. |
We may also disclose data where the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.
Usage analytics
With usage analytics on, we record which screens and features are used, for example that an invitation was sent or a card was viewed. These events are tied to a random identifier that the analytics software creates on your device, not to your account, your name or your email address. They never carry a child's name, your home address, or the contents of anything you have written. We do not use session replay, so your screen is never recorded.
Turning the switch off in Privacy & data stops collection on that device. It takes effect immediately and no further events are sent.
Whether analytics start on or off depends on where you are. On a device set to the United Kingdom or a country in the European Economic Area, usage analytics are off until you turn them on, because there we rely on your consent and a switch that is already on is not a choice you have made. Everywhere else they start on and you can turn them off at any time. Your own choice always wins: once you have set the switch either way, it stays that way, including if you travel.
Our website
kidbud.app uses PostHog to count page views, to count taps on the App Store and Google Play buttons, and to see which website or AI assistant (for example ChatGPT or Perplexity) sent a visitor here. The website does not set cookies or store anything on your device for analytics, so each page view is counted on its own and we cannot follow you from one visit to the next. PostHog receives the page address, the site that linked you here, your browser and device type, and an approximate location worked out from your IP address. The website never asks for your name or email, and if your browser sends a Do Not Track signal, it sends nothing to PostHog at all.
We rely on our legitimate interest in understanding how people find Kidbud for this. Questions go to [email protected].
Your rights
- Get a copy. "Export my data" in Privacy & data produces a JSON file containing your profile, your children, your calendar, your activity history, your feed posts, your memberships, and any events you host.
- Erase it. "Delete account" erases your account, and your family's records where no other parent remains to inherit them. This cannot be undone.
- Correct it. Everything you entered can be edited in the app.
- Object or restrict. Write to [email protected] and we will respond within 30 days.
If you are in the UK, EU, or California, these rights are yours under the UK GDPR, the EU GDPR, and the CCPA respectively.
Our legal bases: we process everything needed to run KidBud on the basis of our agreement with you. For usage analytics, we rely on your consent in the UK and the European Economic Area, which is why analytics are off there until you switch them on; and on our legitimate interest in understanding and improving the app everywhere else, where you can switch them off at any time. You can withdraw consent, or object to that legitimate interest, using the same switch in Privacy & data.
How long we keep it
We keep your data while your account exists. When you delete your account, records are erased immediately; file storage is cleared in the same operation, and anything that fails is retried by a scheduled cleanup until it is gone. Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis within 30 days.
When you type an interest that is not in our list, we also keep those words, with nothing linking them to you or your child, in a shared list of what parents look for. We use it to match the same interest for other families and to decide which activities KidBud should cover. Because it holds only the words, it stays after you delete your account, so please do not type anything that identifies someone.
Where it is stored
Data is held on Google Cloud infrastructure in the United States. If you are outside the United States, your data is transferred there under the standard contractual clauses that Google Cloud provides.
Security
Traffic is encrypted in transit and data is encrypted at rest. Access to a family's records is enforced by server-side rules tied to family membership, so one family cannot read another's. Sensitive writes are only possible through our server code, not directly from a phone.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy materially, we will tell you in the app before the change takes effect. The date at the top always reflects the current version.