Privacy Policy — Our Fam!

Our Fam! ("the app," "we," "us") is a private platform for families to chat, share lists, keep a family calendar, and see each other's location. The app is provided by CliffPoint Technologies LLC, doing business as MattyC Labs. This policy explains what information the app handles and how it is protected.

      Your private content is end-to-end encrypted. Messages, list
      contents, calendar event details, chore names and notes, meal plans, and location coordinates are encrypted on your device before they are
      uploaded. We cannot read them, and neither can our cloud provider. Only members of
      your family, on their own devices, can decrypt this content.
    

Information We Handle

Account information: your name and email address, used to sign you in and identify you to your family.
Profile photos: you may set a profile avatar using a built-in illustrated sprite, a photo you upload, or, for Google Sign-In users, your Google profile photo. Uploaded photos are stored securely in encrypted-at-rest cloud storage and, along with a Google profile-photo link, are only visible to members of your family groups. Setting a profile photo is optional — you can use an illustrated avatar or your initial instead.
Family content: chat messages, shared lists, calendar event details (title, notes, and location), and location coordinates. This content is end-to-end encrypted and readable only by your family members — for a calendar event, only the members it is shared with. An event's date and time are stored unencrypted so reminders and the calendar view work.
Chore chart and allowance: each chore's name, notes, and emoji, the name of a custom reward (for example "Ice cream"), and the notes an adult adds when giving a bonus or docking a reward are end-to-end encrypted and readable only by your family members. So that the chart, approvals, and balances work, and so that a child can't give themselves a bigger reward, the rest is stored unencrypted: who each chore is assigned to, which days it repeats and when it's due, whether it needs an adult's OK, the kind and amount of its reward (for example $1.00 or 10 points), who ticked which chore on which day and who approved it, the amounts of pay-outs, bonuses, and docks, and the time set for someone's daily chore reminder. Allowance amounts are a record your family keeps; no money is held or moved by Our Fam!.
Meal planner: each dinner's name, emoji, notes, ingredients, and who is cooking are end-to-end encrypted and readable only by your family members. Only the date of the dinner, which family member last changed it, and when are stored unencrypted. When you send ingredients to a list, they become ordinary list items, which are end-to-end encrypted like the rest of the list.
Notifications: to send a notification, our server knows who it is for and what kind of event caused it (for example, that a chore is waiting for an OK, or that a reward was approved), but not encrypted content. Where a notification shows encrypted content, such as a chore name, the server sends it still encrypted and your phone fills it in. Daily chore reminders are scheduled on the phone itself.
Photos and videos: media you choose to share in chat is stored in encrypted-at-rest cloud storage and is accessible only to your family members.
Location: if you enable location sharing, your device's location is shared with your family in real time and used for arrival/departure alerts at places your family defines. Your live location coordinates are end-to-end encrypted. Saved places (their names and map positions) and arrival/departure alerts are not end-to-end encrypted: to deliver an alert, our server learns which saved place a member arrived at or left (not their coordinates) and sends a notification to the family members who chose to receive it. Like all data we store, they are encrypted in transit and at rest. You can turn sharing off at any time.
Device tokens: a push-notification token per device. It is used only to deliver notifications to that device — never to track you or for advertising — is readable only by our servers, and is removed when you sign out.
Voice input (optional): the microphone button in chat and lists uses your phone's built-in speech-to-text (Apple or Google). We never receive or store audio — only the resulting text, which is handled like anything else you type (for example, encrypted when sent as a message).
Usage analytics (adult accounts only): which screens are opened and how often features are used (for example, that a photo was shared or a place alert fired — never what the photo, message, or place was), plus basic device and app information. We use this to understand which features families rely on and to set fair plan limits. It is not linked to your name or email, never includes your family content, and is not used for advertising. Analytics is turned off for accounts of anyone under 18.
Subscription information: if you buy a paid plan, we keep a record of which plan you have, whether it is active, when it renews or ends, and which families you sponsor. Members of a family you sponsor can see your name as its sponsor. We never receive your payment card or bank details — Apple or Google handles payment.

How We Use Information

To operate the core features: messaging, lists, the family calendar, the chore chart, the meal planner, the family map, and notifications.
To deliver arrival/departure alerts for places your family creates.
To authenticate you and keep your account secure.
To provide paid plans: apply your plan to the families you sponsor, and restore it when you sign in on another device.

We do not sell your data, show advertising, or use your content for advertising or profiling.

Calendar Sync and Export

On a paid plan you can connect the calendars already on your phone (for example Google, iCloud, or Outlook) to Our Fam!.

Showing your calendars in Our Fam!: by default, events from your phone's calendars are read on your phone and shown only to you. They are never uploaded to us.
Sharing a calendar with your family: if you choose to share one of your calendars with family members, your phone copies its upcoming events into your family calendar. These copies are end-to-end encrypted like any other family event and are readable only by the people you shared them with. Only your phone keeps them up to date; nothing is fetched from Google, Apple, or Microsoft by our servers.
Calendar links: if you paste the address of a calendar (for example a school or team schedule), your phone downloads it directly from that website — which, like any website, sees your phone's internet address. The address and its events stay on your phone, and are never sent to us, unless you share that calendar with family members as described above.
Adding family events to another calendar (export): if you turn this on, your phone writes the family events you can see into a calendar you pick on your phone. Those copies leave Our Fam!'s end-to-end encryption. They are stored by the company that runs that calendar (for example Google, Apple, or Microsoft) in a form that company can read, under its own privacy policy and terms, and they can be seen by anyone you share that calendar with. Our Fam! cannot encrypt, protect, change, or delete those copies once they are there, and is not responsible for how they are stored, used, or shared. Export is off by default and requires you to approve a notice in the app first; we keep a record of which version of that notice you approved and when. Edits you make there to a one-off event are read back by your phone and saved into Our Fam! (encrypted again), and deleting there an event you created deletes it in Our Fam!. Turning export off removes the events Our Fam! added from that day forward; copies already synced elsewhere are governed by that calendar's provider.

Calendar links and adding family events to another calendar are not available on accounts for children under 14.

Service Providers

The app uses the following services to function:

Google Firebase (authentication, database, storage, push notifications, hosting, and — for adult accounts only — analytics) — stores your account and the encrypted content described above. See Google's privacy information.
Google Maps — displays the family map and geocodes places.
KLIPY — used when you search for GIFs in chat. Your search words are sent to KLIPY to return family-safe results, along with your device's IP address (as with any web request); we never send KLIPY your name, email, or any account or device ID. GIFs you send or receive load directly from KLIPY's servers. GIFs sent before we switched to KLIPY load from Giphy's servers.
MET Norway (Norwegian Meteorological Institute) — provides the weather widget. Your device sends its approximate location to our own server, which rounds it to about a 1 km area and requests the forecast from MET Norway — so MET Norway never receives your device's details, just that rounded area. Your town name is looked up by your device's built-in (Apple or Google) location service. Weather data © MET Norway, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Apple App Store and Google Play — process payments for paid plans and manage renewals and cancellations under their own privacy policies.
RevenueCat — manages subscriptions on our behalf. It receives your purchase history from Apple or Google, basic device information (such as device model, operating system and app version), and a random billing ID we create for your account. It does not receive your name, email address, or any family content. RevenueCat is used only for adult accounts. See RevenueCat's privacy policy.
Kids Web Services (Epic Games) — confirms that a parent approving a child's account is an adult. Used only for that parent, and only during approval; see Children's Privacy below.

Children's Privacy (COPPA)

Our Fam! complies with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Users aged 14 or older may create an account. For a child under 14 (COPPA sets this age at 13; we apply it one year higher), we obtain verifiable parental consent before any personal information is collected, used, or disclosed: at sign-up we collect the parent or guardian's email address and send them a request to approve the account. The account is blocked from use until the parent approves, and if consent is not granted within 72 hours the account and the collected information are permanently deleted.

To confirm that the person approving is an adult, we use Kids Web Services (KWS), a parent-verification service from Epic Games. We send KWS only the parent's email address and the child's country (and province, in Canada) — nothing about the child. KWS checks that the parent is an adult using a method it offers in that country (for example, a payment card or a government ID), under its own privacy policy, and tells us the result. KWS may keep a scrambled (hashed) copy of the parent's email address so the parent doesn't need to verify again for other apps that use KWS, unless the parent opts out with KWS.

If a parent provides consent, we collect the following from the child:

Name and email address — for the account.
Profile photo (optional) — visible to family members.
Chat messages — end-to-end encrypted, only visible to family members.
Photos and videos shared in chat — stored in encrypted cloud storage (not end-to-end encrypted), only visible to family.
Shared lists — end-to-end encrypted, only visible to family members.
Calendar events — details end-to-end encrypted and visible only to the family members each event is shared with; dates and times are stored unencrypted so reminders work.
Chores and allowance — chore names and notes are end-to-end encrypted and visible only to family members. Which chores the child was given, which ones they ticked and when, whether an adult approved them, and the reward amounts (for example points or an allowance the family keeps track of) are stored unencrypted so the chart and balances work. Children can't create, change, or approve chores, or change rewards; only adults in the family can. No money is held or moved by Our Fam!.
Precise location — only if a parent/guardian admin enables location sharing for the account; end-to-end encrypted. Children cannot enable or disable their own location sharing — this is controlled exclusively by the family admin.
Arrival/departure alerts — when the child's device enters or leaves a place the family saved, our server learns which place and whether they arrived or left (not their coordinates) and notifies the family members who chose to be told. Not end-to-end encrypted. The family admin can turn this off.
Device identifier — a push-notification token, used only to deliver notifications.
Voice input (optional) — uses the phone's built-in Apple or Google speech-to-text; we never receive or store audio, only the resulting text.

To operate the app, a child's data is processed by Google Firebase (authentication, database, storage, push notifications). Some features also contact other services: the family map is displayed by Google Maps; GIF search sends the search words, and GIFs load, from KLIPY (which sees the device's IP address, but never the child's name, email, or any account or device ID); and the weather card sends an area rounded to about 1 km, through our own server, to MET Norway. A child's data is not used for advertising, is not sold, and is not shared with anyone else. Analytics is turned off on children's accounts. Children cannot buy or manage paid plans, and the app does not connect a child's account to our subscription provider.

New features. A parent's consent covers the kinds of information listed above, including in new family features that use them (for example, a chore list). Before we collect a new kind of information from a child, or share it with a new kind of service, we email the parent and ask for consent again; until the parent approves, that feature stays off for the child.

Data retention policy for children's information. We collect a child's information only to run the family features described above, and keep it only as long as the child's account needs it:

Account, profile, and family content (name, email, profile photo, messages, photos and videos, lists, calendar events): kept while the account is in use, because the family needs it to use the app. Deleted when the account is deleted — including messages, photos, videos, and list items the child shared in family chats and lists, and the child's chore ticks, allowance history, and reminder time. The account of a child under 14 that has not been used for 12 months is deleted automatically.
Location: only the most recent position is kept; each update replaces the last one. Deleted with the account.
Device identifier: removed when the child signs out of that device, and with the account.
Parent's email before approval: if a parent does not approve within 72 hours, the parent's email and the child's account are deleted.
Consent records: when a parent approves, we keep a record of the consent (the parent's email address, the child's account ID, and the date) so we can show that consent was given. We also record when an account is deleted because consent was not given in time. These records are kept for 3 years after the account ends, then deleted.
Backups: deleted information can remain in our encrypted database backups for up to 14 days before those backups expire.

Parental rights. A parent or guardian may, at any time, review the personal information collected from their child, refuse to permit its further collection or use, and request its deletion. To do so, delete the child's account via Profile → Manage My Data in the app, or contact us at [email protected]. To protect the child, we confirm every request with the parent email address that approved the account before acting on it. Content that is end-to-end encrypted can't be read by us, so it can be reviewed in the app on the child's device. Consent granted earlier can be revoked the same way. If you believe a child has provided information without appropriate parental consent, contact us and we will delete it.

For questions about children's privacy you may contact us at [email protected] or the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at [email protected].

Data Retention & Deletion

You can delete your account at any time from Profile → Manage My Data, which removes your account and associated personal data. See how to delete your account for the full steps and details of what is removed and what remains.
Messages, lists, chores, and meal plans are kept until they are deleted, or the chat, list, or family they belong to is deleted. Chore ticks and allowance history are kept until an adult deletes them, the family is deleted, or the person they belong to deletes their account. Photos and videos shared in chat are kept for the period your family's plan allows (see the FAQ), or until deleted sooner.
Children's information follows the retention policy in Children's Privacy above.
Deleted information can remain in our encrypted database backups for up to 14 days before those backups expire.

Security

Private content is encrypted on your device using ECDH key exchange and AES-256-GCM encryption before upload. Private keys never leave your device. Data in transit is protected with industry-standard transport encryption.

Your Choices

Turn location sharing on or off at any time.
Control which notifications you receive in the app's settings, including turning off chore notifications for all your devices.
Delete your account and data from Manage My Data.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "Last updated" date above.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? See our frequently asked questions or contact us at [email protected].

Our Fam! is a MattyC Labs app, published by CliffPoint Technologies LLC, 3516 Pinson Place, Anacortes, WA 98221, USA · (619) 818-1940 · [email protected].