Privacy Policy

Famcho is run by [COMPANY NAME] Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number [COMPANY NUMBER]), whose registered office is at [REGISTERED OFFICE ADDRESS]. In this policy, “Famcho”, “we” and “us” mean that company.

We are the controller of the personal data described here. That means we decide how it's used and we're responsible for looking after it under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018). We're registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under number [ICO REGISTRATION NUMBER].

Questions about your data, or anything in this policy, go to privacy@famcho.co.uk. A real person reads every message.

From grown-ups

• Account details: your name, email address and password (stored only as a secure hash by our sign-in provider). If you sign in with Google or Facebook, we receive your name, email and profile picture from them.
• Family details: your family's name, who's in it and who's a grown-up or a kid.
• Billing: if you subscribe, Stripe collects your card details. We never see or store your full card number. We keep your Stripe customer ID, your plan, add-ons and renewal date.
• Messages to us: anything you send when you email us.

About kids

Kids' accounts are always created or invited by a grown-up in the family. For a kid we hold:

• a display name (it can be a nickname; it doesn't need to be their real name), an emoji avatar and a colour;
• for kids without an email: a generated username and a 4-digit PIN, stored only as a hash; for kids with their own login: their email address;
• their chores, coins, rewards, streaks, trophies, savings jar and the pet, outfits and items they unlock;
• high-fives and reward ideas they send to their family (short messages and stickers);
• settings a grown-up turns on for them, such as Calm mode, sounds or instant rewards.

We don't ask for a child's date of birth, school, location or photo of their face. Calm mode is a display setting. We don't ask why it's switched on, and we don't record any diagnosis or health information.

Things your family creates

• chores, routines, rotas, rewards, quests and the history of who did what, when, and the coins that changed hands;
• notes such as feedback when a chore is sent back;
• photo proof of finished chores, if a grown-up turns it on. Photos are visible only to your family and are deleted automatically after 14 days.

Please don't put sensitive information (for example about health, religion or someone's address) into chore names, notes or messages. Famcho doesn't need it.

Collected automatically

• Technical data: IP address, browser and device type, and timestamps, in short-lived server and security logs.
• Notification details: if you allow notifications, your browser gives us a push address and keys for that device.
• Family Board: when a screen is set up as a Family Board, a cookie on that screen marks it as your family's board.

With a grown-up's permission (we ask, and “no thanks” is fine) we use PostHog for product analytics, so we can see which parts of Famcho are used and which are confusing. It is never switched on for kids' accounts or the Family Board. We don't use advertising trackers, and we don't build profiles of anyone for marketing.

The law says we need a reason (a “lawful basis”) for each way we use personal data. These are ours:

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we've weighed them against your family's rights, giving extra weight to children's interests. You can object at any time (see Your data rights).

We don't send marketing emails unless you've opted in, and we never use children's data for marketing.

Famcho is designed to be used by children, so we follow the ICO's Age Appropriate Design Code (the Children's Code). In practice:

• Grown-ups are in control. Only a grown-up (18 or over) can create a family, add or invite kids, and pay. A grown-up can see and change their kids' information, and can delete a kid profile at any time.
• Private by default. There are no public profiles, no search, no contact with people outside your family and no location tracking.
• No ads, no selling data, no advertising trackers. Optional product analytics are off for kids' accounts.
• Kids can't buy anything. A kid can ask a grown-up to upgrade, but only a grown-up can pay.
• We collect as little as we can. Kids don't need an email address, and a nickname is fine.
• Grown-ups-only chores stay hidden from kids and the Family Board.

Older children can exercise their own data rights. If you're a parent or carer, you can make requests on behalf of your child.

We don't sell personal data, and we don't share it with advertisers. We use a small number of trusted providers (“processors”) to run Famcho. They may only use your data to provide their service to us, under contracts that require them to protect it:

• Vercel: hosting, and routing AI suggestion requests;
• Neon: our database, hosted in London, which also holds your account and sign-in details (passwords are stored hashed);
• Resend: sending our sign-in emails (invitations and password resets);
• Google or Facebook: only if you choose to sign in with them;
• Stripe: payments and billing;
• An AI model provider (currently OpenAI): only when a grown-up asks for AI suggestions;
• Apple, Google or Mozilla push services: to deliver notifications to your device.

The full list, with what each one receives and where, is on Your data rights.

AI suggestions

When a grown-up uses AI suggestions, we send the description they type, plus the display names of your family members, so the suggestions can be assigned to people. We send nothing else: no coins, history, photos or emails. Please don't include anything sensitive in the description.

Things you connect yourself

A grown-up can choose to connect Famcho to other services: a Discord channel or webhook (to post family updates), or an AI assistant such as Claude (to read and manage chores). When you do, we send the data you've chosen to that service. What happens to it there is governed by that service's own terms and privacy policy. You can disconnect at any time.

Other times we may share data

• if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety;
• with professional advisers (such as accountants or lawyers) under a duty of confidentiality;
• if Famcho is sold or merged. Your data would then be handled under this policy, and we'd tell you first.

Your family's data is stored in our database in London. Some of our providers (Vercel, Resend, Stripe, OpenAI) are based in the United States or process data there. When data leaves the UK, we make sure it's protected: either the country has UK “adequacy” (such as the UK–US Data Bridge, for certified companies), or we use the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Details are on Your data rights.

• Everything travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS) and is encrypted at rest by our database host.
• Each family's data is kept separate. Every request is checked so that only that family can see it.
• Passwords and kid PINs are stored only as one-way hashes.
• Wrong PINs lock a profile, and repeated guessing pauses the family code.
• Only the people who need it to run Famcho can get at production data.

Most of what we store is strictly necessary to make Famcho work. The one optional thing is product analytics (PostHog), which we only switch on if you say yes in the banner. It is never used for kids' accounts or the Family Board, and we don't use advertising or tracking cookies.

You can clear these in your browser settings at any time. You'll be signed out and your preferences reset.

You have the right to see the data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, limit or object to how we use it, take a copy with you, and withdraw consent. Your data rights explains each one and how to use it.

To delete your family or get a copy of your data, email privacy@famcho.co.uk from the grown-up's email address on the account. We'll reply within one month, and it's free.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

We'll update this page when Famcho changes how it uses data, and change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell grown-ups in the app or by email before it takes effect.