Family Chime is a family organizer: a shared calendar, lists and routines for one household. It's run by an individual developer in Georgia, United States, and is in private, invite-only testing. This policy says what the app collects, why, who else handles it, and how to have it deleted. We'll keep it short and plain.
The short version
- We collect only what the app needs to work.
- No ads, no tracking across apps or websites, and we never sell or rent your data.
- Only parents create, change or delete a child's profile. Children have no email address or password in the app.
- Each family's data is kept apart from every other family's.
- Email privacy@familychime.com to see, export or delete your family's data.
What we collect, and why
Accounts
Parents and other adults sign in with an email address and a one-time code we email to them. We keep the email address to sign you in and to send invitations, and later for security messages (for example, when a new device is added). We don't send marketing email.
Family members
For each person in the family: a display name, a color, a picture chosen in the app, their role (parent or child) and, if a parent adds it, a birth year. We store a birth year only, never a full date of birth. A parent can mark a young child as not yet reading, so the app shows pictures instead of words.
Devices
Each phone, tablet or TV that joins a family has its own sign-in. We keep the device's name and type and when it was last used, so parents can see which devices are connected and remove one. Shared devices (like a tablet on the wall) can be locked with a 4-digit parent PIN, which we store only as a one-way hash.
What your family adds
Calendar events (title, time, place, notes and who they're for), shopping list items and the app's settings. Only members of your family can see them, within the limits a parent sets for each child and each shared device.
Connected calendars
A parent can connect a Google, Microsoft (Outlook.com) or iCloud account to show its calendars in the app, and choose for each calendar whether the app may also change it. To do that we keep:
- the account's email address or Apple ID, so parents can tell accounts apart;
- the access the account granted (a sign-in token for Google and Microsoft, or an app-specific password for iCloud). These are encrypted and only our servers read them, to sync. They never reach your devices;
- copies of the events in the calendars you pick, and the provider's ids for them, so changes can go both ways.
For calendars you allow the app to change, the app sends your family's edits back to the provider, including which family members an event is for (stored in a private field on that event). Disconnecting an account deletes its stored access and removes its calendars from the app.
Usage counts and error reports
To learn which features are used and to fix problems, the app records which feature was used (for example "shopping item added"), the day, the kind of device (phone, tablet or TV), the operating system and the role (parent, child or shared device). It records no names, no event or list contents and no identifier for any person. Each family gets a random id for these counts that isn't linked to the family's data.
When the app hits an error, it sends the type of error, where in our code it happened, the app version and the operating system, with personal details removed on the device first. Both kinds of records are deleted after 30 days; only daily totals are kept.
Google user data
When you connect a Google account, Family Chime asks only for access to your calendar list, your calendars' events, and the calendars the app itself creates (when you ask it to copy a calendar into Google). We use this data only to show and sync those calendars in your family's app, as described above. We don't use it for advertising, don't sell it, don't use it to train AI models, and no person reads it unless you ask us to for support or the law requires it.
Family Chime's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Children
Family Chime is made for families, so it holds information about children. A parent creates each child's profile, and only parents can change or delete it. A child's profile holds a display name, color, picture and, optionally, a birth year: no email address, no phone number, no public profile. A child signs in on their own device by scanning a code shown by a parent. Children see only what a parent allows. There are no ads and no third-party analytics or advertising code in the app.
A parent can review or delete their child's information at any time by emailing privacy@familychime.com.
Who else handles your data
We share data only with the services that run the app for us, and only what each one needs:
- Supabase hosts our database, sign-in and server code, in the United States.
- Resend sends our sign-in codes and invitations, so it receives the email address and the message.
- Google, Microsoft and Apple receive your family's edits to the calendars you connect, as described above, under their own privacy policies.
- Cloudflare serves this website.
- Apple and Google distribute test versions of the app (TestFlight and Google Play testing), under their own privacy policies.
We'll disclose information if the law requires it. If Family Chime ever moves to a company (we plan to form one), this policy goes with it and we'll tell parents first.
How we protect it
- Everything travels encrypted (HTTPS).
- The database lets each person reach only their own family's data, and only what their role allows.
- Calendar sign-ins and passwords are kept encrypted and are read only by our servers.
- Our logs don't contain event contents or children's information.
Keeping and deleting data
We keep your family's data while your family uses Family Chime. Something you delete in the app disappears from every device right away; a copy stays in our database for a while so devices that were offline can catch up. Signing out of a device erases the family's data on that device.
To delete an account, a child's profile or your whole family's data, email privacy@familychime.com from a parent's email address. We'll delete it within 30 days, apart from backups at our hosting provider, which expire on their own schedule. You can also ask for a copy of your family's data first.
Your choices and rights
Wherever you live, you can ask to see, correct, export or delete your information, and parents can do the same for their children. Email us and we'll answer within 30 days. You can disconnect a calendar account in the app at any time, and you can also remove Family Chime's access from your Google, Microsoft or Apple account settings.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we'll post the new version here with a new date. If a change affects how we use your family's data, we'll tell parents in the app or by email before it takes effect.