Privacy policy

Last updated 26 October 2026

This policy explains what Little Chapters collects, why, who can see it and what you can do about it. We collect only what the app needs to work. There are no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and the website sets no cookies.

Who we are

Little Chapters is run by [LEGAL_NAME], [LEGAL_ADDRESS]. We are responsible for your information (the “controller” under data protection law). Write to us at [CONTACT_EMAIL] about anything in this policy.

This policy covers the Little Chapters Android app, this website and the guest pages that party mode links to.

What we collect

• Your account. When you sign in with Google we receive your name, email address, profile picture and Google account ID. We never see your Google password.
• Your family. The family's name and time zone, who is in it and their role (parent or family), and each child's first name and date of birth.
• What you add. Quotes, letters, notes, voice recordings, photos and videos, with their date, context, the child they're about and who added them. Also the occasions you plan and the capsules you make, with their opening rules.
• Guest messages. A guest at a party gives a name and leaves a voice message, video, letter or photos. Guests don't create an account and we don't ask for their email.
• Technical information. Our server keeps short logs of app requests (the time, the address asked for and the result) to keep the service running and find faults; links on this website that carry an invite or guest code are left out of them. Your IP address is used briefly in memory to stop too many requests in a row, and isn't stored.

On your phone the app keeps your sign-in in storage encrypted by Android. It uses the microphone only while you record. A guest's browser asks before it uses the microphone or camera, and only while recording.

How we use it

• To run the service: show your family's moments to your family circle, keep sealed items sealed and open capsules on their day.
• To keep it safe: stop abuse, protect accounts and fix faults.
• To reply when you write to us.

We use your information because it's needed to provide the service you asked for, and for our legitimate interest in keeping it secure. Parents add their children's information to keep the family's memories, and we use it only for that. We don't sell your information, use it for advertising or use your content to train AI models.

Who can see what

• Nothing is public. Moments are visible only to the people in your family circle: the parents and the family members a parent invited.
• Something sealed in a capsule shows only as an envelope (who added it and when) until a parent opens the capsule on its day. The person who added it can read it for 24 hours, unless the capsule is sealed from them too.
• Guests can only add to the one capsule their link is for. They can never read anything.
• Anyone holding an invite or guest link can use it, so share links only with the people they're for. Invites work once; guest links expire.

Sealing and encryption

Everything travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). While something is sealed, its words are stored encrypted in our database and backups, so reading the database alone doesn't reveal them. Photos, voice recordings and videos are stored privately with Cloudflare, and the app gets short-lived links to them only when the viewer is allowed to see them.

Sealing is enforced by our server; it is not end-to-end encryption. Our server holds the key, so the people who run Little Chapters could technically get at sealed content. We don't look at your content, except when you ask us to help with a problem or the law requires it.

Who helps us run it

We use a few service providers, who handle your information only on our instructions:

• Our hosting provider, [HOSTING_PROVIDER], runs the server and the database.
• Cloudflare stores photos, voice recordings and videos, and the encrypted nightly backups of our database.
• Google provides sign-in, delivers notifications to your phone (Firebase Cloud Messaging), and Google Play takes payment for Premium. A notification says who added something and for which child or occasion, never what was sealed. We get the subscription's status from Google, never your card details.

Where a provider handles information outside your country, we rely on the safeguards the law requires, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

How long we keep it

• We keep your family's content for as long as the family uses Little Chapters; keeping memories for years is the point.
• When you delete something, it's removed from our database straight away, and from file storage and backups within 30 days.
• When you delete your account in the app, it's deleted straight away, along with what you added (if you ask by email, within 30 days). If you're the family's last parent, the family and its children's information go too. Backups age out within a further 30 days.
• If we ever close the service, we'll give at least 90 days' notice, a way to download everything, and open any sealed capsules early so nothing is lost.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, or to receive it in a form you can take elsewhere. Write to [CONTACT_EMAIL] and we'll answer within a month. You can also complain to [PRIVACY_AUTHORITY].

A guest who wants their message removed can write to us with their name and the occasion. Families can remove a guest's message too, once their capsule is open.

Children

Little Chapters is for parents and family. To create an account you need to be an adult. Children don't have accounts; their information is added by their parents, who control it. Guests under 16 should leave a message with a parent's OK.

Changes

We'll post any change here and update the date below. If a change is important, we'll also tell you in the app before it applies.