Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

This policy covers FamilyBucks, including the family routines and rewards app, Penny, and the optional Penny SMS program. In this policy, “we” and “us” mean the team operating FamilyBucks. Contact us at amy@familybucks.com with privacy questions or requests.

2. Information we collect

• Parent accounts: name, email, sign-in information, family membership, preferences and account activity. Passwords are stored as salted hashes.
• Family information: child profiles and details you enter, routines, tasks, rewards, family-currency balances, completion history and uploaded content.
• Penny: messages, replies, saved parent notes, proposed actions, feedback and related conversation history.
• Optional SMS: your mobile number, verification and consent records, message content, delivery-related information and opt-out preferences.
• Service operation: feature-use events, AI usage measurements, device/browser information made available to our infrastructure, error logs and support correspondence.

Provide only the information needed for the feature you use. Do not send passwords, payment details, medical records or other sensitive documents to Penny.

3. How we use information

We use information to provide and personalize the app, manage family access, generate routines and Penny replies, deliver communications you request or enable, provide support, investigate misuse and safety concerns, and understand and improve the service. Family-currency balances are records of your household reward system; FamilyBucks does not hold money or provide bank accounts or loans.

4. Penny, AI providers and human review

When you use Penny, your messages, relevant conversation history, saved parent notes and family context may be sent to OpenAI to generate replies or suggested actions. Features such as plan generation and photo interpretation may use Google’s Gemini service. The content you provide to those features is processed by the provider to deliver the result.

Conversations and outputs are stored. During beta, authorized FamilyBucks team members, including Dr. Amy, may review conversations to improve Penny, support users and investigate safety concerns. An AI conversation is not a confidential clinical consultation. Read more about Penny and your data.

5. Mobile information and SMS consent

Mobile information, phone numbers, SMS opt-in data and consent will not be sold, rented or shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. SMS consent applies only to the FamilyBucks Penny program; it is not permission for another organization’s messaging.

We use your number to verify your ownership and provide the SMS conversations, reminders and check-ins you request or enable. Messaging providers, including Swift SMS Gateway and mobile carriers, process numbers and message information as needed to deliver and support the program. This limited service-provider processing does not permit use for their own marketing. We may disclose records where required by law or to protect users and the service.

Consent is optional. FamilyBucks can be used without SMS. Text STOP to opt out or turn off texting in the app. Text HELP for support. Message frequency varies; message and data rates may apply. See our SMS Terms & Conditions.

6. Service providers and family access

We use providers for hosting, databases, file storage, email, AI, operational support and SMS. Information needed for those services may be processed outside your province, state or country. Family information is available to the authorized members of your family account according to their access. Review who has access before sharing family details.

7. Storage, safeguards and retention

We use sign-in controls, family-role checks and other technical measures to limit access. No system or transmission method is completely secure. SMS is not end-to-end encrypted and may be visible to a phone’s users, mobile carriers and messaging providers.

We retain account and family records as needed to operate the service. We also retain records needed for support, security, consent, opt-outs, resolving disputes and legal obligations. Turning off SMS stops the program; it does not automatically delete message history or consent records. Backups and records we must retain may remain after an account deletion request.

8. Your choices and requests

You can edit available account and family settings, manage Penny preferences and stop SMS independently. To request access, correction or deletion of personal information, or ask about rights that apply where you live, email amy@familybucks.com. We may need to verify your identity and authority over the account before acting.

We use cookies and browser storage for sign-in, preferences and app operation. Blocking them may prevent some features from working.

9. Children’s information

Adults create and manage family accounts and child profiles. Penny chat and SMS are intended for adult parents or guardians. We do not require children to supply email addresses for child profiles. Parents should enter only the child information needed for their household and supervise any child use. Contact us to review or remove a child’s information associated with your account.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service changes. The date above identifies the current version. Where a change requires notice or renewed consent, we will provide it before using information in that way.