Privacy Policy

Introduction

Welcome to FocalNest. We are committed to protecting your privacy and the privacy of your family, especially children. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information.

Note: FocalNest complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If you are a parent or guardian, please read the Children's Privacy section carefully.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Information You Provide

• Account Information: Display name, birthday, optional email
• Family Information: Family name, family member roles
• Task Data: Tasks created, completed, and assigned
• Preferences: Display settings, accessibility options
• Calendar Events: Events you create in your family calendar
• Places you name: Places and addresses you type, forward, or name yourself: an event's location, a place read from an email or text you forward, the name of an away period (like "Grandma's house"), and the places you tag a screen with (like "Kitchen")
• Messages to us: What an adult writes in "Tell us something" inside the app, and answers to the short check-in questions we ask during the beta, along with which screen they were on and which version of the app they were using. It is emailed to us so we can reply. Child profiles can't send these.

1.2 Information Collected Automatically

• Device Identifier: When a device is registered as a family device — a shared kitchen tablet, for example — we store a persistent identifier for it, made from browser characteristics combined with an ID kept in that browser's local storage. It is what lets a shared device remember which family it belongs to and which profile was last active, so nobody has to sign in again every morning.
• Consent Audit Record: The IP address a parent gave consent from, kept as the record COPPA requires us to be able to produce.
• Screens Opened: For each person, including child profiles, which screens of the app were opened on which day, and how many times. It records the kind of screen ("the planner"), never what was on it or anything typed. We read it ourselves to see which parts of FocalNest families use, and it never leaves FocalNest.

A device identifier can be associated with a child's profile, because a shared device remembers who was using it. Under COPPA this is a persistent identifier collected solely to support the internal operations of the service — keeping a device signed in and attributing activity to the right profile. We do not use it for advertising, we do not build behavioral profiles from it, and we never share it.

1.3 Information We Don't Collect

• Full legal names or last names
• Phone numbers, except the one you link yourself if you choose to forward texts to FocalNest (see sections 6 and 10)
• GPS or any other location from your device. The app never asks for location access. The only places we hold are ones you type, forward, or name yourself (see section 1.1)
• Social security numbers or government IDs
• Payment information (handled by third-party processors)
• Photos from your device or camera. The app has no upload feature; the only images we receive are ones in an email or text you forward to us (see sections 6 and 10)

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information only to provide and improve FocalNest:

• Display your name and avatar within your family
• Show age-appropriate features based on birthday
• Track task completion and unlock collectible rewards
• Enable family coordination (shared calendar, task assignments)
• Provide accessibility features (ADHD-friendly UI, etc.)
• Send important account notifications (with your consent)

We NEVER: Show ads to children, sell your data to third parties, or use your data for marketing purposes.

3. Children's Privacy (COPPA Compliance)

FocalNest complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We take additional steps to protect children under 13.

3.1 Parental Consent

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. When a child attempts to register:

• We require birthday to calculate age
• If under 13, we block self-registration
• We request parent/guardian email
• We send verification email to parent
• Account activates only after parent verifies consent

3.2 Information Collected from Children

With parental consent, we collect from children:

• First name (for display)
• Birthday (for age-appropriate features)
• Task activity (tasks completed, collectibles unlocked)
• User preferences (accessibility settings)
• Screens opened: which screens of the app they opened on which day, and how many times, never what was on them
• Race times, for a race the child started themselves
• Thanks they send to or receive from family members
• Away periods that include them, with the name the family gave each one
• Which profile a shared device is set to show
• Reports a parent sends us about AI-written text the child was shown, which include that text and the task it was written for

We do NOT collect from children:

• Email addresses
• Phone numbers
• GPS or any other location from their device
• Photos
• Any data for a third party's own use, such as advertising

AI-powered features are off for a child account unless a parent turns them on. This is a separate decision from the consent that created the account: a parent grants it per child from the parental dashboard, and can withdraw it at any time, after which every AI feature refuses that child again. A task's text reaches Anthropic only when everyone the task is for has AI turned on, so a task shared with a child stays out of AI features until that child does, even when an adult is the one using them.

Reading titles aloud is a separate permission, also off for a child account until a parent turns it on. A parent can say yes when adding the child or later from the parental dashboard, and can withdraw it at any time. It lets the titles of a child's tasks and rewards be read aloud using ElevenLabs, and it does not turn on any other AI feature. Section 10 describes what each request contains.

3.3 Parental Rights

Parents have the following rights regarding their child's account:

• Review: View all data collected from your child
• Export: Download everything we hold about your child in a machine-readable format (JSON). Passwords, sign-in keys, and our own internal records, like undo history, aren't included.
• Delete: Request permanent deletion of child's account and data
• Revoke: Withdraw consent at any time (account becomes inactive)
• Refuse: Stop further data collection

To exercise these rights, visit your Parental Controls Dashboard or email us at privacy@focalnest.com.

3.4 Consent Updates

If we change this policy in a way that affects children, we post the new version on this page, update the version number and the "Last Updated" date, and email the parent on each child account to say what changed. The consent a parent already gave stays in place, and a parent who no longer agrees can withdraw it at any time, as described in section 3.3.

4. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may share data only in these limited cases:

• Within Your Family: Family members see shared tasks, calendar, and activity
• Service Providers: Hosting, email, payments, error monitoring, and the AI services described in section 10, with strict data protection agreements
• Legal Requirements: If required by law (court orders, subpoenas)
• Safety: To protect against fraud, abuse, or safety threats

We never share children's data with advertisers or marketing companies.

5. Data Security

We protect your data with industry-standard security measures:

• HTTPS/TLS encryption for all data transmission
• Passwords stored only as salted hashes (PBKDF2)
• Role-based access controls
• Regular security updates
• Isolated family data (multi-tenant security)

6. Data Retention

We retain your data as follows:

• Account and Family Data: Retained as long as the account is active
• Kept while the account is active, deleted with it: progress logged on a task that isn't finished yet, answers to the planner's weekly check-in, thanks sent between family members, away periods, and the record of each forwarded email or text (its subject, an encrypted excerpt, and what was created from it). These have no shorter window of their own.
• Messages to us and reports about AI text: Kept until the account that sent them is deleted. Messages to us, including beta check-in answers, also reach us by email, and that copy stays in our support inbox.
• Notifications: Deleted after 90 days, along with the list of what an automatic re-plan moved
• Photos and PDFs attached to a forwarded email: Read once, then deleted, within a day at most. Only their file names are kept, alongside what was created from them
• An email forwarded a second time: When someone in your family forwards an email that was already forwarded with a note, its text is kept for up to 48 hours so they can choose "Read it again for everything", then deleted
• Forwarded texts: Read once, then deleted from FocalNest and from Twilio within a day at most. A short excerpt is kept alongside what was created from them, as with a forwarded email. A linked phone number is kept until you unlink it or delete your account
• Focus, Quick Start, and Body Doubling Sessions: Deleted after 2 years
• Race Times: Deleted after 90 days. A race is only ever started by the person racing, and its time is used for their own "usual" and for a suggested estimate.
• "Not Now" Taps: Deleted after 90 days. Only the last two weeks are ever read, to decide whether to offer a gentler rhythm for a task.
• Screens Opened: Deleted after 180 days. For each person, which screens of the app were opened on which day, and how many times — never what was on them or what was typed. We read it to see which parts of FocalNest families actually use.
• Task and Routine Completion History: Deleted after 3 years. This is what the app's pattern insights are built from, which is why it is the longest window — but it is still a window.
• Child Accounts (Consent Revoked): Account disabled immediately, data preserved for 30 days, then deleted
• Account Deletion: 30-day grace period, then permanent deletion
• Backups: Purged from backups within 90 days of deletion

Notifications, sessions, race times, "Not now" taps, screens opened, and completion history are enforced by a sweep that runs every day, and forwarded attachments by one that runs every hour, not by request. We do not currently delete accounts for inactivity alone.

7. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access: Request a copy of your data
• Correction: Update incorrect information
• Deletion: Delete your account and everything in it, or ask us to remove specific data and keep the account — see how to delete your account
• Export: Download your data in JSON format
• Objection: Object to certain data processing activities

To exercise these rights, visit Settings or email privacy@focalnest.com.

8. Cookies and Tracking

We use minimal cookies:

• Essential Cookies: Authentication, session management (required)
• Preferences: Remember your settings (optional)

The app also uses your browser's local storage, which stays on your device. It holds your sign-in, a copy of your settings and of recent screens so the app opens quickly, and the ID that lets a shared device recognize itself (see section 1.2).

We do NOT use: Advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or third-party analytics

9. Google Calendar Integration

FocalNest uses Google Calendar permissions for two things: reading your calendars and writing your FocalNest schedule. Both are optional, and neither is requested until you choose to connect Google Calendar in Settings or during setup. Signing in with Google requests neither. Connecting asks for both on one Google screen, where you can untick writing and keep reading only; you can also turn writing off later in Settings.

• Reading your calendars (calendar.events.readonly and calendar.calendarlist.readonly). This is read-only: FocalNest never creates, edits, or deletes anything on a calendar you connect.
• Writing your FocalNest schedule (calendar.app.created). This permission covers only calendars FocalNest itself created — it does not grant access to your existing calendars or their events. FocalNest creates one calendar, named "FocalNest", and writes only there.

9.1 What We Access and Store

From connected calendars, we read and store event titles, descriptions, locations, start/end times, and attendee/organizer email addresses (used only to match an event to the correct family member — attendee emails are not displayed or shared).

9.2 How We Use This Data

Google Calendar data is used solely to:

• Display your events in your family's planner and daily views
• Schedule tasks around your existing commitments, and reschedule a task when a new event lands on top of it
• Optionally warn you a set number of minutes before an event starts

9.3 What We Write

If you turn on writing, FocalNest creates a calendar named "FocalNest" in your Google account and adds events to it for what you've committed to: events you created in FocalNest, and tasks you've given a specific time or confirmed for a particular day. Scheduling suggestions you haven't confirmed are not written. We write nothing anywhere else.

9.4 Retention and Deletion

Synced events are stored only for as long as the calendar connection is active. Disconnecting a calendar (in Settings, or by revoking FocalNest's access from your Google Account) deletes the associated synced events from FocalNest. Turning off writing removes the events FocalNest added to its own calendar and stops all writing; once neither reading nor writing is on for a Google account, FocalNest revokes its access with Google. The empty calendar is left in your account for you to delete if you want to. If you turn writing back on later with the same Google account, FocalNest writes to that same calendar again rather than creating another one, as long as it's still there.

9.5 Our Commitment

FocalNest's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We never use Google Calendar data for advertising, never sell it, and never share it with third parties except as necessary to provide the sync feature itself.

9.6 Apple Calendar on iPhone and iPad

If you connect Apple Calendar in the iPhone or iPad app, the app asks iOS for calendar access and reads only the calendars you choose, on your device. It sends us the same details as a connected Google calendar: event titles, notes, locations, times, reminders, and the email addresses of people invited, which we use to tell who an event is for.

If you leave it on, the app also keeps a calendar named "FocalNest" on your device showing the same things described in 9.3. If that calendar is in iCloud, Apple syncs it under your account, as it does your other calendars. The app never changes your other calendars. This happens only while the app is open.

Removing a calendar or disconnecting your device in Settings deletes the events we stored from it, and turning off the FocalNest calendar removes it from your device. You can also turn off FocalNest's calendar access at any time in iOS Settings.

10. Third-Party Services

We use these third-party services:

• Hosting: Fly.io / Cloudflare (data encrypted at rest and in transit)
• Email: Postmark, which sends our transactional emails, delivers the message you send us through the contact form on our website, and receives and parses any email you choose to forward to your family's FocalNest address
• Texts (optional): Twilio, which receives any text you choose to forward to FocalNest's number, along with the phone number it came from. We delete each text from Twilio once we have read it. We never send you texts
• Waitlist: Loops, which holds the email address you join the waitlist with
• Error monitoring: Sentry, which receives error reports and a sample of request timings, with cookies and IP addresses left out
• Payments: Stripe (we don't store payment info)
• App updates: Capawesome, which delivers updates to the installed Android and iOS apps. It receives a random ID the app creates for each install, the app and system versions, and the request's IP address, but no account or family data
• Calendar (optional): Google, if you connect a Google Calendar or sign in with Google
• Sign in with Apple (optional): Apple, if you sign in with Apple. Apple tells us your email address, or a private relay address it creates for you if you choose to hide yours, and your name the first time, if you share it. We keep a token from Apple only so we can revoke FocalNest's access with Apple when you delete your account
• Phone and tablet notifications: Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, and Apple's notification service for iPhones and iPads, which it passes them to. These are not switched on yet. Once they are, each notification's title and text go through them to the device, along with a token that names that device. That text can include a task or reward title, a message from a parent, the subject of an email you forwarded, or, on a parent's phone, a child's first name and the card they just found. Children's own phones and tablets receive these too; shared screens left out in a room do not
• Password check: Have I Been Pwned, which tells us whether a new password has appeared in a known data breach. Only the first 5 characters of a scrambled (SHA-1) version of the password are sent, which is not enough to tell which password it was
• Uptime monitoring: Better Stack, which checks from outside that FocalNest is up. It receives no information about you or your family
• AI (Anthropic): When you use an AI feature (drafting a project, generating a first step, suggesting steps for a task, or parsing a forwarded email or text), the text you supplied, any photos or PDFs in a forwarded email or text, and a pseudonymized summary of your family structure (member roles and age ranges, no names) are sent to Anthropic's Claude API. Email parsing additionally sends your existing collection titles and identifiers, the titles of up to 15 recent open tasks, and the names of your family's places (like "Kitchen"), so a forwarded message can be filed against something that already exists. Two uses run without a click: the short observation about your recent momentum on the arrival screen, written from the titles of your own recent tasks and routines (never ones shared with the whole family), and Play mode matching, which sends a new task's title and description when FocalNest doesn't already recognize the wording. Photos are re-saved without their location and camera details before they are sent. When a forwarded email or text links to a page with the details, like a party invitation, Anthropic's servers may open up to two of those links the way a signed-out visitor would; nothing is signed into on your behalf. Anthropic does not use API requests to train their models. AI features are off for a child account unless a parent turns them on for that child, and a parent can turn them off again at any time. A task's text reaches Anthropic only when everyone the task is for has AI turned on, whoever is using the feature. So while one child's AI features are off, a task shared with the whole family stays out of every AI feature, for adults too. Because your own text is sent as written, do not include sensitive personal, health, or financial information in an AI prompt. Anthropic Privacy Policy.
• Read-aloud and narration (ElevenLabs): When a task or reward shows up for a child who is still learning to read, its title is sent to ElevenLabs' text-to-speech service if those exact words have never been spoken on FocalNest before; the audio is saved and reused after that. Only the title's words are sent, with nothing about the child or your family. For a child, this happens only when a parent has allowed read-aloud for that child, a permission separate from AI features. The name of the routine or event a kitchen screen counts down to is sent the same way, so the screen can say it out loud; a child's own routine is only sent once a parent has allowed read-aloud for them, and events synced from Google, iCal, or Outlook are never sent. Ahead of time, we also use ElevenLabs to produce narration for collectibles, narration for Play mode adventures, and Play mode's background sounds, from text and prompts we write, with no customer data. Titles read aloud before October 12, 2026 were rendered by OpenAI; when we switched, each of those titles was sent to ElevenLabs once more so it could keep being read in the new voice.
• Asset generation (OpenAI): We use OpenAI to produce collectible card art and ambient backgrounds ahead of time, from prompts we write. No customer data is sent to OpenAI.

All service providers operate under data processing agreements. A full list, including what each one processes and where it is located, is on our subprocessors page.

11. International Users

FocalNest is based in the United States, and our infrastructure and service providers are primarily located there. The exceptions are listed on our subprocessors page: Capawesome, which delivers app updates, is based in Germany, and Cloudflare serves requests from data centers around the world. The password check and our uptime monitor also run outside the US, and neither receives personal data. If you use FocalNest from outside the US, your data is transferred to and processed in the US.

We apply the same protections to everyone regardless of where they live: we collect the minimum we need, we don't sell data, and the access, correction, export, and deletion rights described in Section 7 are available to all users, not only those in a particular jurisdiction.

We are not currently established in the EU and have not appointed an EU representative under GDPR Article 27. If you are in the EU or UK and have a question about how your data is handled, email privacy@focalnest.com and we will respond within the timeframes in Section 13.

12. Changes to This Policy

When we make changes:

• We post the new version on this page
• We update the "Last Updated" date at the top
• We increment the version number
• For a material change, we email account holders to say what changed
• For children: We email the parent on each child account, as described in section 3.4

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices:

For COPPA-related questions or to exercise parental rights, please include "COPPA Request" in your subject line.