Privacy policy

This is the privacy policy for KiddiBuddi. It explains what we collect about you and your child, why, who helps us, how long we keep it and what you can do about it.

Who we are

KiddiBuddi is run by Olive Branch VB, a company registered in South Africa. We are the responsible party for the information described here. Our Information Officer is [TO CONFIRM: who, expected to be the director] and can be reached at privacy@kiddibuddi.com [TO CONFIRM: Information Officer registration with the Information Regulator, and that this mailbox exists].

The short version

• Only parents and guardians have accounts. Children never sign up and never sign in.
• We ask for as little about your child as we can, to tell them a story with them in it: a first name, boy or girl, an age group, how they look in the story, and what they like.
• We never ask for a photo, a birth date, a surname, a school or where you live.
• We never sell, rent or share your information for advertising, and we have no ads or trackers.
• You can see, download, correct or delete everything at any time.

What we collect about you

• Account: your email address, how you sign in (a passkey, a code we email you, or your Google or Apple account when those are offered), and your language.
• The other parent: if you invite a second parent, we keep the invited email address only as a scrambled code until they accept, and they then share the household with the same rights as you.
• Bible in the stories (optional): when you turn it on or off, we remember your choice for the household, encrypted. It only changes which lines show in the stories. We do not ask what you believe.
• Referrals: if you share a referral code, we keep the code (encrypted) and a link between the two households that used it, so we can give the bonus. The link is cleared when either household closes.
• Consent records: when you agreed to processing your child's information, which version of the wording you agreed to, and the wording itself.
• Payments: which story or pass you bought, the amount and when. Payments are handled by our payment provider, Stitch [TO CONFIRM: payment provider and its legal name]. We never see or store card or bank details, and we send the provider nothing about your child, only the amount and our own reference.
• Technical: security logs (for example the time of a sign-in) kept for a short time [TO CONFIRM: how many days] to protect your account, with names and emails removed.

What we collect about your child, and why

• First name: so the story can say it, and so the narrator can say it in the story's sentences.
• Boy or girl: so the story and pictures fit.
• Age group (3 to 4, 5 to 6 or 7): so the words and activities fit their age.
• How they look in the story, chosen from our pictures (skin tone and hair): so they can see themselves as the hero. These are drawings we made; we never use photos.
• What they like, chosen from a list: so the stories match their interests.
• The theme you choose (what you would like the story to help with): so the story fits. It is encrypted, like the name.
• What your child calls you, and your pet name for them (optional): so you can appear in the story the way you do at home.
• Progress (stories read, choices made, activities done, a best score for each game): so their story world grows and they can replay stories.
• The farm (which animals were chosen, from a list, and what food they were fed): so the farm grows as they read stories. It is encrypted, like the name.

Consent

The law treats a child's information with extra care. We only process it with your consent as the child's parent or guardian. You give it separately, before you add a child, and you can withdraw it at any time on the parent page. If you withdraw it, we delete the child profiles made under it, with their progress.

Cookies and browser storage

We use only what the site needs to work. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.

• kb_lang: remembers whether you chose Afrikaans or English. It holds only that choice and lasts a year.
• kb_child: a flag that turns on when a story is opened, so the parent pages ask the grown-up check first. It holds only a flag and lasts up to 30 days.
• kb_invite: when you open an invite link as the invited parent, it holds the invite code until the invite ends. It is only sent to the parent pages.
• kb_grown: a flag that lapses after 5 minutes without activity once you pass the grown-up check. It holds only a flag.
• kb_gate: remembers how many times in a row the grown-up check was answered wrongly, for a short pause. It holds only a number and a time and lasts 10 minutes.
• Session cookie: keeps you signed in as a parent. It holds a random code that is meaningless without our server. It lasts 7 days from your last visit and is removed when you sign out.
• Sign-in steps: while you sign in with a passkey, Google or Apple, our sign-in system may set short-lived cookies that hold only the step in progress [TO CONFIRM: list their exact names after a real sign-in].
• Browser storage on your device: a note that you opened a story or saw a message, and your choices for sound, motion and turning pages by itself, and, if you use the weekly plan, the plan itself, which is encrypted and never leaves your device.
• Payment page: when you pay, you are sent to our payment provider's own page, which may set its own cookies under its own policy. We are sent back here with only our reference.

Where your information is kept and who helps us

We use a small number of service providers. Each one may use the information only to provide its service to us, under an agreement with us [TO CONFIRM: operator agreements with each provider].

• Cloudflare: runs the website, sends our emails (such as your sign-in code) and stores pictures and voice clips (worldwide network).
• Google and Apple: if you choose to sign in with them, they tell us your email address.
• Neon: our database (European Union, Frankfurt).
• Google (Gemini): records the narrator reading a story sentence that holds your child's first name, and what they call you or your pet name for them when the sentence has them (United States and other Google regions).
• Stitch: takes payments (South Africa) [TO CONFIRM: payment provider].

Some of these providers are outside South Africa. We only use providers whose data protection laws or binding agreements protect your information at least as well as South African law does [TO CONFIRM: that each provider meets this, and whether authorisation from the Information Regulator is needed for these transfers]. When we record a sentence, we send only that one sentence of the published story, with the name in it, never anything else about your child.

How we protect it

Your child's name, what they call you and your pet names for them are encrypted before they are stored. Our staff cannot see them in our tools. Only you and, if you invite one, the other parent can open your child's profile. We remove names and emails from our logs, and only a few people can reach our systems [TO CONFIRM: that they use two-step sign-in]. If a breach ever affects your information, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible.

How long we keep it

• While your account is open, we keep what we need to run it.
• If you delete a child, their profile and progress are deleted straight away.
• If you close your account, your profile information is deleted, apart from payment records, which we keep for as long as tax law requires. Copies in our database provider's backups disappear when those backups expire [TO CONFIRM: backup period].
• A recording of a story sentence with a first name is not linked to an account, and one recording is shared by every child whose sentence comes out exactly the same. If no account has used it for 90 days, we delete it.

Your rights

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), you can ask what we hold, get a copy (Download my data on the parent page), correct it, object to processing, or have it deleted. You can do most of this yourself on the parent page, or write to privacy@kiddibuddi.com, and we will reply within 30 days [TO CONFIRM: reply time]. If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za).

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will email you and ask you to agree again before your child's information is used in a new way.