Privacy Excellence

Privacy Policy.

Your family's safety and data security are our highest priority. We are fully committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with the South African Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

Our Privacy Promise

"We do not sell your family data. We do not use your private communications for advertising. Your data exists only to serve your children and your co-parenting journey."

1. Information We Collect

To provide a structured co-parenting platform, we collect the following categories of information:

  • Account Information: Names, email addresses, phone numbers, and any identity details you provide. Entering an identity detail does not independently verify it.
  • Co-Parenting Data: Financial records, receipts, custody schedules, task completion logs, and communication history.
  • Child Information: Names, dates of birth, medical details, school activities, and shoe/clothing sizes.
  • Supporting Network (The Village): Contact details for grandparents, nannies, or drivers invited to the platform.

2. Purpose of Collection (POPIA)

We process your personal information strictly for the purposes for which it was collected, including:

  • Organizing timestamped records and supported action history for co-parenting logistics.
  • Generating reports for mediation or legal proceedings.
  • Facilitating secure communication between parents.
  • Enabling administrative features like smart receipt scanning.

3. Data Sharing & Third Parties

We only share your data with third parties in the following limited circumstances:

  • Your Explicit Consent: When you invite a co-parent, professional, or "Village" member.
  • Functional Providers: Essential service providers like cloud storage or payment processors (e.g., PayFast or similar SA-approved gateways).
  • Optional AI processing: Google Gemini processes the content you choose to submit for the two features described below.
  • Legal Requirement: When compelled by a valid South African court order.

Optional external AI features

Optional AI tone check: send this unsent message text to Google Gemini for a tone suggestion before sending. Names or child/family details you type are included. Attachments and account/relationship records are not sent. Leave unchecked to send normally without AI.

Optional AI receipt scan: send the uploaded receipt image to Google Gemini to suggest expense fields. Visible names, purchases, child/family details and any embedded image metadata are included. Account/relationship records are not sent. Leave unchecked to upload evidence and enter details manually. Scans accept JPEG, PNG or WebP up to 3 MiB.

The server sends only the chosen message text or receipt image and processing instructions to the model, not your Firebase sign-in token, user ID, account profile, relationship identifiers, attachments to a message, or stored co-parenting records. Content you submit may itself contain personal information, including information about children. AI suggestions can be incorrect; review them before use.

Our server uses your authenticated user ID for access and shared usage limits. The usage record contains counters, time windows and an in-flight reservation, not message or receipt content. We do not establish provider retention periods, training use, deletion commitments or processing locations in this notice; this notice makes no guarantees about those provider practices. Leaving either optional feature unchecked prevents that feature from sending content to the model and does not prevent ordinary messaging or manual expense entry.

4. Data Security

Family Anchor uses Firebase services and application access rules to restrict records to authorized users. Supported record workflows retain timestamps, versions and action history. These controls do not establish end-to-end encryption, absolute data integrity or tamper-proof storage. Exported files must be handled separately by the person downloading them.

5. Your Rights

As a data subject under POPIA, you have the right to:

  • Access and correct your personal information.
  • Request the deletion of your account (subject to certain legal retention requirements where an active co-parenting agreement is in place).
  • Object to certain processing activities.
  • Lodge a complaint with the South African Information Regulator.

Deletion requests require identity and shared-record review; deleting a sign-in account does not automatically erase shared family history or uploaded files. Selected-record exports are available in supported features, but a complete account-wide export is not currently implemented. Contact the Information Officer to request a review.

6. Children's Privacy

Given the nature of the app, we process information about minors. We require at least one parent to confirm they have the legal right or parental consent to store this information on the Platform for the child's benefit.

7. Contact the Information Officer

For any privacy-related queries or to exercise your rights under POPIA, please contact our Information Officer at privacy@familyanchor.co.za.

Protecting the integrity of South African families since 2026.