Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 16, 2026
Kidzo is where Ottawa parents organize the driving, playdates and classes their kids already have. The whole product runs on trust between neighbours, so this policy is written to be read — plain language first, detail after. It covers the Kidzo mobile app and the kidzo.ca website.
The short version
- Your exact address stays yours. It's shared only when you say yes to a specific plan — never before, never by default.
- No live location. Ever. There's no real-time map following anyone. Updates like "picked up" and "home safe" come from a parent's own tap, and go to your circle only.
- No payments, no ads, no selling data. Kidzo processes no money and shows no ads, so there's no payment data to hold and no advertiser to feed.
- Delete everything, any time. One button in the app removes your account and what you added with it.
1. Who we are
Kidzo is made in Ottawa, Canada. When this policy says "we", it means the Kidzo team; "the app" means the Kidzo mobile app, and "the site" means kidzo.ca. Questions about anything here: hello@kidzo.ca.
2. What we collect
2.1 Your account
- Sign-in details: your email address, plus a password if you sign up with email. If you use "Continue with Google" or "Continue with Apple", we receive your name and email from that provider — never your password.
- Profile: your name, an optional phone number, your driving preference, and optional details other parents in your circle asked for in the real world anyway — like what your car looks like and its plate, so the right kid gets in the right car at pickup.
- Photo: an optional profile picture. Files live in a public storage folder under an unguessable key; only you can upload or replace yours.
- Home area: a neighbourhood-level pin and label that you place. It's approximate by design — it helps suggest nearby families and sensible plans, and it is not your street address. You can also choose to hide the area label from others entirely.
2.2 Your kids
You (the parent or guardian) may add details about your children: first name, age, grade, whether they need a booster seat, and optional notes like an emergency contact. This information exists so the other parents you chose can care for your kid properly on the days they help. It's visible only inside circles and plans you put it in — it's never public and never used for advertising.
2.3 What you do in the app
- Coordination: the circles you join, the weekly day your family covers, playdate invitations and replies, and messages with your circle.
- Status taps: moments like "picked up" and "home safe" that a parent taps themselves. They're shared with the plan's circle only.
- Playdate addresses: if you host a playdate at home, the address you type is attached to that one plan and revealed only to the organizer and the families who said yes. Invitees who decline (always free, always quiet) never see it.
- Class reminders: if you set a weekly class reminder, we store the class, day and time so we can ping your phone about an hour before — and, if you have linked an Echo, optionally announce it there too.
2.4 Optional Echo reminders
Echo reminders are off until you turn them on and link an Amazon Alexa account. Then Amazon holds the reminder facts you opted into (for example a playdate window or a class reminder). Unlinking or deleting your Kidzo account asks Amazon to clear those reminders. Kidzo never hears your Echo conversations.
2.5 Device & diagnostics
- Notifications: a push token for your device, so invites and circle updates can reach you. You can pause or narrow notifications in the app.
- Crash reports (Sentry): release builds send crash and error details — device model, OS version, app version, and what went wrong — so we can fix it. Around an error, Sentry may capture a short replay of the app's screens with all text and images masked out.
- Usage analytics (PostHog): which screens and features get used, keyed to an internal account ID. Our analytics layer strips emails, names, phone numbers and addresses from every event before it leaves the device, and session recording is switched off.
2.6 On the website
If you leave your email on kidzo.ca to ask for a beta invite (or as a program provider), we store that email and the date. That's the whole list. kidzo.ca sets no cookies and runs no analytics; its fonts load from Google Fonts, which sees the standard request data any web server sees (like your IP address).
3. What we deliberately don't collect
No real-time location. The app never reads your device's location in the background — or in the foreground. The only location data in Kidzo is the approximate area pin you place yourself and the addresses you type into specific plans.
No payment information. Kidzo never moves money. Coordination between families is free forever, and anything you pay a class provider happens directly with them — so we have no card numbers, no billing history, nothing.
Nothing from children. Kidzo is used by adults. Kids don't have accounts, and we never knowingly collect information directly from a child.
4. How we use your information
- To run the product: match nearby families, keep circles and plans in sync, deliver messages and notifications.
- To keep the lights on: fix crashes, understand which features help and which confuse.
- To reach you when it matters: account emails (like confirming your address or resetting a password) and — for the site's email list — a beta invite when spots open.
- To meet legal obligations, and nothing more. We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't use it for advertising.
5. Who can see what
Most "sharing" in Kidzo is you sharing with parents you chose, and the app is built so the database itself enforces the boundaries — not just the screens:
- Circle members see the plans, messages and kid details that live in that circle.
- Playdate invitees see the plan; the host's address appears only after they say yes; declines are visible to the organizer alone.
- Everyone else sees nothing. There are no public profiles and no browsing other families.
6. Service providers we rely on
Like every small product, Kidzo runs on infrastructure from a few companies. They process data on our behalf, under their own security and privacy commitments:
- Supabase — our database, sign-in, and file storage; holds the account, profile, kid, photo, and coordination data described above.
- Google Firebase — hosts kidzo.ca and stores the website email list.
- Google & Apple — only if you choose their sign-in buttons.
- Amazon — only if you turn on Echo reminders and link an Alexa account. Amazon then holds the reminder facts you opted into. Off until you link. Deleting your Kidzo account asks Amazon to clear those reminders.
- Expo — delivers push notifications to your device, and ships app updates.
- Sentry — receives crash reports, with all text and images in session replay masked.
- PostHog — receives the stripped-down usage events. Session recording is off.
- Resend — sends account emails (confirmation, password reset) from kidzo.ca addresses.
Some of these providers store data outside Canada, including in the United States, where it may be subject to local law. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or transfer it if Kidzo is ever acquired — in which case this policy's promises follow the data.
7. Keeping it, deleting it
We keep your information while your account is active. When you're done, Account → Delete my account in the app removes your account and what you added — profile, kids, photos, circle memberships, plans, messages, class reminders, and any linked Echo reminders — via a deletion routine on our servers, not just a hidden flag on your phone. Encrypted backups of the database still hold a copy until those backups rotate: about 7 days on Supabase's own snapshots, and up to 90 days in our encrypted GitHub backup artifacts. We don't restore a deleted family from those backups except to meet a legal duty. Crash reports and analytics events age out on our providers' retention schedules. To come off the website email list, or to have us double-check nothing is left behind, email hello@kidzo.ca.
8. Security
Data travels encrypted, and access rules are enforced in the database itself, so even a bug in a screen can't show one family another family's private details. No system is perfect — if we ever learn of a breach that affects you, we'll tell you what happened and what we're doing about it.
9. Your rights
Under Canadian privacy law (and depending on where you live, other laws too), you can ask us to show you the personal information we hold about you, correct it, or delete it. Most of that you can do yourself in the app; for the rest, email hello@kidzo.ca and we'll respond promptly. If you're not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
10. Children's privacy
Kidzo's services are directed to parents and guardians, not to children, and we do not knowingly collect information directly from anyone under 18. Information about children exists in Kidzo only because their own parent or guardian entered it, controls it, and can edit or delete it at any time. If you believe a child's information reached us any other way, contact us and we'll remove it.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top; if a change meaningfully affects what we collect or share, we'll also tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
12. Contact
Email hello@kidzo.ca — privacy questions, deletion requests, or anything this page didn't answer. Skeptical is the right starting place; we'd rather explain than assume.