Privacy policy

1. Who is responsible

Responsible for your data under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, where it applies, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

Questions about your data, or a request: write to us at the email address above.

2. What we use and why

Your account

You sign in with Apple. ChorePlay asks Apple only for your name, never for your email address. Firebase Authentication then keeps a user ID, the ID Apple gives ChorePlay for your Apple ID, the name Apple shared, and when you created the account and last signed in. We need this so you can sign in and your household knows it’s you.

Your profile

The name and emoji you choose, your iPhone’s language, your notification settings and your answers to “Who can pause my apps?”. Your household sees your name, your emoji and since when you’re a member. Only you see the rest.

What you share with your household

Everything you add to a household is visible to its members, and only to them:

• the household’s name, emoji and settings (time zone and times);
• chores with their titles, notes, emoji and deadlines, who added them and for whom, and when they were accepted, snoozed, done, skipped or missed; repeating chores; reactions;
• photos you take when you finish a chore. Your iPhone makes them smaller and removes their metadata (such as the location) before they’re uploaded;
• what you write when you free your apps in an emergency, ask for more time or ask to skip a chore;
• the names and emoji of your lists of apps to pause, never which apps are on them;
• the household’s history (for example who joined and who did what) and missed chores per person;
• invite codes.

Our database rules check on every request that only members of the household can read its data.

Your iPhone

For each iPhone you use ChorePlay on, we store a random installation ID, the push token (the address for notifications), the platform, the app version and language, whether notifications and Screen Time access are allowed (only yes or no), a short code when pausing can’t work (for example because Screen Time access was turned off), and when the app was last opened. We use this to deliver notifications the right way and to find problems. Only you can read it; your household never sees it.

Notifications

Notifications travel from our server through Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google) and Apple’s push notification service to your iPhone. To show them, and to pause apps on time even when ChorePlay is closed, they carry what’s needed, for example a chore’s title and deadline and the name of the person who added it. The photo of a finished chore is a link in the notification that stops working after 24 hours at the latest. You choose which notifications you get under Me › Notifications, and you can turn them off in the iPhone’s Settings.

What stays on your iPhone

The apps you choose to pause. You pick them with Apple’s Screen Time picker, and your choice is stored only on your iPhone. We never see which apps you use or picked, and nobody in your household sees whether your apps are paused.

Also only on your iPhone: a copy of your household’s data so the app and pausing work offline, photos waiting to upload, and a short technical log (IDs and times, no names or chore titles).

When you write to us

If you email us, we get your email address, your message and anything you attach, and use them to answer. If you write from the app (Me › Contact), it adds your app and iOS version. If you report a photo, a chore’s notes or a reason in the app, your mail app prepares an email with the IDs of the chore, the household and your account, so we can find the content. You see the email before you send it.

This website

This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no tracking, and loads nothing from other servers. Firebase Hosting (Google) processes your IP address and browser details to deliver the pages and protect them from abuse, and keeps IP addresses for a few months.

Security and logs

All connections are encrypted, and Google encrypts the stored data. Our server functions log technical events with IDs and codes, not names, chore titles or the text of notifications. Google’s request logs of the server functions contain the IP address of each request and are kept for 30 days. To prevent misuse, we count some requests per account for a day, for example attempts to join with an invite code. To check that requests come from the genuine ChorePlay app, the app uses Firebase App Check with Apple’s App Attest: your iPhone gets a short-lived token that our server checks. Google keeps these tokens for at most 7 days (up to 30 days for replay protection).

3. Legal bases

Where the GDPR applies, we process your data on these bases:

• to provide ChorePlay to you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): your account, your household, chores and notifications;
• our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) in keeping ChorePlay secure, preventing misuse and answering your emails;
• your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) for notifications, which you give in iOS and can withdraw there at any time.

4. Who else processes data

We use these services to run ChorePlay:

• Google (Firebase and Google Cloud), on our behalf: the database (Cloud Firestore), photo storage (Cloud Storage) and server functions (Cloud Functions) run in Zurich, Switzerland (region europe-west6). Firebase Authentication runs only in the US. Firebase Cloud Messaging and Firebase Hosting use Google’s servers worldwide.
• Apple: Sign in with Apple and Apple’s push notification service, under Apple’s own privacy policy.
• Our email provider, for the emails you send us: Apple (iCloud Mail; Apple Distribution International Ltd., Ireland)

Members of your household see what you share there. Beyond that, we pass on your data only if the law requires it. We don’t sell or rent it, and we use no advertising or analytics tools.

5. Data outside Switzerland

Some data is processed outside Switzerland: sign-in data in the US (Firebase Authentication), and notifications, website requests and technical logs possibly on Google’s servers worldwide. Google LLC is certified under the Swiss-U.S. and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, which Switzerland and the EU recognise as adequate protection. Apple processes the data for signing in and for notifications under its own privacy policy.

6. How long we keep data

• Account, profile and devices: until you delete your account. Firebase Authentication then also removes the data from its backups within 180 days. It keeps the IP addresses it logs for a few weeks. When you sign out on an iPhone, its push token is removed.
• Household content: as long as the household exists. When you leave, your open chores go back to Up for grabs; the chores you created or did and the history stay with the household. When the last member leaves, the household is deleted with everything in it, photos included.
• Photos: until the household is deleted. Deleting your account deletes the photos you added in your household. Deleting a chore, or marking it as not done after all, doesn’t delete its photo yet, and photos stay with a household you left earlier. Automatic deletion after a set time is planned but not active yet; this policy will say so when it is.
• Invite codes: they work for 7 days and are kept until the household is deleted.
• Records against misuse and similar technical records: about a day. The record of an account deletion in progress: up to 30 days.
• Emails: as long as we need them to help you.

7. Deleting your account

In the app: Me › Delete account (during setup, in the … menu). You confirm with Sign in with Apple, and ChorePlay asks Apple to end its connection to your Apple ID.

Deleted are your account, profile and devices, your settings and lists of apps to pause, your answers on who may pause your apps, the photos you added to chores in your household, your records of missed chores, and what you wrote about yourself when freeing your apps, asking for more time or skipping.

Your household goes on without you. Your open chores go back to Up for grabs. Chores you created or did stay in its history with their titles and notes, linked to an internal ID instead of your name; your name and emoji stay only in the entries that say you joined or left. If you’re the last member, the household is deleted with everything in it.

On your iPhone, every paused app is free at once, and ChorePlay’s data is removed. If you can’t use the app any more, write to us and we’ll help.

8. Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your data, have it corrected or deleted, restrict or object to its processing, and get it in a machine-readable format. Write to us; we answer within a few days, at the latest within 30 days. Much of it you can do yourself in the app: change your name and emoji (Me › Profile), your notifications and who can pause your apps, or delete your account.

You can also complain to a data protection authority: in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), in the EU the authority where you live.

www.edoeb.admin.ch

9. Age

ChorePlay is made for adults who share a household. We don’t ask for anyone’s age, and ChorePlay isn’t aimed at children.

10. Changes

When ChorePlay changes, we update this policy, with a new version and date at the top. We announce important changes on this page before they apply.