Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

PointSprout is published by Cypress Avenue Design, LLC, a limited liability company. When this policy says "we," "us," or "our," it refers to Cypress Avenue Design, LLC.

Questions? Email us at patrick@cypressavenuedesign.com.

2. Who This App Is For

PointSprout is designed for parents and legal guardians (18+) to manage a behavior point system for children in their care. The parent-facing interface requires an adult Apple ID. A simplified child-facing mode exists for children, but all content visible in that mode is set by the parent — children cannot independently create an account, modify settings, or submit personal information without parent action.

3. What Information We Collect

Information You Provide

Information Collected Automatically

4. How We Use Your Information

• To operate the app — sync point data across the devices in your family, display balances and history, enable the rewards shop, and run the scheduling system.
• To send push notifications — check-in reminders for scheduled activities, reward requests and approvals, family messages and point transfers, Screen Time alerts, make-up challenge notifications, and family-membership notices (such as being removed from a family). Visible notifications include the relevant names and message text by design. You can disable notifications at any time in iOS Settings.
• To enforce Screen Time — when you enable Screen Time features, we use Apple's Family Controls framework locally on the device to lock the apps you choose. We send a background (silent) push to the child's device to apply or lift a lock when you lock or unlock their apps; granting a timed extension also shows the child a brief banner.
• To sync within your family — family data is stored in Firestore so that everyone you invite to a family sees the same information in real time on their own device.

We do not use your data for any purpose beyond operating PointSprout for your family.

Sharing within your family

PointSprout lets you invite other people to a family using an invite code. You can invite a co-parent (full access) or a caregiver such as a grandparent, babysitter, or nanny (can record and manage points but cannot change who is in the family). Joining always requires your approval. Entering an invite code only sends a request to join; an owner or co-parent must approve it before that person — or a child's device — gains any access to the family. The code by itself never grants access, so a code that is shared, forwarded, or guessed cannot let anyone in without an approval, and you can deny a request you don't recognize. Invite codes are also single-use and time-limited. Everyone you approve can see all of that family's information — your children's names, birthdays, profile photos, point history, rewards, achievements, and family messages — so only approve people you trust with your children's information.

The owner can remove any co-parent or caregiver, and a co-parent can remove caregivers — at any time. Removal immediately revokes that person's access and regenerates the invite code so the old one can no longer be used; the removed person is notified. We keep a small internal record of a removal (including that device's notification token) only long enough to deliver the notice; it is deleted immediately afterward.

One account can belong to more than one family — for example, a caregiver who helps two households. Each family's data is stored separately; you can only access families you are a member of, and switching between them never mixes their information.

5. How We Share Your Information

We share data with no advertising networks, data brokers, or analytics companies. The only third-party services that process your data are:

• Google Firebase (Alphabet Inc.) — provides our database (Firestore), authentication, cloud storage, push notification infrastructure (FCM), and server-side Cloud Functions (used to deliver notifications and to enforce member removal). Firebase processes data under Google's privacy terms as a data processor on our behalf. Google does not use your family's data for advertising. See Firebase Privacy & Security.
• Apple — processes Sign in with Apple and your auto-renewing annual subscription through the App Store. Apple handles all billing; we never receive your payment card details or billing information. So that one subscription can only ever fund one family, the app does send us the subscription's App Store transaction identifier — a random number that contains no payment, card, or identity details — and we keep it linked to the family it funds until that family is deleted or its paid term ends. Apple's privacy practices are governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

Aside from the family members you invite (see "Sharing within your family" above), we do not share your family's data with anyone. We may disclose information if required by law, but we will notify you to the extent we are legally permitted to do so.

6. Children's Privacy (COPPA)

PointSprout is designed to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

• We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. Information about a child (name, birthday, photo) is entered by a parent or guardian. The one exception: on a parent-configured kid device, a child may pick a new profile photo or Kid Mode background — it takes effect only after a parent reviews and approves it, and it is deleted if the parent declines.
• Children use the app in a simplified, parent-configured mode. Children cannot independently create accounts, modify settings, or contact us.
• Information about a child is visible to the members of that child's family — the parents and any caregivers a parent chooses to invite. A parent or co-parent can remove a caregiver's access at any time. It is never shared with anyone outside the family, or used for advertising or profiling.
• Parents can delete their children's data at any time by deleting the family or the account — see "Data Retention" below.

If you believe a child under 13 has independently provided personal information to us without parental consent, please contact us immediately at patrick@cypressavenuedesign.com.

7. Data Security

• All data is transmitted over encrypted connections (TLS/HTTPS).
• Firebase encrypts data at rest.
• Firestore security rules restrict data access to the authenticated members of your specific family. No other user can read or write your family's data.
• No one can add themselves to your family. New members are added only after an existing owner or co-parent approves the join request, enforced on our servers — so a shared or guessed invite code cannot grant access on its own.
• The Kid Mode PIN is stored only in the iOS Keychain on the device — it is never uploaded to our servers.
• Children's profile photos are stored in Firebase Storage and are reached through a private, unguessable download link. Because that link — rather than an account login — is what grants access to the image, we keep it only inside your family's records and never expose it outside your family.

8. Data Retention

Your family's data is retained only for as long as you keep your account or your families. There is no separate archive — deleting your account or a family removes that data from our systems; it is not hidden or held for later. You can remove your data in two ways:

• Delete your account (open Settings from the gear icon → Account → Delete Account) — removes your data from every family you belong to, in one step. Any family where you are the only member — or where only children's devices remain — is deleted entirely: the children's profiles and photos (including the photos in cloud storage), point transactions, rewards, activities, messages and transfers, requests, achievements and badge progress, Screen Time records, the family record itself, its invite code, and any internal member-removal records. A family you share with another parent or caregiver is not deleted — that data belongs to them too — but you are removed from it: your access ends, your name comes off the family's records, and if you were the owner, ownership passes to another adult so the family keeps working for them. (If your subscription funded a family that continues without you, the transaction identifier described in section 5 stays linked to that family until its paid term ends.) Your user record (including your notification token) and your Firebase Authentication account are then deleted, and your Sign in with Apple token is revoked. Your family data stored on your device — the on-device database for every family, your Kid Mode settings, and the Kid Mode PIN in the Keychain — is cleared at the same time.
• Leave or delete a specific family — if you are the family's only member, or the only adult in it with just children's devices remaining, the family and all of its data (including children's photos in cloud storage) are deleted; if other parents or caregivers remain, leaving removes your access and your name from the family's records, and the family continues for them.

In rare circumstances — for example, if your device loses its internet connection at the exact moment a deletion runs — some data can survive the cleanup. If that ever concerns you, email us at patrick@cypressavenuedesign.com and we will remove anything left behind within 30 days. You can also use that address for any deletion request at any time.

9. Your Rights

All users:

• Access — all your family's data is visible directly in the app.
• Correction — you can edit any record in the app at any time.
• Deletion — delete your account, or leave/delete a family, in Settings to remove your data (see "Data Retention").
• Notification opt-out — disable push notifications at any time in iOS Settings.

California residents — under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), you have the right to know what personal information we collect, request deletion, and opt out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information. To exercise any right, contact us at patrick@cypressavenuedesign.com.

10. Third-Party Links and Services

PointSprout does not contain links to third-party websites and does not integrate with social media platforms, advertising networks, or third-party analytics SDKs beyond Firebase (described above).

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of the app after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. We will make reasonable efforts to notify users of material changes via the app or App Store release notes.

12. Screen Time and Family Controls

PointSprout optionally uses Apple's Family Controls framework and Screen Time API to lock selected apps on a child's device. This feature:

• Is entirely optional and must be explicitly enabled by the parent.
• Stores the selected apps only on the child's device — the device where the locks apply (not uploaded to Firestore).
• Uses Apple's APIs, which are governed by Apple's own privacy policies.
• Sends a background (silent) push (via FCM) to the child's device to apply or lift a lock; granting a timed extension also shows the child a brief banner. These messages carry only the technical fields needed to apply or lift a restriction — depending on the action, the type of action plus a per-child identifier and, as applicable, the family identifier, an expiry time, or the child's current point balance. They never include names, email addresses, photos, or message contents.
• When you grant a temporary extension, a small record — including the child's identifier, the granted duration, its point cost, the time it was granted, and an expiry time — is stored in Firestore so the child's device can lift the lock in real time. This record does not include which apps are locked.

13. Contact Us

Return to PointSprout home

© 2026 Cypress Avenue Design, LLC · PointSprout — no ads, no tracking. Cancel anytime. We never sell your data.