Privacy policy
FamilyPin lets the members of a family see where each of them is. It is designed to know as little about you as possible: there are no accounts, and everything you share is encrypted on your phone before it leaves it.
Who we are
FamilyPin is developed by Paco Velasco, an individual based in Spain. Contact: familypin.antihero412@passinbox.com.
No accounts
We never ask for your email, phone number or a password. The first time you open the app, your phone gets a random identifier (Firebase anonymous sign-in) that is not linked to your identity. Joining a family requires a single-use invitation (link or QR code) that expires after 24 hours.
What is shared and how it is protected
When a family is created, the phone generates a key that only the phones in that family hold. Everything you share is encrypted with it (XChaCha20-Poly1305) before it is sent. The server stores this data but has no key to read it, and neither do we. This protection relies on the service not interfering when the family's phones pass the key to one another.
| Data | Purpose | Who can read it |
|---|---|---|
| Your name in the family and the family name | So members know who is who | Your family |
| Approximate and precise location, also when the app is closed (every 100 m or 5 min) | Showing you on your family's map | Your family |
| Battery level and charging state | Letting your family know if your battery is running low | Your family |
| Places (name, position, radius), arrivals and departures | "Arrived at Home" alerts | Your family |
| Route of the last 24 hours | Viewing today's route | Only the people you choose (by default, the owner and admins) |
| Routes from previous days | Viewing past routes | Stored only on your phone (90 days). If someone allowed asks for one, your phone sends it encrypted for that person only |
| Device notification token | Alerting your family instantly | Your family (it is stored encrypted) and, to deliver the notifications, Expo and Firebase Cloud Messaging |
What the server can see
For the app to work, the server (Google Firebase) sees in clear: the random identifiers of each phone and family, each member's role (owner, admin or member), the date they joined, each phone's public key, expiry dates and, when someone asks for an older route, which two identifiers the request is between. It also sees:
- When and how often each phone sends updates, which reveals when a phone is on the move and when something happens, such as an arrival.
- The size of the encrypted data.
- Which member wrote each alert and each place.
- Who is allowed to see whose routes.
- Who created each invitation and who used it.
Like any internet service, it also sees the IP address the phone connects from. It cannot read names, locations, routes, or what the places and alerts say.
How long data is kept
- Live location: only the latest one, replaced on every update.
- Today's route: the last 24 hours.
- Arrival and departure alerts: 30 days.
- Requests for older routes: 1 hour.
- Invitations: 24 hours or until used.
- Routes from previous days, on your phone: 90 days.
Once data expires, the service deletes it automatically, within about a day. Routes from previous days are kept only on your phone, and the app excludes its data from Android cloud backup.
When you leave a family or are removed from it, your profile, your location, your route of the last 24 hours and your copy of the family key are deleted from the server, and your phone erases its keys and saved routes (if you were removed, the next time the app connects). The family key is changed so you cannot read anything new. Alerts and places you wrote stay with the family until they expire or someone deletes them (alerts expire after 30 days).
When the owner deletes the family, the app deletes from the server, there and then, everything that belongs to that family: live locations, places, alerts, the 24-hour routes, pending route requests, invitations, the encrypted copies of the key, every member's entry and the family itself. Each of the other members' phones erases its own copy (keys and saved routes) the next time the app connects.
Third-party services
- Google Firebase (Firestore in the European Union, europe-west1, and anonymous sign-in): stores the encrypted data. Firebase privacy.
- Expo and Firebase Cloud Messaging: deliver a silent notification to your family's phones so they check for updates. To do so, they receive the family's random identifier, the notification tokens of the family's phones and the time each notification is sent. Expo privacy.
- OpenFreeMap: serves the map images (data © OpenStreetMap contributors). To draw the map, your phone requests the area you are viewing, so OpenFreeMap sees your IP address and that area, which is usually around where your family is.
There are no ads, no analytics and no tracking, and we do not sell or share data with anyone.
Phone permissions
- Location, including in the background: so your family can see you when the app is not open, and to detect arrivals and departures. You can pause sharing in the app (the “Share my location” switch in the Family tab) or revoke the permission in your phone settings.
- Camera: only to scan an invitation QR code. Images are not stored or sent.
- Notifications: for your family's alerts.
Children
FamilyPin is not directed at children under 13. When a minor uses it within their family, their parent or guardian invites them and decides what is shared. We do not ask for any data that identifies them.
Your rights
You can view, correct and delete your data from the app itself: change your name, pause location, choose who sees your routes, leave the family or delete it. Since we cannot tell who you are or read your data, we cannot do this for you, but you can write to familypin.antihero412@passinbox.com with any question. You can also complain to your data protection authority (in Spain, aepd.es). Step by step: Delete your data.
Legal basis
We process data because you ask for it when joining a family and turning on location (consent and provision of the service). You can withdraw consent at any time by pausing location or leaving the family.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update the date above and, for significant changes, tell you in the app.