CloseKin

Privacy notice

CloseKin is a private space shared between a parent and a young person aged 13 or over. A parent can hold more than one connection, one per young person. Here's exactly what we hold and why.

What information we collect

Parents: email address.
Young people: email address (used to link the two accounts).
App content: your answers to our communication prompts, your mood check-ins, and the names you choose to display.
Your answers travel over an encrypted connection and are encrypted at rest by our hosting provider. They are readable only by the two accounts in your connection, and only after you have both replied. CloseKin staff do not read them as part of normal operation.

How we use your data

To match a parent account with a young person's account.
To send the reminder and unlock emails you have turned on.
To keep a record that parental consent was given, as our legal compliance record.
We never sell email addresses or app data to third-party advertisers.

Age requirements & consent

CloseKin is for young people aged 13 and over. We do not knowingly create accounts for children under 13.
Before an invite code is created, the adult confirms they are the parent or legal guardian, that the young person is 13 or over, and that they consent to us processing both email addresses. We store that confirmation with a timestamp against each connection.
The young person confirms their own age before joining. If they tell us they are under 13, we do not link the accounts.

Data retention & deletion

You can delete your account at any time from Profile → Delete account. Deletion runs immediately and is irreversible: your email address, your connections and every stored answer are removed from our servers.
A young person can also leave a connection without deleting their account, which stops the shared history being visible to either of you.
Backups held by our hosting provider are cycled out within 30 days.
If you would rather we delete your data for you, email hello@myclosekin.app.

Who we share with

Our hosting and database provider, and our email delivery provider, purely to run the service.
Nobody else, unless we are legally required to, or where there is a serious risk to someone's safety.

CloseKin is a conversation space for families aged 13 and over. It is not a monitoring tool, not a crisis service, and not a substitute for professional help. In an emergency, call 999.