Privacy Policy

FriendBell is designed specifically for children aged 4–12 and their parents. This policy explains how we handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme administered by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Where users are located outside Australia, we also observe the equivalent standards in their jurisdiction (for example, GDPR-K in the EU/UK and COPPA in the United States).

1. Who we are (APP 1)

FriendBell ("we", "us", "our") is operated by Tuxco Pty Ltd, an Australian company.

Contact for privacy matters: privacy@friendbell.com.au.

2. Personal information we collect (APP 3)

From parents

• Name and email address (from your sign-in provider)
• Verifiable parental consent records: timestamp, IP address, consent version
• Device and diagnostic information (crash reports, app version)

From children — with parental consent only

• First name only (never surnames)
• Optional birthday (used only to compute age)
• Emoji and favourite colour
• Voice audio, transmitted in real time and never recorded or stored by us
• Video (only when the parent has explicitly enabled video calls for that child, and only when the other child's parent has done the same). Video is transmitted in real time and never recorded or stored by us.
• Call metadata: friend called, whether the call was voice or video, whether it was a group call, start time, duration (shown to parents)

We do not knowingly collect sensitive information (APP 3.3) about children. If we become aware that sensitive information has been collected, we will delete it.

2a. Video and group calling (parent controls)

Video calling and group calling are off by default for every child. A parent must explicitly turn each setting on from the parent dashboard for their own child.

• Video calls require both children's parents to have enabled video for their own child. If either parent's toggle is off, the call falls back to voice.
• Group calls (up to four children total) require every participating child's parent to have enabled group calls. If any parent's toggle is off, that child cannot join.
• Group video requires every participant's parent to have enabled both settings.
• Parents can turn either setting off at any time. New calls immediately respect the change.
• Neither audio nor video is ever recorded or stored by FriendBell.

3. How we use personal information (APP 6)

• To provide voice calls between parent-approved friends
• To let parents manage friendships, schedules and safety settings
• To keep the service secure and prevent misuse
• To comply with our legal obligations in Australia

We do not use personal information — especially children's information — for direct marketing, behavioural profiling, advertising or to train AI models.

4. Parental consent (children under 15)

Consistent with OAIC guidance, we treat a child under 15 as generally unable to give valid consent on their own behalf. Before any child profile can be created, the account-holding parent or legal guardian must provide verifiable consent. We record the date, time, IP address and the version of this policy in effect at the time.

Parents can withdraw consent at any time by deleting the child's profile from the parent dashboard, which permanently removes the child's personal information from our systems.

5. What we do NOT do

• No advertising or third-party ad networks
• No behavioural profiling or tracking of children
• No selling, renting or trading of personal information
• No public profiles, search, discovery or friend suggestions
• No text messaging, photo sharing or file sharing
• No recording of voice or video calls
• No video or group calling for any child until the parent explicitly turns it on

6. Disclosure of personal information (APP 6, APP 8)

We disclose personal information only to the following categories of service providers, under written contract and only to the extent needed to run the service:

• Cloud hosting, authentication and database provider
• Real-time voice infrastructure (transports audio; does not record)
• Push notification delivery (Apple Push Notification service, Firebase Cloud Messaging)

Some of these providers may store or process information outside Australia (including in the United States and the European Union). Before disclosing to an overseas recipient we take reasonable steps under APP 8 to ensure they handle the information consistently with the APPs.

We do not disclose personal information to advertisers, data brokers or analytics resellers.

7. Data quality and security (APP 10, APP 11)

We take reasonable steps to keep personal information accurate and to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure:

• All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2 or higher) and at rest
• Voice calls use encrypted WebRTC transport
• Access to production systems is restricted, logged and audited
• Row-level security enforces that parents can only see their own family's data

In the event of an eligible data breach, we will notify affected individuals and the OAIC in accordance with Part IIIC of the Privacy Act (the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme).

8. Retention and deletion (APP 11.2)

• Child profiles: kept until the parent deletes them or closes the account
• Call history: 90 days, then automatically deleted
• Voice audio: never stored
• Deletion requests: processed within 30 days

9. Access, correction and complaints (APP 12, APP 13)

You can request access to, or correction of, personal information we hold about you or your child at any time by emailing privacy@friendbell.app or using the data deletion request page.

If you believe we have breached the APPs, please contact us first and we will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

• Website: oaic.gov.au
• Phone: 1300 363 992

10. Cookies and analytics

We use a small number of first-party cookies and local storage entries strictly to keep parents signed in and remember display preferences. We do not use third-party advertising cookies, cross-site tracking or behavioural analytics.

11. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes we will notify parents by email and, where required, re-obtain consent before the changes affect a child's account.