Privacy Policy

Effective 22 October 2026. This policy covers the FamilyBoard website at familyboard.sweetphoenix.co.za and the FamilyBoard app for Apple TV.

Who we are

FamilyBoard is operated by Sweet Phoenix Creations PTY Ltd, South Africa. For privacy questions or requests, contact our Information Officer at info@sweetphoenix.co.za.

The short version

• This site runs no analytics, no advertising and no third-party scripts. Everything is served from our own domain.
• The only cookies are the sign-in and security cookies needed to keep you signed in.
• Your household’s photos are stored outside the public web directory and are never publicly reachable.
• You can export everything, and delete your account and household data yourself, at any time.
• We never see your card details. Apple handles any purchase.

What we store

Your account: email address, display name and a securely hashed password. Nothing else is required to sign up.

Your household: household name, time zone, theme and layout preferences; member profiles (display name, role, avatar choice, colour, optional birthdate, chore points); calendar events; chores and rewards; shopping and other lists; announcements; and an optional chosen weather city.

Photos you upload to your household gallery.

Paired Apple TVs: a device name, when it was paired and when it was last seen. The device token itself is stored only as a hash — we cannot recover it.

Subscription status if you buy FamilyBoard Pro, verified with Apple.

How photos are protected

Uploaded photos are written to a private directory outside the public document root, with randomly generated filenames. They are never placed in the public media library. Viewing one requires a signed link that expires after fifteen minutes and is tied to the specific member or paired device requesting it. A link that is altered, expired, or belongs to someone outside the household simply returns “not found”.

Household isolation

Every request is checked against your household membership before any data is read or written. Someone who is not a member of your household receives “not found” — the system does not even confirm that your household exists.

Apple TV pairing

No password is ever typed on a TV. The TV shows a six-character code that expires in ten minutes; an owner or adult approves it while signed in on the website. The TV then receives a device token, which is stored hashed on our side. You can revoke any TV at any time, and it loses access immediately.

Cookies

This site sets only the cookies needed for sign-in, session security and protection against cross-site request forgery. There are no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, which is why you are not shown a cookie consent banner.

Email

We send transactional email only — account verification, password resets and household invitations. Messages come from no-reply@sweetphoenix.co.za; replies go to our monitored info@ mailbox. We do not send marketing email.

Purchases

FamilyBoard Pro is bought through Apple’s App Store. Apple handles payment, billing and refunds; we never receive your card details. Our server verifies the signed transaction with Apple to decide whether your household has Pro. Refunds are requested from Apple.

Who else receives your information

• Our hosting provider — the site and database are hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the host keeps standard server logs.
• Apple — for app distribution, purchases and subscription status.
• A weather provider — only if your household enables weather. Your chosen city is sent so a forecast can be returned. The app does not request GPS permission.

We do not sell your information and we do not share it for marketing.

Your rights

Under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), and comparable laws such as the GDPR and UK GDPR where they apply, you may request access, correction or deletion of your personal information, or object to processing.

You can act on most of this yourself: Export in your account settings downloads your household data, and Delete account removes your household, its items, its photos (including the files on disk) and your login. Deleting your account does not cancel or refund an Apple purchase — your purchase history stays with Apple.

For anything else, email info@sweetphoenix.co.za.

Security

Connections use HTTPS. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes, never in readable form. Device tokens and invitation tokens are stored only as hashes. Photo access uses short-lived signed links. Sensitive responses are sent with no-store so they are never cached and shared. No internet service can be guaranteed completely secure, and we do not claim otherwise.

Children

Child profiles in a household are created and managed by the adults in that household. FamilyBoard contains no public content, no chat with strangers, no advertising and no open browser.

Complaints

You may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za. We would rather hear from you first so we can put it right.

Changes

We will update this policy as the service changes and will update the effective date above.

This describes our practices as implemented at the effective date. It is not a legal opinion and does not claim certification of compliance with any particular law.