Privacy Policy

FriendlySpeaking is a parent-controlled friendship and activity discovery service for families with children roughly ages 5 to 15. Accounts belong to parents and legal guardians. Children do not operate the platform. We aim to collect the minimum information needed to help a parent discover a potentially compatible friendship opportunity.

• Account details: name, email address, password credentials.
• Adult confirmation and parent or guardian representation.
• Country and state or province, used to show the right privacy rights and notices.
• Approximate area, matching preferences and availability.
• Optional phone number for verification or notifications.
• Messages you exchange with other parents.
• Reports you submit and support requests you send.
• Technical information such as device type, browser and security logs.

Child information is entered by a parent or guardian, never by a child. We treat it as sensitive.

• First name or nickname.
• Age range, using bands such as 5 to 7, 8 to 10, 11 to 13 and 14 to 15.
• Interests, sports, activities and languages.
• General activity preferences and availability.
• Optional photo, private or limited in visibility by default.

We do not request a child's home address, school address, phone number, email address, social media accounts, daily schedule, government identification, medical information, or financial information.

• To create and secure accounts.
• To suggest potentially compatible families and nearby activities.
• To deliver introduction requests and parent-to-parent messages.
• To operate safety tools: reporting, blocking, moderation and escalation.
• To respond to privacy requests and support enquiries.
• To meet legal, security and record-keeping obligations.

Matching may consider age range, interests, activities, sports, languages, general social preferences, availability, and geographic and venue preferences. Compatibility scores are estimates based on parent-provided preferences and are not guarantees of friendship, safety, or suitability. We do not use automated systems to make high-impact decisions about children.

We show approximate areas only, such as a town, region, or a distance range like approximately 7 km away. We never publicly display a family's exact home location. Where device or browser location is used, it is optional, we explain why we are asking, and we prefer to convert a precise location into an approximate area and discard the precise value.

Photos of children are private or limited by default. We do not use them for advertising, public galleries, promotional material, facial recognition, or AI model training.

Account and safety notifications are separate from marketing. Marketing consent is collected separately from account creation and can be withdrawn at any time. Notification subjects and push messages never include a child's name or details. Email to United States recipients is designed to support CAN-SPAM requirements, and commercial email to Canadian recipients is designed to support CASL requirements. We do not enroll anyone in marketing SMS automatically.

We use essential, security, preference and analytics cookies. Advertising cookies are disabled by default. See the Cookie Policy for details and controls.

We do not sell children's personal information, we do not target advertising to children using information collected here, and we do not build advertising profiles from children's information. Third-party advertising technologies are not permitted to collect children's profile information.

We maintain an internal record of every service provider that receives data, including the purpose, data categories, whether children's information is involved, processing location, contractual protections and retention. Because we serve families in Canada and the United States, information may be processed in either country. Vendors are listed in this policy only once they are actually in use.

Protections include encrypted connections, encryption at rest where supported, secure password hashing, multi-factor authentication for administrators, role-based access with least privilege, rate limiting, audit logging of access to sensitive information, backups, monitoring, and a documented incident response process.

We keep different categories of information for different periods: account records, child profile information, messages, reports and safety investigations, payment records, security logs, consent records and legal records. We keep information only as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected or as required by law.

Parents can review, correct, delete and export information, delete an individual child profile, withdraw consent, manage visibility and manage communication preferences from the Privacy Center. Withdrawing consent stops the related processing, removes the child profile from matching, and begins the deletion workflow, subject to any legally required retention which we will explain.

Our approach is described in plain language in the Children's Privacy Notice for Parents. For United States families, our consent process is designed to support COPPA requirements for children under 13, including verifiable parental consent where required. For Canadian families, consent procedures are designed around the child's age, maturity and the sensitivity of the information.

• Access the personal information we hold about you and your children.
• Request correction of inaccurate information.
• Withdraw consent, subject to legal or contractual limits we will explain.
• Ask how your information is used and who it is disclosed to.
• Make a complaint to us, and to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your provincial regulator.

Rights vary by state. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to know what we collect, access a copy, correct inaccuracies, delete information, limit the use of sensitive information, opt out of targeted advertising or the sale or sharing of personal information, and appeal a decision. We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

California residents may have rights to know, access, delete, correct, limit the use of sensitive personal information, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. FriendlySpeaking does not sell or share children's personal information for advertising, and California has specific protections for consumers ages 13 to 15 regarding sale and sharing.

Requests can be submitted through the Privacy Center or by contacting our Privacy Officer. We verify that the requester is authorized before acting, and exports contain only information the requester is entitled to receive.

Updates are posted here with a new version number and effective date. We record the policy version accepted by each account holder.

Operating name: FriendlySpeaking. Legal entity: [LEGAL COMPANY NAME]. Business address: [BUSINESS ADDRESS].

Privacy questions: [PRIVACY EMAIL]. Safety concerns: [SAFETY EMAIL]. General support: [SUPPORT EMAIL].

You can also reach us through our contact page.