Privacy policy

Information you give us

• Your account: your name, email address and password. We store the password only as a scrambled (hashed) value that can’t be turned back into the password. Your co-parent sees your name.
• Your family record: messages, calendar events, the custody schedule and its exceptions, shared expenses and receipts, agreements, information about your children, check-ins and call logs. These are what CalmHandoff exists to keep.
• Files you upload: receipts, documents, custody orders you import, photos of your children and Moments photos. Before a photo is uploaded, the app shrinks it and removes its embedded location data where your device allows (some formats, such as HEIC outside Safari, can’t be processed this way).
• Recorded calls: if a parent chooses to record a call and the other parent agrees before joining, each parent’s device records it and uploads the recording, and we create a transcript.
• Location: only when you tap Check in at a handoff. We record your precise location at that moment and how accurate it was.
• Support and email sign-ups: what you write to us, and your email address if you ask for our guide or other updates on the website.

Information we collect automatically

• Technical information: your IP address, browser or device type and the pages you request, which our web server logs. We also use IP addresses briefly to slow down repeated sign-in attempts.
• Calls: who called whom, when, whether it was answered, how long it lasted, and connection events such as muting. The audio and video of a call that isn’t recorded is never stored.
• Notifications: if you allow notifications in our phone app, a device token from Apple or Google that lets us send them to your phone.
• How you found us: when you arrive on our website from another site, a referral link or an ad, we note that source (for example “google.com”) and keep it with your account when you sign up. It tells us which channels work. It contains no identifier and is never sent to anyone.
• Website analytics: on our public pages, Google Analytics records visits. Inside the app it is used for one thing only: when you return from buying a plan, it records that a purchase happened, with the plan and amount, but not who you are. See Cookies.

Information from others

• Your co-parent may enter information about you in the shared record, such as messages to you or an expense you share.
• Payments: Stripe processes payments. We receive your plan, its status and renewal date, and the reason a payment failed if it does. We never see or store your card number.

CalmHandoff is for parents. Children don’t have accounts, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. Parents may enter information about their children, such as names, birthdates, school, doctors, allergies, activities and photos. It is visible only to the parents in that family, it is used only to provide the service to them, and it is deleted with the family space. We never use it for marketing.

• To provide CalmHandoff: show both parents the shared family space, deliver messages, run calls, send the reminders you ask for, and create the exports and reports you request.
• To keep the record trustworthy: each entry is sealed in a tamper-evident chain, and once a day a summary fingerprint of it is timestamped by an independent service. Only that fingerprint leaves our systems, never the content.
• To send account emails and notifications: invites, confirmations, password resets, plan and billing notices, and reminders you can turn off in Settings.
• To process payments, prevent fraud and abuse, and keep CalmHandoff secure.
• To answer you when you contact us.
• To understand which of our marketing works, using the sign-up source above and website analytics.
• To comply with the law and enforce our terms.

We don’t sell your personal information. We don’t show ads in the app, and we don’t use your information for targeted advertising, to build advertising profiles or to train AI models.

Our staff can technically access the database that runs CalmHandoff. We look at the contents of a family’s space only when a parent asks us to help with something specific, to investigate a security problem or abuse of the service, or when the law requires it. Our administration screens show accounts and billing, not your family’s messages or records.

• Your co-parent sees everything in your shared family space: messages, the calendar, expenses, receipts, agreements, information about the children, call logs, recordings and transcripts, check-ins including their locations, Moments, and the history of changes, with your name on what you added.
• People you share an export with: when you create an export or evidence report, you decide who gets it. Anyone with its verification code can confirm on our website that it hasn’t been changed. That check shows only dates, counts and fingerprints, never names or content.
• Our service providers, only as needed to run CalmHandoff (see the next section).
• Anyone the law requires us to disclose to (see Legal requests).
• A buyer or successor: if YAFG LLC is merged, acquired or sells CalmHandoff, your information would transfer as part of it, still covered by this policy. We would tell you first.

These companies process information to provide their service to us. Stripe and Google also handle some of it under their own privacy policies: Stripe, for example, to prevent payment fraud, and Google for the analytics on our website. None of them receives the content of your family record except as the table shows.

Some Family Pro features use AI: the tone check on a message you are writing, Message Shield on messages you receive, receipt scanning, importing a custody order into the calendar, and transcripts of recorded calls. When you use one, we send only what it needs (the message, the image, the document or the recording) through OpenRouter to an AI model provider, such as Google or OpenAI.

Every one of these requests uses a setting that routes it only to providers that do not retain or train on the data. We don’t use your content to train AI, and we don’t let our providers do so. These features come only with Family Pro or the Pro tools add-on, and nothing is sent until you use one.

Message Shield works on the messages a parent receives. So if your co-parent has it, the messages you send them are processed this way too, even if you don’t use any AI feature yourself. Its summary is shown only to them, and your message itself is delivered and recorded exactly as you wrote it.

Family records are sometimes requested in court cases. We disclose information only when we are legally required to, for example by a valid subpoena, court order or warrant, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is needed to prevent imminent physical harm to someone.

We review every request, and we push back on requests that are unclear or too broad. Where the law allows, we tell the affected parent before disclosing, so they can object, unless doing so could put someone in danger. Often the simplest route is for a parent to create an export themselves and give it to their attorney.

CalmHandoff’s servers, the files you upload and our backups are located in France (Paris), with Scaleway. Our other service providers, listed above, are mostly in the United States. Your information is encrypted whenever it travels between your device, our servers and our providers.

CalmHandoff is offered to people in the United States. By using it, you understand that your information will be stored in France and processed in the United States.

• Every connection uses HTTPS, and calls are encrypted from device to device.
• Passwords are stored only as scrypt hashes, and sign-in sessions only as hashes of their tokens.
• Backups are encrypted before they leave the server.
• The family record is tamper-evident: any change to a past entry would be detectable.
• Access to our systems is limited to the people who run CalmHandoff, and protected by keys rather than passwords.

No service can promise perfect security. If a breach affects your information, we will tell you as required by law, and without unreasonable delay.

When you delete your account

Your login, email address, signed-in devices, notification settings and calendar feed link are deleted right away, and a personal add-on you pay for is cancelled. If you pay for the family plan, it stops renewing.

If your co-parent still has an account, the shared family record stays available to them, with your name on the entries you created, because both parents may need to rely on it later. When the last parent in a family deletes their account, the whole family space is deleted, including files, photos and recordings. Details are on our account deletion page.

Whatever state you live in, you can:

• See and copy your information: view and print your whole history at any time, or create an export. For a copy of everything we hold about you, email us.
• Correct it: change your name and email address in Settings. Entries in the record can’t be changed, but you can always add a new message or note that sets the record straight.
• Delete it: delete your account from Settings, with the effects described above.
• Withdraw permissions: turn off location, camera, microphone or notifications for CalmHandoff in your phone’s settings at any time. Features that need them will stop working.
• Stop emails: turn off reminder and message emails in Settings, and unsubscribe from marketing email with the link in any of them. Account and billing emails can’t be turned off while you have an account.
• Opt out of analytics: turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser and our website won’t load Google Analytics for you. You can also use Google’s opt-out add-on.

Some states, including California and Virginia, give their residents specific privacy rights: to know, access, correct and delete personal information, and to opt out of its sale, of targeted advertising and of certain profiling. We don’t sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising or profiling, and we extend the rights above to everyone. We use sensitive information, such as precise location, information about your children and the content of your messages, only to provide CalmHandoff to you.

To make a request, email support@calmhandoff.com from the address on your account, so we know it’s you. We answer within 45 days, and we never treat you differently for asking. If we can’t do what you asked, we’ll explain why. You can appeal by replying to that answer; if you’re still not satisfied, you can contact your state attorney general.

Stripe sets its own cookies on its checkout pages, under its own privacy policy. You can delete or block cookies in your browser settings; if you block the sign-in cookie, you won’t be able to sign in.

If you are worried about your safety, remember that your co-parent sees everything in the shared space, including where you were when you checked in. You never have to use check-ins, and you can turn off location for CalmHandoff in your phone’s settings. Notifications and emails never include what a message says, so they don’t reveal it on a lock screen.

If you are in danger, call 911. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. Our Safety and privacy guide has more.

If we make a material change, we will email you and show a notice in the app at least 30 days before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.

YAFG LLC, a Virginia limited liability company, operates CalmHandoff.

Email: support@calmhandoff.com. A person reads and answers every message. For help using the app, see the Help Center.