Privacy Policy

Who we are

This Privacy Policy explains how Baby Tracker by Settle ("we", "us") collects, uses, and protects your information when you use the app. Baby Tracker by Settle is published by Dave App Development Ltd (trading as Settle) and distributed under the package identifier com.settlebaby.

Baby Tracker by Settle is a baby-tracking app for parents and carers. You use it to log and review your baby's feeding, sleep, nappies, growth and related care. By using the app you agree to the practices described in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the app.

Information we collect

We collect only the information needed to run the app:

• Account identifiers. When you create an account we store an account identifier and the email address you sign in with, through Firebase Authentication (Google). This lets you sign in and sync across your devices.
• Your household and baby profile. The household and caregivers you set up, each caregiver's role and permissions, and each baby's details — name, date of birth, birth sex, and (if you provide it) due date, which the app uses to show corrected age.
• The care you log. The events you record about your baby — for example feeds, sleep, nappies, growth measurements, pumping, and any notes or clinical details you choose to enter. Some of this is health-related information about your child. You decide what to record; the app never adds health information on its own.
• Voice logging (if you use it). When you log by voice, Baby Tracker records a short clip — only while you hold the talk button down, up to about 30 seconds. The clip is sent over an encrypted connection to our server in the EU, and from there to Google's speech service in the EU, which turns it into text. Neither we nor Google keep the recording: we hold it only for the moment it takes to transcribe it, and Google does not log it or use it to train its models. Only the resulting text is then processed into a structured entry.
• Photos and video (if you add them). Photos and videos you save as keepsakes, and any profile picture you set for a baby or a caregiver. These are stored privately in the EU and are never public — only caregivers in your household can see them, through the app, and only those an administrator has given photo access to.
• Subscription status. If you buy a subscription, we store whether your household's subscription is active and its renewal date, through RevenueCat and the app stores. We never receive or store your card or payment details.
• Device and diagnostic data. Basic technical data needed to keep the app working and secure. If you allow it, we also collect usage statistics and crash reports, which never include anything about your baby (see "Usage statistics and crash reports" below).

Using the microphone without opening the app

Baby Tracker never listens on its own. There is no wake word, and nothing is recorded unless you start a recording yourself.

On Android, if you turn on voice logging from outside the app, you can start a recording without opening Baby Tracker: from a shortcut in your notifications, from a home-screen widget, or, if you also allow Baby Tracker to display over other apps, from a floating bubble. With the notification shortcut or the widget, one tap starts recording and a second tap stops it. With the bubble, it records only while you hold it down and stops when you let go. Every recording stops on its own after about 30 seconds, and Baby Tracker shows a "Recording" notification for as long as the microphone is open.

The recording is kept on your phone until you next open Baby Tracker. It is then sent and transcribed exactly as described above, and deleted from your phone once it has been processed. If it cannot be transcribed then, for example because you are offline, it stays on your phone until it can be, or until you finish the entry yourself. Entries made this way are marked on your timeline as not yet confirmed, so you can review, edit or delete them.

This feature is off until you turn it on. It is a setting on your phone only, and you can turn it off again in the app at any time.

How we use your information

• To run the core app — record your entries and keep them in sync in real time across your devices and the caregivers in your household.
• To provide the app's reflection features, which compare your baby's own logged data against published, age-based guidance. The app describes and normalises — it does not diagnose, predict, or give medical advice.
• To turn your voice notes into structured entries when you use voice logging.
• To store and show the photos and videos you save as keepsakes, privately, to the caregivers in your household.
• To manage your subscription and the features it unlocks.
• To keep the app secure, diagnose problems, and understand how it is used so we can improve it.
• To build an AI brief of your baby's data on your phone when you ask for one, for you to send to an AI app you choose.

We do not sell your data, and we do not use the information you record about your baby to serve you advertising.

Services we rely on

To run the app we share the minimum necessary information with a small number of processors, each acting on our instructions:

• Google (Firebase & Google Cloud). Firebase Authentication for sign-in, and Cloud Firestore and Google Cloud for real-time sync and hosting our backend. Your photos and videos are stored in Google Cloud Storage. All of these run in Google's European regions.
• Neon. Our primary database (PostgreSQL), where your entries are stored as the authoritative record. Neon runs in Frankfurt, Germany (EU).
• Google Cloud (Speech-to-Text). When you use voice logging, your recording is transcribed by Google's speech service in an EU region. Google acts as our processor: it does not keep the audio, and it does not use it to improve its models. The recording is discarded once the text has been produced.
• Google Cloud (Vertex AI). The text transcript is then processed by a large language model hosted on Google Cloud's Vertex AI in the EU to convert it into a structured entry. The transcript is used only to produce that entry.
• RevenueCat and the app stores (Apple App Store, Google Play). To manage subscriptions and confirm entitlement.
• Google (Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics). Usage statistics and crash reports, only if you allow them. These never include anything about your baby (see "Usage statistics and crash reports" below).

If you send an AI brief, the AI company whose app you choose receives it from you, not from us. It is not our processor and handles the brief under its own terms (see "Asking an AI about your baby's data" below).

Usage statistics and crash reports

If you allow it (see "Turning usage statistics and crash reports off" below), Baby Tracker sends Google a record of which features are used and of anything that goes wrong, so that we can fix and improve the app. Usage statistics go to Google Analytics for Firebase and crash reports to Firebase Crashlytics, both provided by Google acting as our processor.

None of it is about your baby. These records never carry the amounts, durations or times of anything you log, your notes, any name, your baby's age, growth or reassurance results, voice recordings or transcripts, or the question you type into an AI brief. Every record is one of a fixed list of events, and every detail it carries is one of a fixed set of values; the app refuses to send anything else.

The events, and what each one is for:

• Opening the app and getting set up. app_open (the app was opened), onboarding_complete (setup finished, and whether you started a household or joined one) and caregiver_join (someone joined a household from an invitation). So we can see whether new families get set up and keep coming back.
• Logging. event_log: the kind of entry logged (for example a feed or a nappy), how it was entered (typed, voice, watch and so on) and where from (inside the app, the floating microphone, a widget, Siri or the watch). Never what the entry says. So we can see which features are used.
• Screens. screen_open: which screen of the app was opened. So we can see which parts of the app are used.
• Exports. export_share: a doctor handoff or a data file reached your share options. ai_brief_share: an AI brief was shared or copied, whether through the share options or by copying, and which time window was chosen (14, 30, 60 or 90 days). Never the brief itself, your question, or which app it went to. So we can see whether exports are useful.
• Subscriptions. paywall_view (the subscription screen was shown, and from which part of the app), plan_select and subscription_start (a monthly or annual plan, or the free trial, was chosen or started) and paywall_dismiss (the subscription screen or the store's purchase sheet was left). subscription_lifecycle is sent by our server, not your phone, when the app store reports that a trial started or a subscription renewed, lapsed or was refunded. If usage statistics are on, Google Analytics also records the app store's own purchase events when a subscription is bought, renewed, cancelled or refunded: in_app_purchase, app_store_subscription_convert, app_store_subscription_renew, app_store_subscription_cancel and app_store_refund, with the plan, its price and currency. Never a card or any payment detail. So we can understand which plans people choose and keep.
• Speed. cold_start (how long the app took to open) and time_to_log (how long from opening the app to logging the first entry), each as a rough time band. These measure the app, not your baby.

Google Analytics also records a few things on its own, such as the first time the app is opened, the start of each session, your device model, operating system, app version and approximate country.

Crash reports. Crash reports are used only to find and fix faults in the app. If the app crashes, Crashlytics receives a technical report: the app version, your device model and operating system, where in the app's code the crash happened, and the random identifier Google gives this installation of the app. We also send two kinds of error report when something fails without crashing, each carrying only a fixed error code: voice_parse when a voice note could not be turned into an entry, and sync when an entry could not be saved to our servers. The words of the voice note and the contents of the entry are never included. Crash reports never carry the usage statistics above, are not connected to Google Analytics, and are not linked to your account.

How you are identified. Usage statistics are tied to a random analytics ID that we create for your account, so the same ID is used on each of your devices, and to a random ID for your household, so we can count households with more than one caregiver. Neither is your email address or your account ID, and Google is given nothing that links either back to you. Google also gives each installation of the app its own random identifier. We do not collect your phone's advertising ID, we do not use any of this for advertising, and Google's options to share this data with its other products are switched off.

Our legal basis. Under UK GDPR, our lawful basis for usage statistics and crash reports is legitimate interests: our interest in fixing what goes wrong in the app and improving it, by learning which features are used and where the app fails. We have weighed this against your privacy: none of this includes anything about your baby, it is not used for advertising or shared with Google's other products, and you can turn it off at any time.

Where it is kept, and for how long. This data is held by Google and may be stored outside the EU (see "Where your data is stored"). Google Analytics keeps the individual events, and the user data held under your analytics ID, for 2 months, after which only aggregated counts remain; the 2 months is not extended when you use the app again. Crashlytics keeps crash reports for about 90 days. If you delete your account, we ask Google Analytics to delete the usage statistics held under your analytics ID.

Turning usage statistics and crash reports off

Each has its own switch, under Household → Help improve Baby Tracker: the Help improve Baby Tracker switch for usage statistics, and Send crash reports for crash reports. Both are free, and you can change either at any time.

• In the UK both are on by default, on two different exceptions in the UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Usage statistics are on once setup has told you about them, under the exception for statistics that improve a service. Crash reports are on under the exception for what is strictly necessary to detect technical faults, which is why they carry nothing but what is needed to find out what went wrong. You can turn either off whenever you like.
• Everywhere else, including the EU, both are off unless you turn usage statistics on, which turns crash reports on with them until you set the crash report switch yourself. If we cannot tell where you are, both stay off.

We work out which applies from the country of your app store account, or your phone's region setting if that is not available. Turning off Help improve Baby Tracker stops your phone sending usage statistics straight away; it does not turn off crash reports. Turning off Send crash reports stops your phone sending crash reports straight away, and deletes any waiting on the phone. The switches apply to the phone you set them on. Our server sends the subscription events above only if your usage statistics switch was on when one of your phones last told us.

Asking an AI about your baby's data

Baby Tracker does not interpret your baby's data. If you want to ask an AI chatbot about it, an admin can tap Ask an AI about this data on the Export screen. Baby Tracker then builds a summary of one baby's records (an "AI brief") and hands it, with your question if you typed one, to the app you choose, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.

• What is in it. The entries and daily totals for the period you pick (14, 30, 60 or 90 days, and only what is already on your phone), your baby's age in weeks, and the published age-based guidance the app uses. It never includes your baby's date of birth, who logged each entry, entries you have deleted, photos, videos or voice recordings. Your baby's name and your notes are left out unless you switch each one on.
• How it is sent. The brief is built on your phone and passed to the other app through your phone's share options, or copied for you to paste. It does not go through our servers, and we do not keep a copy. Your question and a short opening line are also copied to your phone's clipboard, because some apps drop text that comes with a file. The file is held in temporary storage on your phone and is replaced or cleared the next time you make a brief.
• Who receives it. The company behind the app you choose. It is not our processor: it handles the brief under its own terms and privacy policy, and we have no control over what it keeps or how it uses it. The first time you send to each app, Baby Tracker reminds you that you are sending your baby's data to a separate company, and that its replies come from an AI, not from us and not from a medical professional.

Sending a brief is always your choice, and nothing is sent until you pick an app.

Where your data is stored

Your baby's data is stored and processed in the European Union. That is a deliberate choice, and it covers everything the app records: your entries, your household and baby profiles, your photos and videos, and anything you log by voice. Our database runs in Frankfurt; our sync, storage, backend and speech services run in Google's European regions.

Some supporting services — subscription management and analytics — are operated by providers that may process limited data (such as an account or device identifier) outside the EU. Where data is transferred outside your country we rely on the safeguards offered by those providers: for data leaving the UK, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the standard contractual clauses, or the UK–US data bridge where the provider is certified under it; for data leaving the EU, the standard contractual clauses. Data in transit and at rest is protected using industry-standard encryption.

How long we keep your data

We keep what you record for as long as your household is using Baby Tracker. If you stop subscribing, we do not delete anything straight away — your keepsakes are protected for around 14 months before anything is lost:

• For the first 60 days after a subscription lapses you keep full access, and we remind you to export anything you want to keep.
• After that the household becomes dormant: the paid features switch off, but your data is retained and you can still download all of it, free, at any time — including a bulk download of every photo and video.
• After 12 further months of a dormant household we permanently delete its photos and videos — these are erased from storage and cannot be recovered. The written entries are marked as deleted at the same time, so they are no longer shown anywhere or available to download; the underlying records are kept, because deleting them would destroy the history of who recorded and changed what. Resubscribing at any point before then restores everything.

You can also ask us to delete everything sooner — see "Your data, and your rights" below. Voice recordings are not part of any of this: they are discarded as soon as they have been turned into text, and are never stored. Usage statistics and crash reports are kept for the shorter periods given in "Usage statistics and crash reports" above.

Your data, and your rights

You are in control of the information you record:

• Access and export. You can export your baby's records from the app at any time, as a readable summary and as a raw data file, through your device's normal share options. Exports are generated on your device and are not stored on our servers. Photos and videos can be too large for that route, so a bulk download of your household's media is prepared by our server and given to you as a private, short-lived link. That prepared file is kept on our servers for about a day and is then deleted automatically; each new download replaces it. Both are free, and stay available even if you stop subscribing.
• Correction. You can edit or remove any entry you have made. A removed photo disappears from the app immediately; we keep the underlying file for 30 days so that an accidental deletion can be undone, and then erase it.
• Deletion. You can delete your account from within the app at any time, or ask us to delete it by emailing us at [email protected]. Delete your account explains both ways, step by step, and exactly what is deleted. In every case we delete your sign-in, your name, your profile picture and your account and analytics IDs, and erase your email address from the invitations and sign-in codes we hold. If another admin shares your household, it stays with them, including the entries, notes and photos you added, but it is no longer linked to your name, your email address or your sign-in. If you are its only admin, the household goes with you: its photos, videos and export files are erased from storage and cannot be recovered, and its written entries and baby profiles are marked as deleted, with their notes, captions and names erased, so they stop being shown or downloadable to anyone. Copies remaining in routine encrypted backups are removed as those backups are rotated out. We also delete your customer record at RevenueCat, and ask Google Analytics to delete the usage statistics held under your analytics ID, and the app clears its analytics identifiers from your phone.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights over your personal data (such as access, correction, deletion, and objection). To exercise them, contact us using the details below.

Children

Baby Tracker by Settle is intended for use by adults — parents and carers — to record information about their own children. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly allow children to create accounts. Information about a baby is entered by the adult account holder, who is responsible for it, and we treat it as sensitive.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of the page shows when it was last changed. Continued use of the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

If you have any questions about this policy or your data, contact us at [email protected].