Privacy Notice

Children's version: Your BrightNods and youWebsite privacy and cookiesPrevious versions

Version 3.0 · In force from [[OWNER: effective date]] Previous version: 2.0 (28 September 2026). What changed is listed in section 15.

This notice explains what the BrightNods app and website do with information about you and your children, why, where it is kept, who can see it, and the choices you have. It is written for parents and carers. There is a separate version written for children, which we suggest you read together.

The short version

• We do not receive what the app records. We run no servers that store your family's information. What the app records is kept on your devices, and in your own iCloud only if you switch that on. We cannot see it and hold no copy. We only receive what you choose to email us, and the limited information described in sections 6 and 11.
• No adverts, no analytics, no tracking. We do not sell information. Apart from Apple's own iOS features, there are no other companies' tools in the app. The homework helper uses Apple's AI on the device; nothing is sent to any AI company.
• You decide what is shared. iCloud sync and family sharing are off until you switch them on. Family sharing lets the people you invite see (and change) a child's progress, and you choose which children are included.
• You are in control. In the grown-ups' area you can see, export and delete what the app keeps, and switch features off. Deleting the app does not delete the copy in your iCloud; section 8 explains how to.
• Questions or worries? Email [[OWNER: privacy email]]. If you are not happy with our answer you can complain to the Information Commission (which still uses the name ICO).

1. Who we are

BrightNods is run by KINDHOME LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (No. 17558840), trading as BrightNods.

• Address: 32 Mill Street, Worcester, WR1 2NH
• Email for privacy questions and requests: [[OWNER: privacy email]]
• Email for everything else: [[OWNER: support email]]
• Registered with the Information Commission (data protection fee), number [[OWNER: ICO registration number]]

In data protection law we are the controller: the person responsible for deciding how and why information is used. That is plainly true for emails you send us and for our website. For the information inside the app, we decide what the app records and why, so we treat ourselves as its controller too, even though it stays on your devices and in your iCloud and we never receive it. We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer; we are not required to. Please contact us at the address above.

BrightNods is intended for families in the United Kingdom. It is offered in the UK App Store only, and this notice is written for UK law.

2. How BrightNods works, in brief

• A parent or carer aged 18 or over, who has parental responsibility for the child (or the permission of someone who does), signs in with Sign in with Apple, creates the family account, adds each child and chooses which child uses the app. We treat that grown-up as the child's parent (section 4). There is no way to use BrightNods without a family account.
• Before the first child is added, the grown-up must choose a parent PIN. It locks the grown-ups' area.
• Children practise with quizzes, lessons, spellings and homework practice. The app remembers their answers and progress so it can show what to practise next and so you can see how they are getting on.
• Everything is stored on the device. Two optional features, both off until you switch them on, use iCloud, which Apple provides:
  • iCloud sync copies most of your family's BrightNods data to your own private iCloud storage so it is the same on your devices (section 6 lists what it copies).
  • Family sharing lets you invite other grown-ups (for example another parent or a grandparent) and your children's own iPads or iPhones to see and help with chosen children's progress.
• In iCloud, data is stored in your own account or in a space shared only with the people you invite. Apple's design means we, as the app's maker, cannot open it.

3. What information BrightNods uses

About you (the parent or carer)

About your child

About the device

Device features, and what happens to them

• Camera and photos (spelling lists and homework). A grown-up can photograph a spelling list or homework sheet, or choose a photo. Opening the camera or photo library needs a grown-up to answer the grown-ups' question first. The words are read from the picture on the device by Apple's built-in text recognition. The photo itself is not saved and is never sent anywhere. Only the text you keep (the spelling words or homework questions) is saved. If the sheet has a name on it, such as a teacher's, that may be in the text too; you can delete the list or set.
• Apple's on-device AI (homework helper). On iPhones and iPads that support Apple Intelligence, the app can ask Apple's on-device language model to tidy up the questions read from a homework sheet and suggest answers. It sees only that text (up to about 2,400 characters). It runs on the device; nothing is sent to us, to Apple or to any other AI company. Suggested answers are only used after a grown-up has checked and ticked them, because they can be wrong. We do not use anyone's information to train any AI.
• Voice answers, called "talking answers" for children (off until you switch them on). If you switch on voice answers in the grown-ups' area, your child can say an answer instead of typing it. The microphone and Apple's speech recognition turn speech into words on the device; the app will not use speech recognition that sends audio away. Audio is never saved or sent. Only the words go into the answer box.
• "Write it" (handwritten answers). Your child can write an answer with a finger or pencil. Apple's handwriting recognition reads it on the device and puts the words in the answer box. The writing itself is not kept and is never sent.
• Read-aloud. Questions can be read aloud by the device's built-in voice. Nothing leaves the device.
• Notifications (off until you switch them on). In the grown-ups' area you can turn on a daily practice reminder, a weekly summary (Sunday evening) and alerts when a child finds a topic tricky. They are created on the device and never pass through us. Parent alerts show only a general message on the lock screen ("There's an update about your child's learning"); the details are shown inside the app.
• Sharing a score. Behind the grown-ups' question you can share a child's score using the share menu. The message contains the score, subject and topic, not the child's name. It goes wherever you send it.

What we do not use

We do not use location, contacts, advertising identifiers, analytics tools, or any tracking across apps or websites, and we do not add any crash-reporting tool of our own (but see "Apple" in section 6 for the reports Apple may pass on if you allow it). We do not use Face ID or Touch ID. We do not ask for special category information such as health or special educational needs, and we ask you not to type any into the app. The quiz questions, lessons and help text are built into the app; using them sends nothing anywhere.

4. Why we use it, and our lawful bases

Data protection law requires a "lawful basis" for each use. Ours are:

How we know a parent agreed. Because BrightNods is made for children under 13, the law says consent for the optional features above must come from someone with parental responsibility for the child (Article 8). This is how we check:

• The person who signs in with Sign in with Apple, using their own adult Apple Account, and creates the family account is treated as the parent, or the person with parental responsibility, for the children they add.
• Before the account is created, they give an adult date of birth. When they add each child, the app shows what it will keep about the child and asks them to confirm that they have parental responsibility for the child (or the permission of someone who has it).
• Consent can only be given in the grown-ups' area, which children cannot open: it sits behind a question for grown-ups and the parent PIN.

The law asks for "reasonable efforts, taking into consideration available technology", and the Information Commission's Children's code asks for checks that are proportionate to the risk. The risk here is low: there are no adverts, children cannot contact strangers, we hold no information about your child, and what the app records stays on your family's own devices and, if you switch it on, your own iCloud. Asking for identity documents or a card check would mean collecting more about your family than the app itself ever does, so we do not. We cannot fully verify who you are, so please do not add a child you are not responsible for.

Do you have to give us information? You need to sign in with Apple and give each child a name or nickname and their month and year of birth, or the app cannot set up the right content. Everything else is optional. If you do not switch on an optional feature, the rest of the app works as normal. Premium never depends on switching on any optional feature.

5. Where the information comes from

From you (when you set up the app and add children), from your child's use of the app, from Apple (your account code, and your name and email if you let Apple share them; your Premium status), from your own iCloud (if you reinstall the app and switch iCloud sync on again), and, if you use family sharing, from the other grown-ups and devices in your family group (for example practice or a reaction sent by another parent).

6. Where it is kept and who can see it

On your devices. Everything is kept on the iPhone or iPad where it was created, protected by iOS encryption.

Device backups. If your iPhone or iPad backs up to iCloud or to a computer, BrightNods' data on that device is included in the backup, as with most apps, even if iCloud sync is off. The exceptions are working out (including any copies your family shares with you, and reactions waiting to be delivered) and a quiz left part-way, which are left out of backups. Backups are controlled by you in the device's Settings and are kept by Apple or on your computer, not by us.

iCloud sync (optional, off until you switch it on). It copies your family's BrightNods data to your own private iCloud storage so your devices stay in step. Only devices signed in to your Apple Account can read it. It copies:

• the profiles, the family record, quiz and test results, mistakes, how topics felt, which questions are due again, records of what you agreed to, and the security log;
• each child's points, levels, streaks, badges, stickers, reward points, the day they last practised, how sure they are of each topic, their school year, and their sound and animation settings.

It does not copy the pet, working out, a quiz left part-way, spelling lists, homework sets, the record of each question tried, your parent PIN or Premium status. Those stay on the device.

The iCloud copy stays when the app goes. Deleting BrightNods from a device removes the copy on that device only. The copy in your iCloud stays. If you install BrightNods again and switch iCloud sync back on, the app brings that copy back, including your children's progress, badges and stickers. A profile you have deleted, or asked to delete, is never brought back. Switching iCloud sync off stops copying but does not delete what is already in iCloud. Section 8 explains how to delete it.

Family sharing (optional, off until you switch it on, child by child).

• You invite people with Apple's share sheet (Messages, Mail or a link). Each person joins with their own Apple Account. They might be another parent, a guardian, a grandparent, or your child's own iPad or iPhone.
• Family sharing carries progress, working out and practice only. For each child you choose, the shared family space holds: the child's name and year of birth (so the other devices show the right school year), quiz and test results, up to 100 of the questions they got wrong (with the answer they gave, the right answer and any note of the likely misunderstanding), the record of each question tried, how sure they are of each topic, how they said topics felt, streak days and points, and the practice set for them. It also holds your family's name, and whether a parent agreed to share the child, when and which parent. The child's month of birth, avatar and pet are not shared.
• Working out is shared only for a child whose sharing you agreed covers working out, and only once a quiz is finished, never while the child is still drawing. It includes what they drew, the shapes they placed and the corners and sides they marked, with the question and their answer. A child you shared before working out was added (25 October 2026) keeps sharing their progress without it until you agree again, under Family in the grown-ups' area. Each person you invite keeps the working out they receive on their own device, for 60 days at most (the newest 500 pages per child), and not in that device's backups.
• Reactions. A grown-up can send a sticker or message about a page of working out from the grown-ups' area (from the fixed list, never free text), on the device the page was drawn on or, with family sharing, from their own phone. One sent from another device goes to the device the page was drawn on through the shared family space: the reaction, which page it is about and when it was sent. It is deleted from the family space as soon as that device has it (if it never does, after 60 days) and is then kept with the page.
• Everyone you invite can see and change this information in BrightNods on their own device. Only invite people you trust with your child's information. If one of the devices you invite is a child's own iPad or iPhone, the shared information about every child you share (for example a brother or sister) is kept on that device too.
• Only the people you invite can join; BrightNods does not allow "anyone with the link" sharing. Apple shows the people in the family group to each other by the name, email address or phone number linked to their Apple Account, as Apple's sharing screens do for any iCloud share.
• Resetting a parent PIN. If you ask to reset your parent PIN on one family device, the request goes through the family space so a parent on another device can approve it. It holds your name, the kind of device you are asking from (for example "iPad") and, once answered, the approving device and parent (for example "iPhone (Sam)"). Nothing about the PIN itself is shared. Each device removes its part once the request is finished, or after 24 hours.
• Spelling lists, homework sets, your PIN, your settings and whether you have Premium are not shared. Premium is shared only through Apple Family Sharing (Terms section 5.4).
• You can see who has joined, remove anyone, stop sharing a child, or stop family sharing altogether, in the grown-ups' area under Family. When you stop sharing, the shared copy is removed; what is already on each person's own device in BrightNods is removed the next time their app connects.
• If someone you invited leaves, their device removes what it sent about itself from the family space: the progress summaries (for example from a child's own iPad), the working out and the reactions. The children's profiles, and the practice set for them, stay with the family, because they are the family's children: to remove a child, delete the child. What the other devices sent stays.

Who can see your information

The revocation service. We have built one small service whose only job is to cancel your Sign in with Apple login when you delete your account. It is not switched on at present: the app sends it nothing, and deleting your account does not cancel the login for you; section 8 says how to do it yourself. If we switch the service on, we will update this notice first. It would work like this: when the deletion of your account is carried out, the app asks you to confirm with Sign in with Apple; Apple gives the app a one-time code that works only once and only for a few minutes; the app sends only that code to the service, which uses it to ask Apple to cancel BrightNods' access to your Apple Account, then forgets it. It would never receive quiz answers, results, your child's name or anything else from the app, and it would not store the code, Apple's reply or your IP address. It runs on Cloudflare Workers, as our processor (section 7).

We do not sell, rent or give your family's information to anyone else, and do not use it for advertising. We would disclose information we hold only if the law required it; we do not hold the app data.

7. Information stored outside the UK

We do not send the information in the app abroad, because we do not receive it. Apple may store iCloud data and backups in data centres outside the UK. Apple's privacy policy (apple.com/legal/privacy) explains which Apple company is responsible for your Apple Account and iCloud, and how Apple protects information it moves between countries. For our website, Apple's reports and email, see sections 6 and 11.

Cloudflare (our website, and the revocation service when it is switched on). Cloudflare hosts our website on its worldwide network. The details of each request to our website (and, when it is switched on, the one-time code sent to the revocation service) may pass through Cloudflare computers outside the UK, including in the USA. Cloudflare, Inc. is certified under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (the "UK–US data bridge"), which UK law recognises as giving adequate protection, and Cloudflare's data processing terms rely on it. If that certification ever lapsed, the same terms say the EU standard contractual clauses, as amended by the UK Addendum approved by the Information Commission, would apply instead.

8. How long it is kept

No law sets a fixed period for this kind of information, so the law asks us to set our own and keep things no longer than needed. These are our periods.

• What the app records about your family and your children is kept on your devices and, if you switch it on, in your own iCloud. We hold no copy. Your child's learning record has no time limit: it is kept until you delete it, so that it can show their progress over the years. You are in control of it.
• What we hold ourselves (your emails to us, and any correspondence about consent, a complaint or a refund) is kept for 6 years after the matter ends or after your account ends, then deleted. Six years is the time within which a claim about a contract can be brought (Limitation Act 1980, section 5), so we may need these records to answer one.

Deleting. In the grown-ups' area, open Settings, then Manage your data (under "Privacy and data"):

• Request Account Deletion deletes the account and its children after 30 days, so you have time to change your mind (Cancel Deletion). Family sharing and iCloud sync for that account stop straight away. When the 30 days are up, the app finishes the deletion the next time it runs (iOS may also let it run in the background), and keeps retrying the removal of iCloud copies if a first attempt fails.
• Delete now (shown once you have requested deletion) skips the wait: it removes the account, its children and their records from this device straight away, and from iCloud and the shared family space as soon as the device can reach iCloud.
• Under Delete a child's profile, Delete (child's name) removes one child and their records straight away, in the same way. The other family devices remove that child the next time they connect.
• Deleting the app is not the same as deleting your data. It removes what is on that device only. Copies in your iCloud (if you used iCloud sync) stay, and come back if you install BrightNods again and switch iCloud sync on. To remove them, delete in the app first (use Delete now rather than waiting 30 days, because once the app is gone it cannot finish the job), or afterwards open your device's Settings, tap your name, then iCloud > Manage Account Storage, choose BrightNods and delete its data.
• Switching off iCloud sync stops copying but deletes nothing already in iCloud. Use the steps above to remove it.
• Deleting your account does not cancel a Premium subscription. Cancel it in your Apple Account settings (section 5.5 of our Terms of Use).

What stays after a deletion. We want you to know exactly what is left:

• A short note that a deletion happened (the date, the type of action and an internal code, never a name) stays in the security log for up to 12 months, so we can show that your request was carried out. The device also keeps the internal codes (never names) of deleted profiles, so another device cannot bring them back.
• If you delete your parent account without deleting the children (for example after moving them to another parent), the family record stays on the device, and in iCloud if sync was on, because the children's profiles belong to it. Your email address is removed from it, and a family name made from your name becomes "Family". It goes when the remaining account is deleted together with its children.
• Your Apple account code. While our revocation service is switched off, the app keeps the code Apple gave BrightNods for your Apple Account (not your name or email) in that device's Keychain after the deletion, so that it can tell when your Sign in with Apple login has been stopped. It is never sent anywhere. The app removes it as soon as Apple says the login is stopped (for example after you follow the steps below), and in any case 30 days after the deletion.
• Your Sign in with Apple login. Deleting your account removes your data from BrightNods but, at present, does not stop BrightNods using your Apple Account; only you can do that. Open Settings, tap your name, then tap Sign in with Apple. Choose BrightNods, tap Delete, then tap Stop Using. On iOS 17, go to Settings > your name > Sign-In & Security > Sign in with Apple, choose BrightNods and tap Stop Using Apple ID. The app shows you these steps once, when the account deletion is carried out (straight away with Delete now; at the end of the 30 days after Request Account Deletion, or the next time the app is opened if it finished in the background). You can do this at any time, even if you have deleted the app.

9. Your rights

You have the right to:

• see the information and get a copy (access);
• have it corrected;
• have it deleted. For information collected about a child through an online service like BrightNods, this right is especially strong, and it stays that way after the child grows up (UK GDPR Article 17(1)(f));
• limit how it is used;
• take it with you in a commonly used format (portability);
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting what happened before.

You also have the right to object to any use we base on legitimate interests (section 4). If you object, we will stop unless we have compelling reasons; in practice, for the app, you can switch the feature off or delete the information yourself straight away.

How to use them. Because we cannot see what is on your devices or in your iCloud, the quickest way is in the app, in the grown-ups' area:

• See and copy: Settings > Manage your data > Export My Data (Readable) or Download JSON (a file you can take elsewhere). The export covers the profile that is signed in, including its learning records, rewards (such as stickers and the pet), spellings, homework, working out, a quiz left part-way, family-sharing data and agreement records. A parent's export also includes each of their children's profiles on that device, one part per child. If you need something that is not in it, email us and we will help you find it on your device.
• Correct: edit a child's profile in the grown-ups' area.
• Delete: see section 8, including how to remove the copy in your iCloud.
• Limit, object or withdraw consent: switch off iCloud sync, family sharing (for one child or all, or just working out), voice answers or notifications. Switching a feature off withdraws your consent to it; the rest of the app carries on as normal. Switching off iCloud sync does not delete the copy already in iCloud (section 8). If you want BrightNods to stop using any information about a child, delete that child.

You can also email [[OWNER: privacy email]]. For information we do hold (your emails to us), we will act on your request. For information in the app, we will help you do it, because we have no copy. We reply within one month (longer only for complex requests, and we will tell you why). It is free unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive, which the law allows us to refuse or charge for. We may ask you to confirm who you are.

Children's rights. These rights belong to your child. Parents and carers usually use them on a younger child's behalf. As children grow up and understand what the rights mean, they can use them themselves, and we will take their wishes into account.

10. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled information, please tell us first at [[OWNER: privacy email]]. The "How to complain" section of our support page (brightnods.co.uk/support/) explains what to include. The law gives you this right (Data Protection Act 2018, section 164A). We will:

• acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days (the law allows up to 30 days);
• look into it properly and keep you updated;
• tell you the outcome without undue delay.

You can also complain to the UK regulator, the Information Commission (which still uses the name ICO), at any time:

• online: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
• phone: 0303 123 1113
• post: Information Commission's Office, 4th Floor, No. 3 Circle Square, 5 Hawkshaw Street, Manchester M1 7BL

11. Our website

Our website (brightnods.co.uk) has no forms, accounts, cookies, analytics or advertising.

• Hosting. It is hosted by Cloudflare (Cloudflare Pages). When you visit, Cloudflare receives your IP address, browser details and the page requested, as any web host must, to deliver the page and protect it from attacks. Cloudflare processes this for us under its data processing terms and keeps its logs for its own set periods; we do not download them. Section 7 explains how transfers outside the UK are protected. We do not use Cloudflare Web Analytics or any other visitor counting.
• No cookies. The site sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser, so it needs no cookie banner. Cloudflare asks browsers to report pages that fail to load, to find faults in its network. Its fonts are stored on our own site, so your browser does not contact Google or anyone else.
• Email. If you email us (including to ask to be told when the app is available), your message is handled by our email provider, which acts for us under its data processing terms and keeps mail only for us. If it stores mail outside the UK, we use a provider that protects it with safeguards UK law approves.
• Lawful basis: legitimate interests (running and securing the site, answering you).

More detail, including cookies, is in our website privacy notice at brightnods.co.uk/privacy/website/.

12. Automated decisions and how practice is chosen

BrightNods adapts to your child: it uses their recent answers to pick what to practise next and when to bring back a question. This happens inside the app only. It does not make any decision that has a legal or similarly significant effect on your child or you, and it is not used for marketing. You can see your child's progress in the grown-ups' area and delete it at any time (section 8).

13. Children

BrightNods is made for children aged 5 to 11. We have used the Information Commission's Age Appropriate Design Code (the Children's code) to guide how it is designed. In particular:

• A family account can only be set up by someone who gives an adult date of birth. Anyone who gives a date of birth under 18 is asked to fetch a parent or carer. The grown-up who signs in with Sign in with Apple adds each child and confirms they have parental responsibility (section 4). There is no guest mode, and the grown-up must set a parent PIN before adding a child.
• Everything optional starts off: iCloud sync, family sharing, voice answers and notifications.
• Children see a small sign in the app that tells them a grown-up can see how they are doing, and who else can if family sharing is on.
• Purchases, the offer of Premium, sharing, the camera and photo library, and links that leave the app all sit behind a question for grown-ups.
• There are no adverts, no tracking and no location, and children are not shown offers to buy anything. Children cannot send messages or photos to anyone. Their working out is shared only with the family you choose.
• We give children their own short privacy notice to read with you. It tells them to stop and tell a grown-up if anything worries them.

Reporting a concern. If anything in BrightNods worries you or your child, including something shared through family sharing, email [[OWNER: support email]] and we will look into it. If you think a child has used BrightNods without a parent's agreement, please tell us and help them delete the profile.

14. Keeping it safe

Information is protected by your device's encryption and, if you use iCloud features, by Apple's encrypted iCloud storage. Your parent PIN is stored as a salted, one-way code in the device Keychain and is never synced. The grown-ups' area needs your PIN, and anything that spends money, shares, opens the camera or leaves the app needs a grown-up to answer a question first. Apart from Apple's own iOS features, the app contains no other company's code. No system is completely secure, so please keep your device locked and your PIN private. If we learnt of a problem that put your information at risk, we would tell you and, where the law requires, the Information Commission.

15. Changes to this notice

We will update this notice when the app or the law changes. The version number and date are at the top.

• If a change is significant, we will tell you in the grown-ups' area before it takes effect.
• If a change means using information in a new way, we will tell you first and, where it relies on your consent, ask you again. We will never re-ask your child.
• Previous versions are kept at brightnods.co.uk/privacy/archive/.

Changes in version 3.0: added family sharing; photos of spelling lists and homework, and Apple's on-device homework helper; handwritten answers ("Write it"); parent alerts, weekly summary and reminders (now off by default); the full list of learning records, including month of birth, the question-by-question record and a quiz left part-way; the working-out page (drawings, shapes and marks, kept for 60 days and left out of backups; shared with your family only if you choose), and the stickers and messages from a fixed list that you can send your child about it; rewards (points, badges, stickers and a pet); what iCloud sync copies, and that the iCloud copy stays when you delete the app and comes back if you reinstall it; device backups; how deletion works and what stays after it; PIN resets approved from another family device; our website; reports Apple passes to us; our lawful bases for each use; how we check that a parent has agreed; how long we keep things, including 6 years for emails and complaints; the small service that will cancel your Sign in with Apple login when you delete your account; the complaints process; the regulator's new name. A parent PIN is now required. Removed guest mode; removed Face ID and Touch ID, which the app does not use. A child's month of birth is no longer shared through family sharing (only the year, so the right school year shows).