Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated: January 2025
Your family's data belongs to your family
Kinovia does not sell your data, serve you ads, or share your information with third parties for commercial purposes. Your family data is private to your approved family group — full stop.
Overview
Kinovia is designed with your family's privacy as a core principle. Your family data is private to your approved family group — we do not sell, share or expose your data to third parties for advertising or any commercial purpose. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why we collect it, and who can see it.
1. What We Collect
Account information: Your name, email address and password. Passwords are stored securely by Firebase Authentication — we never see your plain-text password.
Profile information: Birth date, location, occupation, blood group, biography and profile photo — all of which you provide voluntarily.
Location data: When you open the app, we record your approximate location. This is used exclusively for the Family Safety feature and is only visible to your family admin if you have not used the app for the number of days you have chosen as your safety threshold.
Family documents: Files you upload to the Document Vault such as certificates, deeds, wills and other important papers.
Usage data: When you last opened the app (for the safety feature) and basic app performance data via Firebase Crashlytics and Performance Monitoring — to help us fix bugs and improve the experience.
Device information: Device model, Android version and app version — collected only when you submit a bug report through the app.
2. How We Use Your Data
- ✓To provide the Kinovia service — including family tree features, events, announcements, document vault, memorial pages and chat.
- ✓To keep you safe — the location feature allows family admins to perform welfare checks if a member has been inactive for an extended period.
- ✓To send you notifications — birthday reminders, event alerts, blood donation emergencies and other family updates. You can control these in Settings.
- ✓To improve the app — crash reports and performance data help us identify and fix issues.
- ✓We do not use your data for advertising. We do not sell your data to any third party.
3. Who Can See Your Data
Your family members: Can see your profile name, photo and public profile information within your shared family space.
Your family admin: Can see everything visible to members, plus your last known approximate location (if you are inactive beyond your chosen threshold) and your documents (if you are inactive beyond your threshold and emergency access applies).
Private documents: Documents you mark as private are visible only to you. Admins can access them only in an emergency when you are inactive beyond your chosen threshold.
Kinovia: We can see aggregate usage data and crash reports but do not routinely access individual family data. We may access data to resolve a support issue at your request.
No one else: Your family data is never shared with third parties, advertisers or government bodies except where required by law.
4. Location Data
Location is captured at the city/district level (approximately 11 km accuracy) each time you open the app. We do not track your location in the background — data is only collected when the app is open and in use. Location is stored in your user profile on Firebase (Google's infrastructure). It is only visible to family admins when the safety alert threshold is reached. You can disable location access at any time in your device Settings › Apps › Kinovia › Permissions.
5. Data Storage and Security
- ✓All data is stored on Google Firebase infrastructure (Firestore database and Cloud Storage) with encryption at rest and in transit.
- ✓Access to your data is controlled by Firebase Security Rules that restrict reads and writes based on your role (Member, Admin, Super Admin) and family membership.
- ✓Passwords are never stored — authentication is handled by Firebase Authentication.
- ✓We use Firebase App Check to prevent unauthorised access from non-app clients.
6. Data Retention
Your data remains in the system for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account, your personal information is removed from our active systems within 30 days. Family tree entries you added remain as part of the shared family history but are de-linked from your account. Uploaded documents remain until explicitly deleted by you or a family admin.
7. Your Rights
- ✓You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you.
- ✓You have the right to correct inaccurate personal data.
- ✓You have the right to request deletion of your personal data.
- ✓You have the right to object to certain processing of your data.
- ✓You have the right to withdraw consent for location access at any time via your device settings.
- ✓To exercise any of these rights, contact us through the Help & Support section of the app.
8. Children's Privacy
Kinovia is not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Family member profiles for children may be created by a parent or guardian as part of the family tree, but children under 13 should not have their own active user account.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes through the application. Your continued use of Kinovia after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
10. Contact Us
If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us through the Help & Support section of the application. We take all privacy concerns seriously and will respond within 5 business days.
This policy was last updated in January 2025. For questions, use the Help & Support section in the Kinovia app or visit our contact page.
Also review the rules governing use of Kinovia:
Read the Terms of Use →