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Privacy

Last updated: [date]

This privacy policy describes which personal data is processed when using FoxGuard: this website, the FoxGuard app (role “Child” = “Browser”, role “Parent” = “FoxGuard”), the parent portal and the FoxGuard server. It follows the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).

1. Controller

[Name / company]
[Street no.]
[Postcode town]
Switzerland
E-mail: info@foxguard.ch

2. Principle: as little as possible

FoxGuard only records what its features need, and does so openly: on the child’s phone, a shield is permanently visible in the browser’s address bar and explains what is logged.

3. This website

• No cookies, no analytics or advertising trackers, no external fonts or scripts.
• Website: the web server shortens IP addresses immediately (the last digits are removed). Access logs with shortened IP addresses are deleted after at most 72 hours; for visitor statistics, only daily totals are kept (see below).
• Parent portal, app and server interface: here the server logs technical access data with the full IP address (time, requested address, browser or app identifier) to keep the service running and to detect abuse such as password-guessing attempts. These security logs are deleted after at most 7 days; IP addresses in the account log and in sign-in sessions are shortened after 7 days.
• Backups: the database is backed up daily in encrypted form; each backup is kept for at most 7 days and then deleted automatically. A backup may contain full IP addresses that were at most 7 days old when the backup was made.

Visitor statistics without cookies

To see how many people use our website, we analyse the access log of our own web server – no cookies, no tracking scripts, no third-party services. The server shortens IP addresses immediately (the last digits are removed). To estimate visitors per day, a checksum is computed from the shortened IP address and the browser identifier using a random key that changes daily, and is only counted; the key is deleted at the end of the day, so nobody can recognise you across days. We store daily totals only (e.g. views per page, language, device type, domain of the referring site) – no IP addresses, no browser identifiers, no profiles. Daily totals are deleted after 25 months; server logs with shortened IP addresses after 72 hours at most.

To suggest help services near you, the homepage asks our own server for your country. The server determines only the country from the shortened IP address and stores nothing. Country detection: IP Geolocation by DB-IP (opens in a new tab), licence CC BY 4.0.

4. Parent account

• E-mail address and password (the password is stored only as a secure hash, never in plain text).
• Optional: data for two-factor sign-in.
• Membership of a family, other invited parents, language setting.
• A log of important account actions (e.g. sign-ins, changed rules), so it stays clear who changed what. The IP address recorded with it is shortened after 7 days.

5. Data from the child’s phone

For each child, the following data is processed:

• The child’s name or nickname as entered by the parents, and the paired devices.
• The rules (times, filters, lists, exceptions, app rules).
• Screen time and usage time per app: which app was in the foreground and for how long, plus blocked app launches. So that you can set app rules, the list of installed apps (name and package name) is transmitted. App content is not recorded.
• Visited pages and usage time in the FoxGuard browser.
• Blocked attempts and the reason for blocking.
• Requests (e.g. for more time or to unlock a site) and messages between child and parents.
• Hotspot: whether it was on, for how long and how much data went through it.

Not recorded: messages, texts, chats or e-mails, keystrokes, screenshots, content of other apps, location (as long as the location features are switched off) and, for the hotspot, the connected devices and the pages they open.

Location (only when switched on)

The location features are optional and off by default. Parents choose per child: off, journey companion only (the child starts a journey themselves; it ends on arrival at a safe place, when the child ends it or after 2 hours at most) or always share. While the location is being shared, the child’s phone always shows a persistent notification – never secretly.

• Which data: location points from the child’s phone (coordinates, time, accuracy), journeys of the journey companion and the safe places set by the parents (name, address as text, point on the map, radius 100–500 m), and whether the child has arrived at or left them.
• Purpose: showing parents where the child is or that they have arrived safely, and sending a message on arrival at or departure from a safe place.
• Retention: live, only the latest location is stored. History and journeys are deleted automatically after 7 days at most. When location is switched off, no new points are added.
• Who sees it: only the parents of the family. Caregivers (e.g. grandparents) only see the location if the parents explicitly allow it. The operator has no access to location data from the admin area.
• Basis: parents switch the feature on deliberately and talk it through with the child; the child is informed on their phone at all times. [legal basis to be checked]
• Map and address search: map tiles and the address search go through the FoxGuard server: the parents’ browser or app loads the map tiles from us; only our server fetches them from OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org) and caches them for a few days. OpenStreetMap therefore receives no data directly from the parents’ devices – neither their IP address nor the browser or app identifier – and nothing that could be linked to a child or a family, only the requested map sections or the search text, sent by our server. The address search for safe places uses OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service – only when parents tap “Search address”; only the entered search text is passed on. Our server does not log these requests.

6. Purpose

Data is processed solely to run FoxGuard for your family: applying rules, showing overviews and reports, delivering requests and messages, and protecting the account. There is no advertising, no profiling for third parties and no sale of data.

7. Where the data is stored and who processes it

• Hosting: Infomaniak Network SA, Geneva – servers in a data centre in Switzerland.
• E-mail delivery (e.g. daily report, password reset): [e-mail provider and location].
• Push notifications (once enabled): [provider, e.g. Google Firebase Cloud Messaging – check scope of transmitted data and location].
• Map display and address search (only with location features switched on, see section 5): OpenStreetMap Foundation, United Kingdom – receives only from the FoxGuard server the requested map sections or search texts (Nominatim), without the parents’ IP address and without any link to a child.

Data is only disclosed abroad to the extent stated above and only with adequate protection.

8. Retention and deletion

Usage data (visited pages, times, usage per app, blocked attempts, hotspot) is kept for 90 days and then deleted automatically; the child’s requests after 30 days, expired permissions after 90 days. Location history and journeys are deleted after 7 days at most; live, only the latest location is kept. The log of important account actions is kept for 365 days – it contains neither requested pages or apps nor journey destinations; the delivery log of e-mail reports (without content) for 400 days. When an account is deleted, the related data is deleted immediately (families without other parents, including children, devices and history), unless there is a legal obligation to retain it. Database backups are kept encrypted for at most 7 days; by then at the latest, deleted data is also gone from the backups.

9. Security

Connections are encrypted (HTTPS). On the phones, sign-in data is stored encrypted in the Android Keystore, never the password. Access to the server is limited to what is necessary.

10. Children

FoxGuard is set up by parents or legal guardians. They are responsible for using FoxGuard only for children in their care and for explaining to the child what FoxGuard records. Secret monitoring is neither intended nor permitted.

11. Your rights

You can request information about your data, have incorrect data corrected and have data deleted or handed over. Please contact info@foxguard.ch. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

12. Changes

This privacy policy may be updated as FoxGuard evolves. The version published here applies.