Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how Karanta Kids ("we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and protects information in connection with the Karanta Kids mobile application ("the App") and our website at karantakids.com ("the Website"). The App is a children's educational reading platform that provides illustrated stories, narrated audio, and interactive quizzes for young readers. The Website describes the App and our work, and provides ways for adults to contact us, partner with us, and receive occasional updates.

We are committed to protecting children's privacy and complying with applicable privacy laws, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") in the United States, the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") as it applies to children in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, and Apple's App Store Guidelines and Google Play's Families Policy.

By downloading and using the App, or by using the Website, parents, guardians and other visitors acknowledge that they have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information We Collect

Karanta Kids collects the following information to enable core reading functionality:

• Parent account information: Email address and full name (required for account creation and authentication).
• Child profile information:Child's first name, age group, and avatar selection (used to personalise the reading experience).
• Reading progress: The current page number for each book, allowing the child to resume where they left off.
• Quiz responses: Answers to comprehension quizzes, used to track learning progress within the App.
• Content preferences: Favourite books and bookshelf selections, enabling personalised reading lists.
• Badge and achievement data: Records of earned badges and game progress in Book Detective and Mysteries of Praise adventures.
• Feedback: Optional feedback messages submitted by parents, including emoji rating, text message, device type, and app version. Feedback is only visible to Karanta Kids administrators.
• Country (self-reported by the parent during account registration, used to personalise the reading experience).

Parent account data is linked to the parent's email address. Child profile data is linked to the parent account and is not independently identifiable.

2.2 Information Not Collected from Children

We do not collect any of the following from child users of the App:

• Email addresses or physical addresses
• Photographs, videos, or audio recordings
• Precise geolocation data
• Contact lists or social media identifiers
• Persistent identifiers for advertising or cross-site tracking
• Biometric data

2.3 Information Collected from Parents and Administrators

Our content management system (used exclusively by adult administrators, not by children) collects the following information from authorized personnel:

• Email addresses used for administrator account authentication
• Names provided during account setup
• Login timestamps and session data for security purposes

This administrative data is entirely separate from the children's reading experience and is not accessible through the App.

2.4 Automatically Collected Technical Information

The App may automatically collect limited, non-personal technical information necessary for its operation:

• Device type and operating system version (for compatibility and crash reporting)
• App version number

This technical data cannot be used to identify individual children.

2.5 Information Collected from Website Visitors

The Website is intended for adults. It is not directed at children, and it does not ask any visitor for a child's information.

We collect the following, and only when a visitor chooses to give it to us:

• Contact form: Your name, email address, the subject of your enquiry, and the message you write. This is used solely to respond to you.
• Newsletter signup: Your email address, the date and time you subscribed, the page you subscribed from, and the version of the consent wording you agreed to. We record these so that we can demonstrate that you asked to hear from us.

Confirmed opt-in. When you enter your email address for the newsletter, we send you a single email asking you to confirm. Your address is not added to our newsletter list, and we send you nothing else, unless you click the link in that email. If you do not confirm within 24 hours, your request expires and your address is deleted within the following hour.

Security records. When you use either form we record a one-way cryptographic hash of your IP address. We never store the IP address itself. For form submissions that are not completed, these records are used only to limit abuse and are deleted after seven days. If you confirm a newsletter subscription, the hashes of the addresses you requested and confirmed from are kept with your subscription as part of the record of your consent, for as long as we hold your subscription record.

Separate lists. Website newsletter subscribers are kept entirely separately from parents who hold an account in the App. Subscribing on the Website does not add you to any other list, and unsubscribing from the newsletter does not affect any account you may hold.

No tracking. The Website sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and includes no tracking pixels, advertising tags, or third-party embeds. We do not know who visits the Website unless you tell us.

3. How We Use Information

We use the limited information we collect solely for the following purposes:

• Providing core functionality: Saving reading progress, quiz results, and bookshelf selections so children can continue their reading journey across sessions.
• Improving the App: Analyzing aggregate, anonymized usage patterns to understand which books are popular and to improve the reading experience.
• Maintaining security: Protecting the integrity and availability of the App, the Website, and their content.
• Technical support:Diagnosing and resolving technical issues that affect the App's performance.
• Responding to enquiries:Replying to messages sent through the Website's contact form, and following up on partnership, collaboration, community and donation enquiries.
• Sending our newsletter: Sending occasional updates about new stories, the App, and our work, to people who have confirmed that they want to receive them.

We do not use any collected information for advertising, behavioral profiling, or any purpose unrelated to the educational reading experience.

4. Advertising and In-App Purchases

Karanta Kids does not contain any form of advertising. We do not display banner advertisements, interstitial advertisements, video advertisements, sponsored content, or native advertisements of any kind.

We do not engage in interest-based advertising, contextual advertising, or any advertising that targets children.

5. Data Sharing and Third Parties

5.1 We Do Not Sell Data

We do not sell, rent, lease, or trade any personal information or usage data to third parties under any circumstances.

5.2 Service Providers

We use the following third-party service providers to operate the App and the Website. These providers process data solely on our behalf and under our instructions:

• Supabase (database and authentication): Provides secure cloud infrastructure for storing reading progress and quiz data. Supabase processes data in accordance with their privacy policy and applicable data protection agreements.
• Vercel (web hosting):Hosts our administrative content management system and our website at karantakids.com. Vercel does not have access to children's data from the App.
• Resend (email delivery):Delivers messages sent from the Website's contact form to us, sends newsletter confirmation emails, and delivers our newsletter. Resend processes email addresses and message content solely to deliver that email on our behalf.
• Apple App Store / Google Play Store: Distribution platforms for the App. Their respective privacy policies govern data collected during download and installation.

We require all service providers to maintain appropriate security measures and to use data only for the purposes of providing services to us.

5.3 Legal Requirements

We may disclose information if required to do so by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of any person, prevent fraud, or respond to a law enforcement request.

6. Data Storage and Security

We implement industry-standard technical and organizational security measures to protect data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:

• Encryption of data in transit using TLS (Transport Layer Security)
• Encryption of data at rest in our database systems
• Row-level security policies that restrict data access at the database level
• Multi-factor authentication for all administrative accounts
• Role-based access controls for content management personnel
• Regular security reviews and updates

Reading progress and quiz data are stored on secure cloud servers. Local data on the device is stored within the App's sandboxed storage area, which is protected by the operating system.

7. Data Retention

Reading progress and quiz data are retained for as long as the App is installed on the device. If the App is uninstalled, locally stored data is automatically deleted by the operating system.

Server-side anonymized usage data may be retained for up to 12 months for analytical purposes, after which it is permanently deleted.

Administrative account data is retained for as long as the account remains active and is deleted upon account removal by a super administrator.

Messages sent through the Website's contact form are retained for 12 months from the date we receive them, after which they are deleted. Where an enquiry leads to an ongoing relationship, such as a partnership, correspondence may be retained for as long as that relationship continues.

Newsletter subscriber records are retained until you unsubscribe. When you unsubscribe we retain a record of your address, when you unsubscribed, and the consent record described in section 2.5, so that we do not contact you again in error and can show that your subscription was properly obtained. Unconfirmed newsletter requests expire after 24 hours if the confirmation link is not used, and are deleted within the following hour.

Account Deletion: Parents can delete their account and all associated data at any time directly within the App via Parent Dashboard → Delete My Account. This permanently removes the parent account, all child profiles, reading progress, quiz scores, badges, and all other associated data. This action cannot be undone.

8. Children's Privacy Protections (COPPA Compliance)

We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and take the following measures to protect children's privacy:

• We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.
• We do not require children to provide any personal information to use the App.
• We do not condition a child's participation in any activity on the disclosure of more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in that activity.
• We do not use persistent identifiers to track children across applications or websites.
• We do not serve behavioral or targeted advertising to children.

The Website is intended for adults and we do not knowingly collect information from children through it. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child without appropriate consent, through the App or the Website, we will delete that information promptly. If you believe that we have collected personal information from a child, please contact us immediately using the information in Section 12.

9. European and United Kingdom Data Protection (GDPR)

For users in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, the following additional provisions apply:

• Legal basis for processing: We process the limited data described in this policy on the basis of our legitimate interest in providing the educational reading service (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) and, where required, on the basis of consent obtained from a parent or guardian (Article 8 GDPR).
• Legal basis for Website enquiries:Where you send us a message through the Website's contact form, we process it on the basis of our legitimate interest in responding to you (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• Legal basis for the newsletter: We send our newsletter only on the basis of your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), given by confirming your subscription, and in accordance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. Every newsletter we send contains a link to unsubscribe. You may withdraw your consent at any time, either by using that link or by contacting us, and doing so is as easy as giving it.
• Data controller: Karanta Kids is the data controller for the purposes of GDPR.
• Supervisory authority:Karanta Kids is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office in the United Kingdom, registration number ZC235239. If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information, you have the right to complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk.
• Data transfers: Data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside the EEA or UK. Where such transfers occur, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with applicable data protection law.
• Data subject rights: Parents and guardians have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict processing of, and port data relating to their child. Website visitors have the same rights in relation to their own data. To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information in Section 12.

10. Parental Rights and Controls

Parents and guardians have the following rights regarding their child's use of the App:

• Review information:Parents may request a review of any data associated with their child's use of the App by contacting us.
• Request deletion:Parents may request the deletion of any data associated with their child's use of the App at any time.
• Withdraw consent:Parents may withdraw consent for the collection of their child's data at any time by uninstalling the App or by contacting us.
• Refuse further collection:Parents may refuse to allow further collection of their child's data without requiring deletion of previously collected data, though this may limit the App's ability to save reading progress.
• Delete account:Parents can permanently delete their entire account and all children's data directly within the App via Parent Dashboard → Delete My Account. No contact with Karanta Kids is required to exercise this right.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided in Section 12.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or the features of the App or the Website. When we make material changes to this policy, we will:

• Update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page.
• Provide notice of the change through the App, on the Website, or through the applicable app store listing, as appropriate to the change.
• Where required by law, obtain renewed consent before applying material changes to data practices affecting children.

We encourage parents, guardians and visitors to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, about our data practices, or if you wish to exercise any parental rights regarding your child's data, please contact us:

You can also reach us through the contact form on our website at karantakids.com.

We will respond to all legitimate requests within 30 days. In certain circumstances, we may require verification of your identity before fulfilling a request to ensure the security of the data.