Privacy policy

The short version

• Household only keeps what your family puts into it, so you can all see it.
• No adverts, and nothing tracking how you use it.
• Your information is never sold or given to anyone.
• It’s stored with Google. Calendars, lists and notes are kept in Sydney, Australia. Photos and files are kept in the United States.
• You can see it, fix it or have it deleted. Email hello@household.co.nz.

Who runs Household?

Household is made and run by Dan, a person in New Zealand, not a company. When this page says “we”, it means Dan. New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020 applies.

This page covers the Household app on the web (app.household.co.nz), the Android app, and this website (www.household.co.nz).

What does Household keep?

Your account

If you sign in with Google, Household gets your name, email address and profile picture. If you sign in with an email address, it keeps that address and your name. Your password is handled by Google, and Household never sees it.

What your family adds

Anything your family puts in is kept so you can all see it:

• Who is in your household: names, nicknames, birthdays if you add them, and who is a parent or a child.
• Events: what, when, where, notes, who’s going, who’s driving, and who has seen it.
• Shopping lists, to-dos and notes.
• Photos and files you upload.
• Contacts you add, like coaches or friends’ parents. They don’t use Household themselves, so only add what you need.
• Where people are staying, if you use that: just a name like “Home” or “Nana’s”, and the days, never a map location or an address.
• Events your family has sent to, or received from, another household, and a list of what was sent, when and by whom.

Your phone

So the Android app can send you notifications, Household keeps a notification code for each phone you sign in on, the phone’s name and type, and when it signed in. Parents can see which phones their kids are signed in on. Nobody can see another adult’s phones. Household also keeps a list of the notifications it has sent, so a parent can check what got through.

Links you make

• If you add Household to Google Calendar, it keeps the private link that makes this work. You can reset the link at any time.
• If you connect an AI assistant, like Claude, it keeps the sign-in details for that. They expire on their own.

What every website records

Like any website, the servers keep a short technical log of each visit, such as the internet address and the time. It’s used to keep things secure and fix problems.

What Household doesn’t collect

Household doesn’t take your phone’s location or its contacts. It has no advertising IDs and no tracking, and nothing follows you to other websites or apps.

The web app saves your sign-in and a few settings in your browser. The Android app keeps a copy of your household’s information on the phone, so it still works without a signal. There are no advertising or tracking cookies, and this website uses no cookies at all.

What is it used for?

Only to run Household for you:

• showing your family its own calendar, lists and notes
• sending the reminders and notifications you asked for
• keeping your account safe
• answering you when you get in touch.

It’s never used for advertising, never used to build a profile of you, and never used to train anyone’s AI.

Who can see it?

• Your household. Everyone in your household can see what’s shared. Anything marked “parents only” is seen by the parents and nobody else. It never reaches a child’s phone.
• Another household, only when you send them something. You can link up with another household to send each other events. Nothing goes across unless someone sends it. Once they accept it, their copy is theirs.
• An AI assistant, only if you connect one. If you connect Claude, it can see and change what you can, when you ask it to. Anthropic’s privacy policy then covers what it receives.
• Google, which runs the servers, storage, sign-in and notifications, and uses your information only to provide them.
• Dan, who looks only to fix a problem, keep Household secure, or do something you’ve asked for.

Nobody else gets your information, unless the law requires it.

Where is it stored?

Household runs on Google Firebase.

• Calendars, lists, notes, contacts and who is in your household are stored in Sydney, Australia.
• Photos and files you upload are stored in the United States.
• Everything is encrypted, both while it’s sent and while it’s stored.
• Google’s sign-in and notification services may handle your name, email address and your phone’s notification code in other countries.

What about children?

Children use Household as part of a family. A child can join only if a parent or guardian in that household invites them, and that invitation is how the parent or guardian agrees to it. Children can’t sign up on their own.

A parent can see what’s shared about their children, change it, remove a child from the household, and sign out a child’s phones.

If you think a child is using Household without a parent or guardian agreeing, email hello@household.co.nz and we’ll remove them.

How long is it kept?

• Your information is kept while your family uses Household, until someone deletes it, or until you ask us to.
• Old changes to where someone is staying are deleted after 90 days.
• AI assistant sign-ins expire on their own.
• Google deletes its own technical logs after a short time.
• If you ask for your account to be deleted, it’s deleted as the help page explains.

How is it kept safe?

• Every read and every change is checked on Google’s servers against who you are and which household you’re in, so the check never depends on the app alone.
• Parents-only information is stored separately, so a child’s phone can’t get to it.
• A parent can sign out a child’s phones. You can sign yourself out everywhere at once.
• The Android app can be locked with your fingerprint or screen lock.

No app is perfectly secure. If something ever put your information at risk, we would tell you, and tell the Privacy Commissioner when the law requires it.

Can I see, fix or delete my information?

Yes. You can see and change most of it yourself in the app. For anything else, or to have it deleted, email hello@household.co.nz from the address you sign in with.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.

What if this page changes?

The new version goes here, with a new date at the top. If a change affects what Household does with your information, we’ll tell you in the app before it happens.

How do I get in touch?

Any question about privacy, or any request about your information: