Children's Privacy Notice
This notice is for the parent or legal guardian who sets up a household account, and it is the notice we give a parent before we collect anything from a child. It explains what Sysera Inc. ("SYS3RA", "we", "us") collects and does through SYS3RA4kids, the parental-control part of the Service. A shorter version for children is at the end. The rest of our practices are in the Privacy Notice and the Terms of Service.
In this notice a "child" is anyone under 18 whom a guardian adds to a household account. We treat every child the same way whatever their age, and the law gives extra protection to children under 13 in the United States and under 14 in Quebec.
1. The short version
- You are in control. You create the household, add each child, and choose what is turned on. Nothing starts until you do it.
- Location is off until you choose how often, and from a child's phone it is reported only while the app is open. A child can see what is shared and can switch location off in their own app.
- We do not collect the websites a child visits, their messages, photos, keystrokes, screenshots, audio, camera images, contacts, or what is inside any app.
- We do not sell it, advertise with it, or use it to train AI. Nothing about a child is ever sent to an AI provider.
- You can download everything we hold about a child, or erase it, in the parent app or the web console.
2. Who we are
SYS3RA4kids is run by Sysera Inc.. For a household account we are responsible for the information in this notice, we use it only to give you the service, and you tell us what to do with it through the choices in the app and console. You can reach our Privacy Officer at privacy@sysera.ca.
3. What we collect
You give us some of this, a child's device gives us some of it, and the service works some of it out.
| What | Detail | From | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child profile | First name, time zone | You | To show the right name and apply limits on the child's own clock |
| Linked computers | Which computers are the child's, and which computer accounts on them | You | To apply limits to the right accounts |
| Policy | Allowed minutes, bedtime, blocked websites, how often location is reported, and similar settings | You | To apply the rules you set |
| Computer use | One number per minute while the child's computer session is in use (no names of programs or websites) | The computer, only while usage reporting is on | To count the day's allowance |
| Phone | A label the app gives it ("{first name}'s phone"), the platform, the app and system versions, when it last connected, and three yes/no answers about what the phone can do | The child's phone | To list the phone, and to tell you honestly what it can and cannot do |
| Phone location | Latitude, longitude, accuracy and time of a position | The child's phone, only while the app is open and at the interval you chose | To show you where the phone is, and the places it has been |
| Computer location | An approximate position worked out from the computer's network address | The computer, when you ask or on a schedule you set | To show you where the computer is |
| Places and journeys | Zones you draw; arrivals and departures; each trip between two stays, with its positions and times | Worked out from the positions above | To tell you when a child arrives or leaves, and to show you the day |
| Requests and chores | A request for more time, the reason the child typed (up to 500 characters), your decision; chores, quiz answers, and a note the child adds | The child; you | To run the time requests and chores |
| Bonus time | Minutes earned and from what | The service | To count extra time |
| Sign-in for the child | A single-use link or code, and the session it creates | You; the service | So a child can see their own page without an email account |
| Your consent choices | For each child, what you and the child's settings allow, when, by whom, and the jurisdiction in force | You | As the record of your choices |
| Records of what was done | That an action happened, by whom and when, by internal id only | The service | To keep a record that cannot be edited |
Some things are not collected by the current apps though the service is built to accept them later: the list of apps installed on a phone and per-app minutes. Before any version of the phone app does collect them we will update this notice.
What we never collect: websites a child visits (we block domains by changing the computer's hosts file and never see which sites a child tries to open), window titles, keystrokes, screenshots, audio, camera images, messages, the contents of any app, photos and contacts.
4. How we use it
Only to run the features above for your household: apply limits, show you where a device is, tell you when something is waiting, and keep the service secure. We do not: sell or share it; use it for advertising or to build a profile for any purpose other than your family's; use it for marketing; run analytics or ad software in the apps; or send it to an AI provider. A child is never required to give more information than is reasonably needed to use a feature.
5. Who sees it
- You and any other guardian you add see everything about the child.
- The child sees their own page: remaining time, the rules that apply, their bonus time and chores, and what is shared.
- Our service providers process it for us and may not use it for themselves: hosting; sign-in through Google or Apple for guardians; the push-notification services of Google and Apple, which receive a fixed message that says only "Something is waiting." and names no one; and, if verification is on, our payment processor (see section 8). The list is Schedule B of the Terms.
- Your own alert channels. If you set up email, Slack, Teams or a webhook for alerts, those services receive the alerts. By default an alert carries only that something is waiting. "Keep names out of alerts" is on for every new household; if you turn it off, an alert includes the child's first name and what they typed, a chore's title, or a place's name.
- Maps. In the parent app the map is drawn without contacting anyone until you turn on Show street map. Then your phone (not our server) asks OpenStreetMap for map pictures of the area on the screen. If you also turn on Follow roads, your phone sends the child's exact route to the OpenStreetMap community's routing service so the route can be drawn along roads. Each is a separate choice, off until you press it, with its own explanation. The child's phone never contacts a map provider.
- When the law requires it, and we tell you first when the law allows.
We do not disclose a child's information to anyone else for their own purposes. If we ever wanted to, we would ask you first, separately from everything else, and a refusal would not stop you using the service.
6. Your choices as a parent or guardian
- Say no, or stop. You can leave any feature off, switch off a child's location or monitoring, remove a phone or a computer, or deactivate a child. A child's consent choices can be declined: declining location or monitoring stops new collection.
- See it. Open the child's page in the parent app or the console. You can download everything we hold about a child as one file.
- Delete it. You can erase a child permanently, in the parent app (More, then the child) or in the console under Screen Time. Erasure removes the child's profile, positions, journeys, usage, requests, chores, bonus time and sign-in records. What remains: a record that the erasure happened, and your consent records, which identify a child only by an internal number and can never be edited.
- Ask us. Write to privacy@sysera.ca. We answer within 30 days. We will not make you give a child's information we do not need as a condition of using a feature.
7. Consent and checking that you are an adult
When you create a household account you tell us that you are the parent or legal guardian of each child you add, and you accept this notice; we keep a record of the version and the date. We check that an adult is opening the account in one of two ways: a small card payment that you make on our payment processor's own page (we never receive your card number; we keep a reference and the time), or a review by a person at SYS3RA. Child features are available only to household accounts. Each child has their own consent record, which the child can read, and which lists what is switched on.
8. How long we keep it
Our written retention policy is the table below. These are the defaults. The household can change them in the console, and information is deleted as its window ends.
| What | Kept |
|---|---|
| Phone and computer positions, arrivals and departures | 30 days |
| Journeys | 30 days after the journey ended |
| Computer minutes, requests, chores, quiz answers and notes | 90 days after the last activity |
| Bonus time | 90 days after it expired |
| A phone's record after it is unlinked | 90 days after it was last heard from, and only once its positions have gone |
| A child's sign-in session | Lasts 30 days |
| Settings you made (limits, schedules, zones, custom chores) | Until you change them or erase the child |
| Consent records and the audit record | Kept: they are evidence and cannot be edited |
| Everything else about a child | Until you erase the child or close the account; on closing, within 90 days |
9. Keeping it safe
Each household's information is separated from everyone else's inside the database. Information travels over encrypted connections, secrets are encrypted before they are stored, a child's sign-in code works once and is stored only as a hash, and a record of who did what is kept that cannot be changed. The apps hold no analytics or advertising software and ask the phone only for location. No system is perfectly secure; if there is a breach that affects your child's information we will tell you without undue delay.
10. Where it is kept
In the United States. If you live in Canada, that means a child's information is transferred to and stored in the United States, where its laws apply and its authorities may be able to access it. The country and region you tell us you live in are used to decide which rules and wording apply to you. They are what you say, not what we check, and they are not where the information is stored.
11. If you think a child has an account without a parent
A child cannot make a household account. If you believe one has, write to privacy@sysera.ca and we will remove it.
12. Changes
If we change this notice in a way that matters to a child's information we tell you by email or in the app at least 30 days before it applies, and where the law requires your consent, we ask for it. The version and date are at the top.
13. For children
(This is also shown in the app.)
A grown-up who looks after you set this up. It is here to help them keep you safe, and to help you ask for time.
It can see: where your phone is, but only while the app is open and only if your grown-up turned that on. You can see what is shared on your "About" page and switch location off there. It can also see what you type when you ask for more time or say you did a chore.
It can't see: the websites you visit, your messages, your photos, what you type in other apps, or anything through the camera or microphone.
The app can't be hidden. It always shows that this phone is being looked after.
Questions? Ask your grown-up. They can also write to us at privacy@sysera.ca.