Family KeepPrivacy Policy
The short version: Family Keep keeps your documents on your phone, encrypted. There is no account and no Family Keep server, so we never receive your documents, your family's details or how you use the app. Nothing leaves your phone unless you send it.
1. Who we are
Family Keep is made by CTF Designs, LLC ("we", "us"). This policy covers the Family Keep app for Android and iPhone and the website familykeep.dev. Questions: support@familykeep.dev.
2. What we collect through the app: nothing
The app has no sign-up, no login and no server of ours to talk to. We do not collect, receive or store the documents, photos, names, dates, numbers, contacts or notes you put in Family Keep. We do not run analytics, advertising or tracking in the app, and we do not sell or share personal information.
3. What stays on your phone
- Your vault. Records are kept in a database encrypted with AES-256 (SQLCipher), and every photo and PDF is encrypted separately with its own key. The master key is held by your phone's secure key storage (Android Keystore or the iOS Keychain) and is released only after your fingerprint, face or screen lock, or your optional app password.
- The app password, if you set one, is never stored. A key derived from it (Argon2id) unlocks the vault. We cannot recover it.
- Small caches for reminders. So reminders can be scheduled while the app is locked, the text of upcoming reminders (already filtered to your chosen detail level, never ID or policy numbers) is kept in a separate encrypted file. On iPhone, document and people names are kept the same way for Siri, and you can turn that off. On Android, the names of up to four recent documents appear as launcher shortcuts, which you can also turn off.
- Device backups. Family Keep's data is excluded from Android cloud backup. On iPhone, the encrypted vault can be part of your device backup, but its key stays on the original phone, so the backup cannot be opened elsewhere.
4. What you choose to send
- Encrypted backups (.familykeep files) are protected by a password you choose. You decide where to keep them: your files, a cloud drive, email. We never receive them.
- "Send to" creates an encrypted file, a PDF summary or plain text for one document or one person, and hands it to the share sheet. PDF and plain-text copies are not encrypted, and the app warns you before the first one.
- Moving to a new phone sends an encrypted copy straight from one phone to the other over your local Wi-Fi, after you scan a one-time code. It does not pass through any server.
5. Permissions and what they are used for
| Permission | Used for |
|---|---|
| Camera | Scanning documents, and scanning the code when moving to a new phone. Images stay on the phone. |
| Photos and files | Only the photos or files you pick, through the system picker. |
| Contacts | Only the single contact you pick in the system picker, to fill in a phone number. The app does not read your address book. |
| Calendar (and Reminders on iPhone) | Adding reminder events for expiry dates, at the detail level you choose. ID and policy numbers are never written. |
| Notifications | Reminder alerts and an occasional backup reminder. |
| Fingerprint, face or screen lock | Unlocking the vault and revealing hidden numbers. Handled by your phone; the app never sees biometric data. |
| Local network | Only for moving to a new phone over your Wi-Fi. |
6. Services from Apple and Google
- Reading text from scans happens on the phone. On iPhone it uses Apple's Vision framework. On Android it uses Google ML Kit text recognition and the Google Play services document scanner; the images and text are processed on the device and are not sent to Google, but ML Kit may send Google anonymous diagnostics about how the feature performs (such as device type and processing time), as described in Google's ML Kit terms.
- Purchases are handled by Google Play or the App Store under their own privacy policies. We do not receive your payment details; the app only checks with the store whether the unlock was bought.
- Calendar and reminder services belong to your phone or your calendar provider. Once Family Keep writes an event there, it is handled by that service.
7. Children
Family Keep is for adults managing their household's documents, including their children's. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.
8. Deleting your data
Use Settings → Erase everything on this phone, or uninstall the app. Either removes the vault and its keys from the phone. Backup files and copies you sent elsewhere are not affected; delete those where you keep them.
9. This website and the beta signup
- The site uses no cookies, analytics or advertising trackers.
- If you join the beta, we store the first name, email address, phone type and optional note you enter, the time you signed up and your approximate country (from the network). We also keep a one-way hash of your IP address for a short time to limit spam. We use this only to send your beta invite and a launch announcement, and we never sell or share it.
- The site and the signup list are hosted by Cloudflare, which processes network data such as IP addresses to deliver and protect the site.
- To be removed from the list, email support@familykeep.dev and we will delete your entry.
10. If you email us
We use what you send only to reply, and delete it when it is no longer needed. Please do not email us copies of your documents.
11. Your rights
Because the app keeps your information on your phone, you already control it fully. For anything we hold through the website (the beta list or emails), you can ask us to access, correct or delete it at support@familykeep.dev.
12. Changes
If this policy changes, we will update it here with a new effective date. If a change affects how the app handles your information, we will also say so in the app's release notes.