Privacy Policy

Mission Control Kids LLC ("Mission Control Kids," "we," "us," or "our") operates missioncontrolkids.com (the "Service"), a tool that helps parents manage their children's chores, nutrition, exercise, and allowance. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights you have. Because the Service is intended to be used by children under 13 through parent-controlled sub-accounts, this policy is also designed to satisfy the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") and the Federal Trade Commission's COPPA Rule at 16 CFR Part 312.

If you are a parent setting up an account, please read this policy carefully before you create a sub-account for your child. Section 5 (Information We Collect From Children, and Parental Rights) is the COPPA-specific notice.

1. Who Operates the Service

For any privacy question, including how to review, change, or delete information about you or your child, write to the email above.

2. The Two Categories of Users

The Service is built around a single household account that is owned and controlled by a parent or legal guardian. Inside that household account, the parent creates one or more child sub-accounts, which let each child see and complete their chores.

• The parent is the account owner. The parent provides their own contact and payment information, sets up the household, and creates child sub-accounts.
• A child uses a sub-account that has been set up for them by their parent. The child does not register, does not provide an email, and does not provide any contact information directly to us.

We collect different categories of information for each user type, described in the sections below.

3. Information We Collect From Parents

When a parent registers and uses the Service, we collect the following:

• Email address. Used for account login, password reset, billing receipts, and Service-related notices.
• Mobile phone number. Used to verify your identity at signup and to send Service-related SMS notices through our SMS provider, Twilio. Full details of the SMS program, including opt-in, frequency, and opt-out instructions, are in Section 4 below.
• Payment information. Collected and tokenized by our payment processor, Stripe, to process the parent's paid subscription. Full card numbers are never stored on our servers.
• Household configuration. The chores, schedules, allowance rules, nutrition and exercise goals you set up.
• Persistent identifiers. Cookies, device identifiers, IP address, and similar technical identifiers, set automatically when you use the Service. We use these to keep you signed in, to remember your preferences, and for aggregated, non-identifying usage analytics.
• Support communications. When you email or otherwise contact us, we keep a record of the exchange.

We do not collect government identifiers, biometric identifiers, or precise geolocation from parents.

4. Mobile Messaging (SMS) Program

This section is our consumer-facing notice of the Mission Control Kids SMS program, in addition to the SMS Program Terms in our Terms of Service. A plain-language summary of this program, including a live preview of the in-app opt-in form, is available at missioncontrolkids.com/sms-terms.

4.1 Program description

Mission Control Kids operates a recurring SMS messaging program for parents. There are two message types:

• Service notifications tied to the parent's household account (for example, account or billing notices, or alerts that a child has completed a chore). These are sent on an as-needed basis and may include security-related messages that cannot be turned off while the account is active.
• The "daily mission tips" welcome series, an optional 14-message educational series on running a household with kids of mission-control age. Parents opt in to this series via an unchecked consent checkbox on the phone-verification step at missioncontrolkids.com/verify-phone. If consent is not given, the welcome series is not sent.

4.2 How consent is captured

Welcome-series consent is captured exclusively through the web form at missioncontrolkids.com/verify-phone, via an unchecked checkbox the parent must affirmatively select. We store a timestamped record of consent (including the IP address from which consent was given) in our consent_events database table. Consent is not a condition of purchase or of using the Service.

4.3 Message frequency

The welcome series consists of up to 14 messages, one per day for up to 14 consecutive days, sent at 7am in the recipient's local timezone, after which the series ends permanently. Service notifications are sent on an as-needed basis and frequency varies.

4.4 Carriers and message rates

Mission Control Kids SMS messages may be sent through any major US carrier. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Message and data rates may apply, depending on the recipient's mobile plan.

4.5 Opt-out (STOP)

A recipient may opt out of all Mission Control Kids SMS messages at any time by replying with any of the following keywords to any message we have sent: STOP, STOPALL, OPTOUT, CANCEL, END, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE, REVOKE. After opting out, the recipient will receive a single confirmation message and no further messages from the SMS program. To resubscribe, the recipient may reply START, or re-opt in via the web form.

4.6 Help (HELP)

A recipient may request program contact info at any time by replying with any of the following keywords to any message we have sent: HELP, INFO. We will respond with program contact information and instructions for opting out. For additional support, contact help@missioncontrolkids.com.

4.7 Sharing of mobile numbers

We do not share mobile numbers or any other personally identifying information with third parties for their own marketing purposes. The only third party that receives mobile numbers in connection with the SMS program is our SMS provider, Twilio (see Section 7), acting solely as a data processor on our behalf.

5. Information We Collect From Children, and Parental Rights (COPPA Notice)

This section is our direct notice to parents under 16 CFR 312.4 and our online privacy policy under 16 CFR 312.4(d).

4.1 What we collect from a child sub-account

• The child's first name or screen name, which the parent provides during sub-account setup. We use this so the child sees a personalized chore list. The child does not enter it themselves.
• Persistent identifiers, including cookies and device identifiers, set automatically when the child uses their sub-account. We use these to keep the child signed in and to support the internal operation of the Service (debugging, security, and aggregated, non-identifying usage analysis).

We do not collect any other personal information from children. Specifically:

• We do not ask children for their email address, phone number, mailing address, photo, audio recording, video, precise geolocation, or any other contact information.
• We do not allow children to post free-text messages, chat, or other user-generated content that could contain personal information.
• We do not use children's information for behavioral advertising, profiling for marketing, or any purpose outside the internal operation of the Service.

4.2 How we obtain verifiable parental consent

Before any information is collected from a child sub-account, the parent completes all three of the following steps. Until all three are complete, the child sub-account cannot be created or activated.

1. The parent verifies their email address (we send a confirmation link).
2. The parent provides a valid payment method to Stripe and pays for the Service. The Federal Trade Commission recognizes a monetary transaction tied to a verified payment instrument as a method of verifiable parental consent (16 CFR 312.5(b)(2)(iii)). Stripe sends an automated receipt to the parent's email, providing the additional notification step the rule contemplates.
3. The parent reads the direct notice presented at signup (which restates what we collect from the child and how we use it) and checks the consent box to confirm.

4.3 Parental rights

At any time, the parent of a child who uses the Service may:

• Review the information we have collected from the child sub-account. The parent can see this information by signing in to the parent account, or by requesting it from coppa@missioncontrolkids.com.
• Refuse to permit further collection or use of the child's information. The parent can deactivate the child sub-account from the parent account, or request deactivation from coppa@missioncontrolkids.com.
• Delete the child's information. The parent can delete the child sub-account from the parent account, or request deletion from coppa@missioncontrolkids.com.

We respond to verified parental requests within thirty days. We do not condition a child's participation on the parent providing more information than is reasonably necessary for the child to use the Service.

4.4 What happens when a parent withdraws consent

If the parent deletes a child sub-account or revokes consent, the child loses access to the Service, and we remove the child's information from our active systems within thirty days. The information may remain in encrypted backups for up to ninety days, after which backup rotation completes the deletion.

4.5 No conditioning of participation, no excessive collection

We collect only the information from a child that is reasonably necessary for the child to use the Service. We do not require a child to provide additional information as a condition of participating in any activity within the Service.

6. How We Use Information

We use information about parents and children only for the following purposes:

• Operating the Service (showing chores, recording completion, computing allowance, sending parent notifications, supporting nutrition and exercise tracking)
• Authenticating users and keeping sessions active
• Processing the parent's paid subscription and sending billing receipts
• Communicating with the parent about the Service, security, or account matters
• Securing the Service against fraud, abuse, and unauthorized access
• Improving the Service through aggregated, non-identifying usage analysis

7. How Information Is Shared

We share information only with the following service providers, each of whom is contractually limited to using the information solely to perform services on our behalf. None of them is authorized to use the information for its own purposes.

We do not sell or rent any information about parents or children. We do not share children's information with any party for that party's own marketing purposes. We do not allow third-party advertising on the Service.

We may disclose information when required by law (for example, in response to a valid subpoena), when necessary to protect the safety of a child or another person, or in connection with a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of the business. In the case of a corporate transaction, the acquirer must agree in writing to honor the commitments in this policy or to obtain new verifiable parental consent before any change in how children's information is treated.

7.1 Google Calendar Integration (Optional)

If you choose to connect Google Calendar to your household, Mission Control Kids requests the calendar.events.readonly scope to read upcoming events from your primary Google Calendar (a 90-day forward window). We read each event's title, start date, end date, and optional description. We do not read attendees, locations, attachments, or any other field. We do not modify, create, or delete events.

We use this data only to populate your household's Launch Schedule (vacations, school breaks, and travel that should pause chores on the right days). We do not use Google Calendar data for advertising, do not share it with any third party other than our infrastructure providers acting as data processors (Vercel for hosting, Neon for database storage), and do not use it for any purpose unrelated to the chore-pause feature inside your own household.

You can disconnect Google Calendar at any time from the Calendar page in the app. Disconnecting deletes the stored Google authentication credential and every event we imported from Google. Manually-entered events you created in Mission Control Kids are not affected.

Mission Control Kids's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

8. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We and our service providers use cookies and similar technologies (web storage, device identifiers) to:

• Keep parents and children signed in to their accounts
• Remember preferences (for example, household configuration on the device you most recently used)
• Measure aggregated, non-identifying usage to improve the Service
• Detect and prevent fraud and abuse

You can configure your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being set. If you refuse cookies, some features of the Service may not function properly.

We do not use cookies to deliver advertising on the Service. We do not allow third-party advertising trackers on pages a child can reach.

9. Data Retention

We keep parent account information for as long as the parent maintains a household account, plus a reasonable archival period after closure for legal and accounting purposes (typically up to seven years for financial records, less for non-financial records). We keep child sub-account information only as long as the sub-account is active. When a sub-account is deleted, child information is removed from our active systems within thirty days, with backup deletion completing within ninety days.

10. Data Security

We use industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect information against loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, including:

• Encryption in transit (TLS) for all connections to the Service
• Encryption at rest for stored credentials and other sensitive information
• Restricted internal access on a need-to-know basis
• Regular security review and updates

No security measure is perfect. If we ever discover a breach that affects information about you or your child, we will notify you and any required authorities as required by law.

11. Your Choices and Rights

In addition to the parental rights described in Section 5, all users have the following choices:

• Access and update. Parents can review and update their account information from inside the parent account.
• Delete. Parents can close the household account at any time, which deletes the parent account and all associated child sub-accounts.
• Unsubscribe from SMS. See Section 4 for full opt-out keywords and behavior.
• Cookie controls. See Section 8.

US state privacy laws (for example, the California Consumer Privacy Act and the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act) may give residents of certain states additional rights, including the right to know what information we have, the right to delete it, and the right to opt out of sale. We do not sell information. To exercise any state-law privacy right, write to coppa@missioncontrolkids.com.

12. International Users

The Service is operated from the United States and is intended for use within the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand that information will be processed in the United States, which may have different data protection rules than your country.

13. Changes to This Policy

If we make a material change to how we handle children's information, we will notify each affected parent by email, and we will not apply the change to previously collected information from a child sub-account without obtaining new verifiable parental consent. For non-material changes, we will post the updated policy on the Service with a new "Last updated" date.

14. Contact Us