Privacy Policy

Effective October 10, 2026

Who we are

FamilyLock is made by Harborline ("we", "us", "our"). You can reach us at harborlineapps@protonmail.com.

What the app stores on the phone

All of the following is stored only on the phone where FamilyLock is installed. Values are encrypted with a key kept in the Android Keystore. None of it is sent to us or to anyone else.

• The rule you chose for each app (Allowed, Curfew, Timed, or Blocked) and each app's daily minute limit.
• Which apps you marked as protected from uninstalling.
• Curfew schedules.
• Minutes used today by Timed apps, when any extra time you granted runs out, whether today is unlocked or locked, the count of wrong PIN tries with any lockout, and a short-lived approval while you remove an app with your PIN.
• Your parent PIN, and an optional second parent PIN, each stored as a salted hash (PBKDF2, from version 2.4.0), never as the PIN itself.
• Your one-time recovery code, stored only as a salted hash. The code itself is shown once and never kept.
• Your optional backup question (one of ours, or one you wrote), and its answer as a salted hash.
• A history of events on the phone: when restricted apps were opened or locked, when a PIN, the backup answer or the recovery code was entered (right or wrong) and which parent PIN was used, when someone tried to uninstall FamilyLock or a protected app, when settings changed, when a day was unlocked or locked, when protection was turned off or on, and when the phone's clock or time zone was changed by hand. It keeps the most recent 400 entries and is visible only behind the parent PIN. Apps you leave fully allowed are not recorded.
• Whether you agreed to the explanation of Accessibility access shown in Setup, and, if you turned on Block new apps, when you turned it on (so FamilyLock can tell which apps are new).
• The last time FamilyLock was known to be running, so History can show when protection stopped if the app was stopped or the phone restarted.
• Small preferences such as the light or dark theme and whether the first run tips were shown.

What the app never collects

• No account or sign in. We have no name, email, or identity tied to your use of the app.
• No analytics, crash reporting, or usage statistics sent to us.
• No advertising and no ad software.
• No location.
• No access to photos, contacts, messages, browsing, or typed text.
• No data sharing with anyone. Nothing leaves the phone; the only exchange is the on-device PIN sharing with FamilyCove described below, and only if you choose it.

Why the app asks for the permissions it does

• Accessibility access. Used to learn which app is on screen (including each side of a split screen) so the PIN screen can appear over a locked app, and to count minutes for Timed apps. It does not read screen content, with one narrow exception, for uninstalls. When Android shows its "Uninstall this app?" confirmation, FamilyLock checks it for its own name and the names of any apps you have marked as protected. Google Play's small "Uninstall this app?" dialog does not name the app, so whenever a full-size Google Play page is on screen, FamilyLock looks at the title area of that page (for those same app names) and the labels of its header buttons (Uninstall, Open, Update), so it can recognize that dialog when it appears. It looks only at Google Play's windows, only for those app names and button labels, and keeps none of it. When the dialog is for FamilyLock or a protected app, it closes it and asks for your PIN instead. With your PIN in place it also keeps Settings, and the other screens that could switch FamilyLock off or change the phone's default apps, behind that PIN. If a locked app is open in split screen, it closes the split so the lock screen covers the whole screen. Nothing it observes is stored beyond the app names that appear in History. Before it is used, the app explains all of this and asks you to agree; until you do, it does nothing. You can turn it off again at any time from the Setup screen.
• Battery optimization exemption. Keeps FamilyLock's periodic check running on phones that freeze background apps.
• Notifications (optional). Only to warn your child a few minutes before a curfew or time limit locks the app they are using. Asked for on the Setup screen, never at launch.
• Seeing your apps. FamilyLock can see the apps in your app drawer, plus the phone's home screen, phone, clock, contacts, uninstall and Settings apps, your email app (for the feedback fallback), and its battery or "phone manager" apps (such as Samsung Device Care and Digital Wellbeing), to show them in Manage Apps and apply your rules. It does not ask to see every installed package. The list is not stored or sent anywhere.
• Requesting an uninstall. Lets the Remove button (for FamilyLock or a protected app) reopen Android's own uninstall dialog after a correct PIN. Nothing is ever removed silently.

Sharing your PIN with FamilyCove

If FamilyCove, Harborline's browser for children, is on the same phone, you can choose to use one Parent PIN for both apps. Only when you choose it, and only after the PIN of the app being asked is typed, the two apps hand each other the salted hashes of the parent PINs, the recovery code and the backup answer, along with the backup question's text. This happens on the phone, directly between the two apps; nothing is sent over the internet, and neither app can read the PIN itself from a hash. Choosing "Keep apart" after a PIN change stops the two from being kept in step.

Children's privacy

FamilyLock is installed and configured by a parent or guardian on a child's phone. The app collects no personal information from anyone. The history it keeps is stored on that phone, is visible only with the parent PIN, and is never transmitted.

Deleting your data

Uninstalling FamilyLock, or clearing its storage in Android's settings, removes everything it stored. There is no copy anywhere else.

This website

This site is hosted by Netlify. Like any web host, Netlify's servers see the ordinary technical details of a visit, such as your IP address, when they deliver a page. We do not use analytics, tracking, or advertising on this site. The light or dark theme you pick is remembered in your own browser only.

The font and every image on this site are served from the site itself. Your browser does not contact Google Fonts or any other third party to show a page.

The report form. If you send us a bug report or an idea through the form on the home page, the details you enter (your email address, your message, and any phone details you choose to give) are received and stored by Netlify's form service and delivered to us by email. We use them only to understand the problem and reply to you. We do not share them with anyone else. Email us if you would like a submission deleted.

Beta signups. Before launch, people could ask for a test invite through a beta page. If you did, we used the Google account email you gave only to add you to FamilyLock's tester list in Google Play Console and to email you about the test. The beta page is closed. Email us to have your signup deleted.

Emailing us from the app

If the app can't open a browser for the report form, it offers to start an email to us instead. That email is pre-filled with FamilyLock's version, your Android version, your phone's make and model, and your text size setting, so we can reproduce a problem. It is sent by your own email app, only if you choose to send it, and you can edit or delete any of it first.

Google Play

You buy and install FamilyLock through Google Play. Google handles that purchase and installation under its own privacy policy. For a purchase, Google shares only the order details it gives every developer; we use them only for refunds and support.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new effective date. Because the app has no way to contact you, this page is the place to check.

Contact

Questions about this policy: harborlineapps@protonmail.com.