Their First Bus

Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 17, 2026

Plain-language summary

  • No ads, no purchases, no subscriptions. Their First Bus is completely free, and the whole ride is open.
  • No accounts or sign-in. The app never asks for names, email addresses, birthdays, profiles, or passwords.
  • No analytics, tracking, advertising ID, attribution, crash reporting, or cloud saving.
  • No child activity is collected or sent. The browser version downloads app files from our website, which involves ordinary web requests.
  • No camera, microphone, photos, contacts, location, or motion sensors. The app plays its own built-in song, voice, and sounds and never records.
  • The device remembers the grown-up switches and the last few places the bus visited; nothing leaves it. The switches are sounds, voice, the song choice, and rest the singer. The places are the last six your child sent the bus to, so the sign can offer one they know. Nothing about the day in progress is saved.
  • Native play works offline after installation. The browser version loads pictures and sounds when used and can cache those files; starting the browser app offline is not guaranteed. Settings, in the app and in the browser version, opens with one tap.
  • Support emails contain only what you choose to write.

1. Who we are

This policy explains how Their First Words LLC, a California limited liability company (“we,” “us,” or “our”), handles information in connection with the Their First Bus mobile application and its browser version on theirfirstwords.org (together, the “App”).

Privacy: privacy@theirfirstwords.org
Support: support@theirfirstwords.org
Postal address: Their First Words LLC, 2108 N St, Ste N, Sacramento, CA 95816, United States

2. Information the App handles

Information collected automatically

The App does not collect or send usage events, device identifiers, diagnostics, or child activity. When you open the browser version, your browser requests the page, pictures, and audio from our website. Those ordinary requests may include your IP address and browser information needed to deliver the files. Our hosting provider processes those requests to serve the website. The mobile app’s pictures and sounds are built in, so play does not make those web requests.

The App has no accounts, analytics, advertising, attribution, crash reporting, cloud database, cloud sync, purchases, or push notifications.

Information stored on the device

The device remembers the grown-up switches and the last few places the bus visited; nothing leaves it. In detail, the App saves two things in its storage on the device:

  • The grown-up settings: whether sounds and the voice are on, which version of the song plays (with Hope singing, or the tune only), and whether “Rest the singer” is on.
  • The last six places chosen: the names of the last six places your child sent the bus to, so the bus can choose one they already know. It is a list of place names from the App itself, nothing your child typed, said, or drew.

Nothing about the day in progress (which stop the bus is at or who is aboard) is saved. Both records stay on the device and are never sent to us or anyone else. “New day” in Settings starts a fresh morning but keeps the settings and the remembered places; uninstalling the App removes both. The browser version keeps the same two records in the browser’s site storage, where clearing the site’s data removes them, and caches pictures and sounds as they are used. It does not download every file in advance or guarantee that the app can start offline.

Permissions

The App never asks for the camera, microphone, photos, contacts, location, motion sensors, health information, or advertising identifier, and it does not vibrate the device. It plays its built-in song, voice, and sounds through the device speaker and never records.

3. The pictures and sounds

The bus, the places, and the riders are original watercolor illustrations made for the App. The song’s words are our own, sung by the App’s voice, Hope, on the traditional tune “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.” Every picture and clip is checked before it ships. Images and recordings are prepared in advance; the App does not create content from anything a child does or send child information to any outside service. Showing these pictures and playing these sounds involves no information about you or your child.

4. Links for grown-ups

Settings opens with one tap, in the app and in the browser version alike. The mobile app has no outbound actions: this privacy policy is a page inside the app, and our support address is shown as plain text to copy. The browser version offers a small optional tip link and may open a support email or the tip page as ordinary links; they carry no advertising identifier, analytics parameter, referral code, or affiliate code, and the website you visit handles information under its own privacy policy.

Only adults should leave a tip. Stripe hosts checkout and processes payment details. Their First Words LLC receives the payment record, including your email and amount, to handle the tip and any payment questions. Your child’s settings and activity are never sent to Stripe. A tip is optional and one-time: it unlocks nothing and starts no subscription. Every ride stays free.

5. Support emails

If you email us, we receive only what you choose to send, such as your email address, message, and any attachments. The App attaches nothing automatically.

We use support emails to answer your request, troubleshoot, keep the service safe, and meet legal obligations. Please leave out your child’s personal information.

6. Sharing, selling, and retention

We never sell personal information. Child activity never leaves the device. We use no advertising networks, analytics providers, attribution providers, data brokers, or session-replay services. Our hosting provider delivers the browser app files as described above.

Your support email is handled by the email providers that deliver and store it. We keep it only as long as we need to answer your request, keep a reasonable support record, keep the service safe, or meet legal requirements.

7. App-store statistics

Apple and Google give developers aggregated store figures, such as total downloads and crash counts. The App adds no tracking of its own, and we never use these figures to identify a child or family.

8. Children’s privacy

Their First Bus is made for young children, with the grown-up area and outside links intended for adults. The App collects no child activity or information entered by children. Play asks for no personal details and contains no external links.

Ordinary requests to deliver the browser app are described in Section 2.

9. Your choices and rights

There is no account or cloud profile to delete or export. The settings and the remembered places live only on the device: uninstalling the App removes them, and clearing the browser’s saved site data removes the browser copy.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over personal information you sent us in a support email. Contact privacy@theirfirstwords.org, and we will confirm the request concerns your own message.

10. Security and international users

Child activity stays on the device. Browser file requests are processed by our hosting provider. If you email support from outside the United States, your message may be processed in the United States or wherever the email services involved operate.

11. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when the App or the law changes, and we will update the “Last updated” date above. If a change affects how information is handled in a meaningful way, we will give appropriate notice and ask for consent when the law requires it.

12. Contact

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@theirfirstwords.org. General support: support@theirfirstwords.org.