Legal

Privacy Policy — Their First Patterns

Last updated: September 22, 2026

Browser version — October 17, 2026: The mobile policy below describes the installed app. Browser play downloads code and media from our website, opens Settings directly, and saves progress and preferences only in this browser when storage is available. Previously loaded files may be cached for reuse. Browser data may be cleared and is not synchronized or backed up. No account or gameplay upload is added. See our Website Privacy Notice for hosting requests and browser storage.

Optional web tips: Only adults should leave a tip. The browser app links to a separate support page and Stripe checkout. Stripe processes the payment details an adult enters, and Their First Words LLC receives the payment record, including email and amount, to handle the tip and payment questions. No child name, settings or activity is sent to Stripe. A tip unlocks nothing and starts no subscription. The installed mobile app has no tip checkout.

Plain-language summary

Their First Patterns is an offline pattern playground for young children. A parent or caregiver opens the app; the child plays.

No ads, no tracking, no data collection. The app has no advertising, advertising ID, analytics, attribution, or crash reporting. It sends us nothing, and we never sell or share data.
No account and no purchases. The app is completely free, with no sign-in, subscriptions, paid levels, or locked activities. We never ask for a name, email address, birthday, or password.
No sensitive permissions. The app never requests the microphone, camera, location, contacts, photos, or notifications.
Your child’s play stays on your device. Progress, the current activity, and app preferences are stored locally so play can continue later. We never receive them.
Adult-only links open our website, your email app, or an official store listing for another of our own apps. These links carry no tracking or referral codes.
If you email support, you decide what to include. The app attaches nothing automatically.
To clear play data, use Parents: Hold 2s to Learn More → Reset App Data, or uninstall the App.

The full policy follows.

1. Who we are

This Privacy Policy explains how Their First Words LLC, a California limited liability company (“we,” “us,” or “our”), handles information in connection with the Their First Patterns mobile application (the “App”), available through the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Contact

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

For purposes of the GDPR and UK GDPR, Their First Words LLC is the data controller for personal information that an adult voluntarily sends to us, such as a support email. The App itself does not transmit personal information to us.

2. Scope

This policy applies to the App and to support communications you voluntarily send us about the App.

It does not govern Apple’s App Store, Google Play, your email provider, or other external services that an adult deliberately opens from the parent area. Those services operate under their own privacy policies.

3. Information handling

3.1 Information the App automatically collects

None. The App does not automatically collect or transmit personal information, usage events, identifiers, diagnostics, or child activity.

The App has no account system, analytics, telemetry, advertising, attribution, crash-reporting service, cloud database, cloud sync, purchase service, or entitlement service.

3.2 Information stored only on your device

The App stores a small amount of information locally so that it can work and resume play:

Local data	Purpose
Play progress	Remembers each selected cast’s activity position, structures and activity types encountered, recent on-device outcomes used to choose an appropriate next activity, and the current or most recently completed activity
Compatibility data	Older local creations or Machine sessions may remain after an update so prior data can be migrated or safely retired
App preferences	Remembers choices such as whether sound is enabled

This information is stored under app-specific keys on the device, is not connected to an account, is not visible to us, and is never uploaded or synchronized.

There is no child profile. The App does not ask for or store a child’s name, age, birthday, gender, photo, voice recording, school, or contact information.

Reset App Data removes local play progress, compatibility creations, and Machine-session data. It keeps app preferences such as sound. Uninstalling the App deletes all of its local data from that device.

3.3 Support communications you choose to send

The adult parent area includes a link that can open your device’s email app. If you email us, we receive the information you choose to provide, such as your email address, message, attachments, and device or app-version details you choose to describe.

The App does not automatically attach child activity, identifiers, diagnostics, or device records to a support message. We use support communications only to answer your request, troubleshoot the problem, protect the service, or meet legal obligations. Please do not include a child’s personal information.

3.4 Adult-only external links

Behind the parent gate, the App may open our family website, your email app, or an official Apple App Store or Google Play listing for another of our own apps.

These are ordinary platform links. We add no advertising identifier, analytics parameter, referral code, or affiliate code. Once an external service opens, that service’s privacy terms apply.

3.5 No account and no purchases

Their First Patterns has no account, sign-in, in-app purchase, subscription, paid unlock, billing flow, or restore-purchase flow. We therefore receive no account, entitlement, transaction, or payment information through the App.

3.6 Information and permissions we do not collect

Names, email addresses, passwords, or account identifiers
Payment or purchase information
Advertising identifiers such as IDFA or AAID
Precise or approximate location
Contacts, photos, camera, or microphone access
Audio recordings
Health, biometric, or fitness information
Browsing history
Push-notification tokens
Social-media identifiers

The App plays bundled music and sounds through the device’s normal audio output. It does not record.

4. How we use information

4.1 On-device play

All pattern activities, progress selection, interruption recovery, and preferences operate locally on the device. This processing does not send information to us and does not require an internet connection.

4.2 Support

If an adult contacts us, we use the voluntarily provided communication to respond and resolve the request. We do not use support messages for advertising or profiling.

4.3 Legal and safety purposes

We may use or preserve an adult’s support communication when reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to lawful process, prevent misuse, or protect rights and safety.

5. Sharing and selling

We do not sell personal information. We do not share child activity with anyone because we never receive it.

We do not use advertising networks, analytics providers, attribution providers, data brokers, or session-replay services.

An adult’s support email may be processed by the email providers needed to deliver and store that communication. Apple, Google, and your email provider process information independently when you deliberately open their services.

6. App-store statistics

Apple and Google may provide developers with aggregated store information, such as total downloads or crash counts, under their own platform terms. The App does not add tracking to create those statistics, and we do not use them to identify a child or family.

7. Children’s privacy

Their First Patterns is designed for young children, with adult-only settings, data management, support, and external links.

The App does not collect personal information from children. A child does not create an account, enter personal details, communicate with us, or activate an external link from child play. Child activity stays on the device.

We built the App around the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the GDPR’s protections for children, and the UK Age Appropriate Design Code. The App has no profiling, behavioral advertising, location collection, child-facing purchases, or manipulative reward economy.

The App collects no personal information from children, so there is nothing that requires verifiable parental consent.

8. Retention

Category	Retention
On-device play data and preferences	Remain on the device until removed through the parent area, cleared by the operating system, or removed by uninstalling the App
Support communications	Kept only as long as reasonably needed to answer the request, maintain an appropriate support record, protect the service, or meet legal requirements
Child information on our servers	None; the App sends us no child information

We maintain no server backup of App progress because we never receive it.

9. Your choices and rights

9.1 Clear on-device information

Use Parents: Hold 2s to Learn More → Reset App Data to erase local play data. Uninstalling the App deletes its local data from that device.

Because we do not hold a server copy, there is no separate cloud record for us to erase or export.

9.2 Support communications

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, or a copy of personal information you voluntarily sent us. Contact privacy@theirfirstwords.org. We may need to verify that the request concerns your own communication.

9.3 Complaints

You may contact your local data-protection authority if you believe your rights have been violated. UK residents may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk. EU supervisory authorities are listed by the European Data Protection Board.

10. International users

The App’s play data does not leave the device, so it is not transferred internationally by us.

If you contact support from outside the United States, your communication may be processed in the United States or wherever the email services involved operate. We handle that communication only for the purposes described in this policy and as permitted by applicable law.

11. Security

The strongest protection is not collecting child activity at all. No child account credentials or cloud copy of play progress exists, no analytics or advertising data stream exists, and core play works offline.

We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards for support communications we receive. No method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the App or legal requirements change. We will update the Last updated date above. If a future change materially alters information handling, we will provide notice appropriate to the change and obtain consent when legally required.

Prior versions are available on request at privacy@theirfirstwords.org.

13. Contact

Questions or requests about privacy:

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