Privacy policy

Last updated: 18 October 2026

4D Ages is a private baby book: an app for Android and a website, where parents keep their children's (and pets') photos, stories, milestones and growth, and turn them into books and videos. This policy explains what information we keep, why, where, who can see it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have. It applies to the app and to the website.

Who we are

4D Ages is run by an independent developer based in the United Kingdom, who is the data controller for the information described here. You can contact us about anything in this policy at [email protected].

The short version

• Your books are private. Only you and the people you invite can see them.
• No advertising, no tracking, no analytics. We never sell your information or share it for advertising.
• We only use your information to run 4D Ages for you.
• You can download a copy of everything, or delete it, at any time, in the app or on the website.

What we keep

• Your account: your email address, a password (stored only in scrambled, "hashed" form by our sign-in provider), and your name if you add one. If you sign in with Google, Google gives us your email address, name and profile picture.
• What you put in your books: your child's name, birth date and gender; for a pregnancy, the due date and the pregnancy milestones, symptoms, cravings, scans and bump photos you add; for a pet, its name, kind, breed, birthday, where it came from, its places, health records, microchip, insurance and vet details if you add them; photos, videos and voice recordings; stories, milestones, firsts and lasts; heights, weights and head measurements; health notes; places and the map points you choose; and the books, videos and settings you make.
• People in your family: the names, relationships, photos and notes you add for family members, and how they are related (for the family tree).
• Sharing: the email addresses of people you invite, who has access to each book and what they can see, and the comments and hearts they leave.
• Your agreement: when you agreed to these terms and this policy, and to us keeping health information (see below).
• When you write to us: your name, email address and message, whether you email us or use the contact form.
• Feedback and bug reports (Help & Feedback): what you write, any screenshots you choose to attach, and, for a bug if you agree, technical details: the app version, whether it's the app or the website, your phone's maker, model and system version or your browser, the screen you were on, and in the book editor the kind of book, the page's layout and its number. Never your children's photos, your posts, pregnancy notes, family details or what's in your books.
• Errors in the app: when something goes wrong, the app records the kind of error, its technical message (with any names, email addresses, file names and sign-in details removed on your device and again on our servers), the screen, the app version and your phone's model, so we can fix it. If you're not signed in, a scrambled ("hashed") form of your IP address is kept with it, only to stop a device sending too many.
• Technical information: our sign-in and hosting providers keep short-lived logs (such as your IP address, browser or device type and the time of a request) to keep the service secure and working. We don't use them to track or profile you.

We don't collect your contacts, your location in the background, or anything from your photo library that you haven't chosen. The app only sees the photos, videos and recordings you pick or share to it.

Health information and information about children

Some of what you can add is health information: pregnancy symptoms and scans, growth measurements, and health notes about your child or yourself. The law treats it as special, so we only keep it with your explicit consent, which we ask for when you create your account. You can withdraw that consent at any time by deleting that information, or your account; it doesn't affect anything we did before.

Information about a child is added by their parent or guardian, who decides what goes in, who sees it, and can delete it at any time. 4D Ages is for adults (18 or over). It isn't made for children and we don't knowingly collect information from children themselves.

Why we use it, and our legal reasons

• To run 4D Ages for you, as you ask: keeping your books, syncing them between your phone, the website and the people you invite, making books, PDFs and videos, reminders and backups. Legal reason: it's necessary for our agreement with you (the contract).
• To keep health information you add. Legal reason: your explicit consent.
• To keep 4D Ages secure, prevent misuse and fix problems. Legal reason: our legitimate interest in a safe, working service.
• To answer you when you contact us, and to meet legal duties. Legal reasons: our legitimate interest in replying, and legal obligation.

We don't make decisions about you by automated means, we don't profile you, and we don't use your books to train any artificial intelligence.

Who can see it

• You, and the people you invite: at most one other parent, who sees and adds to the whole book, and family members you invite to see only the posts with the people you choose. You can remove anyone at any time.
• Nobody else, including us: we don't look at your books. We would only access information if you ask us to help with a problem, or if the law requires it.

The services that help us run 4D Ages

These companies process information for us, only to provide their service, under contracts that protect it:

• Supabase: our database, private file storage and sign-in. Your account and books are kept in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany).
• Cloudflare: delivers the website.
• Google: if you choose to sign in with Google, or to back up to your own Google Drive (the backup goes into your Drive, which Google's own terms cover).
• GitHub (Microsoft): hosts the app's downloads and these pages, and is checked for app updates.
• Resend: sends us an email when a report arrives (the report and the technical details, never who sent it), and sends you our answer if you ask for one by email.
• Web3Forms: delivers the messages sent with the website's contact form to our inbox (your name, email address and message).
• OpenStreetMap (Nominatim): when you search for a place, the words you type are sent to it to find the place.
• OpenFreeMap and unpkg: deliver the map and the code that draws it, so they see your IP address when a map is shown.

Some of these are in the United States. Where information leaves the UK or the European Economic Area, it's protected as the law requires: by the UK–US data bridge, adequacy decisions, or the standard contract clauses approved by the UK and the EU.

We never sell your information, and we never share it for advertising.

How long we keep it

• Your books are kept for as long as you have an account, until you delete them.
• When you delete a post, a book or your account, it's removed straight away. Copies in our providers' automatic backups are erased on their own within 30 days.
• A book you share with the other parent is handed over to them when you delete your account, because it's their book too.
• Bug reports and feedback are kept until they're dealt with and then up to two years. When you delete your account, your screenshots are deleted and your reports no longer show who sent them. Errors the app records are deleted after 90 days.
• Messages you send us are kept for as long as we need them to answer you, and no longer than two years.
• Short-lived security logs are kept by our providers for a limited time, usually days or weeks.

On your device

The app keeps a copy of your books on your phone so it works without a connection. The website keeps your sign-in, a copy of your books, and the photos and videos you add in your browser's storage, using a small helper (a "service worker") so they show quickly. All of this is needed for 4D Ages to work, so it's always on, and it isn't used for tracking. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies. Two things are optional and only used if you allow them: remembering the page you were on, and Google's own code for backing up to Google Drive. The cookie policy lists everything, and you can change your choices at any time. If you turn on the lock on the website, your device makes a key for it that never leaves the device (it only checks it's you). Signing out, or clearing the site's data in your browser, removes all of this from that device.

Keeping it safe

Everything travels encrypted (HTTPS). Your books are stored encrypted by our provider and protected by access rules that let only your account and the people you invite reach them; photos and videos are in private storage, never public and never searchable. You can also lock the app with your fingerprint, face or PIN. No system is perfectly secure, but if something ever went wrong that put your information at risk, we would tell you and the regulator as the law requires.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can:

• see your information, and download a copy of it (Settings → Download a copy of my data);
• correct it (edit anything in the app or on the website);
• delete it (any post or book, or your whole account: Settings → Remove my data and delete my account, or on this page);
• withdraw your consent for health information, by deleting it;
• object to, or ask us to restrict, how we use it, by contacting us.

For anything you can't do yourself, email [email protected]. We'll reply within one month. We may need to check it's really you first.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us. You can also complain to the regulator: in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk); in the European Union, the data protection authority where you live.

If you live in the United States: you have the right to know what we collect (this page), to access, correct and delete it, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. We don't sell or share personal information, and we don't use it for targeted advertising or profiling, so there's nothing to opt out of.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change matters to how your information is used, we'll tell you in the app and on the website first, and ask for your agreement again where the law requires it.

Contact

Questions, requests or worries about your privacy: [email protected], or use the contact form.