Privacy Policy

This policy explains how HomeShine (“we”, “us”), the operator of HomeShine, uses personal information on homeshine.app and app.homeshine.app. Contact hello@homeshine.app with privacy questions or requests.

Information we collect

• Account details: your Google or Apple account identifier, verified email address and the name you share when signing in. With Sign in with Apple, this may be a private relay email address if you choose Hide My Email. We store the Apple identifier linked to your HomeShine account and an encrypted Apple refresh token to manage that connection and revoke it when you delete your account. We do not receive your Google or Apple password or request access to Gmail messages, contacts, files or iCloud content.
• Household information: household membership, names and email addresses entered by owners, invitations, permissions, optional uploaded profile photos, tasks, assignments, schedules, time zones, notes, checklists, templates, rooms, categories and task activity.
• Preferences and devices: theme preferences, notification settings, push subscription endpoints and encryption keys, Apple push device tokens linked to your signed-in session, and browser storage used for preferences and onboarding.
• Technical information: hosting and diagnostic services may process IP addresses, browser details, request timestamps, errors and service activity. If you contact us, we receive your message and contact details.

Owners may provide your name and email address before you join, so we can send an invitation. Do not put sensitive medical, financial or other confidential information in task names or notes.

Why we use it and our lawful bases

We use account and household information to provide the service you request: signing in, organising chores, sharing with invited members, and saving preferences. Our lawful basis is performance of our agreement with you. We rely on legitimate interests to send requested household invitations, maintain security, diagnose faults and protect the service, taking account of your rights. We rely on consent for optional notifications and optional photo uploads; you can turn notifications off or remove your photo. Legal obligations may require us to retain or disclose specific information.

Who can see your information

Your household is restricted to its members. Household members can see shared tasks, member names, profile photos, email addresses shown in the people screen, assignments, progress, workload estimates and activity. The owner can manage invitations and remove people. Removing someone revokes household access; it does not automatically erase their account or historical task records.

The operator may access information where necessary for support, security and administering the service. We do not sell personal information or use household content for advertising.

Service providers and international processing

Cloudflare hosts the websites, database, scheduled reminders and technical logs. Google or Apple authenticates your account, depending on the sign-in method you choose. Apple operates the private email relay when you choose Hide My Email. Resend delivers invitation emails and processes recipient details and email content. Apple Push Notification service delivers native app notifications using device tokens and notification content. Browser push services operated by Apple, Google, Mozilla or Microsoft handle browser notification delivery. Google Fonts may receive connection details when a page loads its font. Our HomeShine contact addresses forward messages through Cloudflare to our iCloud inbox.

These providers may process information outside the UK. Their applicable data-processing agreements and transfer safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses or recognised adequacy arrangements, apply where available. Contact us for information about the safeguards relevant to your data. Providers also have their own privacy notices: Cloudflare, Google, Sign in with Apple, and Resend.

TestFlight beta interest

New testers join directly through Apple’s public TestFlight link; the website no longer collects beta-interest registrations. If you previously registered interest in the HomeShine beta, we stored your email address, the time and website of your request, and the version of the consent wording. With your consent, we use your email to contact you about beta participation and testing opportunities. This does not create an app account or guarantee an invitation. Interest registrations are kept separately from household accounts and are not publicly listed. We retain them while needed to arrange beta participation; you can withdraw consent and request removal by contacting privacy@homeshine.app. If you later accept a TestFlight invitation, Apple processes participation data under its own privacy terms. To limit abusive submissions, we keep a time-limited hash derived from your IP address and an attempt count for up to approximately 24 hours; the raw IP address is not stored in the interest list.

Notifications

Notifications are optional and require device permission. They may include a task title and appear on a lock screen where other people could see them. You can disable background notifications in the app or device settings. Sound choices within the open app do not control operating-system push sounds.

Sign in with Apple and account connections

You can choose to share your email address with HomeShine or use Apple’s Hide My Email. If you use a private relay address, HomeShine receives that address rather than your personal inbox address. You can manage the connection and email forwarding in your Apple Account settings. Stopping Sign in with Apple does not itself delete your HomeShine account or household records; use Settings → Delete Account or contact us to request deletion. Connecting Apple to an existing HomeShine account requires you to sign in to that account first; we do not automatically combine accounts based only on matching email addresses.

Cookies and local storage

We use necessary sign-in and OAuth cookies. Session cookies last up to seven days; sign-in verification expires after ten minutes. Local storage remembers themes, sounds, welcome messages and, where present, legacy chores awaiting import. Clearing browser storage removes local preferences but not your server-held household data. We have not added advertising trackers or a third-party marketing analytics tool.

Retention and deletion

Account and household records remain while needed to provide the service or until a deletion request is handled, subject to legitimate security and legal needs. You can permanently delete your account through Settings → Delete Account. For accounts connected to Apple, we revoke the stored Apple authorisation as part of account deletion. This deletes your owned households and personal records in the live database. Shared chores belonging to other owners remain, with your assignments and completion attribution cleared. There is no automatic inactive-account purge. Invitations expire after seven days, but their records may remain to track acceptance or revocation. Deleted chores are soft-deleted and can remain in the database; Undo is available briefly. Activity history and notification delivery receipts can remain after tasks are changed or notifications are cleared. Expired sessions and sign-in attempts are cleaned up during subsequent authentication activity. Hosting logs follow the provider’s configured retention. Backups may retain older copies until retired.

To request deletion, contact us. We will explain any information that must remain, including shared household records, legal obligations or backups, rather than treating removal from a household as complete erasure.

Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you can request access, correction, erasure, restriction or portability of your information, object to processing based on legitimate interests, and withdraw consent without affecting earlier lawful processing. We may need to verify your identity. Contact hello@homeshine.app. You may also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. We do not use household progress or workload information to make automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.

Children and families

HomeShine can contain family members’ information. An adult should manage the household and supervise children’s use. Do not share a child’s photo or information without appropriate authority. The app does not currently verify age or parent-child relationships. Contact us if a child’s information has been entered inappropriately or if you need help exercising their rights.

Changes

We will update this page when our practices change and provide additional notice where a significant change requires it.