Privacy

Who we are

Father's Shed is run from Australia. Questions about anything on this page go to thefathershed@gmail.com.

What we collect

Your details, such as your name and email address, and what you add and do in the app, including anything you choose to share about your kids. Some things, like your location or notifications, are only used if you allow them on your phone.

On this website, we collect your email address if you join the list, and count visits with Google Analytics.

On our link page (social.fathersshed.com, the link in our social media bios), we record each visit, each link you tap and each video you play. With it we keep the kind of phone or computer and browser you’re using (including whether you opened the page inside Instagram or another app, and that app’s version, your phone model and language), roughly where you are (country, region and city, worked out by our host from your connection), the page that sent you, any campaign tags on the link, and the click ID Instagram and Facebook add to links. We don’t keep your IP address. We store a scrambled version of it instead, which lets us count unique visitors but can’t be turned back into the address.

How we use it

To run the app, suggest activities that suit your kids, fix problems, understand how many people visit the site, and see which of our links people find useful. If you join the list, we’ll email you when Father's Shed opens and when a new post goes up on the blog, and nothing else. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

The app has no advertising and no third-party tracking.

Who sees it

You, and the dads in your shed. Nobody else. If you’re not in a shed, it stays with you.

How the app uses AI

Some features use Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, to save you time. Claude only ever prepares something for you to look over. Nothing is saved until you confirm it, and you can always change it first or fill it in yourself instead.

Claude sees only what each feature needs, set out below. It never sees your photos, your past moments, your reflections, your mates or anything they share.

Logging a moment

When you write or say what happened, Claude turns it into a moment for you to check.

• What Claude sees: what you write, and today’s date, so that “yesterday” means your yesterday. It is sent as you wrote it, so a name you mention goes with it.
• What Claude does not see: your recordings, your photos, or your children’s names and ages from your profile. The app works out which of your children you mentioned on your phone.

Choosing an intention

When you describe what you would like to handle differently, Claude turns it into an intention for you to check.

• What Claude sees: what you write, and the intention as it stands while you work on it.
• What Claude does not see: anything about your children, or anything else from your profile.

“Make me an activity”

When you ask for an activity, Claude writes one suited to your family.

• What Claude sees: your children’s ages, the intention you are working on and what it is about, and any note you add.
• What Claude does not see: your children’s names, or the moments you have logged.

Speaking instead of typing

The app listens only while you are speaking, and only once you have allowed the microphone. Your voice is turned into text on your phone, and the recording is never saved or sent anywhere, not to us and not to Anthropic. To do this, the app downloads a speech model to your phone, but only if you agree. It comes from Hugging Face, which sees an ordinary download request.

Keeping it on your phone

If you would rather nothing went to Anthropic, choose “this phone only” in Settings. Moments are then filled in on your phone, and intentions are written in the form. Your words still reach us when you save a moment or an intention, as they always do.

What happens to it

We keep what is sent to Claude and what comes back, to run these features and check they work properly. It is deleted with your account. Anthropic uses it only to answer the request and does not train its models on it.

Your kids

The app is for dads, not children, and kids don’t use it. We only hold what you choose to add about them, we never use it for advertising, and we never share it outside your shed.

Cookies

Google Analytics sets cookies to count visits. We look at the numbers in aggregate and don’t try to work out who you are. You can block cookies in your browser or use Google’s opt-out add-on. Your light or dark mode choice is saved in your browser and never leaves your device.

Our link page also sets one cookie of its own, holding a random ID, so we can tell a returning visitor from a new one. It isn’t linked to your name, your email or an app account. Video previews on that page come from YouTube, which sees an ordinary request for the image. YouTube’s player only loads if you press play, from its privacy-enhanced youtube-nocookie.com address, and YouTube’s own privacy policy then applies.

Who else handles it

We use a few trusted service providers to run Father's Shed, and they handle your information only on our behalf. Some of them store data outside Australia, so your information may leave the country. We don’t sell your information, rent it, or hand it to anyone for their own marketing.

Keeping and deleting it

We keep your information while you have an account or are on the list. Email thefathershed@gmail.com to see what we hold about you or your kids, correct it, or have any or all of it deleted. No reason needed and no hard feelings.

Changes

When this changes we’ll update the date at the top of the page. If it changes in a way that matters, we’ll say so in an email rather than quietly editing it.