Our website and business services are for adults. Where we publish an app that children may use, we collect the minimum possible, serve no behavioural advertising, apply high-privacy defaults, and give parents a direct route to review or delete their child's data at privacy@techgptltd.com.
1. Who this applies to
This policy supplements our main Privacy Policy. It applies where a service we operate is directed at children, has a mixed audience, or where we otherwise know that a user is a child.
"Child" means a person under 13 for the purposes of the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and a person under 18 for the purposes of the UK Age Appropriate Design Code. The age of digital consent under the UK GDPR is 13; in EEA countries it ranges between 13 and 16 depending on national law, and we apply the higher local age where it is stricter.
2. Our general services are not for children
This website, our contact forms and our client services are intended for businesses and adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children through them. If we learn that we have, we delete it promptly.
3. Apps that children may use
Where an app of ours is in Apple's Kids Category or enrolled in Google's Designed for Families programme, these commitments apply:
- No behavioural advertising. No interest-based or personalised ads are served to children.
- No advertising identifiers. We do not collect the Android Advertising ID or Apple IDFA from children.
- No third-party tracking or analytics SDKs beyond what the platform permits for children's apps.
- No selling or sharing of children's personal data, ever.
- Data minimisation. We collect only what the app genuinely needs to function, and we do not require an account where the app can work without one.
- High-privacy defaults. Privacy settings start at their most protective, geolocation is off by default, and profiling is off by default.
- Parental gates. External links, purchases and any adult-facing area sit behind a gate a young child cannot pass.
- No nudge techniques designed to encourage a child to weaken their privacy settings or share more data.
- Age-appropriate language. Privacy information is presented in terms a child of the target age can understand.
4. What we collect from children
Where a children's app collects anything at all, it is limited to:
| Data | Why | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Progress and preferences stored on the device | So the app works between sessions | Stored locally; removed when the app is deleted |
| Anonymous crash reports | To fix defects | 12 months, not linked to a person |
| A parent's email address, where a feature requires parental consent | To obtain and record that consent | Until consent is withdrawn |
We do not ask children for their full name, home address, phone number, photographs of themselves, precise location, or the contact details of other people.
5. Parental consent
Where COPPA or applicable local law requires verifiable parental consent before collecting personal data from a child, we obtain it before collection begins. Depending on the feature, we may use email-plus confirmation, a card-based verification through a payment processor, or another method recognised as reliable.
We tell parents what will be collected, how it will be used, and that consent can be withdrawn at any time.
6. Parents' and guardians' rights
As the parent or guardian of a child using one of our services, you may at any time:
- Review the personal data we hold about your child;
- Ask us to correct anything inaccurate;
- Ask us to delete it — see Delete your account;
- Refuse to permit any further collection or use of it;
- Withdraw consent previously given, without affecting the lawfulness of what came before.
Email privacy@techgptltd.com with the subject "Parental request", naming the app and giving enough detail for us to find the account. We verify that the requester is the child's parent or guardian before acting, and never as a way of delaying a legitimate request. We respond within 30 days, and usually much sooner.
Refusing further collection may mean parts of the app can no longer work. We will tell you where that is the case before acting.
7. Disclosure of children's data
We do not disclose children's personal data to third parties except to service providers strictly necessary to operate the app, who are contractually barred from using it for any other purpose, or where the law requires disclosure or a child's safety demands it.
8. Security
Children's data is subject to the same technical and organisational measures as all personal data we hold, described in section 13 of our Privacy Policy, with access further restricted to staff who need it.
9. Schools and educational use
Where a school or education authority deploys one of our services, that institution is normally the data controller and provides consent on behalf of parents as permitted by applicable law. We act as processor under a written agreement, use the data only to deliver the service, and never for advertising or profiling.
10. Contact
Questions or concerns about children's privacy:
privacy@techgptltd.com
TechGPT Ltd, [Registered Office Address], United Kingdom
You may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or in the United States to the Federal Trade Commission.
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