Privacy Policy

Anchor & Almanac

Effective date: [Insert launch date]
Last updated: [Insert launch date]

The short version

We don't collect data about you. Your family records — kids' names, lessons, grades, photos, plans — stay on your iPhone or iPad. We don't have a database with your information. We don't sell, share, or rent anything. We don't run analytics, ad networks, or tracking SDKs.

When you use an AI feature (tutor, devotional generator, brain dump, catechism coach, etc.) the text you typed or spoke into that feature is sent through our server to Anthropic, the company that makes Claude. Anthropic processes it, sends a reply back, and is contractually prohibited from training their models on it. We don't keep a copy.

That's it. The rest of this page is the long version, written so a lawyer can verify we mean what we say.

Who we are

Anchor & Almanac is a homeschool planner and family-discipleship app built by Kinzi Herron, a homeschooling mom of five in the United States. Contact: info@nextfrontierbuilders.com.

What's stored on your device

The following lives only on your iPhone or iPad, inside the app's private storage that other apps and Anthropic cannot read:

Family information you enter (parent name, state, doctrinal tradition, educational style)
Each kid's name, grade, birthday, assigned curricula, lessons, and completion records
Photos you attach to lesson completions (for state portfolio purposes)
Plans you create on the Plan tab, including any times and notes
Catechism progress, Scripture memory records, Bible reading streaks, spaced-repetition card schedules
Generated devotionals, lesson adaptations, weekly reviews, and morning briefings (cached so they don't re-bill)
Your active subscription status (from Apple's StoreKit)
(DEBUG dev builds only) An Anthropic API key you've optionally pasted into Settings

None of this is uploaded anywhere by us. It is included in your iCloud device backup if you've enabled iCloud Backup, in which case Apple handles encryption per their terms.

What gets sent off-device

When you use an AI-powered feature, the prompt text we construct (which includes whatever you typed or spoke, plus context like your selected doctrinal tradition and which kid the feature is for) is sent through our server (a Netlify Function) to Anthropic's Claude API.

The features that work this way:

AI tutor on lesson cards
Adapt lesson rewrites (easier / scaffold / extend)
Worksheet generator
Today's briefing (sends a summary of today's plan + recent completions)
AI weekly review (sends a summary of the week's plan + activity)
Scripture memory coach (sends your typed attempt vs. the canonical verse)
Catechism coach (sends your typed answer vs. the canonical Q&A)
Family devotional generator (sends the passage reference and any text you pasted)
Brain dump parser (sends your typed or spoken dump for extraction into structured items)

We send the minimum necessary to make the feature work. We do not send:

Photos
Your iCloud login or device identifiers
Names or contact info of anyone outside your family
Lists of every kid's data when you only used one feature

The server forwards your request to Anthropic, returns Anthropic's reply to your phone, and does not store the content. Anthropic's commercial API terms (in effect as of our launch date) prohibit training on customer API data and require a 30-day deletion of abuse-monitoring logs. See anthropic.com/legal/api-customer-terms.

What stays on-device even for AI features

All your family records (the AI sees only the small slice it needs for the active feature)
Photo evidence on lesson completions
Spelling lists imported from photos (OCR runs on-device using Apple's Vision framework)
Spoken brain-dump audio (Apple's speech recognition runs on-device where supported; only the transcribed text is sent on)
Bible reading plan data, catechism Q&A text, hymn lyrics, Scripture verses (shipped with the app, never fetched live)

Subscriptions and billing

We use Apple's standard StoreKit for subscription billing. We never see your payment information. Apple gives us only a yes/no on whether your subscription is active. Manage or cancel anytime in iOS Settings → Your Apple ID → Subscriptions.

Children's privacy

The app is designed for use by parents on behalf of their children. We do not knowingly collect any personal information directly from children. Anything entered about your kids is stored on your device under your control; it does not leave the device unless you use an AI feature, at which point only the minimum context is sent (typically a name and grade level for age-appropriate tiering).

Permissions the app may ask for

Photo library / camera — only when you actively pick a curriculum page, spelling list, or kid's work to import. No background access.
Microphone + speech recognition — only when you tap the mic button in the brain dump. Apple processes recognition on-device where supported.
Notifications — not requested at launch.

You can revoke any of these in iOS Settings → Anchor & Almanac.

Third parties

We use:

Apple StoreKit for subscriptions
Apple Vision framework for on-device OCR of curriculum and spelling photos
Apple Foundation Models / Speech framework for on-device speech recognition where available
Netlify to host our API proxy (they see only request metadata; they don't see the content of your requests in any persistent log)
Anthropic Claude API to power the AI features listed above

We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook SDK, Firebase, Mixpanel, Segment, or any other analytics or tracking SDK.

Your rights

Because we don't have a database of your information, there's nothing for us to delete on request — uninstalling the app removes everything. If you have your own Anthropic API key configured in DEBUG builds, removing the app deletes it from the iPhone.

Changes to this policy

If we materially change how the app handles your data, we'll bump the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and surface a notice in the app on first launch after the change.

Contact

Questions, complaints, or compliments: info@nextfrontierbuilders.com