What Face Data Is
A face print is a list of numbers that describes a face. The app makes one for each face it finds while it reads your photo library on your iPhone, using Apple's face detection and a face recognition model that runs on your iPhone. A face print is not a photo.
Face data at Our Little World means:
- Face prints of your children and of you and the other parent.
- Your answers about faces, such as “this is my child”, “not my child” or “that's me”.
- Where faces are in each photo, and smile and laughter readings the app makes on your iPhone.
Photos, videos and voice notes you share may also count as biometric or consumer health data in some states. We treat them with the same care. The app does not make voice prints.
Why We Use It
We use face data only to find your children, and you and the other parent, in your own photos, so the app can sort them into each child's space, pick Growing up photos and ask you fewer questions. We never use it for advertising, never sell, lease or trade it, never use it to identify anyone for anyone outside your family, and never use it to train models on our servers.
Where It Comes From
- Your iPhone, when the app reads photos you let it see.
- The other parent's iPhone, when you share a family space.
- Your answers in the app.
What Stays on Your iPhone
The app reads your photo library on your iPhone. Your photo library is not uploaded. Face prints of anyone other than your children and the two parents stay on your iPhone.
What Leaves Your iPhone
- To the other parent. So both parents' phones recognize your children and each other, your iPhone sends face prints of the faces you or the app confirmed as your children or a parent. A “not my child” answer is shared only for a photo both parents have, as that photo and where the face is in it, never as a face print. The other phone reads that face itself. Face data is encrypted, shared only between the two parents' phones, and stored in your family's private space with a key our server issues. We don't read it, but it is not end-to-end encrypted. Invited family members never get face data.
- To your account backup. Your account backup keeps face prints only of faces you confirmed, or the app matched, as your children or a parent, encrypted. For every other face it keeps only where it is in each photo and its smile and laughter readings, with no face print. Only your account can restore it. Recovery depends on what reached that backup; check the new-iPhone recovery guidance before replacing or erasing a phone.
Consent
We ask for your consent before the app reads faces. You give it when you connect Photos in the app, for yourself and, as their parent or legal guardian, for your children. The other parent gives their own when they join and connect Photos. You can withdraw it at any time, as described below. Without it, the app cannot sort photos by face.
Only add photos of other adults when you have the right to. Face prints of other people stay on your iPhone.
Versions of the app before 1.1.6 also sent the face print with a “not my child” answer and kept look-alike prints in the backup. We have deleted those from our servers and delete any an older version still sends. Updating the app stops it.
Who Receives It
- The other parent in your family space receives face data, as described above.
- Family members you invite receive the photos, videos and voice notes shared with them, never face data.
- Service providers that host our database, file storage, and video storage and delivery for us (including Supabase and Cloudflare) keep this data under contract and may not use it for anything else.
- Anyone else only if the law requires it, such as a valid court order.
We have no affiliates that receive this data.
How Long We Keep It and When We Delete It
We keep face data only while it serves the purpose above, and delete it at the earliest of these:
- When you choose Erase everything in the app.
- When you leave the family space it belongs to. Leaving also removes the faces the other parent confirmed as you.
- When either parent deletes a photo from Our Little World, for the face prints learned from that photo.
- When you delete your account. This also removes the faces the other parent confirmed as you.
- 24 months after you last used the app.
- Within 45 days after we decide in our yearly review that we no longer need it.
We delete it from our live systems promptly, and from our server backups within 30 days. Deleting the app removes the face data kept on that iPhone.
How We Protect It
Face data on our servers is encrypted, in private storage, with access limited to the people and systems that need it to run the service. We protect it at least as carefully as the other private information we hold. If a security incident affects face data, we contain it, find out what happened, and tell affected families and regulators as the law requires.
Your Rights
You can ask us to:
- Confirm whether we hold face data about you or your children.
- Give you a copy of it, and a list of the companies and people we shared it with.
- Delete it.
- Stop collecting or sharing it, by withdrawing your consent.
You can delete it yourself in the app with Erase everything or by deleting your account. Otherwise email support@ourlittleworld.me. We answer within 45 days. If we decline, you can appeal by replying to our answer, and we will respond to an appeal within 45 days. If you are not satisfied, you may contact your state attorney general. We never charge you or treat you differently for using these rights.
Changes
If we change how we use or share face data, we will update this page and ask for your consent again where the law requires it.
Contact
Our Little World LLC, New Jersey, United States, support@ourlittleworld.me.
