This Privacy Policy explains what information Shaka Safe LLC ("Shaka," "we," "us," or "our") collects when you use the Shaka apps and website, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. It also serves as our direct notice to parents under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), because Shaka Surf is used by children and collects information about them with your consent.
1. Who we are and what this policy covers
Shaka Safe LLC is a California limited liability company. This policy covers:
- Shaka Safe, the app for parents and guardians (we call you "lifeguards");
- Shaka Surf, the web browser for kids;
- any other app we release under the Shaka name, including planned apps such as Shaka Search, Shaka Music, and Shaka Simple (we will update this policy before any of them collects new categories of information);
- shakasafe.com and any other website we operate for the Service; and
- our emails and support communications.
The Service is offered only in the United States, and our apps are available only on the US App Store. Our servers are located in the United States.
Our Terms of Service govern your use of the Service and incorporate this policy.
2. Our commitments
Before the details, the principles that shape every data decision we make:
- No advertising, ever, in any Shaka app.
- No sale of personal information, ever. We also do not "share" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined in California law.
- No third-party analytics or advertising software in Shaka Surf. The kid app talks only to Shaka's own servers and to Apple's notification service. It does not embed any third-party software development kit.
- Visibility for parents, not surveillance. We record where a child goes on the web and what was blocked or flagged, and we show the child the same record. We do not log keystrokes, form contents, or messages from other apps, and we do not take screenshots or access the camera or microphone.
- Kids have profiles, not accounts. A parent is always the account holder and the consenting party.
3. Information we collect from lifeguards
We collect the following when you use Shaka Safe.
| What we collect | Why we collect it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile phone number | Signing in with a one-time text code; account recovery; matching complimentary ("Friends & Family plan") access | Phone number is the only way to sign in. We store a hashed copy for complimentary-access matching. |
| Email address | Billing receipts and notices; the weekly Tide Report; service announcements; marketing email, only if you opt in | Required for every lifeguard. The Owner's email is also given to Stripe as the customer email. |
| Name (display name) | Showing which lifeguard made a decision; addressing you in emails | |
| Marketing consent | Recording whether, and when, you opted in to marketing email | Unchecked by default. |
| Family configuration | Providing the core Service | Child profiles, rules (allowed and blocked sites, categories, Wave Watch settings, Screen Time settings, schedules), lifeguard roles, invitations. |
| Decisions and rule changes | Showing all lifeguards an attributed history of requests, decisions, Talks, and rule changes | |
| Device identifiers and push tokens | Sending notifications and syncing rules to your device | Delivered through Apple Push Notification service. |
| Billing identifiers and history | Managing your subscription | Stripe customer ID, subscription ID, plan, status, price lock, trial and renewal dates, refund and dispute status. Your card details are held by Stripe only; we never see or store your full card number. |
| Subscription events | Keeping an audit record of subscription state changes | |
| Support communications | Responding to your requests | Anything you send to support@ or privacy@. |
| App diagnostics | Fixing bugs and crashes | Today, Shaka Safe contains no third-party analytics or crash-reporting software. Apple may share crash reports with us if you have opted in to sharing analytics with developers in your iPhone's settings. If we add a privacy-respecting crash or analytics tool to Shaka Safe in the future, we will name it in Section 7 before it goes live. Shaka Surf will never contain one. |
4. Information we collect about children
This section is our COPPA direct notice. It describes everything Shaka collects about a child through Shaka Surf and the child's profile. We collect nothing about children beyond what is listed here, and we collect it only with the consent of the child's parent or guardian (Section 8).
| What we collect | Why we collect it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Child profile | Personalizing rules and in-app language for the child's age | A first name or nickname you choose and an age level (Pip, Squid, Grom, or Charger). We do not ask for a date of birth. |
| Device identifier and pairing token | Linking the device to the child's profile and enforcing rules | We store only a hashed copy of the device token, along with the device's name, model, and operating system version. No login credentials exist on the kid device. |
| Browsing activity | Showing lifeguards where the child went; building the activity timeline, the "where they surf most" summary, and the weekly Tide Report | For each page loaded in Shaka Surf: the site, the page address (URL), the page title where available, the time, which device it happened on, and, when the page was a search results page, the search terms. Sensitive-looking parts of a URL (such as tokens in query strings) are stripped before storage. We do not record keystrokes, form contents, or the content of messages. |
| Blocked attempts | Showing lifeguards what was blocked and why | The page address, the category or rule that blocked it, and the Wave Watch verdict. |
| Wave Watch flags on loaded pages | Showing lifeguards why a page raised a flag | The category, a score for each category, and, for flagged pages, up to five of the words or phrases that matched and a short excerpt (up to about 400 characters) of the surrounding page text. This evidence is shown only to your family's lifeguards. |
| Access requests | The ask-and-approve feature | The requested page address, an optional short reason written by the child, the decision, and the times. |
| Talks | Short conversations between the child and lifeguards inside the apps | The message text, who started it, and when it was marked done. |
| Bookmarks and icon choice | Personalizing the child's browser | The bookmarks saved on the child's home screen and the app icon the child picked. |
| Kid feedback on blocks | Letting the child say "that didn't seem bad" about a block | A one-tap flag attached to the blocked attempt. |
| Device and enforcement state | Alerting lifeguards when protection changes or a gap appears | Whether Screen Time authorization is granted and in which mode, which Screen Time settings are actually in force, whether Shaka Surf is the default browser, whether the parent confirmed a Screen Time passcode, and the operating system version. |
| Search queries (Shaka Search, when it launches) | Returning search results | We will describe how search queries are stored and shown to lifeguards in this policy before Shaka Search launches. |
| Music activity (Shaka Music, when it launches) | Filtering and parent visibility | We will describe this in this policy before Shaka Music launches. Shaka Music is planned to use Apple MusicKit; Shaka would not receive Apple Music account credentials. |
Explicitly not collected from children: precise location, contacts, photos, camera, microphone, messages or social media content from other apps, biometric data, advertising identifiers, or any account passwords the child types into websites (password autofill and passkeys are handled by Apple on the device, not by Shaka).
Third-party websites. Shaka Surf is a browser. The websites a child visits through it are operated by other companies with their own privacy practices, and Shaka's filtering does not change what a site collects once it loads. We encourage lifeguards to use the allowlist and category rules to limit which sites a child can reach.
5. Information we collect on shakasafe.com
Waitlist and newsletter. If you enter your email on our website, we store it with the page it came from and any product interests you selected, send you a welcome email, and add you to our mailing list. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link.
Analytics and cookies. We use Google Analytics on shakasafe.com, with IP address anonymization turned on, to understand how visitors use the site. Google Analytics sets cookies and collects your approximate location, device and browser type, pages visited, and how you arrived. You can opt out with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser. We do not use analytics cookies inside the apps, and we do not use advertising cookies or pixels anywhere.
Server logs. Our hosting provider records standard server logs (IP address, request, time, user agent) for security and reliability.
Billing return page. When you complete checkout, Stripe returns you to a page on shakasafe.com that hands you back to Shaka Safe. That page collects nothing beyond standard server logs.
We do not respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals because there is no common standard for them, but we honor Global Privacy Control signals as an opt-out of sale or sharing, which we do not do in any case.
6. How we use information
We use the information above to:
- provide the Service: enforce your rules on kid devices, deliver requests and decisions, sync rules and settings, and show activity to your family;
- run the weekly Tide Report, which summarizes a child's week (new sites, interests, flagged pages, and conversation prompts) for lifeguards;
- authenticate lifeguards and secure the Service, including detecting attempts to tamper with a kid device;
- manage your subscription: trials, renewals, payments, refunds, disputes, complimentary access, price locks, and ownership transfers;
- send service and billing communications, and marketing email if you opted in;
- respond to support requests;
- improve the Service, as described just below;
- comply with law, enforce our Terms, and protect the rights and safety of families, Shaka, and others.
Improving Wave Watch with flagged pages. When a lifeguard flags a page in Shaka Safe as wrongly blocked or wrongly allowed, our server fetches that page and keeps a copy of its content, along with the filtering engine's verdict, scores, matched terms, and the age level and settings that were in force, in a separate store used to evaluate and improve our filtering. These records do not include the child's profile, device, family, or the names of any lifeguard. Any search terms in the page address are kept because they are part of what the filter judged. This is the only way we use activity data to train or tune our filtering, and we do not use it for any advertising or marketing purpose.
Automated decisions. Wave Watch scores page text automatically to decide whether to show, warn about, or block a page. Those decisions affect only what a child can view in Shaka Surf and can be overridden by any lifeguard. We do not make automated decisions about lifeguards that have legal or similarly significant effects.
Aggregate and de-identified data. We may create aggregate or de-identified statistics (for example, how often a category is blocked across all families) that cannot reasonably be linked to any family or child, and we may use and share those statistics. We commit not to attempt to re-identify de-identified data.
7. How we share information
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for advertising. We share information only as follows.
Within your family. Every lifeguard in your family can see the child profiles, rules, activity, requests, Talks, flags, and Tide Reports for the family, along with the name of the lifeguard who made each decision. The child can see the same activity record for their own profile in Shaka Surf. The Owner controls who is a lifeguard.
Service providers (subprocessors). These companies process information on our behalf, only as needed to run the Service, and under contracts that restrict their use of it.
| Provider | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe, Inc. | Owner's email, name, payment details (entered directly on Stripe's pages), billing address and tax location, purchase history, card fingerprint (used to enforce one trial per family) | Payments, subscriptions, invoices, receipts and billing reminders, sales tax, and fraud prevention |
| Google LLC (Firebase and Google Cloud) | Phone numbers (for sign-in), family and child data, activity data, push tokens, and everything else we store; flagged-page content for filtering improvement | Our backend, database, file storage, authentication, and text-message delivery of sign-in codes |
| Apple Inc. | Push tokens; Screen Time and Family Sharing state stays on the device and within Apple's systems; MusicKit for Shaka Music when it launches | Notifications, Screen Time enforcement, App Store distribution |
| Loops (Loops.so) | Lifeguard email, name, role, family subscription state, trial dates, marketing consent; website waitlist emails and interests | Customer list, service announcements, and marketing email (with consent) |
| Resend | Website waitlist email addresses | Welcome and waitlist emails from shakasafe.com |
| Vercel | Website server logs, waitlist form submissions in transit | Hosting shakasafe.com and its waitlist function |
| Google Analytics | Website usage data with anonymized IP | Website analytics (Section 5) |
| Search provider (planned, for Shaka Search) | Search query text | Returning open-web search results (we will name the provider here before Shaka Search launches) |
| URL classification | Site domains, for category lookup | Categorizing websites for filtering |
We do not use any other analytics, advertising, or data-broker services. If we add a service provider that receives personal information, we will update this table before it begins processing.
Legal reasons. We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that it is required by law, subpoena, court order, or government request; to enforce our Terms; to detect or prevent fraud or security problems; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of a child, a family, Shaka, or the public. Where the law allows, we will tell the Owner before disclosing family data in response to a legal request.
Family disputes. We do not release a family's data to an adult who is not a lifeguard in that family, and we may require a court order before changing who has access (see the Terms, Section 7).
Business transfers. If Shaka Safe LLC is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction. Any successor must honor this policy for information collected under it or give you notice and a chance to delete your family's data before using it differently.
With your direction. We will share information when you ask us to, for example when you invite a lifeguard.
8. Children's privacy and your rights as a parent (COPPA)
Shaka Surf is directed to children, and Shaka collects personal information from children under 13 (and older minors) only with the verifiable consent of a parent or legal guardian. This section explains how consent works and what rights you have.
Who consents. The lifeguard who owns the family is the parent or legal guardian who consents on the child's behalf. By creating a child profile, confirming the consent screen shown at that time, and completing checkout with a payment method (including for the free trial), the Owner consents to the collection, use, and disclosure of the child's information as described in this policy. We use the payment-card transaction, combined with the in-app consent step, as our method of verifying that the consenting person is a parent. Families with complimentary access consent through the in-app consent step.
What we collect and why. Section 4 lists everything we collect about a child and the purpose of each item. Section 6 explains how it is used, and Section 7 lists the service providers who process it. We do not disclose a child's personal information to anyone else, and we never use it for advertising or sell it.
We collect no more than we need. We do not condition a child's use of Shaka Surf on providing more information than is reasonably necessary to run the Service. The only free text a child enters is the optional reason on a request and Talk messages, and neither is required.
Your rights. As the child's parent or guardian, you can at any time:
- Review the personal information we have collected about your child. Most of it is visible in Shaka Safe (the child's profile, timeline, requests, Talks, flags, and Tide Reports). You can ask us for a complete copy by emailing privacy@shakasafe.com.
- Delete your child's personal information. Deleting a child profile in Shaka Safe deletes the profile and its activity, requests, Talks, bookmarks, and reports. Deleting the family deletes everything for every child.
- Refuse further collection or use. Unpair the child's device and delete the child profile, and we will stop collecting information about that child. You can also email us to refuse further collection, in which case we will delete the child's information and the child will no longer be able to use Shaka Surf.
To exercise these rights, use Shaka Safe or email privacy@shakasafe.com from the email address on your lifeguard account. We will verify that you are a lifeguard in the child's family before acting, and we will respond within 30 days. We will not retaliate against a family for exercising these rights.
Teens. The same rules and rights apply to child profiles for minors who are 13 or older. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16, and we do not sell or share anyone's personal information.
A note about lifeguard accounts. Lifeguard accounts are for adults only. If we learn that a lifeguard account was created by someone under 18, we will delete it.
9. How long we keep information
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Per-page browsing activity, blocked attempts, flags, and Wave Watch evidence | 42 days (six weeks) from the visit, then deleted automatically |
| Weekly Tide Reports | 52 weeks from the date generated, then deleted automatically |
| Site-and-day activity summaries ("where they surf most") | 13 months, then deleted automatically |
| Requests, decisions, Talks, and rule-change history | For the life of the family; the Owner can delete them by deleting the child profile or the family |
| Child profiles, bookmarks, device pairings, and enforcement state | Until the lifeguard deletes the profile, unpairs the device, or deletes the family |
| Lifeguard account details (phone, email, name, consent records) | For the life of the account, then deleted with the family, except as noted below |
| Billing and subscription records | For the life of the account plus the period required for tax, accounting, and dispute handling (generally up to 7 years) |
| Flagged-page copies used to improve Wave Watch (de-identified) | Until no longer needed to evaluate and improve Wave Watch |
| Website waitlist and marketing list | Until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete you |
| Support communications | As long as needed to resolve the request and keep a record of it |
| Server and security logs | For a limited period, as needed for security and reliability |
When a family is deleted, we delete its data from our live systems promptly and from backups as they cycle out. We may keep de-identified data, and records we are legally required to keep, after deletion.
10. How we protect information
- All data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
- Card details never touch Shaka's systems; checkout and billing management happen on pages hosted by Stripe.
- Kid devices hold a single device-scoped token that a lifeguard can revoke at any time by unpairing; no passwords or lifeguard credentials exist on a kid device, and we store only a hash of the device token.
- Rule bundles delivered to kid devices are signed so they cannot be tampered with, and our apps pin our server's certificate.
- Lifeguards sign in with one-time codes, not passwords, so there are no Shaka passwords to leak.
- Access to production data is limited to the people who need it to run the Service.
No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach of security that affects your family's personal information, we will notify you without unreasonable delay and in the time required by law, including California Civil Code Section 1798.82, by email to the address on your account and, where required, by other means.
11. Your choices and rights
Marketing email. Opt in or out in Shaka Safe under your profile, or use the unsubscribe link in any marketing email. Service and billing emails continue while you have an account.
Push notifications. Manage them in your device's Settings.
Text messages. We send text messages only for sign-in codes. Stopping them means you cannot sign in.
Update your information. Change your name, email, and marketing preference in Shaka Safe. Change your payment method and billing email in the Stripe Customer Portal (opened from Settings › Billing).
Delete. The Owner can delete the family from Settings in Shaka Safe, which is also how you delete your lifeguard account. Any lifeguard can leave a family. You can also email privacy@shakasafe.com.
Export. To request a copy of your family's data, email privacy@shakasafe.com.
11.1 California and other US state privacy rights
We aim to honor the rights in the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act) and similar state privacy laws for every US family, whether or not those laws technically apply to Shaka at its current size.
Categories of personal information we collect (using the categories in California law): identifiers (phone number, email, name, device and push identifiers, hashed tokens); customer records (billing identifiers and history); commercial information (subscription and purchase history); internet or network activity (browsing activity in Shaka Surf, website analytics); inferences drawn for the Service's own purposes (Wave Watch categories and scores, Tide Report interest summaries); and, for children, the first name or nickname and age level. We collect this information directly from lifeguards, from kid devices running Shaka Surf, from Stripe, and from Apple. We use it for the purposes in Section 6 and disclose it to the recipients in Section 7. We do not collect sensitive personal information as California defines it beyond a child's precise age level, and we do not use any personal information to infer characteristics about a person for advertising.
Notice of no sale or sharing. We do not sell personal information and have not done so in the preceding 12 months. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years old.
Your rights. Depending on your state, you may have the right to know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose; to access it in a portable format; to correct it; to delete it; to opt out of sale, sharing, targeted advertising, and certain profiling (none of which we do); to limit the use of sensitive personal information (which we use only to provide the Service you requested); and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. To exercise a right, email privacy@shakasafe.com or use the tools in Shaka Safe. We will verify your request by confirming control of the phone number and email on your lifeguard account. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf; we will ask the agent for proof of your written authorization and may confirm with you directly. We will respond within 45 days, extendable once by 45 days where the law permits. If we deny a request, you may appeal by replying to our response, and we will explain the outcome of the appeal and how to contact your state attorney general if you are not satisfied.
California "Shine the Light." We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.
Nevada. We do not sell personal information as defined in Nevada law.
12. Apple App Store privacy labels
Each Shaka app has its own App Privacy label in the App Store. Shaka Surf's label reflects the data in Section 4; Shaka Safe's label reflects the data in Section 3 and the family data it displays.
13. Information is processed in the United States
Shaka is offered only to residents of the United States, and we store and process information in the United States. We do not transfer personal information internationally.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the Service changes. If we make a material change, and especially if we change what we collect from children, how we use it, or who we share it with, we will notify the Owner by email and in Shaka Safe before the change takes effect, and where COPPA requires it we will obtain the Owner's renewed consent. Minor changes are announced by updating the "Last updated" date. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.
15. Contact us
Questions, requests, and complaints about privacy:
Shaka Safe LLC
Email: privacy@shakasafe.com
Support: support@shakasafe.com
Website: https://shakasafe.com
We will respond to every privacy inquiry from a lifeguard within 30 days.
See also our Terms of Service.