Privacy Policy

Last updated November 8, 2026

Brain Sprouts is a learning app for children, run by Sometimes Functional (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what information the app collects, why, who helps us handle it, and how a parent or guardian can see or delete it. It covers the Brain Sprouts app and this website.

1. Playing without an account

Anyone can play Brain Sprouts without signing in. In that case, progress (which cards have been practiced, scores, garden keepsakes and settings) is saved only in the browser or app on that device. We don’t receive it. Clearing the browser’s site data or uninstalling the app erases it.

2. What we collect from grown-ups

A grown-up can make an account so progress follows the family from device to device. Sign-in and account settings sit behind a grown-ups-only check that a young child is unlikely to pass. When you make an account, we collect:

• Your email address, if you sign in with an emailed code, or the email address Google or Apple shares with us if you sign in with them. We receive your Google or Apple account’s ID, and never your password. If you use Apple’s “Hide My Email”, we get a private relay address instead.
• A display name, if you choose to add one.
• Sign-in details: a record that you’re signed in on a device, the time you were last seen, and your browser’s description of itself (its “user agent”), so you can stay signed in. We store only a scrambled (hashed) copy of your sign-in token and of any emailed code.
• For Sign in with Apple only: a token Apple gives us, which we use only to disconnect Brain Sprouts from your Apple ID when you delete your account, as Apple requires.
• Your weekly email choice, if you ask for the Sunday note about your child’s week.
• Your agreement: when you confirmed you’re an adult and your child’s parent or guardian and agreed to our Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy, and which version of them you agreed to.

3. What we collect about children

Children never make accounts or give us information directly. When a signed-in grown-up adds a child, we store:

• A profile: the nickname the grown-up types, an animal icon they pick from our set (like 🦊 or 🐢), and the child’s grade. A nickname or first name is all we need. Please don’t use a child’s full name.
• Learning progress: which cards and lessons the child has practiced and how they answered, practice days and streaks, scores, poems learned, garden keepsakes, and the child’s settings in the app.

We use this only to run the app for your family: to keep progress in sync across your devices, to choose what to practice next, and to write your weekly note if you asked for one. We don’t use it for advertising or to build profiles of children for any other purpose.

We never collect photos, video, voice recordings, location, contact details or full names of children.

Things that stay on the device

• The microphone. Some poem activities let a child record themselves and play it back. The recording is kept only while that screen is open. It is never uploaded or saved, and the browser asks permission before the microphone is used.
• Garden pictures. The “Show it” button hands an image of the child’s in-app garden (drawings of plants, not a photo) to your device’s own share menu. Where it goes from there is up to you. We don’t receive it.

4. Information the app sends automatically

• Read-aloud requests. To read lesson text aloud, the app sends that text (words, sentences and poems from the app’s own lessons) to our server, which makes or fetches a recording. These requests don’t include who is playing. Your network (IP) address is used briefly to stop anyone flooding the service. It isn’t saved with the recording.
• Crash reports. If a screen crashes, the app sends us the error message, where in the code it happened, which screen was open, and which version of the app was running. Crash reports contain no names and nothing a child typed.
• Visit counts. The app uses Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits: which pages are opened, the kind of browser and device, the country, the referring website, and how fast pages load. It sets no cookies, doesn’t identify or follow anyone, and isn’t used for advertising.
• Basic server records. Like any website, our hosting provider handles network addresses and similar technical details to deliver pages and protect against attacks.

5. Cookies and local storage

We use one cookie, and only after a grown-up signs in: it keeps that grown-up signed in. The app also saves progress and settings in your browser’s own storage so it works offline. We don’t use advertising cookies, analytics cookies, or any tracking that follows a person from site to site.

6. Who helps us run Brain Sprouts

We share information only with the services that run the app for us, only as much as they need, and never so they can use it for themselves:

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect the safety of a child or anyone else, or with a company that takes over Brain Sprouts, which would have to follow this policy or ask for your permission first. We will never sell or rent personal information.

7. Children’s privacy and parents’ rights

Brain Sprouts is made for children, including children under 13, so we follow the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar laws elsewhere. We collect information about a child only through a grown-up’s account, set up by the grown-up behind the grown-ups-only check, and only what’s described above. Before a child’s profile can be saved to an account, the grown-up confirms they’re the child’s parent or guardian and agrees to this policy.

As the parent or guardian, you can at any time:

• See your child’s profile and progress in the app.
• Change their nickname, animal icon or grade on the Grown-ups screen.
• Delete a child’s profile on the Grown-ups screen, which deletes their progress from our servers.
• Delete your whole account on the Grown-ups screen, which deletes your sign-in details and, if you’re the family’s only grown-up, every child’s profile and progress.
• Stop the weekly email with the link at the bottom of any note, or on the Grown-ups screen.
• Ask us to do any of this, or to tell you exactly what we hold, by emailing hello@sometimesfunctional.com.

If you think a child has given us information without a grown-up’s permission, please email us and we’ll delete it.

8. How long we keep information

• Account and progress information is kept while the account exists, and deleted when you delete it.
• When you delete a single child’s profile, their nickname, icon and progress are deleted straight away.
• Sign-ins expire after 180 days without use. Emailed codes expire within minutes and are cleared within a day.
• Crash reports and server records are kept by our hosting provider for a limited time and then deleted automatically.
• Read-aloud recordings contain only lesson text and are kept so each phrase is made only once.

9. Keeping information safe

All connections to Brain Sprouts are encrypted (HTTPS). We store only scrambled copies of sign-in tokens and codes, limit who can access our systems, and collect as little as we can. No system is perfectly secure, but if we learn of a breach affecting your information, we’ll tell you as the law requires.

10. Your rights wherever you live

Depending on where you live (for example, in the European Union, the United Kingdom or California), you may have the right to see, correct, delete or download your information, or to object to how it’s used. You can do most of this in the app, and we’ll help with any of it if you email us. We don’t sell or “share” personal information for advertising, as California law defines those terms. Brain Sprouts is run from the United States, so information is stored and handled there and wherever our providers operate.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use children’s information, we’ll email the grown-ups on each account and ask for permission where the law requires it before the change applies.

12. Contact us

Questions, requests or worries: hello@sometimesfunctional.com.