Family PostboxPrivacy Policy
Last updated 8 October 2026
The short version
- Your photos and videos go only to the people you choose. Our servers hold them just long enough to deliver them, then delete them, and never for more than 14 days.
- There's no email address or password. We know the name you choose, the names you give your family, and the records needed to deliver and show what you've sent.
- No adverts, no selling your data, no tracking or analytics in the apps, and nobody here looks through your photos.
- Apple or Google handle subscription payments. We never see your card details.
- You can delete your account from inside either app at any time, which deletes your information from our servers. You can also ask us to see or correct it.
1. Who we are
Family Postbox is made up of two apps: Family Postbox, for receiving photos and videos, and Family Postbox: Send, for sending them. Both are provided by [legal name of the business], [registered or business address] ("we", "us"). We are the controller of the personal information described here under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018). [ICO registration number, if registered]
Questions about privacy: hello@familypostbox.com.
2. What we collect and why
We only collect what the apps need to deliver photos and videos between family members.
| Information | Why we need it | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your name, as you type it in the app (for someone receiving, the name their family member chose for them) | So your family can see who sent something, e.g. "Dave sent you 3 new photos" | Contract |
| The names you give family members and who is connected to whom | To show your family list and send to the right people. Only you see the names you choose. | Contract |
| Device details: an identifier we create for your phone or tablet, its type (iPhone, Android and so on), when it last connected, and a secret sign-in key | To keep you signed in without a password and to show your family whether your device is online. We store the sign-in key only in scrambled (hashed) form. | Contract |
| Pairing codes | To connect a family member. Stored only in scrambled form, used once, and they stop working after 30 minutes. | Contract |
| Photos and videos you send | To deliver them. See section 3. | Contract |
| Details about each item sent: file name, type, size, dimensions, video length and a checksum, and delivery records: who it was sent to, when, and whether it arrived | To deliver each item to the right people, check it arrived intact, show you who has received what, and let you send again | Contract |
| Subscription details (Family Postbox: Send only): which store, which plan, the store's reference for your purchase, whether you're in the free month, and when it renews or ends | To give you the plan you've paid for. We check these with Apple or Google directly. | Contract |
| Technical logs: IP address, time, the part of the service used, and error details | To keep the service secure, prevent abuse (for example, limiting attempts at pairing codes) and fix problems. Logs never contain your photos or the links used to fetch them. | Legitimate interests |
"Contract" means we need the information to provide the apps you've chosen to use. "Legitimate interests" means we need it to run the service safely, and we've weighed that against your privacy.
3. Your photos and videos
- Only what you send leaves your phone. Family Postbox: Send shows your photo library on your phone, but only the items you tick someone on are uploaded, and only for the people you ticked.
- Our servers are a delivery buffer, not storage. Each photo or video is uploaded once and kept in private storage until everyone you sent it to has received it. Then it is deleted. If someone hasn't collected it within 14 days, it is deleted anyway.
- The lasting copy is on your family's device. Received photos and videos are saved inside the Family Postbox app on the recipient's phone or tablet, so they can see them offline. If either of you removes the connection, everything from that sender is removed from the recipient's app.
- Unticking someone before an item reaches them cancels it for them.
- We don't look at, analyse or scan the content of your photos and videos, and we don't use them to train any system. We would only access content if the law required it.
4. What we don't do
- We don't show adverts or sell or rent your information.
- We don't use analytics or advertising trackers in the apps.
- We don't do facial recognition or any other analysis of your photos.
- We don't make anything public: there are no feeds, profiles or public links.
- We don't ask for your email address, phone number, contacts or location.
5. Who we share it with
- The people you send to see your name, what you sent them, and when.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosts our servers, database and temporary media storage. They process data only on our instructions, under a data processing agreement.
- Apple (App Store) and Google (Google Play) handle subscription payments, free months and cancellations. They are responsible for the payment information you give them, under their own privacy policies. We receive only the subscription details listed above, never your card or bank details.
- Authorities, if the law requires it, or where needed to protect someone's safety or to report illegal content.
If the business is ever sold or reorganised, your information would pass to the new owner under this same policy, and we'd tell you before anything about it changed.
6. Where it's stored and how it's protected
Our servers and storage are with AWS in London (eu-west-2). If information is ever processed outside the UK, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or an adequacy decision.
- Everything travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS).
- Photos and videos are held in private storage, encrypted at rest, and can only be fetched through short-lived links issued to the people you chose.
- Sign-in keys and pairing codes are stored only in scrambled form.
Photos and videos are not currently end-to-end encrypted. Our systems could technically access them while they wait to be delivered, though we don't look at them. We'll update this policy if that changes.
7. How long we keep it
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Photos and videos on our servers | Until everyone you sent them to has them; never more than 14 days |
| Pairing codes | 30 minutes (plus a short period afterwards to show "this code has expired") |
| Technical logs | 1 month |
| Your name, family connections, device details, item details and delivery records | Until you delete your account |
| Subscription details | Until you delete your account. Apple and Google keep their own payment records. |
Deleting your account
Use Delete my account: in Family Postbox it's in Settings; in Family Postbox: Send it's at the bottom of the Family tab. It immediately deletes from our servers your account, your devices, your family connections, everything you've sent (including copies still waiting to be delivered), deliveries to you, invitations and subscription records. It also removes everything you sent from your family's Family Postbox apps, and everything on your own device. It can't be undone.
Deleting your account doesn't cancel a subscription: do that in your App Store or Google Play subscriptions. Simply deleting an app removes what it stored on that phone but leaves your account on our servers, because there's no email or password to sign back in with. If you've lost access to the app, email us and we'll delete your account for you.
8. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of your personal information;
- correct anything that's wrong (you can change most things in the app yourself);
- delete your information (or do it yourself: see Deleting your account);
- restrict or object to how we use it;
- give you your information in a portable format.
Email hello@familypostbox.com. Because there's no email address or password on your account, we'll ask for a few details to find your records, such as the name you use in the app and roughly when you started. We'll only act once we're confident the request is yours. We'll reply within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
9. Children
Family Postbox: Send is for adults: you must be 18 or over to subscribe. Family Postbox, the receiving app, can be set up for any member of the family by a parent or guardian, who is responsible for that set-up. Family photos often include children, so we keep them to the minimum: delivered only to the people chosen, never public, and deleted from our servers once delivered.
10. This website
familypostbox.com doesn't use cookies, analytics or advertising trackers. It loads its fonts from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address and browser details when you visit, under Google's privacy policy. Links to the App Store and Google Play take you to Apple's and Google's sites.
11. Changes and contact
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use your information in a significant way, we'll tell you in the app first.
Contact: hello@familypostbox.com, [legal name of the business], [registered or business address].