Who we are: KIDS FUN is operated by Jon Cartwright ("we", "us"). KIDS FUN helps parents in Metro Vancouver, BC find local children's activities.
We follow the principles of Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). This policy explains, in plain language, what personal information we collect, why, how long we keep it, who we share it with, and how you can access or delete it.
What we collect, and why
You can browse and search KIDS FUN without an account. If you choose to create an account or use certain features, here is everything we collect:
| What | When | Why we need it | Required? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your email address | When you sign in with Google | To create and secure your account, and — only if you opt in — to send you the weekly activities email | Required to have an account (sign-in is via Google) |
| A home postal code | Only if you enter it on your Account page | To remember your area so we can show "near me" results and, if you opt in, tailor your weekly email to your area | Optional — you can leave it blank |
| Email updates preference | On your Account page (a checkbox, off by default) | To know whether you want the occasional weekly email about new activities | Optional — off unless you turn it on |
| Searches you save | Only when you click "Save" on a search | To let you re-run a search you chose to keep | Optional — only what you explicitly save |
| Anonymous usage events | As you use the site | To understand which searches and listings are useful and to improve results — see "Anonymous usage data" below | Not tied to your identity |
| Problem reports | If you use "Report wrong info" on a listing | To let us find and fix inaccurate activity listings | Optional — only if you report something |
We do not collect your name, precise location/GPS coordinates, payment information, or children's names. We do not use advertising or third-party tracking pixels. If you sign up for our weekly text messages, we collect your children's approximate ages — see "Weekly text messages" below. We do not collect children's ages anywhere else.
Anonymous usage data
To improve the product, we record anonymous events about how the site is used — for example, that a search was run, or a listing was viewed. These events are tied to a random, anonymous browser identifier (a cookie called kf_anon_id), not to your name or email. They deliberately exclude your precise "near me" location, your email, and any free-text you type beyond the search terms themselves. Because these events are anonymous and cannot be reliably linked back to your account, they are not included in your account data export. They are automatically deleted after about 13 months.
Weekly text messages (SMS)
The weekly text is a separate, optional product from the website. You can use KIDS FUN without it, and signing up for it is the only way we ever have your phone number.
If you sign up, we collect and store:
- Your mobile number — to send the weekly text, and as the only way we identify you. There is no account and no password.
- Your postal code — to find activities near you. We store the postal code itself, never a precise location.
- Your children's approximate ages — entered as a plain "how old are they now" number per child. We store the year they were born, not a birthday, so the ages stay right as they grow up. We never ask for a birthday, a month, or a child's name.
- The kinds of activity you're interested in (optional) — the checkboxes you tick at signup or on your preferences page.
We use this information only to choose the activities in that weekly text. We do not use it for anything else.
Your mobile information — your phone number and everything above — is never sold, and never shared with advertisers or any other third party. The only companies that ever see it are the service providers listed below who deliver the message on our behalf.
Every message we send links to your own preferences page, where you can see everything we store about you, change your area, your children's ages or your interests, unsubscribe, or delete everything — with no login and no account. You can also reply STOP to any message to unsubscribe, or HELP to reach us.
How we use your information
We use your information only to run and improve KIDS FUN: to sign you in, remember your area and saved searches, send the weekly email or weekly text if you asked for it, keep listings accurate, and understand overall usage. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
Who we share it with (our service providers)
We use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf, under contract, only to provide these services:
- Google — sign-in (you authenticate with your Google account).
- Supabase — secure hosting of your account data and our database.
- Resend — sends the weekly email, only if you opted in (receives your email address and the email content).
- Twilio — sends and receives the weekly text messages, only if you signed up for them (receives your mobile number and the message content).
- Sentry — error monitoring, configured to strip out personal details (we mask postal codes and remove cookies, sign-in tokens, and IP addresses before anything is recorded).
We do not otherwise disclose your personal information to third parties, except where required by law.
How long we keep it
- Your account information (email, postal code, email preference, saved searches): kept until you delete it or delete your account. You are in control.
- Anonymous usage events: automatically deleted after about 13 months.
- Problem reports you submit about listings: retained for up to 6 months, after which they are automatically deleted.
- Your text-message details (mobile number, postal code, children's ages, interests): kept while you are subscribed, and deleted 30 days after you unsubscribe. If you use the "delete my data" control on your preferences page, they are deleted straight away.
- A sign-up that is never confirmed: if you sign up but never reply JOIN to our confirmation text, everything we collected is deleted after 90 days.
After your text-message details are deleted we keep a scrambled, one-way code derived from your mobile number — not the number itself, and not reversible — as the record that we were allowed to text you. Canadian anti-spam law requires us to be able to answer a complaint about a message we sent.
How we protect it
Your data is stored in a secured database with strict access controls (owner-only access rules, server-side-only access, encrypted connections). Sign-in cookies are protected (httpOnly, same-site). We limit what we collect in the first place, and we redact personal details from our error monitoring.
Your choices and rights
Under PIPEDA you can:
- See your data — download everything we hold about your account from your Account page (Export my data). This covers your account information (email, postal code, preference, saved searches). It does not include the anonymous usage events described above, because those aren't linked to your identity.
- Correct your data — edit your postal code, email preference, and saved searches at any time on your Account page.
- Delete your data — delete individual saved searches, or delete your whole account from your Account page. Deleting your account permanently removes your profile and saved searches. We also request removal of your sign-in identity from our authentication provider; where that is not yet automated this is done on a best-effort basis.
- Withdraw consent — turn off the weekly email at any time (from the email's unsubscribe link or your Account page).
- If you subscribe to the weekly text, all four of these live on your preferences page instead — the link in every message. No login. You can see everything we store, change your area, children's ages and interests, unsubscribe, or delete everything.
How to reach us / raise a concern
Questions or privacy concerns? Contact us at joncartwright00@gmail.com (interim contact — will move to a dedicated privacy@ address once a domain is registered).
If you have a concern about how we handle your personal information and we haven't resolved it, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca).
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy; we'll post the new effective date here.