Privacy Policy

Vine is a practice-investing app for kids 7–17. We take privacy seriously because most of our users are children, and we built this policy to be clear enough that a parent or kid can read it without a law degree. The plain-English version: we collect the minimum we need to make Vine work, we don’t sell your data, and you can delete your account anytime.

1. What we collect

Account info you give us

• Email address — when you sign up with email or sign in with Google or Apple.
• Display name — optional; comes from your Google/Apple profile, or whatever you type during onboarding.
• Age band— “little” (7–9), “kid” (10–12), or “teen” (13–17). We don’t collect exact birthdate.
• Onboarding quiz answers — 5 multiple-choice questions used to recommend a starting lesson. Stored as a single score (0–5), not the individual answers.
• Parent/guardian name & email— when an under-13 age range is selected, we collect a parent or guardian’s name and email solely to obtain and record their consent (see the COPPA section below).

App-usage info we generate

• Practice portfolio— your simulated cash balance, which stocks you “own” in the simulator, the buy/sell history. No real money is involved.
• Lesson progress— which lessons you’ve completed, your level, claimed rewards.
• Goal data — if you set a savings goal in the app, the target amount, target year, and contribution schedule.
• Notification preferences— whether you’ve opted into price alerts and daily tips.

What we do NOT collect

• Real financial information. Vine has no access to your bank account, credit cards, or any real investment account. The cash in the app is fake.
• Location. The app does not request your location.
• Photos or contacts.Vine doesn’t ask for access to your camera, photo library, or contacts.
• Targeted-advertising identifiers.We use Firebase Analytics’ WithoutAdIdvariant specifically so we never collect Apple’s IDFA. This is required for “Made for Kids” apps and good practice generally.

2. How we use what we collect

• To run your account (sign you in, sync across devices).
• To save your progress — your portfolio, lessons, and goals follow you to a new phone or to the web.
• To send the notifications you opted into (price alerts, daily tips, email digests).
• To improve Vine — we look at aggregate, anonymized usage (e.g. “most kids skip Lesson 12”) to make the product better. Never individual users.

3. Who we share with

Vine is a small team. We don’t sell your data. We use the following third parties only because Vine cannot run without them:

• Firebase / Google Cloud— hosts your account, your portfolio, and your progress. Data is stored in Google data centers under Google’s privacy terms.
• Finnhub — provides real stock quotes and company news. We send a stock ticker; we never send your identity.
• Twelve Data — provides historical price charts. Same thing: ticker in, prices out, no identity.
• Apple Sign In / Google Sign-In — handle the sign-in step. They tell us your email and verified-name token; we never see your Apple/Google password.

4. For parents of kids under 13 (COPPA)

Vine is designed with kids in mind, including kids under 13. We follow the spirit of the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA):

• We collect the minimum information needed to run the app — no more.
• We don’t use your child’s data for advertising or marketing.
• We don’t allow other users to message your child or see their personal data.
• You can review, correct, or delete your child’s account by emailing us at vineteamapp@gmail.com. We’ll respond within 30 days.

How consent works: When an under-13 age range is selected during onboarding, we require a parent or guardian to enter their name and email and give explicit, itemized consent before any further data is collected. Because Vine never shares children’s data with third parties and shows no ads, we rely on the FTC’s “email plus” consent method, and we store each consent with a timestamp. A parent can review or withdraw consent at any time via Account → Delete account or by emailing vineteamapp@gmail.com. We are adding an email-confirmation step to strengthen this further.

5. Your data, your rights

You can do all of the following at any time:

• See your data. The app shows you everything we have — your portfolio, lessons, goals, account.
• Delete your account.Account → Delete account permanently erases your cloud data (portfolio, lessons, goals) and your sign-in, immediately and from inside the app — no email required. (Account → Reset Vine is the lighter option: it clears your data but keeps your login.) You can also email us and we’ll process a deletion within 7 days.
• Export your data.Email us and we’ll send a JSON file of everything we have on you.
• Object to anything.Email us. We’ll read it and reply.

How long we keep it:we keep your information only while your account is active. When you — or a parent or guardian — delete the account, we erase your portfolio, lessons, goals, and sign-in. We don’t keep a child’s data longer than we need it to run Vine.

6. How we keep it safe

• All connections to Vine use HTTPS — no data travels in plaintext.
• Firestore (where we store account data) is locked down by per-user security rules — your data is unreadable by other users.
• We never log passwords. Sign-in tokens are managed by Firebase Auth and never touch our code directly.

7. International users

Vine’s servers (via Firebase) are operated by Google in the United States. If you use Vine outside the U.S., you consent to your data being processed in the U.S. The protections in this policy apply regardless of where you are.

8. Changes to this policy

If we update this policy, we’ll bump the “Last updated” date at the top. For changes that affect what we collect or who we share with, we’ll notify users directly via email or in-app notice.

9. Contact

Questions or requests? Email vineteamapp@gmail.com. A real person (currently the entire Vine team) reads everything that arrives there.