Privacy policy

This policy explains how the Sugar app for iPhone and iPad (the “App”) and the website at meetsugar.app (the “Site”) handle information. In this policy, “Sugar,” “we,” “us” and “our” mean the team that makes the App. “You” means the parent or legal guardian who sets up the App. “Your child” means the child who uses it.

The short version

• We do not run servers that receive your child’s questions or Sugar’s answers. We cannot see them.
• The App has no accounts for children, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking.
• Chats are saved only on your device. You can delete all of them from the parent settings.
• To answer a question, the App sends its text to OpenRouter, using an OpenRouter account and key that you provide, and OpenRouter passes it to the AI model you chose.
• The App asks OpenRouter to use only AI providers that do not store prompts or use them for training.

1. Information stored on your device

The App keeps the following on your iPhone or iPad. We do not receive a copy.

• Chats. Your child’s questions and Sugar’s answers, saved as files in the App’s private storage so your child can reopen them.
• Settings. The age level, the AI model you picked, and Sugar’s shape and color.
• Your OpenRouter key. Stored in the iOS Keychain.
• Your parent passcode. Stored in the iOS Keychain as a salted SHA-256 digest, not as the digits themselves, together with a count of recent wrong attempts.

Deleting the App removes this information from the device, except Keychain items, which iOS may keep until the device is erased. If you use iCloud or device backups, iOS may include the App’s data in those backups under Apple’s terms.

2. Information sent off your device

Questions and answers

When your child asks a question, the App sends the following to OpenRouter, Inc. (“OpenRouter”) over an encrypted connection, using your OpenRouter key:

• the text of the question;
• up to the six previous questions and answers in the same chat, so Sugar can follow the conversation;
• Sugar’s instructions for your child’s age level; and
• the name of the model you chose.

Before your child sees an answer, the App sends the question and the answer through OpenRouter to a separate safety model, which checks the answer against Sugar’s safety rules. When the App suggests starting questions, it sends the age level and a few general topics, such as “volcanoes,” to the model you chose and the safety model.

OpenRouter forwards these requests to the company that runs the model, such as Anthropic, OpenAI or Google. Each request asks OpenRouter to route only to providers that, under OpenRouter’s policies, do not store prompts or use them for training. How OpenRouter and those providers handle the data is governed by their own terms and privacy policies, including the OpenRouter privacy policy. Your OpenRouter account, including billing, is a relationship between you and OpenRouter.

Personal details are blocked

The App looks for phone numbers, street addresses, email addresses and web links in your child’s question on the device. If it finds one, the question is not sent anywhere, and Sugar asks your child to keep those details private. Sugar is also instructed never to ask for a child’s name, age, school, address, photo or contact details. These measures reduce, but cannot fully prevent, a child typing other personal information in their own words.

Voice

If you allow the microphone and speech recognition, your child’s speech is turned into text on the device using Apple’s on-device speech recognition. The App does not send or keep audio recordings. Only the resulting text is sent, as described above. Sugar’s spoken answers are produced on the device by iOS.

Signing in to OpenRouter

If you choose “Sign in with OpenRouter,” the App opens OpenRouter’s sign-in page in a secure browser sheet. OpenRouter then returns a one-time code to the App, which exchanges it for a key. The return address is a page on this Site, meetsugar.app/openrouter; the App normally receives the code before that page loads.

3. Children’s privacy

The App is designed to be set up by a parent and used by children aged 5 to 13. We do not collect, use or disclose personal information from children, and we do not have access to your child’s conversations. Questions are sent, through the OpenRouter account you control, to the AI providers described above only to produce and check answers. We do not use children’s information for advertising, profiling or any other purpose.

You can review your child’s chats at any time in the App, delete all chats from the parent settings, and stop all sending by deleting your OpenRouter key from the App or revoking it in your OpenRouter account. Because we hold no information about your child, there is nothing for us to review or delete; questions about data held by OpenRouter or a model provider should go to them. You may also contact us at the address below.

4. The Site and the waitlist

The Site does not use analytics, advertising or tracking scripts. It sets one cookie, named “lang”, which remembers the language you chose or the one your browser prefers; it holds only that language code and lasts one year. The Site is hosted by Vercel Inc., which processes standard request information, such as IP address, browser type and the page requested, to deliver the Site and protect it from abuse, under Vercel’s privacy policy.

If you join the waitlist, we store your email address, whether you are a parent or a teacher, the plan you are interested in, and the date you joined. The waitlist is for adults; children should not sign up. We use this information only to tell you when Sugar launches and, if you chose Schools, to contact you about a pilot. It is stored in a database run by Neon, Inc. through Vercel. We delete it when you ask us to, or when it is no longer needed for that purpose. Every email we send includes a way to stop receiving them.

If you email us, we use your email address and message only to reply to you, and we delete them when they are no longer needed for that purpose.

5. Sharing and selling

We do not sell or share personal information, and we do not use it for targeted advertising. The only third parties involved are the services described in this policy, which you can review: OpenRouter and the AI providers it routes to, Apple (as the platform provider), and Vercel and Neon (for the Site and the waitlist). We may disclose information we hold, such as your waitlist entry or an email you send us, if the law requires it.

6. Security

Requests to OpenRouter use encrypted connections. Your key and passcode digest are kept in the iOS Keychain. Chats are stored in the App’s private storage, protected by iOS data protection. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or move personal information, or to object to its use. Because the App keeps information only on your device, you can exercise most of these rights directly in the App. For information held by OpenRouter or a model provider, contact them. For anything else, contact us and we will respond as the law requires.

8. International use

OpenRouter and the AI providers may process requests in the United States and other countries, which may have different data protection laws from yours.

9. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version on this page and update the effective date. If a change materially affects how the App handles children’s information, we will give notice in the App before it takes effect.

10. Contact

Questions or requests about privacy: hello@meetsugar.app.