Privacy Policy
Effective November 12, 2026
This policy says what HomeBuzz collects, why, and who it goes to. AxelStack LLC runs HomeBuzz. Children use HomeBuzz, so this policy is also our notice to parents under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
What we collect
From the parent who signs up: name, email address and password. Payments on our website are handled by our payment provider; we receive the card's brand, last four digits and expiry date, not the full card number. Payments in the app are handled by Apple or Google; we receive a record of the purchase, not card details.
From everyone in a hive, children included: name, username and password; an email address and profile picture if one is given; what they post and send, such as posts, comments, messages, photos, videos, voice notes, doodles, polls and reactions; and their settings.
What you send us: feedback sent from the app with Send feedback, with the hive's name, the sender's role (parent, child or viewer) and the app's version, and child safety reports.
From devices: the kind of device and its name, the app version, a token for notifications, IP address, crash reports, and usage counts: which screens and features are used, such as a video played or a Magic picture made. On Android, when a parent makes a hive, we note whether the app came from one of our ads or links. We remove location data from photos and videos when they are uploaded, and we do not collect a device's location.
Where your hive is: when a parent makes a hive or signs in on a device, we estimate the hive's city and state from that device's internet address, using a database kept on our own servers. We keep only the city, state and country, not the address, and we do not do this from a child's device. IP geolocation by DB-IP.
How we use it
- To run HomeBuzz: showing your hive to its members, sending notifications, making captions and thumbnails, and making Magic pictures a parent has turned on.
- To show a preview of a link in a post. The linked site sees a visit from our server, not who posted the link or anything about your family. Opening a link takes you to that site, where its own privacy policy applies.
- To keep accounts secure and prevent abuse.
- To bill the parent who pays and answer requests for help.
- To fix and improve HomeBuzz, using crash reports and usage counts. These go to our own servers. Usage counts are kept for each person under an id that does not name them, with whether they are a parent, a child or a viewer, and which hive they are in. They say what kind of thing was done, such as a post made, not which post, person or picture it was, and nothing anyone wrote. A parent's are placed by the rough area of their internet address. Everyone else's, a child's included, are placed only by the area we estimate for the hive, not by their own device. We do not use them to contact anyone or show them ads.
- To tell families about HomeBuzz and our other products. Emails about them have an unsubscribe link.
- To follow the law.
We do not sell personal information. No advertising company collects information in the app, and children's information is not used to target ads.
Who can see it
Your family. People in your hive see what is shared with them, and can usually download photos and videos and keep them outside HomeBuzz. Parents can see everything in their hive, including direct messages.
Us. AxelStack LLC runs HomeBuzz, and we and the people who work for us can reach what is stored. We look at family content when we need to run, fix or protect HomeBuzz, for example to help a parent, check a report, look into a problem or manage storage, and when the law requires.
Companies that run parts of HomeBuzz for us, which may use it only to do that work, and must protect it at least as well as this policy does:
- Microsoft (Azure and Exchange Online) stores HomeBuzz's data and sends our email. Magic's pictures are made, and checked, by Microsoft hosted AI (Azure OpenAI): when someone makes a Magic picture, their message, and the photo if they added one, go to it. Microsoft does not use them to train its AI. It may keep requests its automatic checks flag as harmful, for its staff to review.
- Stripe handles payments, with the paying parent's billing details only.
- RevenueCat keeps track of plans bought through the App Store, Google Play or on our website. It sees those purchases, a random id for the family that does not name anyone, and, for a plan bought in the app, the device's IP address and kind.
- Google (Firebase) and Apple deliver notifications to Android phones and iPhones. A notification says who did what kind of thing, such as a new comment, not what was written.
- Google (ML Kit) reads the sign-in code a phone scans, on the phone itself. On Android it sends Google details about how the scanner ran, the device and the app, with a random install number, not the camera's picture or the code.
- Your web browser's maker delivers notifications to it when you turn them on in the web app: Google for Chrome and the browsers built on it, Microsoft for Edge, Mozilla for Firefox, and Apple for Safari. Each notification is encrypted, so they cannot read it. They see only when one was sent and which browser it is for. We send notifications through no one else.
- Expo delivers app updates. It sees a device's IP address and a random install number.
- Anthropic, whose AI, Claude, helps us build and support HomeBuzz, may see error logs and other details we use to fix problems. We do not give it what anyone wrote or posted, or a child's name, photos or ids.
When the law requires. We share information when we believe the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or to report child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
If the business changes hands. If HomeBuzz is sold or merged, information may go to the new owner, who must keep to this policy.
Children's privacy
- A parent creates every child's account and gives consent for it when they sign up and pay. We collect from children only what is listed above, for the features their parent allows.
- Magic is on for a family's children once a parent turns it on, for every child or for one. When a parent sets up a new family, the switch for the children starts on. A parent can turn Magic off at any time in Family settings. A child's messages and photos go to Microsoft hosted AI only when the child makes a Magic picture.
- We share children's information only with the companies listed above, to run HomeBuzz, and as the law requires.
- A parent can, in the app or by contacting us, see their child's information, correct it, delete it, or stop us collecting more by deleting the child's account.
How long we keep it
We keep information only as long as we need it to run HomeBuzz for your family.
- A hive's content stays while the hive is active, until someone deletes it.
- Deleted posts, messages, files and people are gone within 30 days.
- A hive whose plan ends is read-only for 30 days, then closed, and deleted within 120 days of the plan ending.
- Backups are replaced within 35 days, so deleted things leave them too.
- Usage counts and crash reports are kept 90 days.
- Device details are kept until the device signs out or the account is deleted.
- An address on our sign-up list is kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove it, or for 30 days if it is not confirmed.
- A copy of each email we send to an adult is kept for a year, or until the account is deleted. We keep no copy of an email with a sign-in code or link, or of any email to a child.
- Feedback sent from the app is kept for a year, or until the account or the hive is deleted.
- Billing records about the paying parent are kept as long as tax law requires.
- A child safety report sent to us, and a copy of what it was about, is kept even after the post, the account or the hive is deleted, for as long as a child's safety or the law needs it.
Security
We protect information with reasonable safeguards, such as encryption and limits on who can reach it. No system is perfectly secure.
Your choices
- Change or delete your own information in the app. A parent can delete anyone in the hive, or the whole hive.
- A parent can download a copy of everything in the hive.
- A parent can turn off usage counts for the hive, with "Share usage analytics" in Family settings.
- Take back consent at any time: a parent can turn off Magic or usage counts, or delete a child's account or the hive, and we stop collecting and sharing that information.
- Turn notifications off on any device.
- Unsubscribe from emails about our products with the link in any of them.
- Leave our sign-up list with the unsubscribe link in any email from it.
- Or contact us, and we will help.
Our website
gethomebuzz.com may use cookies and similar tools, including from advertising companies, to understand visits and measure ads shown to adults. These tools are not in the app. Our website does not respond to "Do Not Track" signals.
Our sign-up list
Before HomeBuzz is in the app stores, you can leave your email address on gethomebuzz.com to hear when it is ready. We keep your email address, the answers you choose to give (which phone you use, how many in your family would join, and anything you write to us), the page or link you signed up from, and when you signed up and confirmed. We use them to email you about HomeBuzz and to plan for the families waiting for it. They are kept on our own servers, and our emails are sent through Microsoft, as above. We do not sell them or share them with advertisers.
- We first email you a link to confirm the address is yours. If it is not confirmed within 30 days, we delete it.
- Every email to the list has an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing takes you off the list and deletes what you gave us. We keep only a one-way fingerprint of the address, so we don't email it again.
- You can also email us to be taken off.
- The list is for adults. If we learn an address belongs to a child under 13, we delete it.
Where HomeBuzz is offered
HomeBuzz is for families in the United States, and information is stored and processed there.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy and will change the date at the top. If we change how we collect, use or share children's information in an important way, we will tell parents first and ask for their consent again where the law requires.
Contact
For questions, or to see, correct or delete a child's information:
- Company
- AxelStack LLC
- 2934 Dolphin Dr # 1222, Elizabethtown, KY 42701
- Phone
- (270) 681-2484
- support@axelstack.com