Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 10, 2026

Hi there! We're Hipling Inc. ("Hipling," "we," "us," or "our"), and we built Hipling to help homeschooling families organize their learning journeys. We know that trust is everything when it comes to your family's information, so we want to be completely upfront about what data we collect, why we collect it, and how we protect it.

This Privacy Policy explains our practices regarding information collected through the Hipling mobile application, website at hipling.com, and all related services (the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to the practices described here. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.

The short version: We collect only what's needed to make the app work for you. We never sell your data. Your family's content belongs to you. You can export or delete it anytime.

1. Information We Collect

Information You Provide

Account information: Your name and email address when you sign up. We use this to create your account and communicate with you about the Service.
Student profiles: Names, avatars, dates of birth, grade levels, and colors you assign to your children's profiles. This helps organize records per child.
Homeschool information: Your homeschool name, state, school day goals, and daily hour targets. This powers attendance tracking and compliance features.
Content you create: Photos, videos, scanned documents, journal entries, learning records, book logs, grades, attendance records, portfolios, field trip records, and curriculum plans. This is the core of what Hipling does for you.
Payment information: When you subscribe, payment is processed by Stripe. We do not store your credit card number, bank account, or full payment details on our servers. Stripe handles this securely.

Information Collected Automatically

Coarse location: When you add photos, we may extract approximate location data from the photo's EXIF metadata (embedded by your camera) to help you remember where a learning moment happened. We do not track your real-time location or use GPS in the background. You can always remove location data from any entry.
Usage data: We collect anonymous information about how you interact with the app, such as which features you use and which screens you visit. This helps us understand what's working well and what needs improvement. This data is not linked to your identity.
Crash and performance data: If the app crashes or runs slowly, we collect diagnostic information (error messages, device type, OS version) to fix bugs and improve reliability. This data is not linked to your identity.
User ID: A randomly generated identifier associated with your account, used internally to connect your data across our systems. This is a technical identifier, not your name or email.

Apple App Privacy Summary

Here's a clear breakdown of what we report to Apple, matching our App Store privacy labels:

Data Type	Purpose	Linked to You?
Name	App functionality (your profile)	Yes
Email Address	App functionality (account & auth)	Yes
Coarse Location	App functionality (photo location tags)	Yes
Photos or Videos	App functionality (learning records)	Yes
User ID	App functionality (internal identifier)	Yes
Product Interaction	App functionality (improve features)	No
Crash Data	App functionality (fix bugs)	No
Performance Data	App functionality (improve speed)	No
Other Diagnostic Data	App functionality (troubleshooting)	No

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information for the following purposes, and only these purposes:

Providing the Service: Storing your content, syncing across devices, generating attendance and hours reports, building portfolios, and all other core features.
Account management: Authenticating you, processing subscriptions, and sending transactional emails (verification codes, billing receipts, important account notices).
Improving the Service: Analyzing anonymous usage patterns to understand which features are valuable, identify bugs, and plan improvements.
Customer support: Responding to your questions and helping troubleshoot issues.
Safety and security: Detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, and security incidents.
Legal obligations: Complying with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes.

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, or behavioral targeting. We do not sell your data. Period.

3. How We Share Your Information

We share your information only in these limited circumstances:

Service providers: We work with trusted third-party companies that help us operate the Service, including providers for hosting, data storage, payment processing, email delivery, error monitoring, and performance analytics. These providers can only access your data to perform specific tasks on our behalf and are contractually obligated to protect it.
Public shares: When you choose to create a public share link for a moment, portfolio, or report, the content you select becomes accessible to anyone with that link. You control what's shared and can revoke links at any time.
Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, or when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Hipling, our users, or the public.
Business transfers: If Hipling is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

We will never sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their own marketing or commercial purposes.

4. Children's Privacy

This is important to us, so let's be clear:

Hipling is designed for adult Account Holders (parents, guardians, and educators). Children do not create accounts or directly use the Service.
All information about children (names, avatars, grades, learning records) is entered and managed by the parent or guardian who holds the Account.
We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13, in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Student profile photos and content are stored as part of the parent's Account and are subject to the parent's control.

If you believe a child under 13 has directly provided personal information to us (not through a parent's Account), please contact us immediately at support@hipling.com. We will promptly delete such information.

5. Data Security

We take the security of your data seriously and implement industry-standard measures to protect it:

Encryption in transit: All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using TLS (HTTPS).
Encryption at rest: Your files and database records are encrypted at rest using our hosting providers' encryption standards.
Authentication security: Passwords are never stored. We use secure session tokens and JWTs (JSON Web Tokens signed with RS256). JWT tokens are held in memory only and never written to disk.
Access controls: Every API request verifies ownership. Your data can only be accessed through your authenticated Account.
Payment security: All payment processing is handled by Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 certified provider. Your payment details never touch our servers.

While we work hard to protect your information, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we commit to promptly addressing any security incidents and notifying affected users as required by law.

6. Data Retention

Active accounts: We retain your information for as long as your Account is active and as needed to provide the Service.
After deletion: When you delete your Account, we permanently delete your User Content and personal information from our active systems within thirty (30) days. Some data may persist in encrypted backups for a limited time, but backups are rotated and overwritten within a reasonable period.
Anonymous analytics: Aggregated, de-identified usage and diagnostic data may be retained indefinitely, as it cannot be used to identify you.
Legal holds: We may retain certain information longer if required by law (for example, billing records for tax purposes) or to resolve disputes.

7. Your Rights and Choices

You have control over your data. Here's what you can do:

Access and export: You can view all of your data within the app. To request a full data export, email support@hipling.com.
Correction: You can edit your profile information, student profiles, and all content directly in the app at any time.
Deletion: You can delete individual entries, student profiles, or your entire Account through the app's settings. Account deletion permanently removes all your data (see "Data Retention" above).
Revoke shares: You can revoke any public share link at any time through the app's settings.
Location data: You can remove location information from any entry. Location is extracted from photo EXIF data only when you add photos, not tracked in the background.
Email communications: You will always receive essential transactional emails (verification codes, billing). We do not send marketing emails.

8. State Privacy Rights

California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

Right to know: You can request details about what personal information we collect, use, and share.
Right to delete: You can request deletion of your personal information.
Right to correct: You can request correction of inaccurate personal information.
Right to opt out of sale/sharing: We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of.
Non-discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights.

To exercise these rights, contact us at support@hipling.com. We will verify your identity before processing requests.

Other U.S. States

Residents of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and other states with comprehensive privacy laws may have similar rights to access, correct, delete, and port their personal data. To exercise these rights, please contact us at support@hipling.com.

9. International Data Transfers

Hipling is based in the United States. If you use the Service from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the Service, you consent to this transfer. We rely on standard contractual clauses and our service providers' compliance frameworks to ensure appropriate data protection for international transfers.

10. Third-Party Links

The Service may contain links to third-party websites or services (for example, links to book information from Open Library). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any information.

11. AI Features

Hipling includes an optional curriculum scanning feature that uses AI (powered by Anthropic's Claude) to extract text from photos of textbook covers and tables of contents. When you use this feature:

Images you choose to scan are sent to Anthropic's API for processing.
Images are processed in real time and are not stored by Anthropic for training or any other purpose beyond processing your request.
This feature is entirely optional. You can always enter curriculum information manually instead.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email or through an in-app notice and update the "Last updated" date at the top. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

13. Contact Us

We're real people and we care about your privacy. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please reach out:

Hipling Inc.
Email: support@hipling.com
Privacy inquiries: legal@hipling.com

We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within thirty (30) days.