Privacy policy
Last updated 27 October 2026
Kin is a personal CRM for iPhone: it helps you keep up with the people who matter to you. That means it holds personal information about you and about the people in your life, so this policy sets out exactly what Kin collects, why, where it goes and how long it's kept. It covers the Kin app and this website, kin-app.com.au.
1. Who we are
Kin is made and run by Mike Mengell, a sole trader in Australia. In this policy "we", "us" and "our" mean Mike Mengell. We are responsible for your personal information (the "controller" under UK and EU data protection law). You can reach us at support@kin-app.com.au.
We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) where they apply, and other privacy laws that apply to you.
2. The short version
- Your people and notes are stored on your iPhone and synced to your own Kin account, on servers in Sydney, Australia. No other Kin user can see them.
- We don't sell your information, use it for advertising, or show ads. Kin has no advertising or tracking code.
- Voice notes are turned into text on your iPhone. Kin never uploads or keeps your recordings.
- With Kin Pro (including the 7-day trial), Kin sends the words of a note, a screenshot you share with it, or what you've noted about a person to Claude, an AI made by Anthropic in the United States, to tidy notes, read screenshots and suggest conversation openers. Anthropic doesn't train its AI on this information and deletes it within 30 days.
- Crash reports go to Sentry, in Germany, and contain no notes, contacts or screenshots.
- You can delete people and notes in the app at any time. To delete your whole account, email us; see section 10.
3. What Kin collects
Your account
You sign in to Kin with Sign in with Apple or with Google. We receive and keep:
- your email address (with Sign in with Apple this can be a private relay address that Apple forwards to you);
- your name, if Apple or Google shares it, and any other basic profile details they pass on at sign-in, such as a link to your Google profile picture, which Kin doesn't use;
- a unique account ID, which sign-in service you used, and when you signed up and last signed in;
- the settings you choose that follow your account: the name Kin greets you by, your default contact buttons and your photo style.
Kin needs an account to sync your information, so signing in is required to use it. Everything else you give Kin is up to you.
When you sign in or use Kin, our hosting provider records technical details of each request for security and troubleshooting, such as your IP address, device type and the time.
What you put in Kin
Kin stores what you add, on your iPhone and in your account:
- People: their name, relationship to you, phone number, email address, Instagram, TikTok and Messenger usernames, birthday, photo, colour, groups, whether they're a favourite, how often you'd like to be in touch, and your reminder settings for them.
- Notes about your catch-ups: what kind of catch-up it was, who was there, when, what you wrote or said, and a place if you add one (its name and map position).
- Things worth remembering about a person, and the groups you make.
- Photos you add for a person: the photo, the original you picked it from, and how you framed and filtered it.
Notes you haven't finished, and screenshots waiting to be read, stay on your iPhone only until you save or discard them.
What you write is up to you, and it can include sensitive information, such as someone's health or beliefs. Only record what you're comfortable keeping. Kin stores and protects it like everything else, and only sends it to Anthropic when an AI feature needs it (see section 5).
Voice notes
With your permission to use the microphone, Kin records what you say and turns it into text on your iPhone, using Apple's on-device speech recognition. Apple may first download its speech model to your iPhone. Your recording isn't sent to us, to Apple's servers or to anyone else.
When you record with Kin closed, from a widget or a control, the recording is kept on your iPhone only until it's turned into text, then deleted. The words are saved as you speak, so a note survives if something goes wrong.
Screenshots
You can share a screenshot or photo to Kin, such as a group chat, an invitation, a guest list, a social media post or a business card. Kin shrinks it on your iPhone and keeps it there until you save or discard what Kin found in it. With Kin Pro, the image is sent to Anthropic to read (see section 5). We don't store screenshots on our servers. What you choose to save from one becomes ordinary people and notes.
Contacts
You can bring people in from your iPhone's contacts in three ways:
- Picking contacts in the iPhone's contact picker, or sharing a contact card to Kin. Kin copies only the contacts you choose: their name, first phone number, first email address, birthday and photo. This doesn't need access to all your contacts.
- Fill in from Contacts, which needs your permission to read your contacts. Kin reads them on your iPhone to find people you already have in Kin, by name, phone number or email address, and copies only their birthdays and photos. Nothing else from your contacts is stored or uploaded.
Kin never adds to or changes your iPhone's contacts.
Places
When you type a place into a note, or Kin finds a named place in a tidied note, Kin looks it up with Apple Maps to find where it is, under Apple's privacy policy. Kin keeps the place's name and map position with the note. Kin doesn't ask for or use your iPhone's location.
Reminders
Nudges and birthday reminders are notifications scheduled on your iPhone. They can show a person's name on your lock screen. We don't send push notifications, so no reminder passes through our servers.
Subscriptions
Apple handles every Kin Pro purchase; we never see your card or payment details. When you subscribe, Kin attaches your Kin account ID to the purchase so that Apple's updates reach the right account. We receive and keep which plan you bought, its original transaction ID, when it started and expires, and whether it renewed, lapsed or was refunded. We also keep when your free trial started.
Crash reports and usage
- Crash reports. If Kin crashes or freezes, it sends a report to Sentry: where in Kin's code it happened, your iPhone model, iOS version, Kin's version, a random ID for that installation, and a short trail of what Kin was doing just before (for example which screen was open and which of our servers it was contacting, which can include your account ID). Kin is set up so that reports never include screenshots, the layout of the screen, the contents of requests, your notes or your contacts.
- Usage events. Kin records simple events, such as opening the app, logging a note, importing contacts or a sync succeeding, with counts, timings and outcomes, Kin and iOS versions, and a random ID for each session. They're linked to your account ID. They never contain names, notes, transcripts or error messages.
- AI usage. For each AI request we record which feature it was and how much it used, without your account ID.
This website
This website uses no cookies, analytics or tracking, and loads nothing from other companies. Our hosting provider, Vercel, logs requests (such as your IP address, browser type, the page and the time) to deliver the site and keep it secure.
Emails to us
If you email us, we keep your email address and what you send so we can help you.
4. How we use it
We use personal information only to run Kin and look after you. We don't use it for advertising, we don't sell it, and we don't build profiles of you or the people in your Kin for any other purpose. We don't send marketing emails.
Under UK and EU law we need a legal reason ("lawful basis") for each use:
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Run your account, store and sync your people and notes, and schedule reminders | Providing the service you've asked for (contract) |
| Tidy notes, read screenshots and suggest openers with AI, for Kin Pro and the trial | Providing the service you've asked for (contract) |
| Check and keep track of your subscription and trial | Contract |
| Crash reports and usage events, to find and fix problems and understand which features are used | Our legitimate interest in keeping Kin working and improving it |
| Request logs and security checks | Our legitimate interest in keeping Kin and your information secure |
| Answering your emails | Contract, or our legitimate interest in helping you |
| Storing what you record about other people | Our and your legitimate interest in you keeping up with your own relationships (see section 11) |
| Keeping records the law requires, and responding to lawful requests | Legal obligation |
Kin uses AI to suggest things (a tidied note, who you saw, details worth remembering, conversation openers). It shows you every suggestion to check before it's saved or sent. Kin doesn't make decisions about you, or anyone else, that have legal or similarly significant effects.
5. AI features and Anthropic
Kin Pro's AI features use Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, PBC, in the United States. They run only while you have Kin Pro or are in your 7-day trial. On the free plan, nothing is sent to Anthropic. Each request goes from Kin to our server and on to Anthropic, which sends the result back. Kin doesn't hold Anthropic's key, and Anthropic doesn't receive your name, email address or account ID.
| Feature | When it runs | What's sent to Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Tidying a note | When you finish a voice note, or tap Tidy it on a typed note | The text of the note, today's date, and the names of people in your Kin so it can tell who you saw (up to 200 names, closest matches first) |
| Conversation openers | When Today shows you someone to reach out to | That person's name, your relationship, how long since you were last in touch, up to 10 things worth remembering about them, and your 5 most recent notes about them |
| Reading a screenshot | When you share a screenshot to Kin | The image, shrunk on your iPhone, and today's date |
Anthropic acts as our service provider. It doesn't use this information to train its models and deletes it within 30 days. It can keep information longer only where the law requires, or for up to 2 years when its automated safety systems flag a request as breaking its usage policy. See Anthropic's privacy centre.
AI can get things wrong. Kin shows you what it made before anything is saved, and you choose whether to send an opener.
6. Who we share it with
We share personal information only with service providers that run parts of Kin for us, under contracts that let them use it only for that. They are:
| Provider | What they do | What they handle | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Accounts, database, photo storage, and the server functions that check subscriptions and pass AI requests to Anthropic | Your account, everything you sync, subscription records, usage events, request logs | Stored in Sydney, Australia. Server functions run in the Supabase region nearest you. |
| Anthropic | Kin Pro's AI features | What's listed in section 5 | United States |
| Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.) | Crash and freeze reports | Crash reports, and the IP address they arrive from | Germany (EU) |
| Apple | Sign in with Apple, App Store purchases and subscription updates, place search | Your sign-in, purchases, the places you search for | United States and worldwide |
| Sign in with Google, if you use it | Your sign-in | United States and worldwide | |
| Vercel | Hosting this website | Website request logs | Worldwide, from the location nearest you |
Crash reports are also read by us and by an AI coding tool (Claude Code, by Anthropic) that helps diagnose and fix the crash.
We also share personal information:
- When you ask us to. Kin's contact buttons open another app or site, such as Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, Signal, Instagram, TikTok or Messenger, and pass it the person's number or username, and for WhatsApp the opener you chose. What happens next is up to that app.
- When the law requires it, for example to respond to a valid legal request, or to protect someone's safety.
- If Kin changes hands. If Kin were ever sold or transferred, your information would go to the new owner, who would have to keep to this policy or tell you about any change first.
7. Where it's stored
Your account and everything Kin syncs is stored in Australia, in Supabase's Sydney region. Some of it is processed overseas by the providers in section 6: AI requests in the United States, crash reports in Germany, sign-in and purchases with Apple and Google in the United States, and requests passing through the Supabase server nearest you, wherever you are.
Before we disclose personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to make sure the provider protects it in line with the Australian Privacy Principles, through our contracts with them. For information about people in the UK and EU, transfers to countries without an adequacy decision (including Australia and the United States) rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses and the UK addendum in our providers' data processing terms. You can ask us for a copy of the relevant safeguards.
Kin also keeps a copy of your people and notes on your iPhone. Your iPhone's own backups (to iCloud or a computer) can include that copy, under your backup settings.
8. How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account, people, notes, facts, groups, photos and settings | Until you delete your account. |
| People, notes, facts and groups you delete | They disappear from Kin on all your devices straight away. Our servers keep a copy marked as deleted, including its content, so that your other devices know to remove it. We don't yet remove these copies on a schedule; they're deleted when your account is. |
| Earlier versions of a person's photo | When you replace a photo, the earlier version stays in storage until your account is deleted. |
| Subscription and trial records | Until you delete your account. Apple keeps its own purchase records. |
| Usage events | Until you delete your account. |
| Request and sign-in logs at Supabase | For the period Supabase keeps them for security and troubleshooting. |
| Crash reports | Up to 90 days at Sentry. |
| What's sent to Anthropic | Up to 30 days, or up to 2 years if flagged by its safety systems, as set out in section 5. |
| Website request logs | A short time, under Vercel's own policies. |
| Emails to us | As long as we need them to help you, then deleted. |
| On your iPhone | Until you delete it in Kin, sign out (which removes your account's people and notes from that iPhone), or delete the app. |
When you ask us to delete your account, we delete it and everything listed above that's linked to it within 30 days, except anything the law requires us to keep.
9. How we protect it
- Everything between Kin, our servers and our providers travels encrypted (HTTPS).
- Our database and storage are encrypted at rest by Supabase.
- Access rules on the server mean each account can read and change only its own people, notes and photos. Photos are kept in private storage, readable only by your account.
- Kin's AI key stays on our server, never in the app.
- On your iPhone, your sign-in is kept in the iOS Keychain and Kin's data is protected by iOS data protection.
- We only look at your account's content when you ask us to help with a problem, or when the law requires it.
No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you and the relevant regulators as the law requires.
10. Your choices and rights
Everyone
- Change or delete what's in Kin at any time, in the app.
- Delete your account. Kin can't do this from inside the app yet. Email support@kin-app.com.au from the address you sign in with, and we'll delete your account and everything stored with it within 30 days and confirm by email. The support page has the steps. Deleting your account doesn't cancel a Kin Pro subscription; cancel that in your Apple Account settings.
- Get a copy of the information we hold about you. Email us, and we'll send it in a common, machine-readable format.
- Turn off permissions for the microphone, speech recognition, contacts and notifications at any time in your iPhone's Settings, under Kin.
- Avoid the AI features by staying on the free plan once your trial ends: nothing is sent to Anthropic then.
We reply to requests within 30 days. We may need to confirm it's you first. We don't charge for requests unless they're clearly unfounded or excessive.
In Australia
Under the Australian Privacy Principles you can ask to access the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct it. If we refuse, we'll tell you why in writing, and how to complain. You can also deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym where that's practical, but Kin needs a sign-in to sync your information.
In the UK and EU
You have the right to access, correct and delete your personal information, to restrict or object to how we use it (including anything based on legitimate interests), and to receive it in a portable format. You can complain to your data protection authority: in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office; in the EU, the authority where you live or work.
In the United States
We don't sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we don't use it for targeted advertising or profiling. Depending on your state, you may have rights to know what we hold, and to access, correct and delete it. Email us to use them. If we turn down your request, you can appeal by replying to our answer, and we'll explain the outcome and how to contact your state's attorney general.
11. The people in your Kin
Most of what's in Kin is about people who don't use Kin: the friends, family and colleagues you add. You decide what to record about them, and the information comes from you or, if you choose, from your iPhone's contacts or a screenshot you share.
We handle that information only to provide Kin to you. We never contact the people you add, we don't combine what different users record, and we don't use it to build profiles or for any other purpose. It's sent to Anthropic only when an AI feature you use needs it, as set out in section 5.
Please only record what you'd be comfortable with that person knowing you keep, and take extra care with sensitive details.
If you don't use Kin and think a Kin user has recorded information about you, you can contact us. Each user's information is private to their account, so we can't search it on your behalf, but we'll explain how Kin handles it and help where the law requires.
12. Children
Kin isn't meant for anyone under 16, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you think a child has given us personal information, email us and we'll delete it.
13. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we'll update it here and change the date at the top. If a change affects how we use information you've already given us, we'll tell you in Kin or by email before it takes effect.
14. Contact and complaints
For any question, request or complaint about privacy, email support@kin-app.com.au. Mike Mengell, who runs Kin, handles every message.
If you're not happy with how we handle a complaint, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 1300 363 992, or your local data protection authority if you're in the UK or EU.