We built Ark Parental Control to protect children, not to profit from their data. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why, and the control you have.
Last updated: 15 June 2026 · Effective: 15 June 2026
Ark Parental Control (“Ark Parental Control”, “we”, “us” or “our”) provides a parental-control and family-communication service available on iOS and Android and through our website at ark.happieapartments.com. We are the data controller for personal data processed through the service, except where we act as a processor on a parent's behalf (see Section 2).
For any privacy question, or to exercise your rights, contact our privacy team at happieapartment@gmail.com. See Section 14 for full contact details.
This policy applies to the parent app, the child app, our backend services and our website. The service has two kinds of users:
For child profile and activity data, the parent directs what is collected and how it is used; in that respect we act as a processor carrying out the parent's instructions. For account, billing and security data, and for operating the service safely, we act as a controller. The parent is responsible for obtaining their child's age-appropriate awareness and for using the app only on devices and children they are legally responsible for.
We collect only what each feature needs. The exact data depends on the platform and the permissions you grant. We group it as follows.
What is technically available differs by platform. Apple does not allow apps to read per-app usage, browsing history or screen contents on iPhone and iPad, so those items are not collected on iOS. See the platform comparison for details.
Calls, text messages and contacts (Android only, only if the parent turns the feature on and the permission is granted on the child's device). To help a parent spot contact from unknown or unsafe numbers, the child app can read the child's call log (number, contact name, time, duration and direction), incoming and sent SMS text messages, and contact names used to label those numbers, and can screen incoming calls from blocked numbers. We do not record call audio. These features are not available on iPhone or iPad. The parent can switch them off at any time, which stops collection on the next sync.
Our marketing website uses only the minimum cookies and storage needed to function. We do not run third-party advertising trackers on it.
We use personal data to:
One purpose only. The activity data we collect from a child's device exists for a single reason — to let that child's own parent or guardian monitor it inside the app. We do not use it for marketing or behavioral advertising, we do not sell or rent it, we do not mine it for commercial analytics or insights of our own, and we do not build advertising or commercial profiles of children. We do not use children's personal data to train advertising or unrelated machine-learning models. Beyond running the service securely, your family's data is not repurposed for anything else.
Where the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation applies, we rely on these legal bases:
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Creating and operating the parent account | Performance of a contract |
| Monitoring a child's device on the parent's instruction | Parental consent / exercise of parental responsibility |
| Security, abuse prevention, core reliability | Legitimate interests |
| Optional features you switch on (e.g. snapshots, precise location) | Consent (withdrawable at any time) |
| Meeting legal and regulatory duties | Legal obligation |
Ark Parental Control is designed for use within a family and is intended to be set up and controlled by a parent or legal guardian. We take children's privacy seriously and design to meet the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the EU/UK GDPR (including provisions for children, sometimes called “GDPR-K”), and comparable laws worldwide.
If you believe a child's data has been collected without proper parental consent, contact happieapartment@gmail.com and we will promptly investigate and delete it where required.
To deliver protection, the child app may request sensitive permissions. We request each only for the safety purpose stated, request them with prominent in-app disclosure, and never use them for unrelated purposes:
| Permission | Why it is used |
|---|---|
| Accessibility service (Android) | To detect the foreground app and browser address so limits and web filtering can be enforced, and to display the block screen. We do not collect passwords or the content of personal messages through it. |
| Location (incl. background) | To show the child's latest location to their parent and trigger safe-zone arrive/leave alerts. A persistent notification on the child's device shows while location is being collected. |
| Usage access | To measure per-app usage time for limits and insights. |
| Device administrator | To support lock and to make protection resistant to casual tampering. |
| Screen capture / media projection | Only where you enable snapshots, to attach context to safety alerts. |
| Notifications | For safety alerts, "ask for more time" requests and the persistent notice that the device is supervised. |
| Call log, SMS, contacts, call screening (Android) | Only if the parent enables call & message monitoring: to show the parent who the child calls and texts, and to block calls from numbers the parent has blocked. No call audio is recorded. |
| Screen Time / Family Controls (iOS) | To apply app limits, schedules and block screens using Apple's Screen Time framework. Apple does not let us see which apps are used or for how long. |
You can revoke any permission in your device settings; doing so will disable the related feature.
We share personal data only in these limited cases:
We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, as those terms are defined under U.S. state privacy laws.
We keep personal data only as long as needed for the purposes above:
Unpairing or deleting a device causes that device to lose access and erase its local copy of monitoring data on its next connection.
We protect data with industry-standard measures, including encryption in transit, hashing of passwords and PINs, hashed device tokens, strict access controls, and parameterized database access to prevent injection. Parents authenticate over a secure session, and every request is checked so a parent can only ever reach their own family's data. No system is perfectly secure, but we work continuously to safeguard your information and will notify you and regulators of a breach where the law requires.
Open to audit. We do not ask you to take our word for it. The commitments in this policy — that data is collected only to let a parent monitor their own child, and is never used for marketing, analytics, profiling, resale or any other commercial purpose — are open to independent verification. We will cooperate in good faith with privacy and security audits, assessments and lawful inquiries from any reputable independent auditor, accredited certification body, consumer-protection or data-protection authority, or government regulator with a legitimate basis to verify our practices, subject to appropriate confidentiality and the protection of user data. If you represent such a body, contact happieapartment@gmail.com to arrange a review.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing of personal data, to data portability, and to withdraw consent. Parents may exercise these rights on behalf of their children. You can:
We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law and will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights. If you are in the EU/UK, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.
We may process data in countries other than your own. Where we transfer personal data across borders, we use appropriate safeguards — such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent mechanism — to ensure your data remains protected.
We may update this policy from time to time. If we make a material change, we will update the “Last updated” date and notify you in the app or by email before the change takes effect. Continued use of the service after an update means you accept the revised policy.
For privacy questions or to exercise your rights:
You can also reach us through our contact page. We aim to respond to every privacy request promptly.