Privacy-First Family Safety: What Data Does Koriva Not Collect?

Family safety apps, by definition, work with sensitive data: where a child is, whether an older relative is all right, which numbers called, which sites were blocked. When this data falls into the wrong hands, a system set up to make a family safer can become the family's greatest weakness.

That is why one of the most important questions to ask when choosing a family safety app is: What does this app not collect?

We put this question first when we designed Koriva. In this article we explain openly which data we collect, which data we deliberately do not collect, how long we keep it and how it is protected.

Why "privacy first"?

Safety and privacy are often presented as opposites: "To be safer, you need to share more data." We disagree. Every piece of data collected beyond what is necessary:

• Carries the risk of leaking.
• Can be misused (for example, for control and surveillance within the family).
• Builds up more risk over time when it is kept for a long period.

So our principle is simple: keep the minimum data a feature needs, for the shortest time it needs it.

What Koriva does not collect or read

The content of pages visited

Koriva's web filter only filters addresses. The content of pages visited is not read or stored. The block lists stay on the phone.

The full address when checking a link

When you check a suspicious link, the full address is not sent to the server. The phone sends only a short fingerprint and does the matching itself.

Adults' calls and text messages

The calls and text messages of adult and older family members are not shared with the family under any setting. For older relatives, in the "Protect my messages" option only the person themselves chooses what is shared; the manager cannot change it. The recommended option is suspicious-link alerts only: who the message came from and what it said are not shared.

Location in emergency alarms

The emergency alarm does not carry a location. Location sharing is a separate permission that can be withdrawn; an alarm should not be a way around that permission. If the person's location sharing is already on, the family sees them on the map.

Health data

The "I'm OK" notification is created when a person presses a button. No health data is collected automatically.

Data sent to AI

The daily summary that arrives every evening is written by rules. No AI is used, and your information is not sent to any language model.

What the support team sees

The admin panel used by Koriva's support team shows the information needed for support, such as the number of accounts, email verification status or family members' roles. Location, routes, screen time or any data coming from a child's device never appear in this panel. A support tool that could open a family's map would turn it into a surveillance tool.

Which data does Koriva keep, and for how long?

Every type of data has a retention period, and when it expires the data is deleted automatically:

Why aren't daily movements on the server?

All of a child's journeys during a day (from where to where, when, how fast) are extremely sensitive data. That is why movements are not kept on the server but only on the child's phone, for 7 days. When the family manager asks for a particular day, that day's movements arrive encrypted with the managers' key; the server cannot see the content, and the copy is deleted after 24 hours.

Encryption

Shared message content and daily movements are encrypted with the family managers' key and can only be opened on their phones. This means Koriva's servers hold no readable copy of this data.

Who can see what: transparency

Privacy is not only about protecting data from the outside world; it is also about being clear about who can see what within the family:

• Adults turn every kind of sharing on with their own consent and can turn it off themselves. A manager cannot switch on an adult's location sharing for them.
• For children, location and app usage are visible to the family manager; the child cannot switch this off, but sees it on their phone. There is no secret tracking.
• The privacy and sharing screen in the app always shows what is shared and what is never read.

We explain in detail why transparency within the family matters in our family location sharing guide.

Where is the data stored?

Koriva's family data is stored in the European Union, in a data centre in Belgium (europe-west1). Google Firebase infrastructure is used for authentication, notifications and hosting.

What happens when a subscription ends?

Paid child restrictions are lifted automatically when the subscription ends. Emergency help, location sharing, safe zones, device status and link checking are always free.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account permanently in the app via Settings → Delete my account. If you own the family, you first need to transfer ownership to another manager. The details are in our Privacy Policy and on the account deletion page.

8 questions to ask when choosing a family safety app

Whichever app you choose, look for clear answers to these questions:

1. How long is location data kept?
2. Where is the location history stored: on a server or on the device?
3. Are message and browsing contents read or stored?
4. Is the data encrypted? Can company staff access it?
5. Can the person being looked after see what is shared?
6. Can adults switch sharing off themselves?
7. Is data shared with third parties for advertising or other purposes?
8. Can the account and data be deleted permanently?

An app that cannot answer these questions clearly may not be the right choice to carry your family's most sensitive data.

Conclusion

Family safety and privacy are not opposites; they are two values that complete each other. We designed Koriva by deciding what it would not collect: pages are not read, alarms do not carry locations, movements stay on the child's phone, data is deleted automatically after a short time, and the support team can never see a family's map.

To learn how to set Koriva up, see our guide how Koriva works, and for an overview of family safety, have a look at our family safety guide.