Privacy Policy

Private by Design

Starling works fully offline with no account and no sign-up. Children's names, avatars, routines, steps, stars and any photos you add are stored locally on your device. There is no Culi Studio server, so there is nothing for us to receive, read, or store - about you or about your child.

No Analytics on Children

Starling contains no third-party analytics, attribution or crash-reporting SDKs. We do not measure how your child uses the app, how many routines they finish, or when they open it. The weekly progress view is calculated on your device from your own data and is never transmitted anywhere.

iCloud Sync

If you are signed into iCloud, Starling syncs your children, routines and star history across your own devices using Apple's CloudKit private database. That data sits in your personal iCloud account and is governed by Apple's privacy policy; Culi Studio has no access to it and no ability to read it. If you turn iCloud off, Starling continues to work and everything stays on the one device.

Data Stored on Your Device

• Child profiles: the name, colour and avatar you choose. A first name or a nickname is all the app ever asks for.
• Routines, their steps, the days they run on and any reminder times you set.
• Completed runs, star balances and the rewards you define and mark as redeemed.
• Any custom step photos you take, which stay in the app's own storage on the device.
• App preferences such as list or focus mode, sound, haptics and accessibility settings.

Photos

If you choose to use your own photo for a step, Starling asks for camera or photo library access at that moment and never before. The image is stored inside the app on your device and syncs only through your own iCloud, exactly like the rest of your data. It is never uploaded to us, never sent to any third party, and no image analysis of any kind is performed on it. Decline the permission and every other part of the app continues to work with the built-in pictures.

Notifications

Routine reminders are scheduled locally on your device from the times you set, and only if you turn one on - Starling never asks for notification permission during onboarding. No push server is involved and no notification is ever sent about a missed or incomplete routine. You can turn them off at any time in iOS Settings.

The Parent Gate

Settings, routine editing, reward creation and purchase sit behind an arithmetic parent gate. The gate is a local check on your device; nothing about it is recorded or transmitted, and it exists to keep configuration and purchase away from a child rather than to authenticate anyone.

What We Never Collect

• No analytics, usage tracking or behavioural profiling - of parents or of children.
• No advertising identifiers, no ads, and no tracking across apps or websites.
• No location, no contacts, no microphone, and no access to your photo library beyond a photo you explicitly pick for a step.
• No accounts, no email addresses, and no data sold, rented or shared with third parties.

Permissions We Request

• Notifications - requested only when you first enable a routine reminder, and used only for locally scheduled reminders.
• Camera or photo library - requested only at the moment you choose your own photo for a step, and never for anything else.
• Nothing else. Starling requests no location, contacts or microphone permissions.

Purchases

Starling Plus is sold as an auto-renewing subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase, processed entirely by Apple through StoreKit. We never receive or store your name, email, payment card details or Apple Account credentials - only an anonymous entitlement indicating whether Plus is unlocked. Subscriptions renew through your Apple Account and can be cancelled there at any time; Restore Purchases works on any device signed into the same Apple Account.

What Happens If Your Subscription Ends

If a subscription lapses or is cancelled, access reverts to the free tier and nothing is deleted. Every child, routine, star and day of history remains on your device exactly as it was. We will never remove a record of your child's progress because a payment stopped.

Third-Party Services

• Apple CloudKit - syncs your data through your own private iCloud database, which we cannot access.
• Apple StoreKit - processes the Starling Plus purchase and manages the entitlement.
• That is the complete list. Starling integrates no analytics, advertising or backend services of any kind.

Children's Privacy

Starling is rated 4+ and is intended to be set up by a parent or guardian. It collects no personal information from any user, including children: no account, no email address, no contact details and no behavioural data. The only information about a child that exists is what you type into your own device - typically a first name - and it never leaves it. The app contains no advertising, no in-app browser, no external links on any child-facing screen, and no social or messaging features of any kind.

Deleting Your Data

Deleting a child, a routine or a photo removes it from your device and from your iCloud sync. Deleting the app removes everything stored locally; you can also remove synced data through your Apple Account settings in iOS. Because there is no server copy of ours, there is nothing else for us to delete and no data request for you to file.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date.