Acorns Nest, Inc. ("Acorns Nest", "we", "us", "our") provides recordkeeping and communication software licensed to childcare centres. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information in the Acorns Nest mobile app, the director dashboard, and this website (together, the "Service").
This policy describes our practices. Consent for a child's information to be recorded in the Service is obtained by your childcare centre as described in section 10.
1. Our role and your childcare centre's role
Acorns Nest acts as a service provider to childcare centres. Your centre decides what information is recorded about your child, who at the centre may view it, and how long it is kept. Your centre obtains consent from families at enrolment and remains accountable for that information under applicable privacy legislation.
We process personal information on your centre's instructions and for the purpose of delivering the Service. We do not use it for our own purposes.
Requests to view, correct, or delete a child's information should be directed to the centre's director in the first instance. We will also act on requests made directly to us and will coordinate with your centre where necessary.
For visitors to this website, and for the operation and security of the Service itself, Acorns Nest is the responsible organization.
2. Information we collect
2.1 Account information
Names, email addresses, optional phone numbers and profile photographs, assigned role, and centre membership for parents, guardians, teachers, kitchen staff, and directors. Passwords are stored in hashed form by our authentication provider and cannot be read by us or by your centre.
2.2 Information about children
Names, classroom assignment, date of birth, profile photograph, and guardian relationships, entered by centre staff at enrolment.
2.3 Health and safety information
Allergies, dietary requirements, medications, physician contact details, care notes, emergency contacts, and authorized pickup persons.
2.4 Daily care records
Attendance, sleep, meal and bottle records, absence requests, and outing details, recorded by staff during the day and made available to parents.
2.5 Photographs and messages
Classroom photographs taken or uploaded by staff, together with captions and the intended audience. Announcements and messages written by staff and directors, which may reference a child by name.
2.6 Staff employment information
Role classification, compensation rate, and submitted working hours.
2.7 Technical and centre information
Device notification tokens, device platform and app version, and session information required to keep you signed in. For each centre, we hold the centre name, licence number, time zone, and operational settings configured by the director.
3. Information we do not collect
Acorns Nest does not collect:
- Home or residential addresses
- Payment card or banking information from families
- Government-issued identifiers, including Social Insurance Numbers and health card numbers
- Device location
- Audio recordings
- Contacts, calendar, or address book information
- Advertising identifiers
We do not operate advertising on the Service, and we do not track users across other companies' apps or websites. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information.
4. Device permissions
The mobile app requests the following permissions at the point a feature is first used. Declining a permission disables only that feature. The app does not request location or microphone permission. Outing destinations are entered manually by staff.
| Permission | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Camera and photo library | Capture and share classroom photographs (staff) |
| Photo library, save only | Save photographs shared with you (parents) |
| Notifications | Receive announcements and outing alerts (parents) |
5. How we use information
We use personal information to:
- Maintain the daily childcare records your centre is required to keep
- Make allergy, medication, and emergency contact information available to supervising staff
- Provide parents with information about their child's day
- Deliver announcements, alerts, and photographs to the intended recipients
- Generate attendance reporting and process staff timesheets
- Authenticate users, secure accounts, and prevent misuse
- Provide the features described in section 6.3
- Comply with recordkeeping obligations applicable to licensed childcare
We do not use children's information for marketing or profiling, and we do not use it to make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.
6. How we share information
6.1 Within your childcare centre
Access is limited by role. A parent may view only the records of their own children, and only those announcements and approved photographs addressed to them. A teacher may view only children in classrooms to which that teacher is assigned. A director may view records of that director's centre only.
Acorns Nest personnel access personal information only where necessary to operate, support, or secure the Service.
6.2 Service providers
We engage a small number of providers to deliver the Service. Each is bound by contract to safeguard personal information and to use it only to provide services to us.
| Provider | Function |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Cloud platform: authentication, data storage, and transactional email |
| Push notification delivery; artificial intelligence features (section 6.3) | |
| Railway | Application hosting |
| Resend | Delivery of enquiry email submitted through this website |
Notifications delivered to a parent's device may include a child's name where the notification concerns that child specifically.
6.3 Artificial intelligence features
Acorns Nest uses Google's Gemini API for two limited purposes: reading uploaded menu documents into the meal planner, and generating general commentary on nutrition patterns for parents.
The nutrition feature transmits only food descriptions and consumption percentages. No name, identifier, date of birth, health information, or date is included. Menu documents describe meals rather than children. Requests are not used to train Google's models.
Output generated by these features is informational only. It does not constitute medical, nutritional, or developmental advice and may be inaccurate.
6.4 Legal and other disclosures
We may disclose personal information where required by law, where necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, or where necessary to investigate fraud or protect the safety of any person. If Acorns Nest is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, personal information may transfer as part of that transaction and will remain subject to this policy until you are notified otherwise.
6.5 Where information is processed
Personal information handled by Acorns Nest is stored and processed in the United States.
While outside Canada, that information is subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which it is held and may be accessible to courts, law enforcement, and regulatory authorities in that jurisdiction. We apply contractual and technical protections comparable to those we apply domestically and remain accountable for personal information transferred to a service provider.
7. Cookies and similar technologies
The mobile app does not use cookies or advertising identifiers. Session information is held in your device's secure storage and cleared when you sign out.
The director dashboard uses strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and to remember which centre you are viewing.
We do not use analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking cookies on the Service or on this website.
8. How long we keep information
| Information | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Children's profiles and care records | Retained during enrolment. On departure the record is archived and retained for 7 years to satisfy childcare licensing and recordkeeping requirements, then deleted. |
| Photographs | Deleted when the associated announcement is deleted, and otherwise retained on the schedule above |
| Parent accounts | Deleted once the account is no longer linked to an enrolled child |
| Staff accounts | Deleted once the individual is no longer associated with any centre |
| Timesheets | 7 years, as employment records |
| Notification tokens | Deleted on sign-out, when notifications are disabled, or when a device stops accepting them |
| Website enquiries | 2 years |
Where provincial licensing requirements impose a longer retention period, that period applies.
9. How we protect information
We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information we hold. These include encryption of personal information in transit and at rest, hashed password storage, and access controls that limit access by role. Photographs are stored privately and require director approval before becoming visible to families.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. In the event of a breach that creates a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected centres and individuals and report the breach to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required by law.
10. Children's privacy
Acorns Nest is designed for use by adults. Children do not hold accounts and cannot sign in. Information about a child is entered by centre staff or by that child's parent or guardian.
Consent for a child's information to be recorded in Acorns Nest is obtained by the childcare centre from the parent or guardian as part of enrolment. A parent or guardian exercises the rights described in section 11 on the child's behalf.
If you believe information about a child has been recorded without appropriate consent, contact your centre's director or email support@acornsnest.com. We will investigate with the centre and remove the information where consent was not obtained.
11. Your rights
Subject to the limits set out in applicable privacy legislation, you may:
- Access the personal information we hold about you or your child, and be informed of how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed
- Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete
- Withdraw consent, subject to legal and contractual restrictions. Withdrawing consent for a child's record will generally mean the centre can no longer use the Service for that child, and certain records must be retained to satisfy licensing requirements.
- Request deletion of information that is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected or for a legal obligation. To delete an account, see section 12.
- Challenge our compliance with this policy
To make a request, contact your centre's director or email support@acornsnest.com. We will verify your identity and respond within 30 days. If we require additional time or if a fee applies, we will tell you in advance.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca or 1-800-282-1376. If your centre operates in Alberta, British Columbia, or Quebec, the provincial privacy commissioner may have jurisdiction.
12. Account deletion
Accounts are created by your childcare centre rather than by self-registration, and the app therefore does not provide a self-service deletion option.
To delete your account, email support@acornsnest.com from the address associated with the account, or ask your centre's director to submit the request. A request must include the account holder's name and the name of the centre. We will verify your identity and confirm completion within the period stated in section 11.
Account deletion removes your credentials, contact details, profile, and device notification tokens. Two exceptions apply:
- A child's care record belongs to the centre rather than to an individual account. Deleting a parent account removes that parent's access and personal details; the child's record is archived and deleted on the schedule set out in section 8. If you also want the child's record deleted, state this in your request and we will coordinate with your centre.
- Records we are required by law to retain, such as staff payroll records, are kept for the required period and then deleted.
For staff and directors, account deletion also terminates access to centre records in the Service.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. If a change materially affects how personal information is handled, we will revise the "Last updated" date, notify centre directors, and obtain fresh consent through your centre where required. Continued use of the Service after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.
14. Contact us
For questions about this policy, to exercise a right described above, or to raise a concern, contact our Privacy Officer:
Privacy Officer
Acorns Nest, Inc.
5651 Ogilvie Street, Unit 411
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 1B9
Canada
support@acornsnest.com