Legal

Kin Privacy Policy

Version: 3

Effective: October 12, 2026

Status: In effect from the date above. A lawyer's review is planned before public launch.

Kin is made by New Standard Technology, Inc., a Delaware corporation. This policy says what Kin does with your information, in plain words, written from what the software actually does. Kin runs on a device you own. Your family's data lives there, and nothing about it comes to us.

At a glance

What we'll keep track of

• That your Kin Server connects to our relay
• Which version of Kin Server it is running

What we can't track

• Who you are or where you are (we never keep names or addresses)
• Anything you, your family, or a connected family say to each other or to Kin
• Anything you do at home (your home network never touches us)
• Your memories, photos, or any personal data (encrypted before it reaches the relay; we don't have the key)

What we see

• Daily, weekly, and monthly counts of how many households use Kin
• How many Kin Servers are on the latest version

Where your data lives

Everything Kin remembers is stored on your own device, the one Kin Server runs on: conversations, memories, photos, your family's calendar and reminders, your family's profile, and the accounts of everyone in your household. It is encrypted on that device with keys made from your passwords. We do not have those keys, and we do not have a copy of anything stored there. Each person's private data is kept in its own separate encrypted store, apart from the family's shared data.

The Kin app on a phone, and Kin for Mac on a computer, keep a copy of what they have shown you so they still work when your Kin Server is slow to answer. That copy is encrypted, and protected by the device's own lock and by the app's lock if you turn it on.

When Kin talks to us, and what we keep

Kin talks to our servers in exactly four situations. For each one, here is what we see and what we keep.

1. Activating your license key. Once, when you enter your key, your device tells our licensing service (run for us by a licensing provider) that the key is now in use on it. We keep the license id, a scrambled hardware identifier that lets the same device re-activate after a reinstall (not the device's serial number itself), the date, and, from this version of Kin on, which version of these terms you agreed to and when. We keep this for as long as the license exists. If you move Kin to a new device, the old device's record is released.

2. The relay, unless offline mode is on. Your device opens a connection out to our relay so your phones, and Macs with Kin for Mac, can reach it when they are not at home, and so families you connect with can reach it. The relay passes sealed traffic between those devices and your Kin Server, and between your Kin Server and theirs. It cannot open that traffic, because the keys that seal it exist only on your own devices, and the Kin apps check the seal themselves. What the relay can see is that your server is connected, which version of Kin it runs, and, if you left usage counting on, a yes-to-count. Like any internet service, it also sees the address your connection comes from, which we do not keep. We keep totals, not histories: how many households were connected today, this week, and this month, and how many run the latest version. We keep no record of when your household was connected or from where, beyond routine server logs that are deleted after two days.

With away-from-home access turned off, your device stays connected to the relay but refuses anything that reaches it that way except connected families, so your phones and Macs work only on your home network. Only offline mode disconnects it: households in offline mode never reach the relay and are invisible to us.

Connected families, when two households link their Kins, send each other sealed messages through the same relay. The relay passes them the same way and cannot open them.

Direct connections, an option a household can turn on, let a phone, or a Mac with Kin for Mac, talk to its Kin Server without going through the relay once the relay has introduced them. To find each other, they ask our address-lookup service one question: what address am I coming from? That service answers and keeps nothing.

3. Push notifications, if you turn them on for a phone. Notifications are sealed on your device before they leave. Our forwarding service, and then Apple, see a sealed envelope, which phone it is for, and when. Neither can read what it says. Each one also carries a short general line, such as "New message in a family chat", that your phone shows only if it cannot open the sealed one; that line never includes names or anything anyone wrote. Our forwarding service keeps no content and no lasting record. Kin for Mac doesn't use this service: it makes its notifications on the Mac itself, from what it fetches from your Kin Server.

4. The update checks. Kin Server, and Kin for Mac on each Mac that has it, read a small list of available versions from our website. Each list is the same for every install, and the request carries nothing about you. The web server that hosts it sees that request the way any website sees a visit. We do not use those records to count anyone. You can turn each check off: Kin Server's in Settings, Privacy, and Kin for Mac's in its Settings, About.

Things your device does on its own

Two things leave your device that do not go to us.

• Web lookups. When you ask Kin something that needs the web, your device searches and fetches pages directly, the way a browser would. When someone opens the list of links shared in a conversation, your device also fetches each page's title and picture to show a preview. Neither happens in offline mode, or for anyone whose web access is turned off. The sites involved see your device the way they see any visitor. We are not in that path and do not see what you searched for.
• Model downloads. When you download a Kin model, your device fetches a file from the model download server. That is a file download like any other and carries nothing about you.

Getting a free key

To get a license key, you give us an email address. We use it to send you the key, and for nothing else unless you choose otherwise.

When you request a key, you can opt in to email updates about new Kin products, services, and features. That is your choice, off unless you tick it, and you can stop the emails at any time with the link in any of them. We do not send spam, we do not share or sell your email address or anything else about you, and we use your email only to keep you informed about our own products and services.

Your choices

All of these live on your Kin Server, in Settings, Privacy. An admin can also change away-from-home access, offline mode, and direct connections from a phone, in Manage Kin.

• Usage counting. Help improve Kin by counting basic usage. If you turn this off, Kin still works exactly the same. You just won't be included in our counts. Your device tells the relay not to count it.
• Away-from-home access. Off means your family's phones and Macs reach Kin only on your home network. Your device stays connected to the relay either way, so families you're connected with, or connect with later, can reach you.
• Offline mode. Kin stops using the internet: no relay, no web lookups or weather, no push notifications, no update checks (Kin for Mac stops checking on its own too), no model downloads. Everything at home keeps working, but family members away from home can't reach Kin until they're back on your home Wi-Fi. Families you're connected with see that you're in offline mode, and their messages wait until you're back.
• Direct connections. Off unless you turn it on. When it's on, your phones and Macs connect straight to your device when their network allows it, and use the relay when it doesn't.
• Check for updates. Off means Kin does not read the version list on its own. You can still check by hand. Kin for Mac has its own switch, in its Settings, About.
• Notifications. Each phone and each Mac decides for itself.

None of these choices changes what Kin can do for you at home, except offline mode: while it's on, Kin can't look things up on the web or check the weather, phones get no notifications, and messages with connected families wait.

What we never do

We do not collect analytics. We do not track what you do. We do not sell or share information about you, because we do not have any. We cannot read your conversations, your memories, or your family's messages, and nothing in Kin sends them to us.

Children

Because nothing about any household member reaches us, we hold no information about children. Adults in a household manage children's accounts on the family's own device.

Changes to this policy

Each version of this policy has a number and an effective date at the top. If we change it, Kin shows the household's admin the new version on the Kin Server, each time they open it until they agree, and an update that comes with a new version waits until they have. They can also keep the version they have.

Contact

New Standard Technology, Inc. hello@newstandard.ai