Fosterly Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 19, 2026

Fosterly is an app for young people aging out of foster care. It is run by Austin Christian University ("Fosterly", "we", "us"). This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who helps us run the app, and the choices you have. We wrote it in plain words on purpose. If anything is unclear, email us at privacy@fosterly.co.

The short version

Your information is yours. We use it only to run Fosterly for you.
We never sell it, never show you ads, and never use it to track you across other apps or websites.
Nothing is sent to an AI service unless you say yes first. You can turn AI off at any time and keep using the app.
Nothing is sent in your name until you tap to approve it. That includes an email, a text, a calendar event, or sharing with someone in your circle.
You choose who is in your circle and what each person can see. You can remove anyone, and their link stops working right away.
You can delete your account and everything in it from Settings at any time.

What we collect

Information you give us

Your account. Your name and email address. We send you a one-time code at that address to sign you in.
Your age. Your date of birth. We use it to make sure you are 16 or older and to point out programs that have age limits, since some end at 21, 23 or 26.
Your profile. Your preferred name, pronouns (optional), county and state, and phone number (optional).
Your story. What you tell Fosterly about your life, typed or spoken. When you speak, your phone turns your voice into text on the device. We get the text, not the recording. We also keep a short summary and the key facts from your story, so you don't have to repeat yourself.
Your Life Plan. Tasks, due dates, notes, who is helping, and what's done.
Your Living File. Photos and PDFs of documents you add, like your state ID, birth certificate, Social Security card, Medicaid card, school records or housing applications. We also keep details read from them, such as the type of document and when it expires. Documents can include sensitive details like ID numbers.
Your asks and what Fosterly did. What you asked for, each step Fosterly took, the emails, texts, calls and calendar events it drafted, what you approved, and how it turned out.
Your circle. The name, role, email and phone number of each person you add, what you chose to share with them, and when they viewed it.
Health, money and other personal details. Your story, plan and documents may include health information, Medicaid details, income or benefits. They may also include personal things like pregnancy, disability, sexual orientation or religion, if you choose to share them. We treat all of this as sensitive.
Messages you send to our support team.

Information collected automatically

Notification token. If you allow notifications, your phone gives us a token so we can send you reminders and check-ins.
Basic technical information. Like any online service, our servers see your IP address and basic details of each request when the app connects. We use this only to deliver the service and keep it secure. Fosterly has no analytics or advertising tools.
Age information from Apple. Some states, including Texas, require app stores to tell an app the age range the Apple Account gives. When Apple provides it, the check happens on your phone, and the result is not stored and never sent to us. What we keep is the date of birth you type in.

What we don't collect

Your precise location. Fosterly doesn't use your phone's location. It uses the county you type in.
Your contacts list. You add people to your circle yourself.
Your own email inbox. Fosterly does not touch your personal email account. Fosterly does not give you an email address either, and no one can send you email through Fosterly.
Your face. Face ID is handled by your iPhone. Fosterly only learns whether the unlock worked.
Your voice recordings. When you talk to Fosterly, or tell your story out loud, your phone turns your voice into text on the device. The recording never leaves your phone, and we never receive it, keep it or send it anywhere.

How we use your information

We use your information only to:

run your account and keep it secure
build and update your Life Plan and Living File
find resources and draft messages when you ask for help
send the emails and share the links you approve
remind you about deadlines, documents that are about to expire, and check-ins
show crisis resources first when something you write suggests you may be in danger
answer you when you contact us
follow the law

We don't sell your information and we don't use it for advertising. We don't use it to train AI models, and our AI service's terms don't allow that either (see the next section).

AI in Fosterly

Fosterly uses AI to understand your story, build your plan, read your documents and draft messages.

We ask first. Before anything is sent to an AI service, Fosterly shows you who the provider is and what gets shared, and asks your permission. If you say no, you can still build your plan, keep your file and manage your circle yourself.
Who it goes to. Requests go to Gloo, Inc., a service that runs AI models for apps like Fosterly. Gloo sends each request to the company that makes the model: Anthropic, the maker of the Claude models, and Google, the maker of the Gemini models.
What gets sent. What the task needs, which can include:
- your first name, age, county and pronouns, so the answer fits you
- your story, or the summary of it
- your ask
- your plan: every step still to do
- the kinds of document in your Living File and when they run out, so the AI knows what you already have. Not the details read from them.
- the names and roles of everyone in your circle
- when you add a photo of a document, the image, so the AI can tell what it is and when it expires. Document photos go to Google's Gemini model. The rest of Fosterly's AI work goes to Anthropic's Claude. PDFs are never sent to the AI. You fill in their details yourself.
No training. Gloo's terms say it won't use your information to train any AI model, including the model maker's, unless we give separate written permission. We won't give it.
What they keep. What we send isn't deleted the moment the answer comes back. Gloo, and the company that makes the model, may keep it for a while under their terms. Gloo has agreed to delete it when we ask. To have us ask, email privacy@fosterly.co.
Talking out loud. When Fosterly talks back, the words it is about to say go to OpenAI, L.L.C. to be turned into a voice, and the audio comes back to your phone. Those words can include your details, the same way the rest of Fosterly's AI answers can. Your own voice is not part of this: it became text on your phone before anything was sent. We keep the audio of a line so we don't have to make it twice, and it is deleted with your account. If Fosterly has no speech service set up, your phone reads the same words out itself and nothing is sent.
No web searches. Fosterly's AI doesn't search the web. It finds help in Fosterly's own checked list of Texas resources.
Turning it off. Open Settings and switch off AI help. New requests stop right away. Anything already sent can't be called back, but you can ask us to have Gloo delete it.
AI can be wrong. Always read what Fosterly drafts before you approve it. Fosterly is not medical, legal or benefits advice.

We share only what's needed, and only with the people and companies listed here.

Companies that help us run Fosterly

Clerk, Inc. handles sign-in and your login. Its main systems are in the United States.
Convex, Inc. hosts our database and file storage, including your Living File. They run on Amazon Web Services in Northern Virginia, United States (us-east-1).
Gloo, Inc., Anthropic and Google, only if you allow AI. Gloo runs Fosterly's AI and sends each request to the company that makes the model: Anthropic for the Claude models, and Google for the Gemini model that reads photos of your documents (see above).
OpenAI, L.L.C., only if you allow AI, turns the words Fosterly speaks into a voice. It gets those words, never a recording of you. OpenAI processes data in the United States.
Cloudflare, Inc. forwards mail sent to our own addresses, support@fosterly.co and privacy@fosterly.co, to the Fosterly team's mailbox, which is hosted by Google. So if you write to us, Cloudflare and Google see what you wrote. No mail is received for you: Fosterly does not give you an address. Cloudflare processes data in the United States and other countries.
Resend sends the emails you approve, when Fosterly is set up to send them for you. They come from Fosterly, with you copied and replies going to you. When it isn't, approving opens your phone's mail app with the message ready, and it goes from your own address instead, or, if your phone has no email account, hands you the message to copy and send from anywhere. In those two cases the email never reaches Resend at all. Resend processes data in the United States.
Expo (650 Industries, Inc.) passes our notifications to Apple. Expo says it keeps the contents of a notification only as long as it takes to deliver it.
Apple delivers notifications, and where the law requires, tells your phone your age range so Fosterly can check the 16 and up rule.

Each of these companies may use your information only to provide its service to us. We require them, by contract or through their published terms, to protect it at least as well as this policy does.

People you choose

Your circle. When you invite someone, they get an email with a private, read-only link. The link shows only what you chose for that person: your plan and progress, appointments, documents or emergency info. They don't need the app and can't change anything.
People you contact through Fosterly. When you approve an email, the person you send it to sees what it says and your email address, so they can reply to you. When you approve a text or a call, your phone's Messages or Phone app sends it from your own number.
Your calendar. Appointments you approve are added to your phone's calendar. If your calendar syncs with iCloud or another service, the event syncs there too.

When the law requires it, or someone is in danger

We may share information if the law requires it, for example because of a valid court order. We may also share it if we believe in good faith that it's needed to prevent serious harm to someone. When the law allows, we'll tell you before we share.

Nobody at Fosterly reads your story or documents as part of normal work. Team members see your information only when it's needed to fix a problem you report or to keep the service secure. If a team member learns that a young person under 18 is being abused or neglected, Texas law may require them to report it.

If Fosterly changes hands

If Fosterly is merged, sold or transferred, your information stays protected by this policy. We'll tell you before it becomes subject to a different one.

Who does not get access

Your foster parent, caseworker, CASA volunteer or the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) can't see your Fosterly account unless you add them to your circle. Fosterly is not part of DFPS or any government agency.

You choose each person, and you turn on only the parts you want them to see.
Each link is random and secret, and we store only a scrambled (hashed) version of it.
You can see when each person last viewed what you shared.
To take access back, open My Circle, choose the person and tap Revoke. Their link stops working immediately.
Revoking access can't erase anything someone saved or printed while they had it. Share documents only with people you trust.

How long we keep information

While your account is open. We keep your information for as long as you have an account, so your plan and file are there when you need them.
Single items. You can delete a document, task or circle member at any time. It's removed from our live systems right away.
Deleting your account. Tap your picture on the Today tab to open Settings, then tap Delete account. We delete your profile, story, plan, asks, documents and files, circle, share links and sign-in account. This happens right away, and the app tells you when it's done. Your share links stop working.
Copies that take longer. Encrypted backups are overwritten within 30 days. Our email service keeps delivery records for 30 days.
What stays with other people. Emails you already sent stay in the recipients' inboxes. Events you added stay in your phone's calendar until you remove them.
Inactive accounts. You can delete your account yourself at any time in Settings, and you can ask us to delete it by emailing privacy@fosterly.co. We may also delete an account that has gone unused for a long time, and we will email the address on the account before we do.

Your rights and choices

Everyone who uses Fosterly can:

See and correct their information in the app.
Get a copy of their information by emailing privacy@fosterly.co. We reply within 30 days.
Delete any item, or their whole account, in the app.
Say no to AI, or change their mind at any time in Settings.
Turn off notifications in iOS Settings. If other people can see your phone, you can also hide notification previews on the lock screen.
Lock the Living File with Face ID.
Remove anyone from their circle.

Depending on where you live, state law may give you more rights. We honor these requests for everyone, and using them won't change how we treat you. If you're unhappy with how we handled a request, email us. You can also contact your state attorney general.

Age requirements

16 and older. Fosterly is for people 16 and older. We don't let anyone under 16 create an account, and we don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we delete it.
If you're 16 or 17. In some states, including Texas, the law requires Apple to confirm your age range and to have a parent or guardian approve app downloads. Apple handles that. Fosterly uses the age range only on your phone, to check the 16 and up rule, and does not keep it.

How we protect your information

Your information is encrypted while it travels (TLS) and while it's stored (AES-256) by our hosting provider.
Documents are never handed out as public links. The app loads them only for you, after checking that you're signed in. Circle members can see them only through a link you control and can revoke.
Every request is checked, so you can only ever see your own information.
You can lock your Living File with Face ID.
We limit which team members can access our systems.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we'll tell you as the law requires.

Where your information is stored

In the United States.

Fosterly is not an emergency service

If you are in danger, call 911.
In a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
To reach the Texas Youth Helpline, call or text 1-800-989-6884.

These numbers are also in the app, under Help now, at the top of every tab.

Changes to this policy

If we make an important change, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect. Where the law requires it, we'll also notify the app store first. The effective date at the top shows which version you're reading.

Contact us

Austin Christian University
601 Westinghouse Road, Georgetown, TX 78626
Email: privacy@fosterly.co