1. Who we are
Spondle is run by Parentco Ltd, trading as Spondle, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15814522). Our registered office is 24 Civic Chambers, Great Cornbow, Halesowen B63 3AE, United Kingdom.
Parentco Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. That means we decide how and why it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it.
This policy covers the Spondle mobile app, our website spondle.co, and any emails, support and services linked to them (together, the “Services”).
Contact us about privacy: hello@spondle.co. We are a small team and have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, as the law does not require one for us. One of our founders is responsible for data protection and reads every privacy message.
ICO registration number: ZC248050
2. The short version
Spondle is a shared hub for running a home. Keep your household’s tasks, calendar, school dates, bills, shopping and meals in one place. If you choose, Spondle can read the emails where household admin lands, or anything you share to it from WhatsApp, voice and other apps, and sorts them into a shared task or event for you to add to your home.
Our promises:
You stay in control. Connecting email is optional, and you can disconnect at any time. Nothing found by our AI is added to your household until you approve it.
We only look for household admin. We use filters you control to skip unrelated emails, and we do not keep your emails, or what you share with us, after we have pulled out the household items.
We never sell your data or use it for advertising.
Our AI providers may not train their models on your data.
Your data is encrypted while it travels and while it is stored.
You can see, export or delete your data whenever you like.
3. The information we collect
We collect only what we need to run your household hub. Most of it you give us directly. Some comes from services you choose to connect.
Account details: Name, email address, sign-in details (password or Apple/Google sign-in), profile photo if you add one. Where it comes from: You.
Household details: Household name, the people in your household and their roles, invitations you send. Where it comes from: You and the people you invite.
Your household content: Tasks, reminders, calendar events, school dates, bills, shopping lists, meal plans, notes, and who added or completed each item. Where it comes from: You and your household members.
Things you share into Spondle: Text, photos, screenshots, documents, spreadsheets, links and voice notes you send to Spondle, including messages you share or forward from WhatsApp. Where it comes from: You.
Connected email: Your email address, a secure access token, and emails from senders you have allowed. Where it comes from: Your email provider, through Nylas (see section 4).
Connected calendar: Calendar events you choose to sync. Where it comes from: Your calendar provider, through Nylas.
Subscription details: Plan, trial dates, renewal status. We never see your full card details. Where it comes from: Apple App Store or Google Play.
Device and usage data: Device type, operating system, app version, crash reports, features used, IP address, approximate location from IP. Where it comes from: Automatically, from the app and website.
Messages to us: Support requests, feedback, survey answers. Where it comes from: You.
Information about other people
Running a home involves other people, so your household content may include them. For example: your children, a partner who has not joined yet, a childminder, or a school that emails you. Only add other people’s details where you have a good reason to. Section 6 explains how we treat children’s information.
Sensitive information
We do not ask for health, religious or other special category information. It can still turn up in household admin, such as a school email about a child’s allergy or a GP appointment reminder. When it does, we use it only to show you the item you asked for, protect it like everything else, and never use it for any other purpose.
4. How Spondle reads your email and what you share
This feature is optional and off until you turn it on. Here is what happens once you connect an inbox:
You connect. You sign in to your email provider (Gmail, Outlook or iCloud) through our partner Nylas. A household admin manages connections, and each household can connect up to two inboxes.
You choose the senders. For email, you pick which senders Spondle may read, such as your school, nursery, council or energy supplier. If the list is empty, we read nothing.
We check messages in batches. At set intervals, we collect new emails from the senders you allowed.
AI finds the household admin. An AI model decides whether each message contains something for your household, like a date, a bill, a delivery or a task. A second step pulls out the details (what, when, how much, who for).
You approve. Each finding appears as a suggestion. Nothing is added to your household until you or another household member accept it.
We discard the original message. We keep the suggestion and a short reference to where it came from (sender, subject, date). We delete the full message text from our systems within 30 days of processing.
What we do not do
We do not read messages from senders you have not allowed.
We do not let any person at Spondle read your messages, unless you ask us to (for example, to fix a support issue), it is needed for security, or the law requires it.
We do not use your messages for advertising, to build profiles, or to sell to anyone.
We do not let our AI providers use your messages, or anything taken from them, to train or improve their AI models.
Google user data
Spondle’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Sharing from WhatsApp and other apps
You can share or forward a message, photo or file to Spondle from WhatsApp, or from any app that lists Spondle as a share option. Spondle does not connect to your WhatsApp account and cannot see any chat you have not shared from. Our AI reads only what you share and turns it into suggestions, and nothing is added until you approve it. Like emails, we keep the suggestion and delete what you shared from our systems within 30 days of processing.
Other people in your messages
Your emails, and the messages you share from WhatsApp, include messages from other people. We process their messages only to find household admin for you, and the same deletion rules apply. Please only share messages where that is appropriate.
Turning it off
You can disconnect an inbox in Settings at any time. We stop reading straight away and delete the access token. You can also revoke access from your Google, Microsoft or Apple account settings.
5. Why we use your information, and our legal basis
UK data protection law says we must have a lawful basis for each use of your data. These are ours:
Running your account and household hub, and syncing it across your household’s devices: Contract: we need it to provide the Services you signed up for.
Reading connected email, and content you share into Spondle, to suggest household items: Contract, for you. Legitimate interests, for other people in your messages: helping you run your home, with strict filtering and deletion.
Handling special category information that appears in household admin: Your explicit consent, given when you connect a source.
Reminders and notifications you have set up: Contract.
Free trials, subscriptions, and the reminder before your trial ends: Contract. Legal obligation for tax and accounting records.
Customer support: Contract and legitimate interests.
Understanding how Spondle is used, fixing bugs, improving features: Legitimate interests: making the product work better. Website analytics cookies use your consent.
Keeping Spondle secure and preventing misuse: Legitimate interests and legal obligation.
Product news and offers by email: Consent, or legitimate interests for existing customers about similar services. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Surveys and research calls: Legitimate interests. Taking part is always optional.
Meeting legal duties and handling legal claims: Legal obligation and legitimate interests.
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time in Settings or by contacting us. Withdrawing consent does not affect what we did before.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interests against your rights. You can object (see section 11).
Automated decisions: our AI only makes suggestions. It never makes decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
6. Children and household members
Children
Spondle is for adults aged 18 and over. Children cannot create an account.
Parents and carers often add details about children, such as names, school events, clubs and appointments. We only use these to run the household that added them. We never use children’s information for marketing, profiling or advertising, and we do not knowingly collect information directly from a child. If you think a child has given us information, email hello@spondle.co and we will delete it.
Sharing within your household
Spondle is built for sharing, so the members of your household can see the household’s shared content. Some things stay with the person who owns them:
your account details and sign-in
the email accounts you have connected
suggestions from your connected sources, until you approve them
Once you approve a suggestion, it becomes household content that other members can see.
If you leave a household, you lose access to it. The content you added stays with the household so it keeps working, unless you ask us to remove your personal information.
7. Who we share your information with
We do not sell your data. We share it only with the service providers below, who process it on our instructions under written contracts. Each one may use your data only to provide their service to us.
Google Cloud: Hosts our servers and database. Where data is processed: United Kingdom (London).
Nylas: Securely connects your email and calendar accounts. Where data is processed: European Union.
Anthropic: AI that reads allowed emails and messages for household admin. Where data is processed: United States.
OpenAI: AI that powers suggestions, such as sorting your shopping list. Where data is processed: United States.
PostHog: Product analytics, to understand how features are used. Where data is processed: European Union.
Framer: Hosts our website. Where data is processed: European Union.
We also use a small number of providers to send account emails and report app crashes, under the same contract terms.
We will keep this list up to date. If we add a provider that will process your connected email or messages, we will tell you before it starts.
Others who may receive your information
Apple and Google, when you subscribe, sign in with them, or receive push notifications. They act under their own privacy policies.
Your household members, as explained in section 6.
Our team, including staff and contractors in the UK and Nigeria, only where their role needs it and under confidentiality duties.
Professional advisers, such as lawyers and accountants, when needed.
Police, courts or regulators, only when the law requires it.
A buyer or investor in our business, if Spondle is sold or merged. They would have to protect your data in line with this policy, and we would tell you first.
8. Data stored or accessed outside the UK
Some of our providers are in the United States, and part of our team works from Nigeria. When your data leaves the UK, we protect it in one of these ways:
United States: the UK–US data bridge, where the provider is certified under it. Otherwise, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses.
European Union: the UK recognises the EU as giving adequate protection, so no extra measures are needed.
Nigeria: our team members there access our systems remotely under the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, with a transfer risk assessment. Access is limited to what their role needs, and data stays on our UK-hosted systems rather than being copied to their devices.
You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards that apply to your data.
9. How long we keep your information
We keep data only as long as we need it. These are our standard periods:
Full text of emails, and messages, photos and files you share into Spondle, once processed: Deleted within 30 days of processing.
Suggestions you reject or ignore: Deleted after 30 days.
Access tokens for connected accounts: Deleted as soon as you disconnect.
Account and household content: While your account is active. Deleted within 30 days of you deleting your account.
Backups: Overwritten within 90 days.
Accounts with no activity: Deleted after 24 months without use. We email you first.
Subscription and payment records: 6 years, as required for tax.
Support conversations: 2 years after the issue is closed.
Product analytics: Up to 24 months, then deleted or anonymised.
Server and security logs: 90 days.
Marketing preferences: Until you unsubscribe. We then keep only your email address on a do-not-contact list.
We may keep information longer if the law requires it or we need it for a legal claim. Anonymised information that can no longer identify you may be kept for statistics.
10. How we keep your information safe
We protect your data with:
Encryption of all data in transit (TLS) and at rest in our database and backups.
Extra protection for connection tokens. Access to your email is held in encrypted form, and is never shown to staff.
Restricted access. Only team members who need it can reach production systems, using individual accounts and two-factor authentication. Access is logged.
Least data. Our AI only receives emails from the senders you allowed, and what you share, and only what it needs to find household admin.
Provider checks. We review the security of providers before we use them.
No online service can be completely secure. If a breach puts your data at risk, we will report it to the ICO within 72 hours. If it is likely to put you at high risk, we will also tell you without undue delay.
11. Your rights
You have these rights over your personal data:
Access: get a copy of the data we hold about you.
Correction: fix anything that is wrong or incomplete.
Deletion: ask us to erase your data. You can delete your account in the app under Settings.
Restriction: ask us to pause using your data while a concern is sorted out.
Objection: object to uses based on legitimate interests, and stop marketing at any time.
Portability: get the data you gave us in a common format, to move elsewhere.
Withdraw consent: wherever we rely on consent, including connected sources.
To use any of these rights, email hello@spondle.co. We may ask you to confirm your identity. We will reply within one month. For complex requests we may extend this by up to two more months, and we will tell you why. There is usually no charge.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first at hello@spondle.co, with “Privacy complaint” in the subject. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it properly, and tell you the outcome.
You also have the right to complain to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
Phone: 0303 123 1113
Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
12. Cookies and analytics
On our website, we use cookies that are strictly necessary to run the site, and analytics cookies to understand how visitors use it. We only set analytics cookies if you accept them in our cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time.
In the app, we do not use cookies. We use PostHog to see which features are used and where people get stuck. It records actions such as screens opened and buttons tapped, linked to a random ID. It does not record the content of your tasks, notes, emails or messages. To switch off analytics for your account, email hello@spondle.co.
We do not use advertising cookies or trackers, and we do not share app activity with advertisers. If we run ads to reach new households, we may measure how many people installed Spondle from an ad using anonymised attribution data from Apple or Google.
13. Marketing, changes and contact
Marketing
We will send you product news and offers only if you agree, or if you are a customer and the message is about similar Spondle services. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link. Service messages, such as your trial reminder or a security notice, are not marketing and will still be sent.
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when Spondle changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change affects how we use your data in a meaningful way, such as a new AI provider or a new connected source, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your data: hello@spondle.co
Parentco Ltd (trading as Spondle), 24 Civic Chambers, Great Cornbow, Halesowen B63 3AE, United Kingdom