Privacy policy

Last updated October 19, 2026. Explorer Lab makes science apps for kids, starting with Cosmic Zoom. This page explains what the apps keep and why.

The short version

• Kids can explore without any account. Until a grown-up links a family account, everything stays on the device and nothing is sent to us.
• A grown-up (a parent, guardian or teacher) can link a family account to keep progress on all their devices. Kids never sign in and never give us an email address or a full name.
• For each explorer we keep only a nickname, a school grade, avatar choices, read-aloud settings and progress in each app.
• We don’t ask for height, weight, photos, location or contacts. Height and weight are typical values worked out from the grade and are never stored.
• No ads, no tracking and no outside analytics, and we never sell or share data.

Exploring without an account

A kid can start right away. Their nickname, grade, avatar and progress are kept on that device only (in the browser or the app’s storage). Nothing about them is sent to us or to anyone else, and the app doesn’t even load its sign-in code. Deleting the app or clearing the browser’s data removes it.

Family accounts

A grown-up signs in on our grown-ups website with Apple, Google or an email link, or with Apple inside the iPhone and iPad apps. Sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication. It keeps an account identifier and, for Google and email-link sign-in, the grown-up’s email address. We don’t ask Apple for a name or email. The family’s explorers and their progress are stored in Google Cloud Firestore.

The grown-up chooses a grown-up PIN. We keep only a scrambled form of it (a salted hash), used to keep kids out of the Grown-ups pages.

Linking a device

To use a family account on a kid’s device, a grown-up links it, by typing a short code from the device on our grown-ups website, by opening an emailed link, or by signing in on the device. The device then gets its own sign-in: an anonymous identifier with no name or email, which only lets it see and save that family’s explorers. A link code is deleted once it is used and stops working after 10 minutes. The grown-up sees every linked device on the grown-ups website and can unlink any of them.

How the data is protected

Each family’s explorers can be read and changed only by that family’s grown-up and its linked devices. A linked device can’t delete explorers for good, change the PIN or delete the account; those need the grown-up’s own sign-in. Only the Explorer Lab apps and websites can reach the database. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Children’s privacy

The apps are made for children, with a grown-up in charge of any family account. Parents and guardians can see, change or delete their children’s explorers at any time, in the apps (Grown-ups) or on the grown-ups website, or by emailing us at support@explorer-lab.com.

How long we keep data

We keep children’s information only as long as the apps need it, never indefinitely.

• Explorers and their progress: kept while the family account exists, so each child keeps their explorer and stars on every device. They are deleted when a grown-up removes them or deletes the account.
• A removed explorer: kept for 10 days so a grown-up can undo a mistake, then deleted automatically, usually within a day after that.
• Deleting the account: everything is deleted right away, including the explorers, their progress, the list of linked devices, the PIN and the grown-up’s sign-in.
• Link codes: deleted when used, and useless after 10 minutes.
• We don’t keep backups of our own. Once data is deleted, Google, which runs our database, removes any remaining copies from its systems within 180 days at most.

Deleting data

A grown-up can remove a single explorer, or delete the whole family account in the iPhone and iPad apps (Grown-ups, Delete account) or on the grown-ups website. Deleting the account removes every explorer, their progress, the linked devices and the sign-in.

Contact

Explorer Lab
Email: support@explorer-lab.com