Privacy Policy
HouseChores, a product of MASONBYTE LLC · Accokeek, Maryland
In effect from 3 September 2026. Replaces the version of 2 August 2026.
The short version
HouseChores is a shared chore board for one household. We collect the least we can to make it work: an email address so you can sign in, a display name so your household can see who is who, and the chores themselves.
There are no analytics, no trackers, and no advertising. We do not sell or share your data. Nobody outside your household sees your board.
HouseChores is run from the United States, and your data is held there.
What we collect, and who sees it
| What | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address | So you can sign in. | You and MASONBYTE LLC. Never shown to your household. |
| Your display name | So the board can show whose chore is whose. | Your household. |
| Chores, and what has been done | This is the app. | Your household. |
| Messages you post to your home | So a household can leave notices and, on Plus, talk to each other. | Your household. |
| Feedback you send us | To improve the app. | MASONBYTE LLC. |
| A delivery address for alerts, if you turn them on | So your phone or browser can receive a reminder. It is a code that delivers an alert, not a way to contact you otherwise, and we keep it until you turn alerts off or delete your account. | MASONBYTE LLC and the service that delivers the alert. |
| A private calendar link, if you create one | So a calendar app can read your chores. | Only whoever holds the link. It is deleted with your account. |
| When you agreed to the Terms | So we can show that you agreed, and tell you when they change. | You and MASONBYTE LLC. |
| Your subscription’s status, if you buy HouseChores Plus | So the app knows which homes have Plus. | You and MASONBYTE LLC. Never your card number. |
Your sign-in email is kept out of the board on purpose — a household screen is often a wall tablet anyone in the room can read, so the app never puts your email where your family would see it.
We read your device's time zone once, so a chore due "today" is judged against your day, not ours. A time zone is regional — a whole span of the map, not a spot on it — so it does not tell us where you live.
What we do not collect
- No location of you or your home. We never ask for an address and never read your device's GPS. If a chore is an errand, the map link opens in your own maps app — nothing is looked up unless you tap it.
- No card numbers. There is nothing to pay for today. When HouseChores Plus goes on sale, payment happens on the payment company’s own pages; your card number goes to them and never to us. We keep only your subscription’s status.
- No contacts. We never read your address book.
- Photos and voice notes only when you choose. A member can attach a photo or record a short voice note on a chore. The camera roll and microphone are touched only at that moment, your browser asks permission first, and nothing is ever read or recorded in the background. Attachments are stored privately for your household alone, and any location hidden inside a photo is removed before it uploads — a picture of the dishes should not say where your house is.
Cookies
HouseChores sets no cookies today — that is why there is no banner to dismiss before you can read this. The app does remember a few small settings in your own browser — which household you last looked at, whether this is a shared display, and the like — and all of it stays on your device. Clearing your browser clears it.
If we ever add something that needs a cookie, the banner comes first and it asks before it stores, rather than appearing afterwards. The full list of what we keep on your device is on Cookies and local storage.
Ideas we are considering
A few things we might add — automatic travel times, or a map on an errand chore — would mean sharing some information with another company to work. None of it is built, and each would be an update to this policy before it ships, not after. If we ever let you share your location with your household, it would be yours to switch on and off — an admin will not be able to switch it on for somebody else.
Who helps run the app
We do not sell your data or share it for advertising. A few trusted companies help us run HouseChores — to store your data securely, to serve the website, to deliver our sign-in emails, to watch our own servers for errors (they learn when something of ours broke, never what your household is doing), to deliver alerts to your phone if you turn them on, to take payments once HouseChores Plus is on sale, and to offer "Sign in with Google" if you choose it. They hold only what they need to do that job, none of them get your data for advertising, and all of them hold your data in the United States.
Who can use it
HouseChores is for people aged 13 and over. It is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, we delete it and the information it holds. A parent may write a younger child's first name onto a board as the person a chore belongs to — that child has no account and gives us nothing directly, and the entry is the parent's to remove.
HouseChores is offered from the United States, to people in the United States. If you live in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or elsewhere, you may use it, but it is not designed for the rules of your country, and your data is held in the United States.
Your choices
- See your data — it is all on your board, messages included.
- Correct it — change your display name any time.
- Delete it — ask us and we delete your account and its data. If you own a household, you can have it deleted too.
- Leave a household without deleting your account.
How to ask, and what happens: see Deleting your account and data.
How long we keep it
Messages are kept for 90 days. Anything older is deleted automatically, and an admin can clear the whole log sooner from inside it. Removing a message removes it — we keep no copy your household cannot see. If an account is deleted, its messages go with it. See Deleting your account and data.
We keep your household's data while the home is in use, and delete the data attached to an account when that account is deleted. A household nobody has touched for 120 days may be deleted — but we email first and ask, and one person choosing to keep it is enough. (This part is not switched on yet; nothing is being deleted on a timer today. We are publishing the rule before we enforce it, and before it is switched on you will be able to take a copy of your home.)
If HouseChores Plus ends for a home, nobody and no chore is removed. Photos and voice notes stay readable for 90 days, then they are removed.
If you subscribed to Plus, records of your payments are kept for as long as tax and accounting law require, even after your account is gone. They hold no board content.
We keep data for as long as the laws of the United States require, and otherwise no longer than the periods stated here. We are not obliged to keep anything beyond them. These periods may change when our policies or the way we run the service need them to; when they do, this page changes first, with a new date at the top.
When this policy changes
When this policy changes, the date at the top changes. For anything that matters to you — a new company that helps run the app, a new kind of data, a shorter period we keep something — we tell you in the app or by email before the change takes effect, not after.
Contact
Write to support@masonbyte.com about your privacy, your data, or this policy — including to delete your account. MASONBYTE LLC, Accokeek, Maryland is the data controller.