What Codeword stores, and why.

Codeword is an Android app made by AIXEL. It helps someone check with a family member when a call sounds like family asking for money. We designed it to know as little as possible. This notice explains exactly what it stores.

AIXEL is the data controller for Codeword. Our address is 3 Hill Street, 3f1 Third Floor, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH2 3JP. You can reach us through our contact page.

What Codeword never does

• It never listens to, records or reads the content of your calls.
• It never reads your contacts, messages or call history.
• It never blocks a call.
• It never shows adverts, and we never sell or share your information for marketing.

Your family code word, if you save it in the app, stays on your phone. It is never sent to us, and the app turns off Android backup so it isn’t copied to the cloud or to a new phone.

What we store

About you

• Your name, as your family knows you (for example, “Tom” or “Mum”).
• Your mobile number, if you are the family member who answers checks, so the person you look out for can call you back in one tap. Only people in your family can see it.
• A sign-in identifier for your phone. Codeword doesn’t use email addresses or passwords. Each installation gets an anonymous account, which is how our server knows a request really came from your phone.
• A notification token, which lets our server send an alert to your phone.
• Who is in your family and whether each person is protected or answers checks.

About checks

When someone taps Check with…, we store who asked, when, who answered, what they answered and whether it was a practice. The family sees this as a short history. We delete each check 30 days after it was made.

The number of the unknown caller is passed straight to the family member’s phone so they can see who is calling. We don’t store it.

Invites

An invite holds the inviter’s name and the name they gave the person they’re inviting. An invite stops working after seven days or once it is accepted.

Payments

If you buy the Codeword Family plan, Google Play handles the payment. We never see your card details. We receive a purchase reference from Google so we can check the subscription is active, and we store a one-way scrambled (hashed) copy of it, with the account that bought it, so one purchase can’t be used by two families. When the buyer deletes their account, this is deleted too.

Security checks

To stop fake copies of the app from using our service, Codeword uses Google Play Integrity through Firebase App Check. This tells us whether a request comes from a genuine copy of the app on a genuine device. We also keep simple counts of recent requests to prevent abuse.

Why we use it

We use this information to provide the service you asked for: connecting your family and delivering checks and answers. This is necessary to perform our agreement with you. We use the security checks and request counts because we have a legitimate interest in keeping Codeword safe for everyone who relies on it.

Who helps us run it

These companies process information for us, under contracts that require them to protect it:

• Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Firebase Cloud Messaging, Firebase App Check and Google Play), for sign-in, storage, notifications, security checks and payments.
• Vercel, which hosts our server.

Some of these services may process information outside the UK. Where they do, they use the safeguards UK data protection law requires, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

Deleting your information

In the app, go to Settings → Delete my account. This deletes your account and everything we store about you straight away, including checks you sent. If nobody else is left in your family, the family is deleted too.

If you no longer have the app, see how to ask us to delete your account.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask for a copy of your information, ask us to correct or delete it, and object to how we use it. Contact us and we’ll respond within one month. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Age

Codeword is for adults. Please don’t use it if you are under 18.

Changes

If we change what Codeword stores, we’ll update this notice and the date at the top, and tell you in the app if the change matters.