Last updated: 27 September 2026
Happy Pocket is a free pocket-money app that helps families track allowances, spending and saving — built and operated by an independent developer, not a company. This policy explains what information Happy Pocket collects, why, how it's protected, and who it's shared with.
If anything here is unclear, email hello@happypocket.au — a real person reads it.
The short version
- Happy Pocket doesn't move real money or connect to your bank. It's a record-keeping tool — a ledger — for money you manage yourself.
- We collect the minimum needed to run the app: a parent's email, a child's chosen username and PIN, and the Pocket balances and transactions a family records.
- We never sell personal information, to anyone, for any reason.
- A few trusted service providers help us run the app (hosting, email, analytics, and — for two optional AI features — Anthropic's Claude). Each is listed below with exactly what it sees.
- Children don't sign themselves up. A parent creates every child's profile and PIN, and controls it — including deleting it, at any time.
Who this applies to
This policy covers happypocket.au (the marketing site and blog) and app.happypocket.au (the Happy Pocket app itself), in every language we offer (English, 中文, ਪੰਜਾਬੀ).
Information we collect
From a parent, when they create an account:
- Email address (required — this is how you sign in)
- Name (optional)
- Preferred language, and whether you want payment-reminder emails (both stored as simple preferences)
About a child, entered by their parent:
- First name, a username, and a PIN the parent sets
- We never ask a child for an email address, phone number, or any other contact detail
Financial records created by using the app:
- Pocket names and balances
- Transactions (amount, type, an optional note, who created it, when)
- Scheduled and recurring payments and budgets
- Achievement badges (a gamification feature — no personal data beyond which badges were earned)
If you invite a co-parent: their email address, and that they've joined your family.
If you send us feedback: your message, your name and email if you're signed in, and any screenshots you choose to attach. Feedback is emailed directly to us — it isn't stored in the app's database.
Automatically, from using the app or site: basic usage analytics via Google Analytics (see "Analytics" below) and standard web server logs.
How we use this information
- To run the core app: showing balances, moving money between Pockets, running scheduled payments, sending you the emails you've asked for (sign-in codes, payment alerts).
- To keep accounts secure: detecting repeated failed sign-in attempts, applying temporary lockouts.
- To improve the app: understanding which features get used, via aggregated, anonymised analytics — never to build a profile of an individual child.
- To respond to feedback and support requests.
We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not build advertising profiles of children.
Two optional AI features, and what they send to Anthropic
Happy Pocket uses Anthropic's Claude AI for two optional features. Here's exactly what each one sends:
AI Coach (a short encouraging or insightful message on your dashboard): sends your first name, your preferred language, and a small set of aggregated numbers — total balance, amount spent, amount received over the last 30 days. It does not send transaction notes, other family members' data, your email, or any account identifiers.
Voice Assistant (an optional feature for saying commands like "send Alex $10"): sends what you say, your name and role, and — so it can understand who and what you're referring to — the names, Pocket names and balances of people in your family. This is the richest data any third party receives from Happy Pocket, and it only happens if you actively choose to use voice commands.
Anthropic processes this data only to generate a response. Per Anthropic's commercial API terms in effect at the time of writing, this data is not used to train Anthropic's models.
How your information is protected
- Email addresses are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM — not just "protected," genuinely unreadable without our encryption key, even if our database were somehow accessed directly. A separate one-way (HMAC-SHA256) index lets the app look up your account by email without ever storing your email in a searchable, readable form.
- Children's PINs are hashed with bcrypt — we cannot see or recover a child's PIN, ever, not even to help them if they forget it (a parent resets it instead).
- No passwords, ever. Parents sign in with a one-time 6-digit code emailed to them, valid for 10 minutes, used once.
- Repeated wrong PIN attempts lock a child's sign-in for a period that grows each time, and a third lockout can only be cleared by a parent.
- Our database and servers run in Sydney, Australia.
- All traffic to and from the app is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS).
Who we share information with
We use a small number of service providers to run Happy Pocket. We don't sell data to anyone, for any purpose.
| Provider | What it's for | What it sees |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Hosts the app and runs its server functions (in Sydney) | Everything needed to serve the app — standard for any hosting provider |
| Neon | Hosts our Postgres database (in Sydney) | The data described above, as stored |
| Resend | Sends transactional emails (sign-in codes, payment alerts, feedback) | Your email address and the content of the email being sent |
| Anthropic (Claude) | Powers the two optional AI features above | See "Two optional AI features" above |
| Google Analytics | Aggregated usage analytics | Page views and named app events (e.g. "created a schedule") — never Pocket names, amounts, or personal details. Runs on both the marketing site and the signed-in app. |
Anthropic and Google are US-based companies, so using these features means some information crosses borders, even though our own hosting and database stay in Australia.
We may also disclose information if required by law.
Cookies
The app uses an essential sign-in cookie (to keep you logged in) and, where analytics is enabled, Google's own analytics cookies. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
Children's privacy
Happy Pocket is built for use by children, always under a parent's account and control. A child never creates their own account, provides their own contact details, or signs up independently — every child profile is created, named and PIN-protected by a parent. A parent can view, rename, or permanently delete a child's profile — and everything in it — at any time from within the app.
Data retention
We keep your information for as long as your family's account is active.
- "Start fresh," in Settings, lets a parent clear all transaction history, schedules and badges for a fresh start, while keeping the family, children's profiles and Pocket names in place.
- "Delete account," in Settings, permanently deletes data. A co-parent deleting their own account removes only themselves — the family, the other parent and the children are untouched. The family's owner deleting their account deletes the entire family: every child's profile, every co-parent, every Pocket, and all transaction and schedule history, permanently.
Your rights
You can ask us, at any time, what information we hold about you or your family, and ask us to correct anything that's wrong — email hello@happypocket.au.
Any parent can permanently delete their account from Settings, at any time, with no need to contact us — see "Data retention" above for exactly what that does. There's a clear warning naming everyone and everything affected before it happens, and it can't be undone.
Changes to this policy
If we make a material change to how we handle your data, we'll say so clearly on this page and update the "Last updated" date above.