Torvan

Privacy Policy

Version 6 — 15 October 2026

This is Version 6 of our privacy policy. It's kept unchanged at this address, because a parent's OK in the app is recorded against it. The latest version is always at chorescape.co.uk/privacy.html.

This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, who sees it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have over it. It covers Torvan (formerly Chore Scape) and this website. It's written for everyone who uses them in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada (including Quebec), New Zealand and Singapore, whether you're a parent, carer or support worker, you use Torvan on your own, or you do the quests someone else sets for you.

In Torvan, a Strategist sets quests and checks them: usually a parent, carer or support worker, aged 15 or over. A Warrior does the quests: a child, a teenager or an adult. Someone who uses Torvan on their own is a Solo user, aged 15 or over. A Strategist can also set quests for themselves, with My quests.

Want the short version? There's one in plain words for Warriors of any age: Your privacy.

Who we are, and our privacy officer

Torvan is run by Chris Smith, trading as Torvan (formerly Chore Scape) ("we", "us"), who is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy, for Torvan and this website.

Privacy officer: Chris Smith, trading as Torvan (formerly Chore Scape)

Torvan is run by one person, so Chris is our privacy officer. UK law doesn't require us to appoint a data protection officer, and we haven't. The privacy officer is responsible for how we handle personal data, and deals with privacy questions, requests and complaints. This one role is our privacy officer under New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020, our Data Protection Officer under Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act, the person in charge of the protection of personal information under Quebec law, and the person accountable for our privacy practices under Canada's PIPEDA. In Australia, these are our contact details for privacy questions and complaints.

What we collect

Older versions of the app may send the time zone, notification token or install ID sooner than described above. For a child under 15 with no linked Strategist, our server doesn't accept a time zone or notification token, and removes any notification token it already has. Copies of the install ID, year of birth and time zone that any version of the app sends with a sign-up are removed from our sign-in records within two hours. The year of birth stays on your profile, and a Strategist's or Solo user's install ID stays in the free-trial record.

Children and young people

Torvan is used by adults on their own, by adults with a support person, and by children and teenagers with a parent or carer as their "Strategist". Children under 15 use Torvan as a Warrior, with a parent or carer linked as their Strategist, and need a parent's OK before they can use photo proof or Friends (see "A parent's OK" below). Torvan on your own (Solo) isn't available to anyone under 15: neither the app nor our server will set one up, and one set up by an older version works like a child's account with no Strategist (see "Time limits" below).

We follow the UK Information Commissioner's Age Appropriate Design Code (the Children's Code) for every child who uses Torvan, wherever they live. We'll also follow Australia's Children's Online Privacy Code once it's registered (it's due by 10 December 2026).

Age rules

We go by year of birth. Because we only know the year, we assume the youngest age you could be: for example, someone who turns 15 this year is treated as 14 until 1 January.

This section is part of Version 6 of our privacy policy (15 October 2026). It was first published in Version 2 (1 October 2026). Versions 3, 4, 5 and 6 don't change what a parent's OK covers, so an OK given under Version 2, 3, 4 or 5 still counts.

Children under 15 need a parent's or guardian's OK before they can use photo proof or Friends. Quests, coins, XP and cards work either way. We're bringing this in two steps: see "Switching it on" below.

A Strategist linked to the child gives the OK in their own Torvan app, by confirming "I'm [the child]'s parent or guardian — I agree". To give it, they must be 18 or over (by year of birth) and have a verified email address that isn't the child's own. An adult who has only just linked with the child may have to wait 7 days first (see "The 7-day wait" below). Before they agree, the app shows them what Torvan keeps about the child, and links to this policy.

Our method is in-app confirmation by a linked adult Strategist with a verified email. We can't check that someone really is a child's parent or guardian, so we rely on that confirmation. To help catch mistakes, the Strategist sees the child's year of birth, any other linked Strategists are told when an OK is given, and the child can tell us if a Strategist isn't their parent or carer.

Each time an OK is given, we record:

We keep these records for as long as the child's account exists, and delete them with it.

This stops a child, or someone else, swapping a parent for another adult to get round the parent's No. It works even before we switch the check on for everyone.

On the day we switch the check on, photo proof and Friends switch off for children under 15 whose parent hasn't given their OK yet. Their quests keep working, and quests that asked for photos can be completed without them. Photos they took before are kept for up to 30 days, then deleted unless a parent gives their OK. Their Strategists get a notification asking them to decide.

We're bringing this in two steps: first an app update, then we switch the check on for everyone. Until then, photo proof and Friends work as before for children under 15, except that a parent's "No" or a withdrawn OK counts straight away. Strategists can give their OK once they've updated the app; older versions don't have it. When we switch the check on, Strategists who haven't decided yet get a notification asking them to.

What we process for a child under 15 before a parent's OK
StageWhat we process
Before a Strategist linksNickname, email address, password (as a secure hash), year of birth, when their email address was verified, and the sign-in emails we send (through Resend, in the USA). The app doesn't send a notification token, time zone or install ID for a Warrior before they link. The app sends the year of birth with the sign-up, and older versions may also send an install ID. We remove those copies from our sign-in records within two hours. The year of birth stays on the profile.
Linked, before the OKThe quests the Strategist sets, requests to change them, coins and savings pots, XP and cards, payouts and payout requests, quiet hours, and the child's time zone and phone details (the notification token and the details sent with it), so reminders arrive at the right time.
Not before the OKPhotos and Friends, once we've switched the check on. Until then they work as before, except that after a parent says no or withdraws their OK, they stay off until an OK is given.

If a change to this policy affects a child's OK, we'll ask the parent again in the app.

My quests: a Strategist's own quests

If you're a Strategist, you can also use Torvan for yourself, with My quests. It's off unless you switch it on, in Settings → Set up My quests. It works like using Torvan on your own: you set your own quests and tick them off yourself, on the same account.

Savings pots: where a Warrior's coins are kept

A Warrior's coins are kept in pots. Every Warrior has a Default pot. A linked Strategist can add more, such as "Holiday", up to 8 at a time (Default included), each with a goal if they like. Each quest pays into a pot. A Warrior asks for money from one pot at a time, and their Strategist pays them and records it, as with any payout. Torvan never holds or moves real money: it only keeps count, and the money changes hands outside the app. Solo users don't have pots, and nor does a Strategist's My quests.

Why we use your data

Under UK law, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Your right to object: where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object at any time. Email our privacy officer and tell us what you object to. We'll stop, unless we have strong reasons to carry on that outweigh yours, or we need it for a legal claim.

In Australia and New Zealand, we collect only what's reasonably necessary to provide the service. In Canada (including Quebec) and Singapore, we rely on your consent, or for a child under 15 their parent's. If you withdraw consent to something the service needs, we may not be able to keep providing it, and we'll tell you what it means first. "What we process before a parent's OK" above explains how this applies to children.

Who at Torvan can see your data

Torvan is run by one person, Chris Smith, trading as Torvan (formerly Chore Scape). In the app, your quests and photos are shown only to you and the people you're linked to. Other users can't see them.

Because we run the service, we can technically access the personal data in our systems, including quest photos. Your data is encrypted while it travels and on our hosting provider's disks, but it isn't end-to-end encrypted. That protects it from outsiders, not from us or our hosting provider. Anyone who got hold of our administrator login or our servers' secret keys could access it too, so we keep those to ourselves and never build them into the app.

We only look at or change your personal data when we need to:

We never browse accounts or photos for any other reason, and only Chris looks at an individual person's details.

We use an AI coding assistant, Anthropic's Claude, to help us build and run the service. When we ask it to, it can query and change our database, so it can help us fix faults and release updates. That means it could see any data held there. Our rule is that it works only with totals, test results and account IDs (random codes, not names or email addresses), and we don't use it to read your details, quests or photos. What it works with is sent to Anthropic, in the USA. We use Claude on Anthropic's consumer plan, so Anthropic handles that information under its own privacy policy, not as our processor. We've switched off the setting that lets Anthropic use it to train its models.

We keep copies of our database (not quest photos), so we can put things right if something goes wrong:

So something that's deleted can take a while to disappear from these copies: see "Backups" in "How long we keep it".

Staff at the providers we use (see "Who we share it with") can access data only as needed to provide their service, under contracts that limit them to that.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of specialist providers ("processors") to run Torvan. Their terms with us allow them to use your data only to provide their service to us. A few others decide for themselves how they use what they receive, under their own terms and privacy policies: the app stores and Apple's TestFlight (see below), Apple's push notification service, Google Fonts and Cloudflare's bot check (see "This website"), GitHub for our nightly backup job (see below), and Anthropic for our AI coding assistant (see "Who at Torvan can see your data").

GitHub runs our nightly backup job (see "Who at Torvan can see your data"). While the job runs, a readable copy of our database exists on a temporary computer that GitHub provides. The job encrypts it there before anything is uploaded, then deletes it, and GitHub wipes the computer when the job ends. The computer may be in the USA. GitHub is a US company, part of Microsoft. We use GitHub's free plan, so GitHub handles this data under its own privacy statement, not as our processor.

App stores

Plans can't be bought in the app at the moment. When they go on sale, you'll buy them in the app from your phone's app store. On Android phones, that's Google Play. On iPhone, it's Apple's App Store. The store takes the payment as an independent controller, under its own terms and privacy policy, not as our processor. It tells us what we need to give access and to keep your purchase history: which plan was bought, its status, when it renews or ends, and the store's reference for the purchase. We give the store a random reference for your account, so a purchase can be matched to it. We never see or store your card details, and we don't take payments on this website or anywhere else.

Testing new versions

We try out new versions of Torvan with a small group of testers before everyone gets them. A test version uses the same accounts and servers as everyone else, so the rest of this policy applies to it too.

Plans and households

One plan covers a household: the adult who buys it, up to 6 Warriors linked to them, and the other adult Strategists linked to those Warriors (such as a second parent or a carer), up to 4 adults in all, including the buyer. To work out who a plan covers, we use the links between accounts that we already hold. We don't collect anything extra for this.

We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone else for marketing purposes.

Where your data goes

Our database and file storage are in Germany (Supabase's Frankfurt region, in the EU). Supabase Pte. Ltd., the company we contract with, is based in Singapore, and Supabase's staff may access data from outside the EU when they need to, for example to give support. Our nightly encrypted backups are stored in the Netherlands, by Backblaze, a US company. They're made on a temporary computer run by GitHub, also a US company, which may be in the USA. Our email is held in the UK, by Zoho. Proton, which stores our encrypted database copies, is a Swiss company. Resend, Google Firebase and Anthropic (for our AI coding assistant) are in the USA, and so is Apple's push notification service for iPhones. Cloudflare, which hosts this website, runs a worldwide network.

Before we send personal data to another country, we make sure it stays protected to the standard the law where you live expects:

Data held in another country may be available to that country's courts, law enforcement and national security authorities under its laws.

This website

This website, chorescape.co.uk, handles a little personal data too:

How long we keep it

Torvan has Delete My Account in Settings. When you ask, we mark your account for deletion straight away and show you the date it will happen. You can cancel any time before then. 30 days after you ask, we permanently delete your account, everything tied to it, and any files you've uploaded (such as proof photos). The exceptions are the install ID record, reports and emails, described above, and the things listed below. Copies in backups go when those backups are deleted (see "Backups" above). A few things stay in other people's accounts:

You can also ask us to delete your account by email. A parent or guardian can ask us to delete their child's account (see "Making a request"). Deleting your account doesn't cancel a subscription bought through an app store: cancel it in the store.

How we protect it

If there's a data breach, we'll act quickly to contain it, and we'll tell the regulator and the people affected wherever the law requires it. "Laws and regulators in each country" below explains when.

Laws and regulators in each country

We follow the privacy law of each country this policy covers. Here's what each one gives you, how quickly we reply, and when we report a breach.

United Kingdom

Australia

Canada

Quebec

New Zealand

Singapore

Your rights

Depending on where you live (see "Laws and regulators in each country"), you have the right to:

Children have these rights too, and a parent or guardian can use them on behalf of their child.

Making a request or a complaint

How to ask

Email our privacy officer at privacy@chorescape.co.uk or support@chorescape.co.uk. Please email from the address your account uses, so we can check it's you, and tell us what you'd like. Making a request is free.

We reply within the time the law where you live allows: one month in the UK; 30 days in Australia, Canada, Quebec and Singapore; and 20 working days in New Zealand. If we need longer and the law allows it, we'll tell you why.

Requests from parents and guardians

To protect children, we act on a request about a child's account only when it comes from the verified email address of an adult Strategist who is linked to that child in Torvan at the time. We check this against our records before we do anything. We also think about what's best for the child. If the child is old enough to understand their rights (often from about 12), we may ask them first, or reply to them instead.

Children can also ask for themselves. Someone they trust can help.

If you support an adult Warrior, you can make a request for them only if they agree, or if you have legal authority to act for them, such as a lasting power of attorney or a court order. Adult Warriors can always ask for themselves.

Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell our privacy officer first. We'll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and do our best to put things right. You can also complain to the regulator where you live:

Changes to this policy

When we make a significant change to how we handle your data, we publish a new version of this policy with a new version number, keep each version at its own address (this one is privacy-v6.html), and tell you in the app. If a change affects a parent's OK for their child, we'll ask the parent again. If we only correct details, without changing how we handle your data, we keep the version number, say below what we corrected, and keep the earlier wording unchanged at its own address.

Changes in Version 6. Version 6 (15 October 2026): Chore Scape is now called Torvan. Nothing about what we collect or how we use it has changed. Nothing changes in what a parent's OK covers, so an OK given under an earlier version still counts. Version 5 is kept unchanged at privacy-v5.html.

Previous versions

This is Version 6, from 15 October 2026. The versions before it: