App privacy policy
Kammunicate privacy policy
Kammunicate is an AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) app for iPad, built by Chardie. It gives two people a calm, shared space to communicate through drawings, cards, photos, stickers and voice messages. This page explains exactly what Kammunicate does — and does not do — with your information, and serves as the privacy policy submitted to Apple's App Store.
Who operates Kammunicate
Kammunicate is built and operated by Chardie, based in Manchester, United Kingdom. Chardie is the data controller for any personal data processed in connection with the app — though, as set out below, that processing happens entirely on your own iPad and Chardie receives none of it.
What we collect: nothing leaves your iPad
Chardie does not collect any personal data through Kammunicate. The app has no servers that it contacts, no Chardie account system, and no way to identify you or build a profile of your behaviour. Its communication features work entirely offline.
Everything you and your communication partner create lives in Kammunicate's own private storage area on the iPad. In Apple's App Store privacy taxonomy, the relevant declaration is "Data Not Collected".
What's stored on your device
So that Kammunicate works and remembers your setup between sessions, the following is stored on your iPad, inside the app's private sandbox provided by iOS:
- Communication content — the drawings and handwriting you create, the communication cards you use, any photos you add, stickers, and voice messages you record.
- Communication history — a record of the messages exchanged in a conversation, kept in order so you can look back over it.
- Personalisation — participant avatars and names, role settings (for example, whether someone is expressing needs or providing support), and preferences such as Easy Read mode, colours, brush sizes and music choices.
- On-device learning data — small records of which cards tend to be used together and which suggestions were helpful, used only to make suggestions better (see below).
- Technical items — the app version, and short-lived drafts saved so your work can be recovered if the app closes unexpectedly.
All of this stays on your iPad. None of it is transmitted to Chardie or to anyone else.
On-device suggestions and learning
Kammunicate can suggest relevant communication cards and recognise handwriting and drawings to help the conversation along. This uses Apple's on-device machine-learning frameworks — Core ML, the Vision framework, and Natural Language — which run entirely on your iPad.
No training data, model weights, drawings, or usage patterns are sent off the device. Learning improves only your own copy of the app, and you can reset it at any time in Kammunicate's settings.
Storage and security
Kammunicate stores your data in its private app sandbox using standard
iOS storage — UserDefaults, local files, and the iOS
Keychain for anything sensitive. It maintains no external database and
no server infrastructure of its own.
Your data is protected by the security built into iOS. Files use iOS file protection, so they are encrypted at rest under your device passcode, and any cryptographic keys are held in the iOS Keychain with device-only protection. Because nothing is transmitted off the iPad, there is no network transfer of your content to secure.
Data retention and deletion
Because Kammunicate keeps everything on your iPad and sends nothing to Chardie, retention is entirely in your hands. Chardie holds no copy of any of it, because Chardie receives none of it. Here is how long each kind of data exists, and how it is removed:
- Communication content and history — kept on the iPad until you delete it. You can remove an individual message by long-pressing it in the history, or clear everything by deleting the app.
- Photos and voice messages — kept on the iPad as part of the messages they belong to, and removed when you delete those messages or the app.
- Avatars, names and preferences — kept on the iPad until you change or remove them, or delete the app.
- On-device learning data — kept on the iPad and updated as you use the app. Engagement events used for insights are cleared automatically once they are older than 30 days, and you can reset all learning at any time in settings.
- Recovery drafts — short-lived, and cleared once your work has been restored or the message is completed.
Deleting Kammunicate removes every piece of on-device data above. There is no Chardie-side copy to request, export, or erase, because none is ever created. The one exception is any support email you choose to send us, which lives in our mailbox — see Contact and the Chardie privacy policy.
Permissions Kammunicate requests
Every permission is optional. Kammunicate works without any of them, though the related feature won't be available until you grant it. You can manage them all at any time in Settings → Kammunicate on your iPad.
- Camera — only if you choose to take a photo to add to a message.
- Photo library — only if you choose to add an existing photo to a message.
- Microphone — only if you choose to record a voice message.
- Apple Music — only if you choose to play calming background music from your own Apple Music library.
Kammunicate does not request access to your contacts, calendar, location, health data, motion data, Bluetooth devices, or the local network.
Third parties and Apple services
Kammunicate does not share, sell, rent, or transmit your data to any third party. It embeds no third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, crash-reporting, A/B-testing, or tracking code, and contains no third-party SDKs at all. The only code in the app is Chardie's own, running on Apple's iOS frameworks (such as SwiftUI, PencilKit, AVFoundation, Core ML, Vision and Natural Language).
The one place your device may reach a network is if you choose to play background music: that streams from your own Apple Music account and is handled by Apple under Apple's privacy policy. Kammunicate stores no music data and shares nothing about what you play. If you never use this feature, the app makes no network requests at all.
Kammunicate ships with an Apple PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy
manifest declaring that it does not track users
(NSPrivacyTracking false), contacts no tracking domains,
and collects no data types, alongside the required-reason declarations
for the on-device storage APIs it uses.
Caregiver insights and health patterns
Kammunicate includes an optional, on-device dashboard that reflects communication patterns back to the people providing support — for example, which topics come up often, or changes in how much someone is engaging. Some of this may surface gentle indicators that relate to wellbeing, such as repeated expressions of discomfort.
These insights are worked out entirely on the iPad from the communication content itself. Kammunicate does not access Apple Health or any medical records, and nothing about them leaves the device. They are observational aids for carers and families — not medical advice, and not a substitute for professional judgement.
Children's privacy
Kammunicate is designed to be safe for people of any age, including children who communicate differently, and for anyone who relies on a carer to set the app up. Because the app collects no personal data and keeps everything on the device under the parent or guardian's control, there is no Chardie-side profile that could be built about a child. There is no online communication with strangers and no way for anyone outside the room to reach a user through the app. We recommend that a parent, guardian or carer supervises use by children.
Your rights under UK GDPR
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to ask whether we hold personal data about you, to ask us to correct it, to ask us to delete it, and to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) if you believe we have mishandled it.
Because Chardie does not collect personal data through Kammunicate, there is nothing on Chardie's side to disclose, correct, or delete — your data is on your iPad, under your control. To remove it, delete individual messages inside the app, or delete Kammunicate from the device. The app's privacy-first, on-device design supports compliance with the UK GDPR, EU GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, COPPA and similar regimes; because processing happens locally, most obligations tied to external data handling simply do not arise.
Changes to this policy
If we materially change how Kammunicate handles data, we will update this page, change the "last updated" date at the top, and submit the updated policy to the App Store. Where appropriate we will also note the change in the App Store release notes.
Version history:
- 3.0 — 8 July 2026. Kammunicate is now fully on-device. The optional Remote Carer sync feature has been removed, together with all related network, device-pairing and cloud processing.
- 2.0 — 21 February 2026. Expanded disclosure of on-device machine learning, caregiver insights, and legal compliance.
- 1.0 — 25 January 2026. Initial privacy policy.
Contact
Questions, concerns, or requests under UK GDPR — please email hello@chardie.co.uk. We aim to reply within five working days.
Data controller: Chardie · Manchester, United Kingdom · chardie.co.uk