Privacy
Last updated 17 August 2026
Showling is not yet publicly available. This notice describes how the service is being built to handle information, and it will be updated before any public release. Questions about any of it go to hello@showling.com.
The short version
Showling is used by an adult on a child's behalf. We collect what is needed to run an account and make the shows that account asks for, and we deliberately avoid collecting anything about the child.
What we don't collect
- No photographs, video or audio of you, your child, your home or anyone else. There is no upload feature. Characters are chosen from a set we drew, not built from pictures of real people.
- No account for the child. Children don't sign in, don't have profiles, and aren't asked for a name, an age, a birthday or an email address. A name may optionally be given to a character; that is a word in a story, and nothing requires it to be anyone's real name.
- No advertising identifiers, ad networks or third-party tracking. We don't sell or share personal information for advertising, and there is no cross-app tracking to consent to.
- No social graph. Accounts cannot find, follow, message or share with each other, so there is nothing of that kind to store.
What we do collect
- Account details. The email address used to sign in, and the credentials that go with it.
- Household and device records. An internal identifier for the household, and a record of the devices added to it, so a lost device can be removed.
- What was asked for. The selections and short descriptions an adult enters when requesting a show, and the shows produced from them.
- Purchase and balance records. What was bought, what it cost, and the running balance. Card and payment details are handled by Apple or by our payment processor and never reach us.
- Technical and usage records. Ordinary service logs — errors, timings, which features were used — used to keep the service working and to understand what to make more of. These are not tied to a named child.
Why we're allowed to hold it
We process this information to provide the service you asked for and to charge for it, to keep the service safe and working, and to meet legal obligations such as keeping tax records. Where we rely on a legitimate interest — service security, and understanding overall usage — we've weighed it against the limited information involved.
Automated content, and how it's checked
Shows are produced automatically using machine-learning systems, some run by third-party providers on our behalf. What an adult types when requesting a show is sent to those providers to make it. We apply automated safety checks before anything is produced, and every finished show waits for a grown-up's approval before it can be seen in child mode. Automated systems are imperfect; the approval step exists because of that. Anything that looks wrong should be reported to hello@showling.com.
Who else sees it
We use service providers to run Showling: cloud hosting and storage, machine-learning providers that generate the shows, payment processing, and error reporting. They act on our instructions and may only use the information to provide their service to us. We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for anyone else's marketing.
We may disclose information where the law requires it, or where it is necessary to protect someone's safety.
Where it's kept
Account and content data is stored on cloud infrastructure in the European Union. Some providers may process data elsewhere; where that happens, it is covered by the safeguards required under UK and EU data protection law.
How long it's kept
Account information and the shows made for an account are kept while the account exists. Delete the account and they go with it, apart from records we're required to retain — chiefly purchase records kept for tax purposes. Technical logs are kept for a short period and then discarded.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, object to some processing, or ask us to restrict it. Write from the account's email address to hello@showling.com and we'll respond within one month. If you're in the EU or the UK and you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to your national data protection authority — in Ireland, the Data Protection Commission.
Cookies
This website sets no cookies and runs no analytics. The app stores what it needs on the device to keep you signed in and to hold approved shows for offline viewing.
Changes
If this notice changes in a way that matters, we'll say so here and date it. The date at the top always reflects the current version.