NameNest — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 31 July 2026 · Effective: on first publication

NameNest is published by Sycamore Hill Studios. This policy describes the app as it is actually built, not a generic template.

The short version. There is no account and no sign-up. What you type — the vibe, your last name, your other children's names — is sent to our server to find names and is never written into our logs. Your shortlist lives on your phone. On a paid plan a copy of a batch is held for at most 24 hours so “10 more like these” does not repeat itself — never on the free plan.

NameNest is for expecting parents, not for children. It is not a kids' app and is not part of Google Play's Families programme. We do not knowingly collect anything from anyone under 13.

1. What we collect

Data	Why	How long we keep it
A random device identifier A randomly generated UUID created on first launch.	To count your daily free usage and to remember whether you have a subscription. Not a hardware ID, not an advertising ID, and it does not follow you between apps.	Until you delete your data or uninstall.
What you type to find names The vibe, filters, your last name if you give one, and any sibling names.	Sent to our server, which passes it to Microsoft Azure OpenAI. A last name is what makes the flow check and the initials check work; sibling names are what make the set match.	Never written into our logs. A last name plus your children's names identifies a whole family, so it is treated as sensitive in code: our logs record only the app, the task, the units it cost, how many characters came back, and a random content id — never what you typed. At most 24 hours, and only on a paid plan. Paid plans can ask for more names like the last batch, so the server keeps that batch in order to avoid handing you the same ten names again. It expires 24 hours after it is written. On the free plan nothing is kept at all.
Your shortlist and notes	So the list survives the months you will spend deciding.	On your device only. Never uploaded to us. Removed when you delete it, delete your data, or uninstall.
Name art you generate	So the app can show it to you, and you can print or save it.	Held in our cloud storage and automatically deleted after 30 days. Anything you save or print stays with you.
Subscription status	To unlock paid features. Verified directly with Google Play.	Until you delete your data or the record expires.
Usage counts	To enforce the free daily allowance and the two free deep dives.	Rolling daily counters plus a one-time count of deep dives used; removed when you delete your data.
Content reports	To review and improve safety filtering. Required by Google Play's AI-generated content policy.	Kept while we review them. A report contains the random content id, the reason you picked, and anything you chose to type.

2. What we do not collect

No email address, phone number or postal address. We never ask for your own first name, and we never ask for a due date.
No contacts, photos, camera, microphone or location access. The app requests two permissions in total: internet access, and the one Google Play Billing needs.
No advertising identifier. There are no ads in NameNest.
No third-party analytics or crash-reporting SDK. No Firebase Analytics, no Sentry, no Crashlytics, no tracker of any kind.
No payment details. Google Play processes all payments; we never see your card.
No profile of you or your family, and nothing you type is used to train an AI model.

3. AI-generated content, and what we will not claim

Name suggestions, deep dives and name art are generated by an artificial intelligence model (Microsoft Azure OpenAI), automatically and without a person reviewing them first. Every result carries a Report button.

NameNest does not give popularity rankings or statistics. Not “the 14th most popular name”, not a trend percentage, not a chart position. Numbers like that are the easiest thing for an AI to invent convincingly, so the app is built not to produce them at all rather than to produce them and hope.

Meanings and origins are given the way a good name book gives them — “traditionally traced to”, “often associated with” — because etymology is frequently contested and stating one version as fact would be making it up.

The initials check is the one part that is not AI at all: it is ordinary arithmetic on first letters, done on our server, so it gives the same answer every time.

4. Who processes your data

Microsoft Azure (including Azure OpenAI) — hosts our server and generates the output. Data is processed in the United States (East US 2). Microsoft states that prompts and completions are not used to train or improve its models, and that the models themselves store nothing. Azure does run automated safety checks on what is sent; if something is flagged as potentially harmful, a sample may be reviewed — by an automated system in almost every case, and in rare complex cases by an authorised Microsoft employee under controlled access. We have not applied to disable that review.
Google Play — processes payments and tells us whether your subscription is valid. See Google's own privacy policy for how they handle it.

We do not sell your data, and we do not share it for advertising.

5. Deleting your data

Open Settings → Delete my data in the app. That removes the usage counters, the subscription mapping, the device identifier held for you, and anything held in the short-lived store described above. It takes effect immediately. Anything saved on your phone is removed with it, or by uninstalling the app.

6. Children

This app is not directed to children and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13.

7. Changes

If this policy changes materially we will update this page and the “last updated” date above before the change takes effect.