Effective 16 August 2026
My Science Diary is published by The Gateway Science Project, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This policy covers the My Science Diary phone app. It does not cover Tony’s Creepy Crawly Zoo 2.0, which has its own policy.
The short version
The app collects nothing. Everything a child writes, draws, photographs or records stays on their own device. There is no account, no sign in, and no way for us to read any of it.
What stays on the device
Entries, drawings, photographs, video recordings and the child’s first name are stored on the phone or tablet itself, in the app’s own storage. None of it is sent to us or to anyone else. We cannot see it, recover it, or delete it for you.
Uninstalling the app removes all of it. Please export a backup file first if you want to keep it. That file is saved wherever you choose and is yours alone.
What we collect
Nothing. No names, no email addresses, no location, no device identifiers, no usage statistics, no crash reports, no advertising identifiers.
The app contains no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party software development kits of any kind.
Permissions the app asks for, and why
Camera. To photograph what the child observed, and to record a fifteen second video. Photographs and video are saved on the device and nowhere else.
Microphone. Sound is recorded as part of that video. It is saved on the device and nowhere else.
Internet. Used only to open the links below, when a parent chooses to. The diary itself works fully offline. The companion video is included inside the app rather than streamed, so watching it makes no network connection at all.
The app does not ask for location and does not use GPS. This is deliberate.
Links that leave the app
Three links go to other websites: creepycrawlyzoo.com, an Amazon product page for the printed book, and the Meta Horizon Store listing for Tony’s Creepy Crawly Zoo 2.0.
Each sits behind a parental check that a young child cannot pass. Once you follow one of those links you are on someone else’s website, and their privacy policy applies rather than this one.
Children
This app is made for children and it asks them for nothing. There is no account to create, no email address to give, and no data leaving the device. Any purchase happens on Google Play, where the account belongs to an adult.
The app complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act because it collects no personal information from anyone, including children under 13.
Changes
If this policy ever changes, the new version will appear at this address with a new effective date. Since the app collects nothing, we do not expect it to change often.
Contact
The Gateway Science Project, Inc.
bugwhisperer@creepycrawlyzoo.com
