This privacy policy applies to the Daily Growth app (hereby referred to as “Application”) for mobile devices that was created by Deakin University (hereby referred to as “Service Provider”) as a free application and service. This service is provided for use “AS IS.”

The Application is used for research purposes in understanding and improving parent and child emotion regulation. You are required to provide certain personal information, including your first name and email address. You are also invited to optionally provide your phone number.

The following sections detail the handling of data collected through the Application, covering location data, third-party services, data usage, storage, and participant rights.

Location Data
To register for the Application, temporary access to your geographical location is required to confirm eligibility, as the study is limited to residents of Victoria, Australia. This access is facilitated via Google Play Services and occurs only once during the initial registration process. The Application does not retain, store, or share your location data beyond this one-time eligibility verification.

Third-Party Services
The Application utilizes third-party services that have their own Privacy Policy about handling data. The Application uses Google Play Services for location verification and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) to deliver notifications related to the study. These services are provided by Google. Only aggregated, anonymised data is periodically transmitted to external services to aid the Service Provider in improving the Application and their service. The Service Provider takes all reasonable precautions to ensure privacy; however, please be aware that Google may process information in accordance with its own privacy policy, accessible at Google Privacy Policy.

Below are the links to the Privacy Policy of the third-party service providers used by the Application:

• Google Play Services
• Firebase Messaging

The Service Provider may disclose User Provided and Automatically Collected Information:

• as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process;
• when they believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect their rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request;
• with their trusted services providers who work on their behalf, do not have an independent use of the information we disclose to them, and have agreed to adhere to the rules set forth in this privacy statement.

Information Collection and Use

The Application will collect the following types of data:

• Directly identifiable information, i.e., email, first name, and phone number (note that phone number is optional).
• Indirectly identifiable information, including gender, age, household situation, number of dependants, education, financial data, and ethnicity are collected for research purposes and are all optional.
• Non-identifiable data, such as how you cope and manage your feelings as a parent, how you respond to your child’s emotions, and your beliefs about emotions, which are all optional.

Directly identifiable information is required for registering to the Application successfully. Your email address is required for verification and security purposes. In order to register for the Application and log in after registration, a unique code will be sent to your registered email address, to be entered into the app. Your name (first name only) is required so that so that we have a way of uniquely identifying users. A name, when combined with other details like email or phone number, helps create a unique user profile. This is essential for managing accounts and ensuring users are properly authenticated and that they can access their information securely.

You are not required to provide your phone number for registering or using the Application. You are invited to share your phone number voluntarily, to increase engagement. We will send occasional text messages for up to 6 weeks, and text messages and phone calls up to 8 months, to remind you of surveys to be completed for the study. Only the research team will have access to your phone number, and it will not be shared outside of the research project.

Indirectly indefinable and non-identifiable data will be collected for research-related purposes. Collecting demographic information will provide insight into the diversity of participants, which will help identify any biases or gaps in representation of certain groups. Further, collecting demographic information will inform the extent to which findings of the study can be generalized to broader populations. The collection of non-identifiable data will help inform how families can be supported to manage their emotions and mental health, and whether the Application is a useful resource for families. 

Application Usage Information
The Application collects anonymous usage data, such as session frequency and feature interaction, to enhance the user experience. This data is stored in an aggregated format, and it does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Data Storage and Security
All data collected by the Application is securely stored on the Google Cloud Platform within Australia and may be periodically transferred to Deakin University’s servers for secure storage. During the data collection period, information is also stored on Qualtrics servers, also located in Australia. To safeguard participant privacy, all data is encrypted both at rest and in transit. Only trained and authorized members of the Daily Growth research team have access to these data. Upon completion of data collection, identifiable information is deleted from Google Cloud and Qualtrics, and all other data will be securely stored on Deakin’s Syncplicity research server.

Data Usage
The data collected for the Application will be used strictly for research purposes and handled with the utmost confidentiality. All data remains accessible only to the Service Provider’s authorized research team members. In line with the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Victoria, Australia), participants have the right to access and request corrections to any information held about them. Directly identifiable information (e.g., email address) will be stored separately from survey data and is used solely for contact purposes; it will never be shared outside of the research team.

After you complete the study, researchers on the project will analyse your data to infer findings from the study (based on indirectly identifiable data and non-identifiable data). Findings will be published in research journals available to the public, student theses, and presented at conferences. Researchers will at no point use directly identifiable data to infer findings, and no directly identifiable data will be published. Data will be aggregated, ensuring no individual can be identified.

After data collection is completed, researchers on the project will deposit indirectly identifiable and non-identifiable data on public data repositories, such as the Open Science Framework (OSF) (https://osf.io) or the Australian Data Archive (ADA) (https://ada.edu.au/about-ada). This will allow external researchers to access data collected from the study. Sharing of data that are collected in research helps advance scientific knowledge and promotes transparency. Many academic journals now have data-sharing policies that require researchers to make data publicly available. This ensures that research findings can be independently verified. The OSF and ADA are reputable organisations that store data on secure platforms. No directly identifiable data will be shared with these organisations or other researchers.

Participant Rights and Account Deletion
Participation in this study is entirely voluntary. You may withdraw from the study and delete the Application at any time. Participants can delete their account by selecting “Withdraw” in the Application. Alternatively, you can request withdrawal by contacting the research team via email at dailygrowth@deakin.edu.au. Deleting the Application halts further data collection; however, data already collected will continue to be stored as per our retention policy.

Data Retention and Deletion Policy
Directly identifiable data (i.e., name, email, phone number) will be stored only for the duration of the study and will be deleted once all data have been collected. All other data, including indirectly identifiable and non-identifiable data, will be retained indefinitely. You can request deletion of your data at any time during the study by contacting dailygrowth@deakin.edu.au. You can also request deletion of data after participation in the study. However, data that have been shared in data repositories (for research purposes) may not be retrievable. As the study will also collect indirectly identifiable/non-identifiable data related to children under 18 years of age, data will be stored until children turn 33 years of age in compliance with research guidelines. After this period, data may either be securely archived or deleted.

Questions or Privacy Concerns
For any questions or concerns regarding privacy, please contact us at dailygrowth@deakin.edu.au. The Service Provider welcomes the opportunity to address your questions and provide further clarification on data handling.

For more information, please refer to the Plain Language Statement available within the Application or contact the research team directly.

Changes
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time for any reason. The Service Provider will notify you of any changes to the Privacy Policy by updating this page with the new Privacy Policy. You are advised to consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes, as continued use is deemed approval of all changes.

This Privacy Policy is effective as of 2024-11-08.

Your Consent
By using the Application, you are consenting to the processing of your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy now and as amended by us.

Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding privacy while using the Application, or have questions about the practices, please contact the Service Provider via email at dailygrowth@deakin.edu.au.