Terms

Terms of service

These terms describe the relationship between your family and Penny. They are short on purpose. If something important is missing, write to hello@penny.is and we will fix it.

Effective: June 11, 2026. Last updated: June 11, 2026.

What Penny is

Penny is a software service that helps a family run its household: schedule, files, contacts, location, memory. Penny is operated by Sugar Inc., a Delaware corporation (“we,” “us,” “Penny”). By creating a family workspace, the family owner agrees to these terms on behalf of every family member who uses the workspace.

Accounts and roles

Each family has at least one owner. Owners can:

  • Add and remove family members.
  • Connect or disconnect integrations.
  • Read every family member’s data within the workspace.
  • Delete the family workspace.

Members are family members who use Penny but do not have administrative authority. Members can see their own data and any data the owner has explicitly shared.

Penny does not police family dynamics. The owner has broad authority within the workspace by design (a parent running a household). If a member objects to how the workspace is being administered, they should resolve it with the owner directly; Penny does not arbitrate.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • Use Penny to harass, threaten, or deceive others.
  • Upload content you do not have the right to upload (someone else’s passport, copyrighted material you do not own, etc.).
  • Attempt to break Penny’s security, exfiltrate another family’s data, or reverse-engineer authentication.
  • Use Penny to send spam, phishing, or automated bulk messaging.
  • Use Penny to track someone without their consent. The location and message features are for people who have joined the family workspace voluntarily.
  • Use Penny in ways that violate applicable law.

We may suspend or terminate a workspace that we reasonably believe is violating these rules.

Owner responsibilities

The owner is responsible for:

  • Telling family members that the workspace exists, what Penny does, and that the owner can see their messages with Penny.
  • Obtaining consent from any minor child’s other parent or legal guardian if required by the owner’s jurisdiction.
  • Keeping their account credentials safe. Penny supports SMS-OTP and email-based sign-in; the owner is responsible for protecting access to the email and phone tied to the account.
  • Reviewing what Penny has filed periodically and correcting errors.

Your content

You retain all rights to the content you put into Penny (messages, files, documents, photos). You grant Penny a limited license to process this content solely for the purpose of delivering the service: storing it, classifying it, surfacing it back to your family, generating replies on your behalf.

We do not use your content to train any machine learning model. We do not sell your content. We do not share your content with third parties beyond the sub-processors listed in our privacy policy.

Penny’s replies

Penny composes messages using a large language model. Replies are best-effort and can be wrong. Penny is not a substitute for a doctor, lawyer, financial advisor, or emergency service. If you are in immediate danger, call 911 (US) or your local emergency number; do not rely on Penny to escalate.

Penny does have a hard-coded safety detector that forwards severe self-harm and immediate-danger signals to family owners, and tells the speaker it is doing so. See the privacy policy for details.

Beta status

Penny is in private beta. Features may change without notice. We may break things while improving them. We will communicate disruptive changes in advance through in-product banners or email. If a planned change would materially affect what we do with your existing data, we will email every owner first.

Pricing

Penny is free during the private beta. We will publish pricing before opening public sign-ups, and we will email every existing owner at least 30 days before any charge.

Termination

You can delete your family workspace at any time from the admin danger zone or by emailing hello@penny.is. Deletion completes within 30 days. See the privacy policy for what is removed and what is retained.

We can terminate a workspace for acceptable-use violations, repeated abuse of the service, or because we are shutting down the product entirely. In the case of product shutdown, we will give every owner at least 60 days’ notice and a one-click data export.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability arising out of or relating to Penny will not exceed the greater of (a) the total fees you paid us in the 12 months preceding the incident, or (b) $100. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including lost data, lost profits, or lost household harmony.

Some jurisdictions do not allow this kind of limit. If yours does not, the limit above does not apply to you, only to the extent prohibited.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify Penny against third-party claims arising from your misuse of the service (e.g., uploading someone else’s confidential document, using Penny to harass another person). We will reciprocally defend you against third-party claims that the service itself infringes their intellectual property.

Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California. Any dispute will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco County, California. You and we both waive any right to a jury trial. We can sue for injunctive relief without first arbitrating.

Changes to these terms

We will update this page when material changes happen. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision. For changes that affect existing obligations, we will email every owner before they take effect.

Contact

Email hello@penny.is with any question about these terms.

Penny is operated by Sugar Inc., Delaware.