We know parents are ridiculously busy, increasingly mobile, and generally just want things to work.
That's why we've developed Famigo.com and the Famigo apps.
They're both simply designed to make your life a whole lot easier and a bit more fun.
The Famigo star rating is different than the ones you find in the app markets. Our five stars are assigned based on how well an app is designed for families.
How is the Famigo Family Rating determined?
Our trained team of app reviewers fills out a lengthy questionnaire for each app that will algorithmically determine its star rating.
This questionnaire addresses: ease of use, educational value, level of entertainment, family-friendliness and appropriateness for all ages.
Our review process was developed from extensive research and feedback from parents like you.
You'll only find apps rated 3 stars or higher on Famigo.com.
Although we do review apps that receive lower than 3 stars, we only bring the top-notch stuff to your attention. We know you don't have the time to sort through the rest.
Check out Famigo's Promises to see how we're working to find the best apps, create the best resources, and develop the best tools for families.
Famigo's vision is simple: mobile technology should simply “work” for families.
Famigo provides a platform for families to safely discover, manage, and enjoy content and apps on smartphones and tablets. We want everyone from toddlers to grandmothers to have successful interactions every time they use a smartphone or tablet in a family setting.
Smartphones and tablets have penetrated the consumer market faster than any other electronic device, and it's been difficult for families and media companies to keep up with the blistering pace of the mobile media economy.
The result is that families struggle with the day to day management of mobile content and mobile devices. The modern family runs multiple devices with different operating systems and differing form factors. In fact, their mobile device management problems rival that of many small companies, and Dad ends up being the IT manager while Mom is the family CFO.
Famigo has built an enterprise-class solution for content and device management just for families. We take into account differences in age, mobile device type, and even account for the way families make purchases. We're the champion of families.
Our investors make everything we do possible. Our thanks are never-ending, from solid advice to continued funding, Famigo wouldn't exist if it weren't these organizations that have placed faith in our team and our work.
Silverton is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on Texas-based companies. Their culture is people-driven which leads them to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are committed to attacking growth markets with proprietary products or services.
Capital Factory is an early-stage accelerator program for tech startups that provides a small amount of seed capital and weekly mentoring sessions by entrepreneurs who have founded successful companies
Sometimes we need to bounce ideas off of someone that doesn't live, breathe and dream about Famigo every waking moment of the day and night. It's invaluable to get someone else's take on the projects we have in the works. Our advisors provide insight from years as high-ranking executives within relevant industries.
This program recognizes developers who create delightful, family-friendly apps that have passed through our rigorous review process with flying stars (literally).
By awarding stellar developers with the Famigo APProved badge, we make it easier for families to find the truly great apps that are so easily lost in the crowded markets.
We honestly get incredibly excited when we review a beautifully designed and clearly lovingly crafted app. If you think your app will be the talk of our office, send an email to reviews@famigo.com.
APProved Apps are based on the criteria below:
As a team of developers, we absolutely love meeting and working with other developers.
Whether you want to let us know about your awesome new project, are interested in sharing your app with our audience, or simply want to give us your ping-pong secrets, we're all ears. Feel free to contact us at any time at support@famigo.com or call at 888-509-5850 x701.
Families are searching for great content, are you being discovered?
Escape the mess of the app markets. Famigo is where parents come to easily find awesome new apps for their families. If you're seeking a family audience, you've come to the right place.
We offer a bunch of different ways to promote family-friendly apps, both on Famigo.com and within the Famigo apps.
Check out our media kit to explore your options.
And if you're interested in finding in finding different ways to work with us, we're interested in talking to you! Send us a note at support@famigo.com or give us a call at 888-509-5850 x701.
Famigo is 100% COPPA compliant and always has been. Long before media outlets spilled barrels of ink exposing deceptive online information collection practices, we made a promise to all families:
Famigo will never, never distribute your information without your direct permission.
We made this promise and all of Famigo's Promises because it's the right thing to do. As we like to say, "What's good for families is good for Famigo," and we can't imagine what's more important to families than protecting the privacy of our children.
If you have questions about the details of our Privacy Policy, you should consult it directly. The following summary specifically addresses COPPA compliance in an easy to understand, family friendly format.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, the primary goal of COPPA is to put parents in control of the information that is collected from their children (defined as under 13 years of age) online. We extend this privacy protection to any user, regardless of age.
In order to understand COPPA, you must understand the distinction between two types of information. "Personally Identifiable Information" (PII) is information that can be linked to you or your child, e.g. email addresses and credit card numbers. You will always know when we collect this kind of information because you, the parent, will choose when/if to provide it.
"Non Personally Identifiable Information" (Non-PII) is information such as the type of operating system or web browser that you use. Non-PII information is used to improve the user's Famigo experience, e.g. by generating app recommendations appropriate for the types of devices your family owns. This information is collected periodically, and is always collected anonymously.
| COPPA Requirement | Famigo's Solution |
|---|---|
| Post a clear and comprehensive privacy policy. | Famigo's Privacy Policy and this page. |
| Provide notice to parents and obtain consent before collecting personal information from children. | We only collect personally identifiable information that parents choose to provide. We'll always prompt you before we ask to collect this information. |
| Allow parents to consent to the collection of information for internal use without consenting to its distribution to third parties. | We do not allow third-party companies to solicit or advertise to our users. |
| Provide parents access to their child's information to review and/or have it deleted. | To do so, just contact support@famigo.com. |
| Give parents the opportunity to prevent further collection of their child's information. | Again, the only PII information we collect is what you provide. The parent is always in control. |
| Maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and security of the information collected from children. | We do this for all data, no matter the user age, and we take the security of all of our data very seriously. |
We have all of the usual legal documents and Terms of Service agreements (you know, all that tiny text you scroll through in order to checkmark the "I've read and accept..." at the end). We realize that no one reads those (except lawyers) and generally the only purpose they serve is to keep lawyers happy. (They actually really enjoy reading and writing them!)
But what we're really interested in is keeping you and your family happy, so we want to make sure you know what to expect from Famigo.
Our Golden Rule: What's good for families is good for Famigo.
Everything that we do will be in the best interest of families and we/ll treat you like we would our families and friends (and don't worry, we absolutely love our families and friends!). We're a great big Famigo family!
Inspired by our Golden Rule, and free of any indecipherable lawyer-speak, here are the promises that the Famigo family makes to your family:
Famigo will always work to bring families together.
Too many things (specifically our gadgets) are creating very separate lives for each member of our families. We're trying to bring families together through, around and within technology, and everything we create is built to serve this specific purpose.
Famigo will only share the very best content.
There's a lot of junk out there that is either terribly made or not made for families. Our function is to bring the great stuff to your attention, not the bad. This is the stuff we share with our own family and friends, and we want you to know how awesome it is too. At the same time, we'll let you know about the really bad stuff you should avoid. (We're talking about technology here, not food. We're huge fans of ice cream and tacos; that will never be bad stuff in our eyes.)
Famigo will always be relevant.
We will never create anything without a purpose. From our products to our blog posts, everything will have meaning and be valuable to families and all of their members. Our driving passion is based in making family-friendly content easy for families to find, why would we add to the clutter by creating irrelevant anything?
Famigo will be entertaining.
Or, at the very least, try our hardest. We think we're pretty funny most of the time.
Famigo will listen to you.
We want to help families, and even though we all have families, and like to think of ourselves as a family, we know that every family is different. We want to know what makes your family unique, what entertains you and what brings you together. Your opinions and thoughts are absolutely invaluable to us. Nobody knows your family better than you, so tell us about you guys!
Famigo will never lecture you.
We're not your parents. (Unless, for some reason, our children are reading this some day, in which case, yes, we are. Go to bed, or do your homework, or whatever it is that you should be doing!) Our purpose isn't to tell anyone what to do or how to do it. We're working to give you the tools to make your family an awesome team. How/when/where/why you use them is up to you. We just promise to make everything we create as useful to your family as possible, the incredible things that you do with these tools are up to you.
Famigo will be reasonable in our views.
We will never be the harbingers of doom, there's no point in that (and doom is really just a sad word, why not harbingers of joy or unicorns maybe...). Everyone knows there are bad things in the world. What it comes down to is how we go about dealing with those things and solving any problems that we find. We'll never bring up this stuff to scare you, only so we can work together to find a solution.
Famigo will never, never distribute your information without your direct permission.
This is the most lawyer-y of all our promises, but one that we think is very important. Know that Famigo will never use your or your family's information in any way that you don't explicitly approve of. There's nothing to be gained from this sort of shady business and there's no way it can be good for families, meaning both the Famigo family and yours. We're all in this together.
Famigo actually believes all of the above.
Honestly, from our family to yours, we promise all of the above.
Famigo is the passion, purpose and product of these six fine looking folks.
Our team was founded by a former Nickelodeon exec, a metrics crazed neuroscientist and a software genius (who also happens to be a dad).
They've since been joined by three more Famigo friends who love everything fun and family-friendly. And robots and tacos, those are pretty delightful too.
We're highly engaged, super responsive, incredibly friendly and we want to welcome you to the Famigo Family.
Q Beck co-founded Famigo during the 2nd semester of his MBA program. Prior to business school, he spent 9 years in the film industry as a development and production executive for numerous companies, including Nickelodeon and DreamWorks. He earned a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
At Famigo, Douglas writes a wide variety of software (web, mobile, API, whatever), and also keeps the hamsters inside of our servers from overheating. He thinks a lot about the way we build software and how we can make processes faster and more fun. In addition to the software thing, Douglas is a musician, photographer and dabbler in anything that transmits electrons through wires or the air.
A native of Scranton, PA, Matt holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Colgate University, an MBA from the College of Charleston, and is taking a leave of absence from the University of Texas School of Law in order to focus all his attention on Famigo. Previously, Matt worked as an Outward Bound sailing instructor and elementary school teacher before co-founding two dropout prevention programs in Charleston, South Carolina. Matt does a little bit of everything at Famigo.
Alex, father of 7 kids under 16, has over 20 years of software experience, with the most recent decade-or-so spent working with customers and partners to create awesome, value-driving solutions. He has worked at Alcatel-Lucent/Motive, Sprint and Intel and has an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. from The Kellogg School at Northwestern University. Alex is a Famigo investor and board member. When home, Alex enjoys product testing Famigo and partner apps with his kids, with a continuous need to "pass back" his phone!
Raised in Austin, TX, John has always bled orange and is a graduate from The University of Texas with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He helps out the Famigo Team with the Android App and anything else that comes his way. When not at the office, he loves water sports and hanging out with family and friends.
Kegan is from Houston but currently calls Austin home as he works on his Advertising degree at the University of Texas. Before Famigo, Kegan operated and advertised for a garage sale service company. He's a proud member of our business development, social media and SEO teams. When he's not reviewing apps you can find him dominating the office ping-pong table.
A recent graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, Ariel earned a B.A. in American Studies with an English minor. At Famigo she hopes to learn everything there is to know about the mobile tech industry. Outside of work, she belongs to the National Karaoke League and spends hours looking for the perfect puppy to call her own.
You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child?
Well, the same can be said for a small family-based company.
Famigo is our kid, but we've found a few moms and dads that want to help us raise it to become a well-rounded, family powered and community centric tool that is dependable and super useful for parents and families everywhere.
These dedicated moms and dads make up what we refer to as the Famigo Parent Advisory Board. They're parents who have decided to take Famigo under their wing and spread the word about the great things that Famigo has in the works.
As members of the P.A.B. these parents advise Famigo as to what products and ideas work and what doesn't for families and how we can become an invaluable resource that is made by families, for families.
In a former life, Carissa Rogers was a molecular biologist. In her current life, she is the chief researcher of bloggy karma, parenting dos (and some don'ts), new recipes, and for spice she pretends to be a photographer. She started blogging in February of 2008 and publishes her good & crazy thoughts on GoodNCrazy.com. Also find her on Twitter and Facebook.
Andy Robertson is a videogame expert who specializes in family gaming. He writes for The Telegraph, The Times, the BBC and runs the GeekDad blog for Wired. He produces the Family Gamer TV show, published on Wired, that offers parents a space to learn and engage with videogames without hype or jargon. He speaks about videogames and culture regularly on Radio 4's You and Yours program, Greenbelt and at TEDx 2012.
He produces alternative responses to videogames on his Game People website. These take the form of songs, plays, comedies and art that offer a playful and creative way to engage with videogames. The work has appeared nationally in both newspapers and television. Along these lines, his Family Gamer TV show, published on Wired, offers parents a space to learn and engage with videogames without hype or jargon. By featuring real families it uncovers videogames successes and failures as a way to engage parents and children with these experiences.
Mary is an enthusiastic proponent of using technology to bring families closer together. Blogging for over 15 years, Mary founded StayatHomeMom.com, was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and has spoken to several groups on internet safety, social media and connecting families through technology. Mary has volunteered with Wired Safety, the world's first Internet Safety and Help group for over 10 years. Mary and her husband Tom have 4 amazing kids and have lived in 6 different states and 2 countries. They love travel, video games, reading and staying connected with friends from around the world. Learn more about Mary and keep the conversation going with @maryheston and @wiredmom.
Roo Ciambriello (that's ru cham-bree-yellow) is never far from a notebook and pen. When she's not teaching her three little girls (her? three children!? I KNOW!) moves to early 90s dances, she's storytelling on her blog, NiceGirlNotes, as well as turning out some fun copy for websites, food packaging, and even the little slips of paper inside fortune cookies. Roo lives in Connecticut with her aforementioned little girls, musician husband, and possibly a rabid raccoon.
Amanda Rodriguez, also known as Dumb Mom, has been wowing the Internet since 2008 when she launched her pretty-much-useless guide for parents, parenting BY dummies. As it turns out her parenting advice is not generally useful for more than a good laugh, but sometimes that's exactly what you need! Dumb Mom spends her online time (which is embarrassingly limited) running a photography business, working as a social media director for a local print publication, writing freelance articles about stuff she loves, wrangling Dudes, petting her Baby Dog Daughter, and eating cupcakes in her garage to escape the crazy. You can Tweet with her as @dumbparent, but don't expect her to be serious. It's virtually impossible.
For app reviews, please send information to: reviews@famigo.com.
Otherwise, Famigo can be reached by email at: support@famigo.com. Feel free to reach out to say hello, ask about promoting your app, or get help with a Famigo product.
Famigo can be reached by phone at: 888-509-5850 x701.
Please submit your app for review. We review apps in the order they were received, so the time it takes to review an app is dependent on the number of submissions we get. We'll do our best to review your app in a timely manner, but we encourage you to submit apps you'd like reviewed as early as possible.
We'll spend some time really getting to know your app. In return we ask that you only submit products you genuinely feel would improve the lives of the parents and kids that use Famigo.
The Second StepCheck out the Famigo Android app and give us feedback. It's how we keep kids safe on Android.
No matter what, you can expect one-on-one correspondence, useful feedback, and absolutely no negativity. We're not here to trash anyone, so you'll never see a 1 or 2 star review on our site.
We love to promote developers.
Do you have a good idea for a partnership with Famigo? Email partners@famigo.com and tell us about it!
Famigo is 100% committed to safeguarding your family's privacy. The rapid pace of mobile technology innovation requires constant revisions to our policies and practices in order to make mobile technology as safe as possible for families. That's why we'd like to ask you, the parent, to be our partner in protecting your child's privacy. If you ever have any questions or you notice something that needs our attention please contact us immediately by emailing support@famigo.com
"Personally Identifiable Information" (PII) is information that can be linked to a person or persistently linked to a mobile device. Famigo only collects the following types of PII when you download the Famigo Sandbox Application:
This information is collected during our initial registration process. The email is used to create your user account and deliver a weekly report of your family's Famigo Sandbox usage. You may opt out of these communications by clicking “unsubscribe” in the first, or any subsequent, email you receive. The phone number is logged anonymously and is used only in the event that you will be billed for your purchase of the Famigo Sandbox through your mobile carrier. The Device ID is collected in order to provide targeted customer support and deliver usage data to parents. Famigo recommends apps based on which apps your family plays and which apps parents manually include or exclude from the Famigo Sandbox. These recommendations can be disabled in the parental settings.
"Non Personally Identifiable Information" (Non-PII) is information such as the type of operating system or web browser that you use. Non-PII is used to improve the user's Famigo experience, e.g. by removing app features that are rarely used. This information is collected periodically, and is always collected anonymously and in aggregate. “In aggregate” means that we lump together all the non-PII user data we collect so that there's no way to link it to a specific individual.
Famigo collects the following non-PII:
Famigo uses a third party, Google Analytics, to collect the data described in the last bullet point above. We may also request a user name and email address when a user submits a form through the "Contact Us" portion of the Famigo app so that we may respond to the inquiry. We collect the email address for the sole purpose of responding directly on a one-time basis to a specific inquiry. If the user does not wish to authorize the collection of the email address associated with their mobile device then the user should not download the Famigo Sandbox. Similarly, if a parent wishes to prevent further collection of data, then she may simply uninstall the Famigo Sandbox.
In addition to the purposes described in Section 1, we may use email addresses to enable parents to review PII that has been submitted to Famigo and to provide notification regarding the use of Famigo products, such as any future amendments to this Privacy Policy. We also may use information in the aggregate to analyze usage, as well as to tailor future products or service offerings.
Regardless of the type of data that is collected, Famigo will never share your data with any third parties.
The Famigo website and mobile application does not condition a child's participation in any online activity on the child providing more personal information than is reasonably necessary for that activity.
We may disclose information where we are required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena, or where we disclose information to service providers or other group companies who provide support for the operations of our website and application and who do not use or disclose the information for any other purpose. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we also may disclose PII in response to a law enforcement agency's or other public agency's (including schools or children services) request or if we feel that such disclosure may prevent the instigation of a crime, facilitate an investigation related to public safety, protect the safety of a child, protect the security or integrity of our website, or enable us to take precautions against liability.
If we sell all or part of our business or make a sale or transfer of our assets or are otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, we may transfer PII to a third party as part of that transaction, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
Finally, we may transfer PII and store it outside of the jurisdiction in which a Famigo user is located. Famigo is operating from the United States of America, which was recognized as a country providing an adequate level of protection by European Commission. The information we collect will be mainly processed and stored in the United States of America.
Famigo disables third-parties’ ability to collect data (both PII and non-PII) from users when they launch third party apps from within the Famigo Sandbox.
The security of your personal information is important to us. We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect online.
Please contact our Privacy Director as provided in Section 6 if you would like to access the PII that we have collected, correct factual errors in such information, or request to have this information deleted. Please be sure to include your email address and a telephone number where we can reach you. To protect you and your child's privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to help verify your identity before granting you access to the personal information that we collect and maintain.
If you have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, please send an e-mail with your questions or comments to support@famigo.com or write us:
Famigo Inc.Please be assured that any personal information that you provide in communications to the above e-mail and postal mail addresses will not be used to send you promotional materials, unless you so request.
The Internet offers a world of opportunity for families and children. Your guidance and involvement are essential to help ensure that your family and children have a safe and rewarding online experience. We encourage you to visit the GetNetWise.org site and look through the "Kids Safety" section together. Your efforts to instill responsible information practices will help steer your children to age-appropriate content and will go a long way toward ensuring that your family and children have enriching experiences online.
