Privacy Policy

• Account & family data — email, name, family membership, and authentication data (managed by our auth provider). Used for login, notifications, invitations, and access control.
• Elder information (provided by the family member) — the elder’s name and nicknames, WhatsApp phone number, language, gender (for grammatically correct speech), relationship to the family, and optional context notes ("what lights them up"). Used to run and personalise conversations.
• Conversation data — incoming voice recordings (the elder’s voice notes), outgoing AI-generated voice notes, transcripts, conversation topic, and session metadata (timestamps, message IDs). Used to hold conversations and preserve stories.
• Extracted knowledge (AI-generated) — people, places, events, emotional moments, inferred personality traits, life-chapter narratives, an elder profile, and unfinished story threads, derived by AI from transcripts. Used to build and personalise the family’s story archive.
• Waitlist data — email and language preferences provided on our landing page.
• Payment data — handled entirely by Stripe. We do not store card numbers or bank details. Payments are one-time and manual — there is no subscription or automatic renewal.
• Website analytics — limited product analytics (see "Cookies and analytics"). We hash direct identifiers before they leave our servers where we can.

• We do not solicit sensitive information, and we do not use it to make any decision about you or the elder.
• We rely on explicit consent (GDPR Art. 9(2)(a); DPDP consent) as the basis for processing it, given and managed through the family member who sets up the elder (see "How consent works").
• We do not create voiceprints, speaker-identification profiles, or biometric identifiers. Voice is used to transcribe speech to text and for family playback only.
• You can ask us to redact specific sensitive content from transcripts and extracted records.

• The family member confirms, when registering an elder, that they are authorised to do so, that the elder has agreed to take part, and that they have explained that Alfaaz sends AI-generated voice messages.
• The elder’s first WhatsApp message identifies Alfaaz and its purpose, and the elder can decline or stop at any time simply by not replying. No story questions continue if the elder does not engage.
• The family member is responsible for informing the elder and for the elder’s participation (see our Terms of Service, Section 5).
• Either the elder, or a family member on their behalf, can ask us to stop processing and delete the elder’s data at any time by emailing privacy@alfaaz.me. Family members can also delete an elder in the dashboard.

Safeguards we rely on, where applicable:

• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and, where available, EU-US Data Privacy Framework participation by our providers, for transfers out of the EEA;
• Data Processing Agreements with providers that act as our processors;
• under the DPDP Act, transfers to countries not restricted by the Government of India; we monitor the restricted-country list and adjust if required.

• When an elder sends a voice note, we receive and process that audio to transcribe it and to let the family play it back.
• Outgoing voice notes are AI-generated (text-to-speech) — they are not the elder’s voice.
• We do not build voiceprints or use voice to identify anyone.
• Voice transcription and synthesis are performed by ElevenLabs. Audio sent to ElevenLabs is processed to produce text or speech; retention on ElevenLabs’ side is governed by their policy and the tier we use, and we are working to minimise it (see the sub-processor list for current status). Audio we store for family playback lives in our file storage (Vercel Blob) and is deleted when the elder is deleted.

• Everyone: access, correction, deletion, withdrawal of consent, and a copy of your data in a portable format. Family members can also edit and delete most data directly in the dashboard.
• India (DPDP Act): grievance redressal via our Grievance Officer (above); the right to nominate another person to exercise your rights in case of death or incapacity (relevant for elders — contact us to register a nominee); and the right to complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
• EU/EEA (GDPR): in addition to the above, the rights to restriction and to object, and the right to lodge a complaint with your local Supervisory Authority (in the Netherlands, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).
• UK (UK GDPR): the equivalent rights, and the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
• California (CCPA/CPRA): the rights to know, delete, correct, and to limit the use of sensitive personal information; we do not sell or "share" personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
• Canada (PIPEDA): access and correction rights, and the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

• Encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS); database and file storage encrypted at rest.
• WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted by WhatsApp until they reach our processing endpoint.
• Authentication on all endpoints; family-scoped authorisation so you only see your Family’s data; least-privilege credentials; admin access separated.
• Webhook signatures verified (HMAC-SHA256 for messaging, Svix for auth, Stripe signatures for payments).
• Breach notification: we will notify the relevant authority within 72 hours where the GDPR requires it (and as soon as practicable under the DPDP Act), and affected individuals without undue delay where required.

• The dashboard uses essential cookies for login (via our auth provider) that cannot be disabled.
• We use limited product analytics (PostHog) to understand how families use Alfaaz. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party advertising trackers, and we do not sell or share data for behavioural advertising.

• Review is issue-driven: it happens when something needs fixing or verifying, never as routine monitoring of your conversations.
• We use the minimum data necessary and work with de-identified or pseudonymised data wherever practicable.
• What we learn is used only to fix the Service and your archive, never for marketing, advertising, or AI model training (Terms, Sections 8.3 and 8.4).
• Legal basis: our legitimate interest in providing a reliable and safe Service (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)); where sensitive content is involved, the explicit consent described in "Special-category and sensitive data"; and, under the DPDP Act, one of the specified purposes you consent to. Questions or objections: privacy@alfaaz.me.

• An elder is only contacted after a family member registers them and a conversation is initiated.
• We use the phone number only for the storytelling service — no marketing, promotions, or ads over WhatsApp.
• We receive voice-note audio and message metadata (timestamp, message ID). We do not access the elder’s WhatsApp contacts, profile photo, status, or other WhatsApp data.