Privacy notice
Last updated 28 October 2026
Draft. This page hasn't been reviewed yet and may change before In Your Words launches.
In Your Words helps families ask each other questions and keep the answers, in writing or in the person's own voice. Those answers are often personal, so this notice explains plainly what we keep, why, who else handles it, and what you can do about it.
Who we are
In Your Words is run by CHARISMO LIMITED ([company number and registered address]). We are the controller of the personal data described here. You can reach us about anything in this notice at [privacy contact email, e.g. privacy@charismoapp.com].
What we collect
If you have an account
- Your account: your first name, email address and password (stored only as a secure hash by our sign-in provider).
- The people you add: their name, what you call them (for example “Mum”), and, if you choose, their year and place of birth and a photo.
- Questions you ask, and email addresses you give us to send them to.
- What you add to a family's collection: comments, loves, notes, and which stories you've opened.
- Invitations: the email addresses of family members you invite.
- Settings: your notification choices and, if you allow notifications, your device's push token.
If you answer a question
You don't need an account to answer. We keep your answer — your written words, or your voice recording and a written transcript of it — as part of the family's collection, along with when you opened the link and when you answered. The person who asked gave us your email address if they sent the question by email.
How the service is used
We record a small number of events (for example “a question was sent” or “an answer was saved”) using internal reference numbers, not the content of questions or answers, so we can see whether the service is working.
Stories can include sensitive details such as health, religion or family history. We only use them to provide the service to the family they belong to.
Why we use it
- To provide the service you asked for (our contract with you): storing collections, delivering questions and answers, and sending the emails and notifications that go with them.
- To transcribe voice answers, so families can read and search them, as part of that service.
- To keep it secure and working (our legitimate interests): preventing misuse, fixing problems and understanding how it's used.
- Where you've agreed: your phone asks before the app can use your microphone or photos, and you can change that in your phone's settings at any time.
We don't sell your data, show advertising, or use your stories to train AI models.
Who can see it
- The family: stories belong to a person's collection, which the people in that family can see. Managers decide who's invited.
- Anyone with an answer link can open that one question and answer it, and see the answer once given. Links last 30 days and can be revoked, so share them only with the person they're for.
- Service providers who run parts of the service for us, under contracts that only let them use the data to provide it:
- Supabase, which hosts our database, files and sign-in, in the European Union (Ireland).
- OpenAI, which turns voice recordings into text. Under its API terms it doesn't use this data to train its models.
- Resend, which sends our emails.
- PostHog, which records the usage events described above, in the European Union.
- Apple and Google, which distribute the app and deliver notifications.
Some of these providers are based in the United States. Where data leaves the UK or EU, we rely on the safeguards the law requires, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
How long we keep it
We keep a family's collection for as long as the account that manages it exists. When you delete your account in the app, we delete straight away:
- your account and settings;
- every person you were the only manager of, with all their stories, photos and recordings;
- answers you recorded yourself, and your comments, loves, notes and invitations.
If someone else also manages a person, their collection carries on for the rest of the family: questions you asked stay, without your name. Copies in our providers' backups are removed when those backups expire, within [backup retention period].
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal data, and object to or ask us to limit how we use it. Most of this you can do in the app; for anything else, email [privacy contact email, e.g. privacy@charismoapp.com]. We'll reply within a month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Children
You need to be 13 or older to create an account. Families sometimes ask questions about children or include them in stories; please only share what you're comfortable with the whole family seeing.
Keeping it safe
Everything is sent over encrypted connections. Recordings and photos are stored privately and only reachable through short-lived links given to people allowed to see them. Answer links are stored only in a form that can't be turned back into the link.
Changes
If we change this notice in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app or by email before the change takes effect.