Draft — pending legal review. This is a plain-language draft written from how Tellbound works today. It has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer and may change.
Privacy policy
Last updated 4 November 2026. Contact: [email protected].
Who we are
This policy is from Tellbound (“we”, “our team”). It covers this website (tellbound.ai) and the Tellbound pilot: the voice interviews and the books we make from them. Questions go to [email protected].
[For legal review: the final version may need to name the legal operator of Tellbound. Decide before launch.]
The short version
- We collect what we need to run the pilot and make the book, and nothing for advertising.
- Recordings, transcripts and chapter drafts are kept on our private server in the United States until the book is printed. Then the family chooses: we delete them, or we keep them.
- We never use recordings or words to train AI, and we never sell or share them.
- “Off the record” is never kept at all: it is not written down and is silenced in the recording.
- Ask us and we will delete it.
What we collect when you join the pilot
The sign-up form asks for your name, your email, the storyteller’s first name (optional), your relationship to the storyteller (or that the story is your own), a sentence about the story (optional), and your agreement to be emailed about the pilot. We store these in a database on Cloudflare, the company that hosts this website.
To stop spam and abuse, the form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks your browser for signs of automation when you use the form. We also keep a scrambled (hashed) form of your internet address for up to a day, to limit how many times the form can be sent; we cannot read the original address from it.
This website has no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.
What we collect during the interviews
- Audio recordings of each conversation (the storyteller and the interviewer).
- Written transcripts made from the recordings, short summaries of each conversation, notes on which parts of the life story have been covered, and draft chapters.
- Details you or the storyteller give us to prepare the interviews: their name, important people and places, and topics to avoid.
- The interviewer voice the storyteller chooses, and the style chosen for the book.
- Technical details of each session: when it started and ended, how long it lasted, how the connection was made, and how much of each service was used (so we can control costs).
“Off the record”
If the storyteller says something is off the record, its words are not stored: the transcript keeps only a marker that something off the record was said, and when the conversation ends, that part of the recording is silenced. It never reaches a summary, a chapter, the book or our usage logs.
How we use it
- To run the conversations and remember earlier ones, so the interviewer doesn’t ask the same thing twice.
- To draft chapters from the storyteller’s own words, in the style chosen, and to make the printed book.
- To email you about the pilot (only if you agreed).
- To keep costs and session lengths within limits, and to fix problems.
We do not use recordings, transcripts or chapters to train AI models, and we do not sell, rent or share them for advertising.
Services that process it for us
Running a voice conversation needs a few outside services. They receive only what they need for their part:
- Soniox turns the storyteller’s speech into text (it receives the conversation audio).
- Anthropic (Claude) helps the interviewer choose its next question and helps draft summaries and chapters (it receives text, not audio).
- ElevenLabs turns the interviewer’s questions into speech (it receives the interviewer’s words, not the storyteller’s).
- Cloudflare hosts this website and the sign-up database, runs Turnstile, and carries the connection to the interview page; for some mobile connections it relays the call audio.
[For legal review: confirm and link each provider’s data-use, retention and no-training terms, and whether any data leaves the United States.]
Where it is kept and for how long
Recordings, transcripts, summaries and chapters are stored on our private server in the United States, not on a public website. They are kept until the book is printed.
Once the book is printed, the family chooses: we delete the recordings and transcripts, or we keep them. You can also ask us to delete them at any time before then. Anything said off the record is never kept at all.
During the pilot, the choice is carried out by hand when the family tells us, and we will confirm when it is done.
[For legal review: who makes the keep-or-delete choice — the person who ordered the book, the storyteller, or both — and what happens if they disagree.]
[For legal review: how long “keep” lasts (for example, a fixed number of years or until the family asks), and what happens if the family never chooses.]
[For legal review: how the choice is recorded (for example, a written email confirmation kept on file).]
Sign-up details are kept until the pilot ends or until you ask us to remove them.
Who can see it
Only our team can open recordings and transcripts. The storyteller, and the person who joined the pilot if that is someone else, see the chapters we send them. Each storyteller has a private link; there is no public list of storytellers.
Your choices
You can ask us at any time to show you what we hold, correct it, or delete it, by writing to [email protected]. During the pilot, deletion is done by hand and we will confirm when it is done. You can also ask us to stop emailing you.
Consent and age
The storyteller must agree to take part and to be recorded. The person who joins the pilot must be 18 or over. Tellbound is not meant for children.
Changes
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top and, for important changes, email everyone in the pilot.