Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share information when you use the Seashell mobile application (the “App”) on iOS or Android, including information used to send SMS messages. It is written in plain language and is not legal advice.
By using the App, you agree to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the App.
1. Who we are
Seashell is operated by SoberSend LLC, based in Washington, USA.
For privacy questions or requests, contact sobersend@gmail.com.
2. Who can use the App
The App is intended for users 13 years of age and older. Children do not create Seashell accounts. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. The one way a child’s voice can end up in Seashell is described in section 4 (Kids Ask).
3. Information we collect
Information you provide
- Account information: email address and password (passwords are stored by our authentication provider; we do not store plain-text passwords), plus names you enter for yourself and family members.
- Family and story content: questions, relationship labels, voice recordings, video answers, photos, transcripts, notes, reactions (such as hearts), and other keepsake content that you or an invited Legend create in the App. A Legend can also answer by replying to a text or email, and the reply (text, voice memo, or photo) is kept as a private draft until the Legend says to share it.
- Invite destinations: mobile phone numbers and email addresses you enter or choose so we can invite someone to answer a question or join a Circle.
- Contacts you choose: if you choose to pick people from your contacts, the App asks for permission and reads your contacts on your device to show you a list. Only the people you pick are used (name, phone number or email, and the relationship you give). We do not upload your address book.
- Phone call answers: if an Owner uses the phone-call option and the Legend agrees on the call, the Legend’s spoken answer is recorded. See section 6.
- Support communications: information you send if you email support.
Information collected automatically
- Account and technical identifiers needed to run the App (for example a user id from our authentication provider).
- Push notification token: if you allow notifications, the App registers a token for your device so we can tell you when something happens, such as a new answer.
- Usage events: simple records that something happened in the App (for example that a question was sent or a story was played). They do not include recordings, questions, transcripts, or story text. We keep them in our own database. We do not use an analytics or advertising service.
- Billing information: if an Owner starts a trial or paid plan, payment is handled by Stripe. Card numbers are entered on Stripe’s secure page and never reach us. We keep your plan, subscription status, and Stripe customer and subscription identifiers so we can provide paid features.
- Local preferences stored on your device.
We do not collect precise GPS location. We do not collect advertising identifiers, and the App does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites.
4. Children and Kids Ask
Kids Ask lets an adult in a Circle record a child’s spoken question on the adult’s own device. The adult hands the phone over, listens to the recording, and approves it before it is saved. Children do not create accounts, sign in, or use Seashell on their own.
An approved recording is stored in the family’s private Circle so the Legend can hear it. We do not send Kids Ask recordings to an AI service. A parent or guardian can ask us to delete a child’s recordings at any time by emailing sobersend@gmail.com. We do not sell children’s information or use it for advertising.
5. SMS messages
SMS is optional. You can use Seashell, create an account, start a Legend, and send or receive a question by email without consenting to texts. Consent to SMS is never a condition of using the service.
People who want texts opt in on our public form at https://seashell.family/sms/ by entering a mobile number and checking an unchecked-by-default box labeled as optional. Owners who already use the App can also choose Text message on the Send screen; Email remains available with that box left unchecked. We then send transactional SMS from Seashell. Those messages include a family question, a unique HTTPS link to answer in their own voice, and a support email. Message frequency depends on how often you send questions. Recipients can reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help. Message and data rates may apply.
We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing.
We use Twilio to deliver SMS. Twilio processes the destination number and message content only to send and track delivery of those messages.
6. Phone calls
Seashell can call a Legend with a question, or a Legend can call us, to answer. Nothing is recorded unless the Legend has agreed, on the call or earlier in the App. If the Legend agrees, Twilio records the answer. We copy the recording into the Circle as a story, then delete Twilio’s copy.
7. How Seashell uses AI
Seashell uses artificial intelligence services from two companies, OpenAI and Anthropic, to help with stories. This is what they are used for and what we send:
- OpenAI turns speech into a written transcript. For this we send it the voice or video recording itself (the recording file, including a video answer), not only its audio. It also creates search data from transcripts. When it is the text provider in use, it does the same work as Anthropic below.
- Anthropic reads transcripts, typed answers, and question text to write titles, summaries, readable versions of a story, tags, and suggested follow-up questions. When a family member adds a photo to ask about, the photo is sent so the service can describe what is visible and suggest questions. These services are told not to identify anyone in a photo.
Recordings, transcripts, question text, and photos are sent to these companies only to get a result back for you. We do not sell your stories and we do not use them to train AI models of our own. AI output is labeled in the App (for example “AI transcript” and “AI-assisted”). The App explains this on a “How Seashell Uses AI” screen and asks for permission before anyone records or sends anything, and again in Settings under “How It Works.” A Legend sees a consent screen before recording. A phone-call answer, once it is a story, is transcribed like any other recording. Kids Ask recordings (section 4) are not sent to AI services.
8. How we use information
We use information to:
- Create and manage accounts, Circles, and invitations.
- Deliver questions by SMS, email, push notification, and phone call, and let Legends answer in their own voice without creating an App Store login.
- Transcribe, store, and show family stories to people in the Circle.
- Process trials and subscriptions and provide paid features.
- Improve reliability, security, and support.
9. How we share information
We do not sell personal information. We do not share it for advertising, and we do not use it to track you across other companies’ apps or websites.
We share information only with service providers that help us run the App (listed in section 10), when required by law, or with your direction (for example, sending an invite to the address you entered).
Invited family members can see the questions and stories that belong to the Circle they were invited into.
Equal protection. We share personal data with a service provider only to run the App. We choose providers whose terms require them to protect that data and to use it only to provide their service to us, and we expect them to protect it at least as well as this policy does.
10. Third-party services
| Provider | What it does and what it receives |
|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosting, authentication, database, and file storage. Holds account data and everything in a Circle, including recordings, video, photos, and transcripts. |
| OpenAI | Speech-to-text transcription of recordings and video answers, search data from transcripts, and (as needed) story text and question suggestions. Receives voice and video recordings (the recording files), transcripts, question text, and photos you ask about. |
| Anthropic | Story titles, summaries, readable versions, tags, and follow-up and photo question suggestions. Receives transcripts, typed answers, question text, and photos you ask about. |
| OpenAI | Artificial intelligence. Receives the audio of recordings and spoken questions to write them out as text (a transcript), and the transcript text and the questions typed into Ask search so stories can be found by meaning. It also receives story text and photos for the suggestions described below when Anthropic is not used. |
| Anthropic | Artificial intelligence. Receives transcripts, story text, questions, and photos to suggest titles, summaries, people and places, follow-up questions, and photo descriptions, and to rank Ask search results. |
| Twilio | SMS delivery and phone calls, including recording a Legend’s answer after they agree. Receives phone numbers, message text, and call audio. |
| Resend | Sending and receiving email (invites, questions, replies, and archive downloads). Receives email addresses and message content. |
| Stripe | Payments and subscription billing for Owners. Receives payment details directly on its own page; card numbers never reach us. |
| Expo | Push notifications (receives the device token and the notification text, and passes them to Apple’s or Google’s notification service) and delivery of App updates (receives basic device and App version information). |
| Cloudflare | Hosting for our website, seashell.family. |
Apple and Google do not process payments for Seashell subscriptions; Stripe does. Each provider handles data under its own terms and privacy policy, and, as described in section 9, we expect each to protect it at least as well as this policy.
11. Retention and deletion
We keep your account and what you add to Seashell until you or the Owner of your Circle delete it. A refund or a cancelled plan does not delete anyone’s stories.
Delete your account in the App. Open Settings and tap Delete My Account. This works for Owners and Contributors, and a Legend who uses the App has the same Delete My Account button in the Legend’s Settings. You can also email sobersend@gmail.com and we will help.
- An Owner who deletes their account deletes their Circle and everything in it, and their paid plan is cancelled.
- A Contributor who deletes their account removes their account. What they added to the family’s Circle (such as questions and reactions) stays with the Circle.
- A Legend who deletes their account removes their account. Their stories stay with the Circle, and the Legend or the Owner can ask us to remove them.
If you just signed up and have not started a Circle yet, the same Delete My Account button is on the screens that follow sign-up. When someone invited to a Circle deletes their account, we also remove the email address and phone number that Circle saved for them, so they get no more questions from it. Stripe, our payment processor, keeps its own billing records as the law requires.
A Legend can pause or stop at any time, or ask us to remove a story, and an Owner can remove a person from a Circle. You can withdraw permission for contacts, camera, microphone, photos, or notifications at any time in your device’s Settings. Reply STOP to stop texts. A parent or guardian can ask us to delete a child’s recordings (section 4).
Once data is deleted, it drops out of provider backups on the provider’s own schedule. We may keep limited records where we must for security, fraud prevention, or legal compliance. Owners can also download their Legend’s whole archive from the App at any time.
12. Security
We use industry-standard measures, including encrypted transport and database rules that limit what each person can see to their own Circle. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.
13. Changes
We may update this policy. The “Last updated” date will change. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.
14. Contact
SoberSend LLC
Email: sobersend@gmail.com
Location: Washington, USA