Privacy, in plain language.
Last updated October 20, 2026.
In Their Words is built for adults making keepsakes about their own families. The grown-up owns the account, the keepsakes, and every answer in them.
This is a grown-up's tool
You must be 18 or older to use In Their Words. Children don't have accounts and can't use it on their own. When a child takes part in an interview, a parent or guardian is running it and deciding what to record, keep, and share. Before any interview begins we ask you to confirm you're an adult recording a child in your own family and that you consent to that recording on their behalf — and we keep a dated record of that confirmation.
Children's privacy (COPPA)
We don't knowingly let children under 13 create accounts or provide information directly. Any information about a child — their first name, age, answers, and any video or voice you record — is provided and controlled by their parent or guardian, who can view, download, or permanently delete it at any time. If you believe a child has used In Their Words without a parent, email hello@in-their-words.com and we'll remove the information.
What we store: the video clips you record, the words in them (the captions the film shows), the names and ages you enter, and your email address if you create an account. When someone answers one of your films, we also store their video and, if they choose to give one, their email address. That's it — we don't ask for anything else. Interviews you don't save are held in private storage for up to 30 days as a recovery backup (so a browser hiccup can't eat a recording, and so the film can be made) and are then deleted automatically — they're never shared, never public, and never kept once they've gone unclaimed.
What we never do: we don't sell or share your family's words with anyone, we don't use them to train AI, and we never use AI to generate images of your child. We use privacy-respecting analytics to understand how the app is used, with no advertising trackers.
How your videos are stored
Recordings live in private storage that only your signed-in account can open — there are no public links to the raw files, and they're encrypted where they're stored. Every playback happens through a link that expires within hours. Search engines and AI crawlers are blocked from every page that carries your family's content. When you delete a keepsake, the video files themselves are removed immediately — not just hidden — and the recovery backup made while you filmed is cleared within 30 days.
How your film is made
The finished film is assembled on our own servers from the clips already in your private storage — no outside company ever touches the footage. The working copies used during assembly are deleted the moment your film is done, and the finished film is stored with the same protections as your recordings. Interviews you haven't saved are made the same way, from the private backup described above, and that backup is deleted automatically within 30 days.
How captions are made
To caption a clip we send only its audio — never the video — to a transcription service (Whisper, run by Groq; OpenAI when Groq is unavailable), which returns the words and does not use your recording to train models. If neither service is available, captions are generated on your own device instead. And we never autocorrect: the words stay exactly as your kid said them.
How Bella's voice is made
When Bella asks the questions out loud, each question's text (with the names you typed in it, such as “Daddy”) is sent to ElevenLabs, a voice service, which returns the spoken line. No recording of your family goes there, and the lines are kept so the same question is not sent twice.
How questions and help replies are written
If the app writes questions for you (from a topic you type, a plan you describe or a vibe you pick), what you entered, the names and the age go to an AI service (Anthropic's Claude, through our host's AI gateway, or Groq when Claude is unavailable), which writes the questions. If you write to us for help, your conversation with our assistant goes to the same kind of service to draft a reply. When it can't help, a person steps in, and from then on the start of a message you send, with your email if you gave one, reaches us through Telegram, at most one every ten minutes (the rest wait in our inbox). No recording or picture of your family is sent for either of these.
How a film's title and captions are written
To write a film's title and its captions, we send that film's questions and answers, with the child's first name and age and the name of the person they talk about, to our AI provider, Anthropic, under zero-data-retention terms: it answers and keeps nothing.
When someone answers a film
Anyone with a film's link can answer it with a short video of their own: Bella asks them three questions written from the child's answers. To write those questions, we send that film's answers, with the child's first name and age and the name of the person the film is about, to our AI provider, Anthropic, under zero-data-retention terms: it answers and keeps nothing. Bella's voice is made as described above, and a question the person types is sent to the voice service while they type it, before they tap Start. Their answer becomes a short film, with the child's own clips in it, kept in the family's private storage and shown under the film to everyone who has the link. The person who answered can delete it from their phone for 30 days; the parent can hide or remove it at any time, or turn answers off for the film. Removing an answer deletes its takes and its film at once; a take the phone was still uploading when the answer was removed is cleared within 30 days. If the person who answered gives an email address, we keep it encrypted and use it only to say when the child watches the answer or answers back, with a stop link in every email. It is deleted a year after the last email at most, and as soon as answers are turned off for that film. The email's button signs them in; their account is made only when they tap it.
Sharing exposes a name and age
A keepsake is private until you share its link. Once you do, anyone with that link can open that one keepsake and will see the child's first name, age, and their answers (and video, if included). A link pasted into a message also shows a preview: one frame of the film, and a short film can play right in the conversation. Only share it with people you trust. We keep these pages out of search engines, but a link is a link — delete the keepsake and the link dies with it immediately (its preview picture within five minutes). Anyone with the link can also answer the film with a short video of their own, which shows under the film for everyone who has the link, unless you hide it or turn answers off for that film. An app that has already shown a preview keeps its own copy of it, which we can't recall.
Keeping and deleting
We keep your keepsakes for as long as your account exists, so your family library is there year after year. You're in control: delete any keepsake from your Keepsake box and its answers and videos, and every answer someone filmed for it, are permanently removed, or delete your whole account from Account settings and everything — profile, keepsakes, and videos — is erased. You can also email hello@in-their-words.com and we'll do it for you. The recovery backup made while you film is cleared automatically within 30 days.
Questions about privacy? Email hello@in-their-words.com. See also our Terms of Service.