Privacy Policy

It covers The Known app, the pages where people read stories shared with them (stories.theknownapp.io), and this website, including the waitlist.

Who we are

The Known is run by The Known LLC, 5351 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019, United States. When this policy says “we” or “us”, it means us. You can reach us at hello@theknownapp.io, and a person reads every note.

What we collect

What you give us

• Your account: your name, email address and password. Your password is handled by our sign-in provider, and we never store it in readable form.
• Your stories: the recordings you make, the entries you write, and anything you add to them, such as titles.
• Your profile:a photo if you choose one, the optional details in “About you” (such as where you grew up and the year you were born), and your settings.
• The people you share with: the names and email addresses you enter to share a story, build a Circle, or ask someone to record for you.
• Reports and blocks: if you report a shared story, or being added to a Circle, we keep the reason you choose, anything you write, and which account you reported. If you block someone, we save that to your account so their stories and emails stop reaching you.
• Messages to us: what you send through Help, feedback, and reports about content.

What we create from your stories

To make your stories readable and easy to find, we create written transcripts, chapters, write-ups, summaries, questions for Sage to ask you, and an index used for search. We also note the people, places and events your stories mention, so that, for example, you can see every story that mentions your sister.

What we collect automatically

• How the app is used:for example, that a recording was started or a story was shared. These events are tied to your account ID but never include what you said or wrote. We don’t collect your location from them.
• Crash reports: technical details when the app fails, such as the app version, device model and operating system. We strip out names, story content and other personal details before a report leaves your phone.
• Notifications: a device token from Apple so we can send the notifications you turn on.
• Sharing activity: when someone opens a story you shared with them, and whether they opened it on the web or in the app. You can see this; it helps you know your story arrived.
• On this website: cookieless analytics that count page views, the page you came from, and coarse details like browser type and country. When you join the waitlist, we keep your IP address with your signup to slow down spam.

What we don’t collect

We don’t collect your location, your contacts or your advertising identifier, and we don’t track you across other companies’ apps or websites.

How we use it

• To run The Known: keep your recordings, write them up, let you search them, let Sage ask you questions, and share stories with the people you choose.
• To send you the emails and notifications you’ve asked for.
• To help you when you write to us, and to act on reports of content that breaks our Terms.
• To keep the service safe and working: finding and fixing crashes, preventing abuse, and securing accounts.
• To understand which features people use, so we can make the app better.
• To meet our legal obligations.

We never sell your information.We don’t share it with advertisers or data brokers, and we don’t use your stories to train AI models, ours or anyone else’s.

How AI helps with your stories

The Known uses two AI companies to do the work described above. We ask your permission in the app before anything is sent to them, and you can turn AI help off at any time in Settings › AI help.

Both companies process this data only to do this work for us. Neither may use it to train AI models. We’ve set our Together AI account not to store what we send, and DeepInfra does not store it.

If you turn AI help off, we stop sending new recordings and stories to these companies. What you record is still kept safely in your account as audio, and it will be written up if you turn AI help back on. Sage and search need AI help to work.

AI can make mistakes. Transcripts and write-ups are drafts of your words, and you can correct them.

The people in your stories

Life stories are full of other people. When you mention someone, their name and what you say about them become part of your story and are handled the same way as the rest of it. Please be thoughtful about what you share about others, especially when you share a story with someone else. If you believe a story on The Known is about you and want to raise it, write to us.

If someone adds you to their Circle

When someone adds you to their Circle, we email you once to say who added you and that you’ll get a link when they share a story. The email has a link to report or block them if you don’t know them. We keep a one-way fingerprint of your address, not the address itself, so we don’t email you again about the same person. It is stored where nobody using the app can read it. Your address is removed from our outgoing-mail queue once the email is sent.

To report or block, you open the link and confirm your email address with a code we send you. If you don’t have a Known account, confirming your address creates one so we can record what you chose. It holds only your email address, and you can ask us to delete it. We use your address to check it is the one we wrote to. The link works for 90 days.

A report goes to our team. They can read the reason and anything you wrote, and for a shared story the text and audio that were shared with you. They sign in with two-factor authentication, and every time they open reported content it’s logged. We may restrict the account of the person you reported. Blocking stops that person’s stories and emails reaching you.

Who else handles your information

Besides the two AI companies above, a few service providers process information on our behalf so The Known can run. Each one handles it only to do that job for us, and we require each to protect it at least as well as this policy does.

People you choose. When you share a story, the people you share it with can read and listen to the chapters you picked. When someone records a story for you, you see it before it becomes part of your stories.

When the law requires it.We may disclose information if we must by law, or to protect someone’s safety. If The Known is ever sold or merged, your information would move with it under this policy, and we would tell you first.

How long we keep it

• Your stories and recordingsare kept until you delete your account. Moving a story to Archive hides it but doesn’t delete it.
• The pieces of a recording uploaded from your phone are deleted once the recording has been written down. The finished recording is kept.
• Share linksmust be opened within 30 days, and a story can be read on the web for 7 days after it’s opened. You can stop sharing at any time.
• Email addresses are removed from our outgoing-mail queue once the email is sent.
• Search records that speed up repeat searches are deleted after 30 days without use.
• Crash reports are kept by Sentry for 30 days. Usage events are kept by PostHog for 1 year. They are tied to a random account ID, not your name or email. Deleting your account doesn’t erase events already sent; they age out on that schedule.
• Circle report links in the email we send when someone adds you work for 90 days. The fingerprint of an address we emailed is kept for as long as the account that added it exists.
• Reports and blocks you make are kept with your account. A report stays after either person deletes their account, with the account details removed. The text of a report is kept.
• Waitlist signups are kept until launch or until you ask us to remove you.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in Settings. For 14 days your account is frozen, and you can change your mind. After that, your account, stories, recordings and everything we created from them are permanently deleted. Stories you shared stop being available to the people you shared them with. You can also ask us to delete your account or a single story by writing to hello@theknownapp.io.

To keep people safe, we keep a one-way fingerprint of the email address, not the address itself, of an account we restricted for breaking our Terms, and of anyone someone else has blocked, after their account is deleted. If the same address registers again, the restriction or block is applied again, so deleting an account and signing up again can’t undo it. A block fingerprint is kept until it is used this way or until the account that blocked that person is deleted. A restriction is kept for as long as we need to keep people safe.

Your choices and rights

• AI help: turn it on or off in Settings › AI help.
• Notifications:turn them off in Settings or in your iPhone’s settings.
• Access, correction and a copy: you can see and edit your stories and profile in the app. Write to us for a copy of your information.
• Deletion: see above.

Depending on where you live, including California, other US states, the UK and the European Union, you may have the right to know what we hold about you, to get a copy, to correct or delete it, to object to or restrict some uses, and to withdraw consent. Write to us and we’ll respond within 30 days. We won’t treat you differently for using these rights. If you’re in the UK or EU, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

If you’re in the UK or EU, these are our legal bases. We use your information to provide the service you signed up for (contract). We send your stories to AI companies only with your permission (consent). We use crash reports, usage events and security measures because they’re needed to run a safe, working service (legitimate interests). We keep some records where the law requires it.

How we protect it

Your information is encrypted in transit and at rest. Each story can be opened only by you and the people you’ve shared it with, and those rules are enforced on our servers, not just in the app. Recordings are played through short-lived private links. Our staff can see your messages to us and content that has been reported. They must sign in with two-factor authentication, and every time they open reported content it’s logged.

Where your information is stored

We store your information in the United States. If you use The Known from elsewhere, your information is transferred to the United States and handled as this policy describes.

Children

The Known is for people 16 and older. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone younger. If you believe a child under 16 has an account, write to us and we’ll delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. If a change affects what we collect or who receives it, we’ll tell you in the app first. If it changes what AI companies receive, we’ll ask your permission again.

Talk to us

Questions about any of this? Write to hello@theknownapp.io or 5351 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019.