Privacy Policy.

Last updated: 6 October 2026

Aya exists because families trust it with things they have never said out loud. That only works if the privacy promises are absolute, simple, and enforced in the product itself, not just written here. This page explains, in plain language, what we collect, why, and the promises we will not break.

Who we are (data controller)

Data controller: Matteo Crucito, Via Marzabotto 14b, 25124 Brescia (BS), Italy. VAT no. (P.IVA) 00506260975. Contact: privacy@aya-family.com.

The three promises

• Nothing ever crosses families. Your family's voice notes, transcripts, and questions live inside your family and nowhere else. There are no cross-family features, and there never will be.
• Sealed stays sealed. When a parent marks an answer as private ("this one I keep to myself"), that answer is locked. It is never transcribed into any AI prompt, never shown to any family member, never reviewed by us, and never included in any feature. Sealing is permanent.
• Your archive is yours. At any time you can export every voice note, transcript, question, and conversation in one archive, and leave with it. No lock-in, no retention games.

What we collect

From the answering parent

• WhatsApp phone number and display name, to send the evening question.
• Voice notes they choose to send in reply, and the transcripts we produce from them.
• Preferences: language, delivery time, skipped questions, sealed answers, and STOP requests.
• Typed messages they send back: if the answering parent writes a free-text reply (rather than a voice note), we store it and the family operator can see it. It is never put into any AI prompt and never becomes a banked answer; it stays separate, forward-only. STOP messages and replies choosing how often to receive a question are never stored. Texts and photos from numbers we do not recognise are not stored either: we only note that a message arrived, from which number and when. The only exceptions are the details you give while signing up in the chat (your name and, if you sign up to listen to a parent, that parent's name, WhatsApp number and how you are related, which you type or share as a contact) and the other messages you type in that chat once your signup exists (see below). A voice note from a number we do not recognise is kept on our server, without being transcribed, only so we can link it to the right person if their number was saved wrong. Voice notes sent while signing up in the chat are not downloaded.

From family members who ask

• Account details: name, email, phone number.
• Your private questions to Aya and its replies. These are visible to you alone: not to the parent, not to siblings, and not routinely to us (see "Safety" below for the one exception).

If you sign up inside WhatsApp

• Signing up in the chat: you can also start by writing to Aya on WhatsApp, for example from one of our ads. Aya asks only for your name. We keep the name you type and your WhatsApp number, plus your language and a note that the chat came from our diary ad, including whether it was an ad click on Facebook or Instagram (just yes or no). Until you send your name, nothing else you write there is saved. Once your signup exists (made in the chat or on our website), the other messages you type to Aya before it is approved are saved so our team can read and answer them, except a message in which you say it is private or just for you, with words like “this is private”, “just for me” or “between us” (we recognise a fixed list of phrases like these, so a message worded differently may still be saved): they are never put into any AI prompt and never included in your family's export. If your signup is rejected they are deleted with it, if you send STOP before it is approved they are deleted straight away, and if it is still not approved they are deleted 30 days after you sent them. If it is approved, they stay in your chat history with Aya, where our team can read them, and they are deleted when your account or your family is deleted. Voice notes and photos you send in the signup chat are not downloaded. If, while Aya is waiting for your name, a message sounds like you might be in danger, Aya replies with numbers for real help, no signup is created, and we keep only your number and the time as a safety alert for our team, never the message. After your signup exists, a message like that is never saved either: Aya replies with the same numbers for real help (at most once a day), and our team gets only your number and the time as a safety alert.

How your data is used

• To send one question each evening and keep the ritual running.
• To transcribe voice notes and generate the next question. Unsealed transcripts are processed by our AI provider under a data-processing agreement that prohibits training on your content.
• To let family members ask Aya questions, answered only from the parent's unsealed words.
• To operate, secure, and improve the service using aggregate, non-content metrics (e.g. how many nights were answered, never what was said).

We never: sell your data, share it with advertisers, use your family's content to train AI models, or listen to your recordings for product research.

Why we are allowed to do this (legal bases)

• To deliver the service the family asked for. Sending the evening question, keeping the archive, and letting the family ask are all part of the service you signed up for.
• With the answering parent's consent. Their replies are given freely, and any of them can be sealed or stopped at any time.
• Our own reasonable interest. We look at aggregate, non-content numbers and keep the service secure, so it keeps working and stays safe.
• When the law requires it. Acting on a safety flag, as described just below.

The one exception: safety

If a conversation with Aya raises signs of immediate danger to a person (self-harm, abuse, or an emergency), Aya drops its persona, points to real help, and the specific exchange is flagged for human review so we can respond responsibly. This is the only circumstance in which private ask content becomes visible to us, and each case is logged.

Consent and control for the parent

• The ritual begins only after a personal heads-up from their own family member and a clear introduction from Aya.
• Any question can be skipped, without explanation.
• Any answer can be sealed with a spoken sentence.
• STOP ends everything the same day. It is honored immediately, logged, and never argued with.

Storage, security, and retention

• Voice notes and transcripts are stored encrypted, on our server in the EU (Frankfurt).
• Access inside our team is restricted and audited; content access is not part of normal operations.
• We keep your family's archive for as long as your family keeps its account. If you close it, everything is deleted within 30 days, after we offer you a full export.
• If you start signing up and stop after giving your name and WhatsApp number, we keep them only to know the signup was not finished. We never write to you because of it, and we delete them automatically after 30 days.

Where your data is processed

• Voice audio stays on our EU server. The audio is turned into text right there, on our own server in the EU, and the recording itself is never sent anywhere else. This is something we are proud of.
• The text does travel. To write the next question and to answer what the family asks, the unsealed transcript text is sent to Anthropic, which operates in the United States. So some processing involves a transfer outside the EU.
• Message delivery also sits in the United States. Twilio carries the WhatsApp messages to and from the phone, and it operates in the United States too.
• These transfers are covered by each provider's data-processing agreement and Standard Contractual Clauses, the safeguards the law asks for when data leaves the EU.

Your rights

Under the GDPR and applicable law, every family member and every answering parent can, at any time: access their data, export it, correct it, restrict its processing, or delete it. Write to privacy@aya-family.com; privacy requests are handled with priority. You may also lodge a complaint with your data-protection authority (in Italy, the Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali).

Third parties we rely on

• WhatsApp (Meta): the messaging channel. WhatsApp's own terms apply to the channel. If you start a chat with Aya from one of our ads on Facebook or Instagram, Meta knows the chat started from its ad. On our side we keep only a note that the chat came from our ad (yes or no), never which ad or click it was, and we do not report anything about you or about a signup made in the chat back to Meta.
• Twilio: delivery of the WhatsApp messages to and from the phone.
• Anthropic: writing the next question and the replies to the family, from unsealed transcript text only, under a no-training data-processing agreement.

Each processor is bound by contract to use your data only to provide the service.

Children

Aya is designed for adults. People who keep their own diary on Aya, or who ask Aya questions, must be 15 or older; younger family members may participate only through a parent or guardian’s account.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in any way that matters, we will tell every family directly and in plain language before the change takes effect. The three promises at the top are not subject to change.

Contact

Aya · privacy@aya-family.com · Contact page