Privacy
Your family's stories belong with your family.
Where stories live
Stories you record on an iPhone stay on that phone until you choose families and send them. Sent stories use the same path as stories recorded on the web. We hold those copies so the family can receive and play them. We do not yet remove those copies after delivery. We never remove a story just because it is old when the family has not received it.
A phone copy is not a backup
Saving a story to this phone does not make a second copy that can restore it if the phone is lost. Story Vault does not yet make that recovery copy for you.
Account and story details
We keep your sign-in phone number, account and family details, story titles, tags, and who may listen. These details are kept by Story Vault and are linked to your account. A sign-in code helps you access your family account.
People you invite
We keep the names, email addresses, phone numbers, and personal messages you enter for storytellers. They are linked to your family account. When you choose an invitation or story request in Story Vault, we check whether that phone number belongs to a signed-in account with a verified number. If it does, we put your note in that account's inbox. We do not tell you whether we found an account. This does not join anyone to your family or give them access to your stories. We do not read your phone's address book.
Email and text messages
When you choose to send an invitation by email, the address, name, message, and invitation link go to our email service, Resend, when that service is available. When you choose a text message, your phone opens Messages for you to review and send. Story Vault cannot tell whether that text was delivered. When you ask for a sign-in code, your phone number goes to Twilio so it can send and check the code. We keep short-lived records of these checks and limits on code requests to help prevent misuse.
Story links
Someone with a story link may be able to listen to that story. An invitation link lets its holder choose to record for the named family. Neither link gives access to the family's other stories. Share links only with people you intend to have them.
Services that help us
Fly.io hosts Story Vault and its account records. Cloudflare R2 holds stories sent through the web recorder or an explicit iPhone Send. Apple can deliver notices about invitations, story requests, and new stories when you allow them. We keep each phone's notice address with its signed-in account for that purpose. The notice does not include names, story titles, personal messages, or invitation links. We also keep inbox entries, delivery records, and limited service records to find problems and protect access.
Your choices
You can change story details, manage storyteller invitations, and turn off notices in iPhone Settings. Invitations and requests are still available in your inbox when notices are off. Dismissing a note hides it from your inbox; it does not decline or stop the invitation. Signing out does not delete your account or remove copies already saved on a phone. Stopping an invitation does not take back recordings that a family already received. You can download an audio file and save it somewhere you choose. Copies saved outside Story Vault follow that service's rules and cannot be removed by Story Vault.
Request account deletion
In Account, choose Delete your account to ask us to remove your account information. When we accept the request, your account access closes. The app keeps the request details on this phone so you can check its progress. Deletion is not finished while shared stories and family information still need review. Recordings already kept on phones are preserved separately; this request does not remove those copies. The final rules for keeping and removing shared information still need approval before public release.
No advertising use
We do not sell your stories or use them for ads. We do not track you across other companies' apps or websites for advertising.
Before public release
We will publish who operates Story Vault, how to contact us about privacy, and the final rules for keeping and removing shared stories before public release. Those details are not settled yet. This policy describes the current development app.