The short version
- We only collect what we need to make your family’s stories.
- We never sell your information, and we never show you adverts.
- Children never have an account. We only hold what you tell us about them, and we never ask for a surname, a date of birth or a photo.
- Stories, pictures and voices are made with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). We tell you exactly how below.
- Every voice recording is stored encrypted, with a key unique to your family.
- You can download a copy of your family’s information, or delete it, at any time.
1Who we are
53Alpha Ltd runs BellaBye and is responsible for your information (in legal terms, the “controller”). We’re registered in England and Wales (company number 17409008), and our registered office is 5 Knightcott Road, Abbots Leigh, Bristol, BS8 3SB.
We’re registering with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, and will show our registration number here once it’s issued.
Questions about your information? Email hello@bellabye.com.
This policy covers the BellaBye app and our website, bellabye.com. How we look after voices is set out in more detail in our Voice policy.
2What we collect
We only collect what we need to run BellaBye.
About you
- Your name, email address, the country you’re in and your spelling and voice choices (British, American or Australian).
- Your plan, the stories you have left, and your settings, such as which emails you’d like.
About each child
- Their first name, and a nickname if you add one. We never ask for a surname.
- Their age group (2 to 3, 4 to 5, 6 to 8 or 9 to 12) and, if you choose, their birth month and year, so their age group moves up on its own. Never a full date of birth.
- Their pronouns, favourite colours, the things they love and the kinds of story they like.
- How they look, for their drawings: hair, skin tone, eyes, glasses, clothes colour, and, if you choose, a head covering (such as a hijab or a patka) or an aid (such as a wheelchair or a hearing aid). We never ask for a photo.
- The people, pets, toys and imaginary friends you add to their world, with any short descriptions you write.
- “Going on at the moment”: things in your child’s life you choose to tick, such as starting school, a new baby, a visit to the doctor or hospital, moving house, a pet dying, or parents living apart. These are only used in a story when you choose them for that story.
- Their drawings, their folders and favourites, which voice usually reads to them, and what they’ve listened to: which story, when, whether they finished it, and any reaction such as “loved it”.
Voices
- Each recording, the private copy of the voice we make from it (see How we make your stories), and a short preview of it.
- A record that permission was given: the name of the person whose voice it is, their email if they gave one, the exact words they agreed to and when, a one-way scrambled (hashed) form of their internet address, and their browser’s description of itself.
- For a relative or friend you invite: their first name, how they’re related to your child, and their email if you add it.
Stories
- The choices you make for each story, and the stories, pictures, picture books and audio we make for you.
Payments
Paid plans aren’t on sale yet, while BellaBye is in its invitation-only beta. This is how they’ll work when they start.
- Your plan and payment history. Your card details go straight to Stripe, our payment provider, and we never see them.
Technical details
- The type of device you use, your country and time zone, when you sign in, and a record of what happens in the app (for example “story played” or “voice deleted”), never what you type into a story. We use these to keep BellaBye working, safe and in your own spelling and currency.
- If you turn on story-ready alerts, the address your phone or computer gives us for sending them.
If you visit our website or contact us
- Our own website statistics count page views without storing anything on your device. They see the page, the website that sent you, and your browser type. Like every website, our servers also see your internet address. See our Cookies policy.
- The waiting list only asks for your email address, never anything about a child.
- If you send us a message, we keep your name, email address, the topic you chose and your message. We also note the page you wrote from and, if you arrived from a link with campaign tags (for example from an advert), those tags.
3Children’s information
BellaBye is for grown-ups to use for their children. Children never have an account, and they only ever listen.
- We only hold what you choose to tell us about your child. Only their first name and age group are needed; everything else is optional.
- First names are fine. Please leave out surnames, addresses and school names. An automatic check (also AI) looks at what you type and keeps those details out.
- Some things you can tell us are especially private: a head covering can show a family’s religion, an aid can show a child’s health, and “Going on at the moment” can show health or family circumstances. We only use these to draw your child and to write the stories you ask for. They’re never shown to anyone outside your family and never used for adverts. A head covering or an aid reaches the companies that draw and check our pictures only as a description of how your child looks (for example “wears a blue hijab”), and a “Going on at the moment” item reaches the company that writes our stories only when you choose it for a story.
- We no longer collect private notes on “Going on at the moment” items. Notes saved before 21 October 2026 are being deleted.
- Our waiting list only asks for an email address, never anything about a child.
- Removing a child deletes their profile, their world, their “Going on at the moment” items, their drawings, folders and listening history straight away. Stories made for them stay in your library unless you choose to delete them too. A story shared with a brother or sister always stays.
4How we use your information
- To make your stories, pictures and picture books, read in the voices you choose.
- To run your account and your plan, and take payments.
- To send the emails you need, like sign-in links and “your story is ready”. Story-ready emails and the weekly round-up are optional, and every one has a one-click unsubscribe.
- To keep BellaBye safe, including automatic checks on what’s typed, on every story and on every picture before you see them.
- To fix problems and make BellaBye better, using the technical details in What we collect.
We never sell your information, never use it for adverts, and never use your family’s voices for anything except your family’s stories.
5How we make your stories
We use artificial intelligence (AI) to make BellaBye’s stories, pictures and voices. Here is what each part does.
- Stories. Each story is written by an AI language model from the details you give us about your child and the choices you make. A second AI check reads every story before it’s ready, to make sure it suits your child’s age.
- Pictures. Pictures are drawn by an AI image model from a written description of how your child looks and of each scene. We never send it a photo, your child’s name or their age: only a word such as “girl”, “boy” or “child” and an age word such as “toddler”. Another AI check looks at every picture before you see it.
- A family voice. From a recording of about 30 seconds, our voice partner’s AI voice model makes a private digital copy of the voice. The copy then reads each story aloud. The story is not a recording of the person reading it.
- BellaBye voices. Our 24 BellaBye voices are ready-made digital voices from our voice partner. They are not real people reading.
- The listening check. An automatic speech-recognition service listens to each finished reading and compares it with the written story, so we can fix words it reads wrongly.
- Sounds and music. Our sound effects, background sounds, music and jingle were made once for BellaBye, some with an AI sound tool. They contain nothing about your family.
- Checks on what you type. When you type about your child, an automatic check (also AI) looks for unsuitable words and for personal details such as surnames, addresses or schools, and keeps them out. If a check stops a story or a word, we tell you why.
People at BellaBye don’t read your stories or look at your pictures as a matter of course. We only look at a story if you report a problem with it, or to fix a story that failed.
AI can occasionally get something wrong. If anything in a story or picture isn’t right, tell us at hello@bellabye.com.
In legal and technical terms, a private digital copy of a voice is a synthetic voice, sometimes called a voice clone. We call it a private digital copy because that is what it is: a copy only your family’s stories can use.
6Our legal reasons
The law asks us to explain why we can use your information.
- To give you the service you’ve asked for (contract): your account, your children’s profiles, your stories and your plan.
- Your permission (explicit consent): for each voice. Everyone who records their own voice agrees in their own session, and can take it back by deleting their voice. For a recording you upload of someone else’s voice, see our Voice policy.
- Your permission, for especially private details: a head covering, an aid, and “Going on at the moment”.
- Our legitimate interests: keeping BellaBye safe and working well, preventing misuse, counting website visits with our own statistics, and answering your messages, in ways you’d expect. You can object to any of these (see Your rights).
- The law (legal obligation): for example, keeping payment records for tax.
You don’t have to give us any information, but without your email address we can’t make you an account, and without a child’s first name and age group we can’t make them a story.
7Who helps us
A few trusted companies help us run BellaBye. They only use your information to do that work for us, under their terms for businesses, and we’re putting a written data processing agreement in place with each one before BellaBye opens to everyone.
Our website statistics, waiting list and Contact messages are handled by Nexus, our own website platform, run by 53Alpha.
The companies that write stories and make voices receive what a story needs, and that includes your child’s first name. They never receive your email address or payment details. Under its terms for businesses, Anthropic doesn’t use what we send it to train its models, and deletes it within 30 days. What our voice partner may do with voice recordings is set out in our Voice policy.
We’d only share your information with anyone else if the law requires it, or to protect a child or someone else from harm.
8If your information leaves the UK
Your account, your children’s profiles, your voices and your stories are stored in the United States, with our database provider (Supabase, in North Virginia) and our hosting provider (Vercel, in Washington DC). Stories are written by Anthropic in the United States. Our website is served from London. Other companies in Who helps us may process information in the United States or elsewhere.
When your information goes abroad, we rely on the safeguards UK law provides for it, such as the UK-US data bridge or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, and we’re confirming the right one with each company.
9How long we keep it
- Your account, children, voices and stories: for as long as you have an account, unless you delete them sooner.
- A story, a child or a voice you delete: deleted straight away. Stories already made with a deleted voice stay in your library, because they belong to your family.
Paid plans aren’t on sale yet, while BellaBye is in its invitation-only beta. This is how they’ll work when they start.
- If you cancel your plan: your voices are kept for 90 days after the end of the period you’ve paid for, then deleted. Your stories are kept, to play only, for a further 12 months, then deleted. We email you 30 days, 7 days and 1 day before your voices are deleted, and you can come back at any time before then.
- A voice recorded on the free story, without a plan: 30 days after it was recorded. We email you a week before and the day before.
- If you delete your account: you confirm it from a link we email you. Every voice, story, child profile and file is then deleted within 24 hours, and we ask our voice partner to delete its copies straight away.
- Permission records for a voice: 12 months after the voice is deleted, then deleted too. We keep them that long as proof that permission was given.
- The record of stories used and bought: 12 months after your account is deleted.
- Payment records and invoices, once paid plans start: 6 years after the end of the financial year they belong to, as UK tax rules require.
- Your data download: 7 days, then it’s deleted.
- Safety records (for example a story request our checks stopped, or a problem you reported): 12 months, without the link to your family once your account is deleted.
- Records of what happens in the app: 24 months, then made anonymous.
- The waiting list: until 6 months after we open to everyone, or until you take yourself off it.
- Messages you send us: 2 years after the conversation ends.
- Sign-in links: 15 minutes. Family share links: 7 days or 20 plays, whichever comes first, and you can stop sharing at any time.
- Copies held by the companies who help us: Anthropic deletes what we send within 30 days. Deepgram doesn’t keep the audio after checking it; we ask it not to, on every check.
10How we keep it safe
- Every voice recording we store is encrypted, with a key unique to your family.
- Your family’s voices only ever read your family’s stories.
- Pictures and audio are kept private and only ever opened through private links that stop working after a short time.
- We sign you in with a secure link sent to your email, so there’s no password to steal. Before you record or delete a voice, we may ask you to sign in again.
- We never track whether you open our emails or click their links.
11Your rights
You can ask to see, correct, download or delete your information, to limit how we use it, or to object to how we use it. Where we rely on your permission, you can take it back at any time; for a voice, you do that by deleting it. You can do most of this yourself in the app:
- Download a copy of your family’s information from Account, in Privacy and your data. We email you when it’s ready, with a link to sign in and collect it.
- Delete a story, a voice, a child or your whole account at any time.
- Change any detail about you or your children whenever you like.
For anything else, email hello@bellabye.com and we’ll reply within a month. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
12If you recorded your voice for a family
If a family invited you to record, your voice belongs to their account and only their stories can use it.
If you left your email, we sent you a link to listen to your voice or delete it at any time. If not, ask the family to delete it for you, or email us at hello@bellabye.com.
If a family uploaded a recording of your voice and you didn’t agree to it, tell us and we’ll delete it. Our Voice policy explains how.
14Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top of this page. If a change matters to you, we’ll email you before it applies.
15Contact us
Questions, or want to use your rights? Email hello@bellabye.com or send us a message from our Contact page.