Voice policy

1What this policy covers

This policy covers every voice recorded or uploaded on BellaBye: yours, and those of the family and friends you invite. It sits alongside our Privacy policy and Terms of use.

2Who can record

• Grown-ups only. Everyone who records confirms they’re 18 or over.
• Your own voice. You record your own voice in the app.
• Family and friends record their own voice, on their own phone, from your invitation.
• Uploading a recording. If you have a recording of someone you love, such as a grandparent, you can upload it instead, but only with that person’s permission and only if they’re 18 or over. You tell us whose voice it is.
• Children never record. They only ever listen.

Before BellaBye opens to everyone, every recording will also pass an automatic check that it’s a grown-up’s voice. If it hears a child, nothing is saved.

3Permission comes first

When you or a relative record your own voice, the person whose voice it is agrees to these words, in their own session, before anything is recorded:

“This is my own voice. I am 18 or over. I agree BellaBye may create a private digital copy of my voice to read stories to the children in this household. I can delete the copy at any time; stories already made with it stay in the family’s library.”

For a grandparent, that happens on their own phone, from your invitation. The box starts unticked, so agreeing is always their own choice.

When you upload someone else’s recording, you confirm, before the voice copy is made:

“I have this person’s permission to create a private digital copy of their voice for stories in this household, and they are 18 or over.”

You give their name, and that permission record is kept in their name. Only the part of the recording you choose is sent to us; the rest of the file never leaves your device. If someone tells us their voice was uploaded without their permission, we delete it (see “If a voice is misused”, below).

We keep a record of every permission: whose voice it is, the exact words agreed, and when (see “How long we keep voices”, below).

4How recording works

• You read a short story aloud for about 30 seconds, somewhere quiet.
• You can listen back and record again, up to five times, then keep the one you like best.
• Family and friends record on their own phone from an email invitation or a link you send them. It takes about 3 minutes, with no app and no account.
• An invitation works for 7 days, and once. A link to record again works for 24 hours.
• An uploaded recording can be up to 12 MB and 5 minutes long. You choose the clearest 30 seconds, listen to it, and use that part.

5What we make from your voice

From your recording, our voice partner’s AI voice model makes a private digital copy of your voice. The copy then reads each story aloud; the story is not a recording of you reading it. The copy belongs to your family’s account and only ever reads your family’s stories.

• Only your family’s account can choose it.
• Anyone else only hears a story if you send them a private link. A link works for 7 days or 20 plays, whichever comes first, and you can stop sharing at any time.
• 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. It doesn’t keep the audio after checking it.
• Our voice partner is Inworld. It makes and holds the copy only to read your family’s stories, under a contract with us. It may not use your recording or the copy to train or improve its AI, or for anything else, and it deletes them both when the voice is deleted.To confirm

In legal and technical terms this 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.

6What we never do

• Sell or share anyone’s voice.
• Use a voice to read anything except your family’s stories.
• Let one family use another family’s voice.
• Use a family’s voice in adverts or marketing.To confirm
• Use a voice, or let our partners use it, to train AI.To confirm
• Make a voice copy of a child.

7Keeping voices safe

Every recording we store is encrypted, with a key unique to your family. The short preview of each voice and the audio of your stories are kept private and only ever opened through private links that stop working after a short time.

Before you record a new voice, or record again or delete one, we may ask you to sign in again, to make sure it’s really you.

8Deleting a voice

Anyone who records can delete their voice at any time.

• Your family can delete any voice from Voices, in the app.
• Family and friends who left their email can use the link we sent them, which never stops working for listening and deleting. Otherwise, they can ask the family to delete it, or email us.
• Deleting removes the recording, the preview and the voice copy straight away, and we tell our voice partner to delete its copy. No new stories can be read with it.To confirm
• A weekly check looks for any voice copy left behind at our voice partner, so it can be removed.To confirm
• Stories already made with it stay in the family’s library, because they belong to the family.

9How long we keep voices

• While you have an account: until the voice is deleted.
• Recorded on the free story, without a plan: 30 days after recording. We email you a week before and the day before.To confirm
• If you cancel your plan: 90 days after the end of the period you’ve paid for, then deleted. We email you 30 days, 7 days and 1 day before.To confirm
• If you delete your account: within 24 hours.
• The record that permission was given: 12 months after the voice is deleted, then that’s deleted too. We keep it that long as proof that permission was given.To confirm
• A recording refused as a child’s voice: no voice copy is made, and the record of the attempt is deleted after 12 months.To confirm

10Our BellaBye voices

As well as family voices, you can choose from 24 BellaBye voices: 10 with British accents, 10 American and 4 Australian, all grown-ups. They’re ready-made digital voices from our voice partner, used under its commercial licence. They’re not real people reading, and they don’t count towards your family’s voices.

11If a voice is misused

If you think someone has recorded or uploaded a voice without permission, tell us straight away at hello@bellabye.com or from our Contact page. You don’t need a BellaBye account to tell us. We’ll look into it straight away, and delete the voice if it shouldn’t be there.

12Changes 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.

13Contact us

Questions about voices? Email hello@bellabye.com or send us a message from our Contact page.