What the app stores, what it shares, and what it never does.
This policy describes what In Their Words does with data. It is written from the app's actual behaviour and is kept short on purpose.
Storytellers (name, relationship, year of birth, portrait), recordings, transcripts, photos you add, your own questions and which deck questions were asked are stored on your device and in your private iCloud database (Apple CloudKit). Only devices signed in with your Apple Account can access them. In Their Words has no server and the developer cannot access your recordings.
In Their Words uses the microphone only while you are recording a story, and speech recognition only to transcribe your recordings on the device. Transcription runs on the device (Apple's on-device speech recognition); In Their Words never sends audio to In Their Words or to any speech service. On iOS 26 and later the system may download a speech language model from Apple once.
Photos are added through the system photo picker; In Their Words receives only the photos you choose. The optional weekly reminder is a local notification on your device — In Their Words sends no email and no push notifications from a server.
Nothing. In Their Words contains no analytics, advertising or tracking code and makes no network requests of its own; sync is handled by Apple's iCloud and purchases by Apple's App Store. The App Store privacy label is “Data Not Collected”. If you email support, the developer receives your email and what you write, and uses it only to help you.
The one-time unlock is sold and processed by Apple through the App Store and can be shared through Family Sharing. In Their Words checks entitlements with StoreKit on your device; the developer receives no personal information about you from a purchase.
You are responsible for recording other people only with their agreement. In Their Words asks you to confirm this before the first recording with each storyteller and makes deleting a story or a whole storyteller easy.
Delete a story or a storyteller to remove the recordings, transcripts and photos from all your devices and your iCloud; Settings → Delete everything removes all In Their Words data. You can also manage In Their Words's iCloud data in iOS Settings → Apple Account → iCloud.
In Their Words is not directed at children under 13 and is rated for general audiences.
This policy is updated when the app's data practices change; the date at the bottom of the page is the current version.
Questions about privacy or a request about your data: jago.naeher@gmail.com. The app is published by Jakob Näher (Apple Developer Program), who is responsible for this policy.