Privacy
Privacy Policy
Effective September 29, 2026
The short version
- What you tell Familiar is used for one thing: helping Familiar understand you and help you.
- We never sell it, never use it for advertising, and never use it to train AI models.
- We don't keep recordings of your voice. Your speech becomes text as you talk, and we keep the text.
- You can turn learning off for any conversation, and you can delete your conversations or your whole account.
- This website has no ads, no analytics and no tracking cookies.
This policy explains how Familiar ("Familiar", "we", "us") handles personal information in the Familiar iPhone app and on this website, befamiliar.app. Familiar is a personal AI that gets to know you through conversation, so the things people share with it can be very personal. We've tried to write this plainly. If anything is unclear, email [email protected].
What we collect
Account information
When you create an account, we collect what's needed to sign you in: your email address, or the private identifier Apple provides if you use Sign in with Apple.
What you share
The core of Familiar is conversation. We store the text of your conversations with Familiar, whether you speak or type. When you talk by voice, your audio is streamed to our speech recognition provider and turned into text as you go. We don't store recordings of your voice.
What Familiar learns
From your conversations, Familiar builds its understanding of you: insights and the words they came from, how well it knows each area of your life, your progress, and your companion. You can see this in the app, and you can confirm, correct or reject what it has understood.
Service and technical information
To run and secure the service we keep limited technical records, such as sign-in times, error logs, and usage counts (for example, how many seconds of audio were processed). These records do not contain what you said.
What we don't collect
Familiar does not collect your location, contacts, photos, or advertising identifiers, and it doesn't track you across other apps or websites.
How we use it
We use your information only to provide Familiar to you:
- to hold conversations with you and remember what you've shared;
- to build and show Familiar's understanding of you, and to use it when you ask for help;
- to keep your account secure and the service working;
- to respond when you contact us.
We never sell your information, never share it for advertising, and never use your conversations to train AI models, ours or anyone else's. We don't look at your conversations except when you ask us to (for example, to fix a problem you report), when it's needed to keep someone safe or to investigate misuse, or when the law requires it.
Learning on and off
Every open conversation in Familiar has a learning switch. When learning is off, the conversation is saved so you can look back at it, but it isn't used to build Familiar's understanding of you, your progress, or its memory of you in future conversations.
Who helps us run Familiar
We use a small number of service providers. They process information only to provide their service to us, under their own terms and privacy commitments. We don't let them use your content for their own purposes where we can control it. For example, we send our requests to OpenAI with storage turned off, and we opt out of Deepgram's model improvement program.
| Provider | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services | Hosts Familiar's servers and database in the United States, handles account sign-in, and sends account emails. |
| OpenAI | The AI models that write Familiar's replies and turn your conversations into understanding. Receives the conversation text needed for each request. |
| Deepgram | Turns your speech into text during voice conversations. Receives your audio while you talk. |
| Fish Audio | Gives Familiar its voice. Receives only the text of Familiar's replies, not what you said. |
| Daily | Carries the live audio of voice conversations between the app and our servers. Recording is not turned on. |
| Cloudflare | Runs this website and our domain, and stores the email list for launch updates. |
Some providers keep limited records for a short time for security and abuse prevention, as described in their own policies. We may share information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or as part of a merger or acquisition, in which case this policy would continue to apply to your information.
If you're going through something hard
If you tell Familiar you're thinking about harming yourself, it will respond with care and share crisis resources, and then let you decide how to continue. Familiar never contacts anyone on your behalf. Familiar is not therapy or medical care and doesn't diagnose anything.
How we protect it
Your information is encrypted in transit and at rest, stored in the United States, and accessible only to the systems that need it to run Familiar. No system is perfectly secure, but we work hard to protect what you share and to keep as little as possible.
How long we keep it, and deleting it
We keep your conversations and Familiar's understanding of you while your account is open, so Familiar can keep knowing you. You can delete individual conversations in the app at any time. To delete your account and everything in it, email [email protected] from the address on your account; we then delete your information, including from backups, within 30 days, except for anything we're legally required to keep. Usage counts that contain no content may be kept for our own accounting after their link to you is removed.
Your choices and rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of your information;
- correct it (you can also correct Familiar's understanding directly in the app);
- delete it;
- stop using a conversation for learning (turn learning off).
Depending on where you live (for example, in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or California), you may have additional rights, including to object to or restrict certain processing and to complain to a data protection authority. We process your information to provide the service you asked for, and, for launch emails, with your consent. We don't sell or "share" personal information for cross-context advertising as those terms are defined in California law. To make a request, email [email protected]. We'll respond within 30 days and won't treat you differently for asking.
Age
Familiar is for adults 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone younger. If you believe a child has used Familiar, contact us and we'll delete their information.
This website and launch emails
If you sign up for launch updates, we store your email address, which form you used, and when you signed up. We use it only to tell you about Familiar's launch. To be removed, reply to any email from us or write to [email protected], and we'll delete it.
This website doesn't use advertising, analytics, or tracking cookies. Like any website, our hosting provider handles technical information such as your IP address to deliver pages and protect against attacks.
Where your information goes
Familiar is operated from the United States, and your information is stored and processed there and wherever our providers operate. If you use Familiar from outside the United States, your information is transferred there.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
Contact
Questions or requests: [email protected].