Somebody HomePrivacy Policy
The short version. The characters in Somebody Home are AI. When you text or call one of them, what you write or say is sent through our servers to an AI model provider so the character can answer. Nothing is sent until you agree in the app. Their memories of you live on your phone. We don't sell your data, show ads, or use tracking or analytics SDKs. You can turn AI chat off or delete your account from inside the app at any time.
Who we are
Somebody Home is made by TJ NOVA LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (No. 17308318), 124–128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom. We are the controller of the personal data described here. Contact: info@tjnovaltd.com.
What we process and why
- Your account. If you sign in with Apple we receive an Apple user identifier and an email address (this can be Apple's private relay address), and your name if you choose to share it the first time. We use it to keep your account and your phone credit, and to let you delete everything later.
- Texts and calls with the characters. The texts you send, what you type or say during a call, and short notes the app keeps about earlier chats are sent from the app through our servers to our AI model provider to write the character's reply. This only happens after you agree on the consent screen. Our servers pass these requests along and keep counts (how many requests, how many tokens, which model) to manage cost and limits; they do not keep the text of your conversations. The AI model provider processes the request to produce the reply under its own terms and may keep it for a limited time for abuse monitoring. The provider currently in use is named in the app on the consent screen and in ⋯ → AI & privacy.
- Your voice on calls. If you switch the mic on during a call, what you say is turned into text by Apple's speech recognition (iOS asks for microphone and speech recognition permission first). Only the text goes on to the character, the same way as a typed line; we don't receive or keep audio.
- Memories and your game. What the characters remember about you, their diaries, your chat history and the state of their homes are stored on your device. Uninstalling the app or deleting your account removes them.
- Purchases. Phone credit is bought through Apple's In-App Purchase. Apple handles payment; we never see your card. We receive the transaction ID and product, check it with Apple, and keep an order record so the credit is delivered once.
- Reports. If you report a message, we receive that message, its ID and your device language so we can review it and improve the filters.
- TV footage. The living-room TV streams public NASA footage directly from NASA's media library (images.nasa.gov). NASA receives a normal web request for the video and does not get anything from your account.
Legal bases
We process account, chat and purchase data to provide the app you asked for (contract), AI chat on the basis of your consent (which you can withdraw in the app), and reports and abuse limits on the basis of our legitimate interest in keeping the app safe.
Where it goes
Our servers run on Cloudflare's global network. Apple processes sign-in and payments. The AI model provider processes chat requests. Some of these providers are outside the UK; where that happens we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or adequacy decisions.
How long we keep it
- Your account: until you delete it. Deleting it removes your email, name and sign-in links from our servers and revokes Sign in with Apple.
- Usage counts and reports: kept after deletion only under a random account ID with no email or name, for cost accounting and safety review. Write to us if you want reports removed sooner.
- Order records: as long as we are legally required to keep accounting records (up to six years), even after account deletion.
- Everything on your device: until you delete the app or your account.
Your choices and rights
- Turn AI chat off: ⋯ → AI & privacy → Turn off. The characters then use a few built-in replies and nothing is sent to the AI provider.
- Block a character: ⋯ → AI & privacy → Block. They stop texting and calling you.
- Delete your account: ⋯ → AI & privacy → Delete account. This removes your email, name and sign-in links from our servers, revokes Sign in with Apple, and clears the chats on your phone.
- You can also ask us to access, correct, export or erase your data, or object to processing, by writing to info@tjnovaltd.com. You can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).
Children
Somebody Home is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and we will ask again in the app before sending anything new to a third party.