Nobody else
reads it.

Information we collect

Tell collects the following personal data.

Information you provide

• Voice recordings (audio data): When you record an entry, the audio is sent through OpenRouter to Google’s Gemini model, running on Google Cloud (Vertex AI), to turn it into text. Tell’s servers do not store your audio, and the AI host does not keep it after answering.
• Journal entry text (other user content): The text of your entries, typed or transcribed, is stored and linked to your account so the Service can work.
• Reflections and patterns: What Tell’s AI writes from your entries: the tabs it sorts an entry into, what it highlights as true and what it marks as a guess, its questions and your answers, detected feelings, the tells (thinking patterns) it finds, and your monthly patterns and Mind Profile.
• Context you share: Your goals and age range, if you give them when you set up Tell, and the people and pets you mention in your entries. For each one, Tell keeps a name or role, how they relate to you, a short note on where things stand, and short dated notes from the entries that mention them. This helps later reflections fit your life.
• Name: Collected at account creation to personalise your experience.
• Email address: Collected at account creation for sign-in and essential service messages such as password resets. If you opt in, we may also use it to send occasional product updates.
• Sign-in details: If you use Sign in with Apple or Continue with Google, we receive the name and email address they share with us. With Google, we also receive the link to your Google profile photo, which is kept with your sign-in record.
• Marketing consent flag: A setting on your profile recording whether you have opted in to marketing emails. Off by default.
• AI consent record: When you agreed to AI processing, and which version of the in-app AI processing screen you agreed to.
• User ID: A unique identifier assigned to your account when you register, used to link your data securely within our systems.

Information collected automatically

• Usage analytics: We use PostHog, hosted in the EU, to understand how the app is used: which features you open, session length, and events such as “recording started”. These events are linked to your account. Tell never sends the text of your entries, transcriptions or reflections to analytics. PostHog keeps your account details (user ID, email, name, timezone, how you signed in, when you signed up, your goals and age range), your subscription details (plan, status, price and currency, store and transaction IDs), your device details (device type, operating system and version, screen size and language) and which AI features you use, but never what you said.
• Crash reports: We use Sentry, hosted in the EU, to catch crashes and errors. Reports include your device and app version and technical details of the error. Sentry reports are not linked to your account, and they never include your name, email or the content of your entries.
• Device information: General device type, operating system version and app version, for troubleshooting and compatibility.
• Timezone: Your device’s timezone, so reminders and summaries match your day.

Information we do not collect

• We do not collect your location, and Tell never reads your GPS.
• We do not collect your contacts or address book.
• We do not access your camera roll, photo library or any local files. Tell does not support image attachments.
• We do not collect browsing history or data from other apps.

How we use your information

• To deliver the journal: recording, transcribing, sorting what you said into tabs, highlighting what’s true and showing your patterns over time.
• To write AI reflections: Your entry text, and the context described under “AI processing and consent”, is sent to our AI providers to write your reflections, questions and patterns. Each request is used only to answer it and is never used to build advertising profiles.
• To show your patterns: Bringing your own entries together to show the tells that ran your month, the people who came up and the tabs that keep coming back.
• To improve the Service: Usage analytics help us understand which features are valuable and where people run into problems.
• To keep the app working: Crash reports help us find and fix errors.
• To communicate with you: Sending essential service messages such as password resets, billing notices or critical updates. If you have opted in to marketing emails, we may also send you occasional product updates. You can withdraw marketing consent at any time in the app or by contacting us.

How we store and protect your data

• Data storage: Your entries and account data are stored with Supabase in the EU (Ireland), with encrypted storage and row-level security. Each person can only access their own data. Tell is made by the maker of Loop Mind and runs on the same systems; your Tell journal is kept apart from Loop Mind, and neither app can read the other’s entries.
• Encryption: All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) between your device and our servers. Data at rest is encrypted by our infrastructure provider.
• Access controls: We limit who can reach our database, and we do not read your journal content during normal operations.
• AI processing: Your entry text and voice audio are sent through OpenRouter to AI models running on Google Cloud (Vertex AI): Google’s Gemini models and Anthropic’s Claude. Every request uses zero data retention: the model host answers and does not keep your data, and none of these companies uses it to train models. Tell’s servers do not store your audio.

AI processing and consent

Tell uses AI to transcribe your voice entries and to write reflections from your words. We ask for your explicit consent in the app before any of your data is sent for AI processing.

What is sent

• The audio of a voice entry, only to turn it into text.
• The text of your entries.
• Context that helps a reflection fit your life: the name you gave Tell (usually your first name), the people and pets you mention (each one’s name or role, how they relate to you, a short note on where things stand, and short dated notes from your past entries), your goals and age range, and the tabs and tells Tell found in your past entries.
• For Go deeper, your earlier questions and answers in that conversation.
• For patterns, your entries and reflections from that period.

Who we send it to

Your data goes to OpenRouter, Inc., an AI routing gateway. OpenRouter forwards each request to a model running on Google Cloud (Vertex AI):

• Google’s Gemini models transcribe your voice entries and write your reflections, patterns, Mind Profile and Go deeper questions.
• Anthropic’s Claude, run on Google Cloud (Vertex AI) and reached through OpenRouter, writes parts of your reflections and Go deeper replies, once you have agreed to it in the app.

Every request uses OpenRouter’s zero data retention routing, so it only goes to a host that does not keep your data. Every request, to Gemini or to Claude, is pinned to Google Cloud: it is never sent to another host. Apart from Listen (below), your data is not sent to any other AI service.

Listen (ElevenLabs)

When you tap Listen, the text of that one Go deeper question is sent to ElevenLabs, Inc., which reads it aloud. The question is written by the AI and can mention something from your entry, such as a name. Nothing else is sent: not your entries, your answers, your recordings, your name or your account ID. It is only sent once you have agreed to the consent screen that names ElevenLabs.

How we obtain your consent

Before any of your data is sent for AI processing, the app shows an “AI processing” screen that names these companies and asks you to tap “I agree”. If you don’t want to agree, you can sign out from that screen, and nothing is sent. When we add an AI company, the app shows the updated screen and asks again. Nothing is sent to the new company until you agree.

Equivalent protection

OpenRouter, Google Cloud and Anthropic are bound by their published terms (linked in the table below). Every request is sent with zero data retention, and none of these companies uses your data to train models. We will only add or change an AI provider in a way that keeps this level of protection, and we will ask for your consent in the app first.

Withdrawing consent

You can withdraw AI consent at any time in the app’s account settings. From that moment, nothing more is sent for AI processing. Your entries stay yours, and you can agree again later. While consent is withdrawn, you cannot open your journal in the app, but you can still export your entries or delete your account (see “Your rights and choices”).

Third-party services

We use the following services to run Tell:

On our website (telljournal.com): the site is hosted by Vercel, which receives your IP address and browser details to serve the pages. The site sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads nothing from other companies: its fonts and images are served from telljournal.com itself.

We never sell, rent or share your journal content, transcriptions, reflections or any mental health data with any third party for advertising, marketing or data brokering purposes. There are no ads in Tell.

International transfers

Tell’s database is hosted in the EU (Supabase, Ireland), and our analytics (PostHog) and crash reports (Sentry) are hosted in the EU. Some of our providers are based in, or may process data in, the United States or other countries outside the EEA: OpenRouter, Google Cloud, Anthropic, ElevenLabs, Supabase (our server functions run in the region closest to you), Resend, RevenueCat, Apple and Google, and, for our website, Vercel. When your data leaves the EEA, we rely on the safeguards the GDPR requires, such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses. You can ask us for details at hello@telljournal.com.

Your rights and choices

You have the following rights regarding your data:

• Access: You can see your entries in the app as long as you have agreed to the latest AI processing screen. You can also ask us for a copy of all the data we hold about you.
• Deletion: You can delete single entries in the app. To delete your account and its data, use Delete account in the app’s account settings, or email us. This does not remove purchase records kept by Apple and RevenueCat, Resend’s own logs of emails it sent you, or Sentry crash reports, which are not linked to your account (see “Data retention”).
• Data export: In the app’s account settings, Export saves your entries and Tell’s reflections as files you can keep. You can also ask us for a copy.
• Opt out of analytics: Email us and we will delete your analytics profile in PostHog and stop collecting new analytics for your account.
• Withdraw AI processing consent: At any time in the app’s account settings, without deleting your account (see “AI processing and consent”).

Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Tell is operated from France. If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the GDPR applies to our processing of your personal data. Your rights include:

• Right of access: obtain a copy of all personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”): ask us to delete your personal data.
• Right to restrict processing: limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability: receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to object: object to processing based on legitimate interest.
• Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@telljournal.com. We will respond within 30 days.

If you believe your data protection rights have been violated, you can lodge a complaint with the CNIL (Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés), the French data protection authority, at cnil.fr.

Legal basis for processing

• Explicit consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 9(2)(a)): Your entries can reveal information about your health, which the GDPR counts as a special category of data. We send your voice recordings, entries and context to AI services only with your explicit consent on the in-app AI processing screen.
• Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): To provide the Service you have signed up for.
• Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): For usage analytics and crash reports that keep the Service working and help us improve it, where our interest does not override your rights.

For users in California

You have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), including the right to know what data is collected and the right to request deletion.

Data retention

• Journal entries: Kept as long as your account is active, or until you delete them. Entries don’t expire.
• Account data: Kept as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete your data within 30 days. Some records are not removed when you delete your account: purchase records kept by Apple and by RevenueCat (our purchase provider), Resend’s own logs of emails it sent you, and Sentry crash reports, which are not linked to your account. To have your RevenueCat record deleted, write to us.
• Voice recordings (audio data): Not stored on Tell’s servers. Sent for transcription with zero data retention, so the AI host does not keep it.
• AI requests: Sent with zero data retention, so the model host (Google Cloud, running Gemini or Claude) does not keep them after the answer is returned.
• Analytics data: Usage data may be kept for up to 12 months for product improvement. When you delete your account, your analytics profile and its events are deleted too.

Children’s privacy

Tell is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

Mental health disclaimer

Tell is a journal, not a substitute for clinical care. It is not a medical device and makes no diagnosis, and its AI reflections are there to help you reflect, not to give professional or clinical advice. If you are in crisis, contact your local emergency services or a crisis line right away. You can find one near you at findahelpline.com.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will tell you about significant changes in the app or by email before they apply. If a change affects how your entries are processed, for example a new AI company, the app asks for your consent again, and nothing is sent to that company until you agree.

Contact us

Tell
Data controller: Adrien Barbusse
Location: France, European Union
Email: hello@telljournal.com
Website: telljournal.com