Consent
Hearth Vault preserves a person's voice. That only happens with clear, informed, revocable consent, from the person being recorded and from everyone whose voice is used.
Why consent matters here
A voice is sensitive, personal, and in many places legally protected biometric data. Recording calls, cloning a voice, and preserving a person's words for the long term each deserve their own explicit "yes." We build consent into the product, not as fine print.
The consents we ask for
- Recording consent — permission to record the person's voice on calls. In all-party-consent jurisdictions (for example California), everyone on the call must agree; our calls include a spoken notice that the call is being recorded.
- Archive consent — permission to keep the recordings and transcripts in the archive you create.
- Voice & playback consent — for anyone whose voice is cloned (for example, to ask questions in a familiar voice), separate permission to create and use that voice.
- Future-use consent — separate, optional permission for any future conversational feature built from the archive. This is never assumed; it is opted into on its own.
Recording someone else
If you set up Hearth Vault to capture a parent, grandparent, or anyone else, you must have their informed consent. You are responsible for meeting the consent laws of your and their jurisdiction.
Voices of people who have passed
Recreating the voice of someone who has died is handled with special care and is gated behind explicit acknowledgement that you have the standing and the surviving family's agreement to do so. We may decline uses we consider inappropriate.
Withdrawing consent
Consent is revocable. Any participant may withdraw at any time. On withdrawal we stop using that person's voice, delete their recordings and transcripts on request, and request deletion of any voice model created from them, subject to legal retention limits.
Minors
A minor may participate only with verifiable consent of a parent or guardian, who consents on their behalf.