Your privacy.
In plain words.

Who provides Box of Whispers?

Box of Whispers is provided by Tony Charles Smith. For privacy questions, support or a request about personal information, email contact@tonycsmith.com.

This policy covers the Box of Whispers iPhone and iPad app, this website and correspondence you choose to send us. The current website is a prelaunch website; public app availability is still being prepared.

Information the app uses

You choose what to add. Depending on the features you use, the app handles:

• Family names, relationships, birthdays and profile pictures.
• Letters, photographs, audio and video recordings, signatures, chosen recipients and opening dates.
• Invitation details, including recipient email addresses you enter, and Apple sharing identifiers.
• Technical account and record identifiers, delivery confirmations, opening status and notification preferences used to sync and manage gifts.
• Apple purchase verification and entitlement information needed to enable or restore Plus.

Unsent drafts and working copies are stored on the device. Sending, syncing or accepting a gift uses Apple’s CloudKit and iCloud services. This information is used to make the features you request work—not for advertising, data brokerage or training AI models.

Attached media may contain embedded information, such as location metadata. Review your chosen files before sharing them. The app does not include advertising trackers or third-party analytics SDKs. It does not ask for your Apple password or give us access to your whole Photos library or address book. You select the media to attach. The app is not designed to send your private family recordings to a developer-run database.

Who can receive or see a gift?

A gift is shared with the Apple accounts you invite. Each accepted recipient can receive an independent copy in their own private iCloud storage. Delivery and opening information may be returned to the sending family to show the gift’s progress. Family-profile sharing can let an invited grandparent see shared names and pictures.

For a younger child, a parent or guardian can receive and look after their collection. A later handover sends existing gifts to the child’s own account; it does not automatically redirect future gifts.

Apple provides the account, sharing, storage, notification and purchase services under its own terms and privacy policy. Messages or email providers handle invitations you send through them. See Apple’s privacy information.

We don’t routinely receive or review your private family content. If you email us a screenshot or recording for support, you are choosing to disclose that material to us and the email services used to deliver it. Send only what is needed.

The earlier delivery-service connection

The app retains an optional earlier delivery-service connection in More options. It is separate from the current Apple family experience and is not an operating public preservation service supplied by this website.

If you manually connect to a service address, that operator can receive the service-account details, family records, delivery information and encrypted packages you submit. This connection can use its own email-and-password account, notification providers and custody services. Its operator must explain its own processing and retention before you use it. The connection is not enabled merely by opening the current app.

A connected service account has a Delete service account action in its account screen. Deleting that account is different from erasing the local library or managing private iCloud copies. Contact us if you are unsure which system holds an older gift.

Permissions are your choice

Camera and microphone access are requested when recording. Apple’s media picker lets you choose an attachment. Notifications need your permission; you can change these choices in the device’s Settings.

With notifications allowed, the app can schedule an alert for an already-synced gift when it is ready. iOS, Focus settings and successful syncing affect alerts. A reminder is not proof that a new gift has reached the recipient.

Opening dates and security

Future gifts stay out of the ready inbox until their opening dates. The date restriction is enforced by the app; it is not a cryptographic time lock and does not stop a determined person extracting files or changing their device’s clock.

Local protection relies on the device and its passcode. Cloud protection relies on Apple’s services and your account settings. Exported copies and recovery archives need care too. Anyone with an author’s recovery archive and its recovery key may be able to access the future messages in that archive.

How long information is kept

Memories are intended to be kept by the family until they choose to remove them. Device files, private iCloud copies and exported files can have different lifetimes. The app does not automatically erase a memory after it opens. Apple’s own backup, retention and account rules may also apply.

The original publishing account can request removal of its own eligible sent gifts. Updated recipient apps apply that removal on their next successful connection. Another grandparent’s profile does not grant that permission. Copies already exported outside the app cannot be recalled; older gifts without verified publishing identity may be retained for safety.

Erasing a device’s local library or uninstalling the app does not by itself delete every iCloud or recipient copy. Stopping a share does not recall a copy already preserved. Read Your data & choices before deleting anything.

Support correspondence is kept for as long as needed to answer your request, handle relevant follow-up and meet applicable legal obligations. We do not use it to sign you up for marketing. You can ask us to delete correspondence we hold, subject to those obligations.

Children and family information

Adults should manage invitations and purchases for younger children. Obtain the appropriate parent or guardian’s permission before adding or sharing a child’s information. Avoid including sensitive details that aren’t needed for the memory.

A child’s Apple account must meet Apple’s rules for their country and age. There is no public family directory, public feed or searchable collection of children’s profiles.

This website and contacting us

The current website does not create app accounts, accept uploads or take payments. It has no advertising trackers, third-party analytics or marketing cookies. Its fonts, images and scripts are self-hosted. The demonstration names and letters are fictional. The garden illustration was supplied for this website and is not a customer testimonial. Opening an example does not connect to iCloud or send a real gift.

Downloading the story worksheet does not submit your answers. Clicking an email link opens your chosen email app; this website does not silently send a message.

If you contact us, we receive your email address, your message and any attachments you choose to send. We use them to answer you, investigate problems and handle privacy requests.

This website is hosted by Bluehost, part of Newfold Digital. The selected hosting data centre is London, United Kingdom. Bluehost’s access logs can include your IP address, requested page, request time and browser or device information. We use technical logs when necessary to keep the website secure and investigate faults. This does not give the website access to your app gifts or Apple account. Bluehost describes a minimum log retention of 30 days in its access-log documentation; that is a minimum, not a promise that every provider copy is erased on day 30.

The hosting provider may process information internationally even when the website’s data centre is in the UK. Its privacy notice explains its processing and international-transfer safeguards. We do not use website visitor information for advertising or sell it.

Your rights and requests

Where data-protection law applies, you may have rights to access, correct or delete personal information, restrict or object to processing, and receive a portable copy. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it; this does not undo earlier lawful processing.

Information used for requested app features is processed to provide those features and, where applicable, perform the agreement with you. We use support correspondence to answer requested help and manage the service, relying on legitimate interests where appropriate. Legal obligations may require some information to be retained. Apple processes its services under its own policy. We do not make automated decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects.

Email contact@tonycsmith.com with your request. We may need enough information to verify it safely, but will never ask for your Apple password, verification code or recovery key. We can help with data we hold and explain app controls; we cannot directly access or erase every private Apple-account copy or another person’s exported files.

You can also contact your local data-protection authority. In the UK, that is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Changes to this policy

If features or data practices change, we will update this page and its date. Any new optional collection or permission will be explained before it is enabled. Contact us if anything here is unclear.