Ammamma privacy policy
In short
- Your family's messages travel end-to-end encrypted between your family's phones. Our servers pass them on but cannot read them.
- To translate a message, the recording is processed in memory and deleted as soon as the translation is made. We keep no copy and no voiceprint.
- Your voice speaks only your own messages, and only after you agree to it when you set up the app.
- We do not sell your data, show ads, or use your data to train AI models.
1. Who we are
Ammamma is provided by CounselGrid Private Limited, Plot 143, Machanpally Enclave, Bandlaguda Jagir, Hyderabad, Telangana 500086, India ("CounselGrid", "we"). For any question about your data, write to privacy@counselgrid.com.
2. What the app does
You and the family members you pair with send each other voice messages. When you speak different languages, your message is transcribed, translated and spoken in your own voice in their language, with a short spoken note that it is an AI translation. When you speak the same language, they hear your own recording. You can also send a voice reminder that rings on their phone at times you choose, and call a family member by tapping their photo.
3. What we process
3.1 On your phone only
Your profile (first name, language, how you speak it, your gender if you give it, and your photo if you add one), your family list (what you call each person, their language, the relation, their photo, the phone number you pick for calling them, when you last heard from them), your messages (recordings, transcripts and translations) and your settings. This is stored encrypted on your phone and is not sent to us, except as described below.
When you tap a family member's photo to call them, the app looks up their number in your phone's contacts, on your phone, to start a WhatsApp video call if they have WhatsApp. Nothing from your contacts is stored or sent.
3.2 Sent through our servers
| Data | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your device's public keys and a device identifier | To register your phone and pair it with your family's phones | Until you delete your data; pairing codes 24 hours |
| Encrypted messages and profile updates, including your photo if you add one, your time zone, and voice reminders with their times (we cannot read them) | To deliver them to your family's phones | Until delivered, at most 30 days |
| A push token from Google Firebase | To wake your phone when a message arrives; the wake-up carries no names or content | Up to 60 days after your phone last registered it |
| Technical logs (device identifier, the internet address your phone connected from, time, which service, result) | Security, preventing abuse, fixing faults, answering lawful requests, and Indian law (CERT-In directions) | 180 days, stored in India |
3.3 Sent for translation, only when a message needs it
The recording, and a short brief: both languages, your first name and gender, your relation to the listener and what you call them, a few family words to keep as they are, and how you each speak the language. It is processed in memory by our translation service and its providers (section 6) and deleted with the answer. The answer (transcript, translation and spoken audio) goes back to your phone only.
3.4 Your voice
Your voice is personal data, and in some places biometric data. Each recording is used only to speak the translation of that same recording in your voice. A temporary voice copy is made for that one message and deleted in the same request. No voiceprint or voice model is kept by us or, under our contracts, by our providers. You agree to this when you set up the app, and you can withdraw at any time by removing your family members or deleting your data.
3.5 Reports
When you tap Report on a message, or answer "Did this sound like them?", the app sends a short flag: the kind of content, the reason or your answer, the languages, which AI models made it, and the app version, linked to your device identifier. It contains no words of the message. If you also choose to email us the words, your own email app opens and nothing is sent unless you send it.
4. Why we process it
| Purpose | Basis |
|---|---|
| Delivering your messages and running the app | Providing the service you asked for (contract) |
| Speaking translations in your own voice | Your explicit consent, given in the app |
| Warning your family about messages that ask for money or codes | Legitimate interest in protecting users from scams |
| Reports about AI output, and security logs | Legitimate interest in a safe, accurate and secure service |
| Answering lawful requests from authorities | Legal obligation |
We do not use your data for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not use it to train AI models.
5. Artificial intelligence
Translations and voices are made by AI. Every translated message says so, aloud and on screen, and the original recording is always one tap away. AI can make mistakes: do not rely on a translation for medical, legal, financial or emergency matters.
6. Who else processes data
Only to provide the service, under contracts that do not allow any other use:
| Provider | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud | Hosting our servers | India (Mumbai) |
| Google Firebase Cloud Messaging | Wake-up notifications, without content | Global |
| OpenAI | Speech recognition, translation, recognising tone and dialect | United States |
| Sarvam AI | Telugu speech recognition and the neutral voice | India |
| Cartesia | Speaking the translation in the sender's own voice | United States |
Where data is processed outside your country, we rely on the safeguards the law requires, such as standard contractual clauses.
7. How long we keep data
Translation data is deleted right after each message; encrypted messages when delivered, or after 30 days; pairing codes after 24 hours; push tokens after 60 days of inactivity; logs after 180 days. Everything on your phone stays until you delete it or remove the app.
8. Security
Messages are end-to-end encrypted between family phones, and the keys never leave the phones. The database on your phone is encrypted, connections use TLS, and our servers hold message content only as ciphertext. Each phone is checked with Google Play Integrity before it may use the service.
9. Your rights
You can access, correct and delete your data, get a copy of it, object to or restrict processing, and withdraw consent at any time. Most of your data is only on your phone, so the app does this for you in About you → Privacy & your data:
- Download my data saves a file with your profile, family, messages and recordings, wherever you choose.
- Delete my data erases everything on your phone, and your phone's record, waiting messages and push token on our servers. Your family is told you left and keeps the messages you sent them. See how to delete your data.
For anything else, write to privacy@counselgrid.com. We answer within one month.
10. Children
Ammamma is for adults (18 and over) only. We do not knowingly process data of anyone under 18; if we learn that we have, we delete it.
11. India
Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you may access, correct and erase your data, nominate someone to act for you, and raise a grievance with our Grievance Officer at privacy@counselgrid.com. If your grievance is not resolved, you may approach the Data Protection Board of India.
12. Requests from authorities
We answer only lawful requests, sent to privacy@counselgrid.com, and can provide only what we hold: device records, times, the internet addresses in our logs, and the device identifiers of undelivered messages. Never message content, which we cannot read.
13. Changes
We will tell you in the app before a material change to this policy takes effect.