Privacy policy

Effective October 13, 2026

Chirpybot is operated by Tinker and Twist LLC, an Oregon limited liability company ("we", "us"), which is responsible for your data. Chirpybot runs the cloud service behind AI companion devices: the website where you manage your companions, and the server they talk to. This policy explains exactly what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and who else sees it.

Our rule is simple: we collect only the minimum data needed to run the service, we never sell it, we never use it for advertising, and we don't track you. There are no analytics tools, advertising networks or tracking pixels on this site.

What we collect, and why

Your account

Email address and display name: to sign you in, and to send account messages (email confirmation, password resets, security alerts, and any notifications you turn on).
Password: stored only as a one-way Argon2id hash; we can't see or recover it. When you choose a password, we check it against known data breaches using the Have I Been Pwned service in a way that never sends your password or its full hash (only the first 5 characters of a hash).
Two-step sign-in: if you turn on an authenticator app, its secret is stored encrypted; recovery codes are stored only as hashes. Passkeys store only a public key (the private key never leaves your device).
Signing in with another account (Google, Microsoft, Apple, GitHub or Facebook, where offered): we keep that provider's account identifier and the email address it gave us, so we can recognize you next time. We ask only for your basic profile and email, nothing else from those accounts.
Sign-in sessions: a random session identifier (we store only a hash of it), the approximate network you signed in from (shortened, e.g. the first three parts of an IPv4 address), your browser type, and times. This is what lets you see and end your sessions under Account.

Your homes and companions

Homes and members: the names you give your homes, who belongs to each and their role, and pending invitations (the invited email address), so people can share companions.
Companions: each unit's name, model and firmware version, time zone, when it was last online, and a credential (stored only as a hash) that proves it's yours.
Companion settings and status: so the website can show and change your companion's settings, the unit reports them to us: things like its name, voice and personality, volume, quiet hours, the Wi-Fi network name it's connected to, battery level, the town you set for weather and time, and calendar settings if you set them up (never the calendar password). We keep only the latest report, for up to 30 days after the unit was last online.
Your AI provider key: companions think using an AI service you choose (for example Anthropic, OpenAI or Google) with your own key. The key is encrypted with a key held only by our device server; the website itself can't read it back. We show only its last 4 characters.

Talking to your companion

Your voice: after the wake word, your companion streams the audio to our server, where it's turned into text and immediately discarded. We do not store recordings of your voice.
What you say, as text: the text of your question, with the recent conversation, is sent to the AI service you chose so it can answer. The conversation is kept in our server's memory only while your companion is connected, and is never saved to our database, backups or logs.
The companion's replies are turned into speech on our own server. Speech recognition and voice generation never leave our servers.
Things your companion remembers: if you ask it to remember something ("my sister's name is Ana"), it keeps a short note, encrypted, so it can recall it later. You can ask it to forget any note, or everything.
Looking things up: when you ask about current events, opening hours and the like, your question (and the town you set) is used to search the web: through your AI provider's own search, or through Brave Search, and by fetching the pages found. Weather questions send your town's coordinates to Open-Meteo.

Running the service safely

Security log: important account events (sign-ins, password and key changes, pairing) with the time, the IP address and browser type, so we can investigate misuse and so you could be told about it. Kept 12 months.
Usage counts: per home and day, how many words the AI used and how many lookups were made, to apply fair-use limits. No content. Kept 24 months.
Server logs: our web server records requests (IP address, time, page, browser type) to keep the service working and secure. Kept 14 days. Our application logs never contain your conversations, keys or passwords.
Cookies: only the ones the site needs to work: your sign-in session, a security token that protects forms, and a short-lived one while you sign in with another account. No advertising or analytics cookies.

Who else sees your data

We don't sell or rent personal data, and we share it only as needed to run the service:

The AI service you choose receives what you say to your companion (as text), the recent conversation, the companion's instructions and notes it remembers about you, using your own key. Their privacy terms apply to that use; check them, and set spending limits in their console.
Brave Search receives search questions for lookups (when your AI service doesn't search itself). Open-Meteo receives the coordinates of your town for weather. Have I Been Pwned receives the first 5 characters of a password hash.
Sign-in providers (Google, Microsoft, Apple, GitHub, Facebook) take part only if you choose to sign in with them.
Our hosting provider (Akamai / Linode, in the United States) runs the servers our service and database live on.
The law: we disclose data only when legally required, and we'll tell you unless we're prohibited from doing so.

How we protect it

Connections are encrypted (HTTPS and secure WebSockets). AI keys, companion notes and authenticator secrets are encrypted with per-record keys; the master key never leaves our device server and isn't stored in backups. Passwords and credentials are stored only as hashes. Sensitive changes ask you to confirm it's you. Each companion has its own revocable credential. Database backups are made nightly and kept for 14 days.

How long we keep it

Account, home and companion data is kept while your account exists. When you remove a companion, its credential stops working at once. When you delete an AI key, it's destroyed. Expired sessions and one-time email links are deleted automatically, security log entries after 12 months, usage counts after 24 months, and server logs after 14 days. When you delete your account (under Account → Your data), it's removed 7 days later (you can cancel until then), together with any homes you own alone: their companions are unpaired and their AI key and memories destroyed. Homes you share with another owner stay. Backups that still contain the account expire 14 days after that. The security log keeps its entries about your account until they age out (12 months), so misuse can still be investigated.

Your choices and rights

See and change your details, sessions, sign-in methods and notifications under Account; remove companions, keys and people from your homes at any time.
Ask your companion to forget what it remembers.
Download a copy of all your data, or delete your account, any time under Account → Your data. For anything else (a correction, a question) write to privacy@chirpybot.com; we'll answer within 30 days.
Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK or California), you have legal rights to access, correct, delete or port your data, to object to or restrict its use, and to complain to your data protection authority. We honor these requests for everyone.

Children

Accounts are for adults (18 or older). A companion may be used by everyone in a home, including children, under the account holder's supervision. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children: voices aren't recorded, and conversations aren't stored. If you believe a child's information is in a companion's notes, ask the companion to forget it or contact us and we'll delete it.

Where your data is processed

Our servers are in the United States. The AI service you choose, and the other services above, may process data in other countries under their own terms.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll email account holders before the change takes effect. The date at the top shows the latest version.

Contact

Questions or requests: Tinker and Twist LLC, privacy@chirpybot.com.