Privacy Policy

Effective: August 22, 2026 · Applies to: the Ella Founding Family Pilot and the ella-ai-care.com website.

Ella is built on a simple promise: your loved one gets gentle help, and you get reassurance — without turning her life into a surveillance feed. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and the controls you have. It is written to be read, not skimmed past. If anything is unclear, email hello@ella-ai-care.com and a human will answer.

The short version

  • The Ella pendant listens for conversational context during the day so it can help in the moment and build a personal memory of names, plans, and routines.
  • Designated family members receive summaries and alerts — never raw audio and never full transcripts.
  • The older adult using Ella consents to it directly during onboarding, can pause listening at any time, and can ask us to delete their data.
  • We do not sell personal data. Ever.
  • Ella is a personal companion and reminder tool, not a medical device.

What we collect

  • Account information. Names and contact details for the Ella user and the family members in their care circle.
  • Conversational context. Audio captured by the pendant is processed into transcripts and distilled into a personal memory (people, plans, preferences, routines, recent events). Audio recordings and transcripts are stored securely in your family's private space; they are kept so Ella's memory stays accurate and are deleted when you delete the related conversation or your account. There is no automatic expiration — deletion is under your family's control.
  • Messages with Ella. Texts, iMessages, emails, and calls exchanged with Ella as part of the service.
  • Saved-memory illustrations. If you choose this feature, Ella can create an illustration from a saved memory's title and summary. The illustration is stored privately with that memory. Ella does not send raw microphone audio or source photos to create it.
  • Device and service data. Pendant status (battery, connectivity) and basic service logs.
  • Website form data. What you submit through the Apply form.

How we use it

To provide the service: in-the-moment cues, reminders, daily summaries for designated family, and alerts according to your family's configured preferences. To operate and improve the pilot. That's it. We do not sell personal data, and we do not use your family's conversations to advertise to you.

Who sees what

  • The Ella user owns their experience. Their conversations are theirs.
  • Designated family members see privacy-filtered summaries, alerts, and — where the primary user grants permission — selected shared materials. They do not receive raw audio or full ambient transcripts.
  • Service providers. Ella runs on trusted processors: Deepgram (speech-to-text), Google Firebase and Gemini (infrastructure and language processing), Nous Research / Hermes Cloud (managed companion runtime; it may receive what you say or type, details you choose to share, and basic session information needed to keep your conversation going), Nous Research / Hermes Cloud profile memory (built-in profile-scoped memory; it may receive what you say or type, details you choose to save, and basic information that connects them to the same account and profile), Photon (test/shared-line message delivery; during the current synthetic prototype it receives message content and basic delivery details only for one explicitly allowed test contact, cannot message everyone or family support, and cannot accept files), OpenRouter (routing text to the selected language model), OpenAI (language processing, live voice, and optional saved-memory illustrations; after you separately allow illustrations, Ella's dedicated artwork designer uses OpenAI Codex to interpret the selected memory's title, summary, and your chosen style, then uses OpenAI's image service to create one image; it does not receive raw microphone audio, source photos, or your full memory history), Groq (fast language processing), xAI Grok (voice and language), and ElevenLabs (voice synthesis fallback — primary voice synthesis runs on our own systems). These Photon limits describe the current synthetic prototype; we will update this policy and ask again before any broader production messaging scope. The exact route can vary by feature; we will keep this list current as the pilot evolves.
  • No one else, except if the law compels us or to protect someone's safety in an emergency, consistent with your configured preferences.

Consent — including people who visit

The Ella user chooses Ella. During onboarding we walk through, in plain language, what Ella hears, remembers, and shares, and we record that consent. Listening stops whenever the pendant is taken off or powered down — onboarding covers exactly how.

California is an all-party consent state. Household members and regular visitors must be informed that Ella may process conversations in the home. As part of onboarding, we provide the family with notice materials and require confirmation that household members and frequent visitors have been informed.

Retention and deletion

Personal memory persists so that Ella stays helpful — that's the product. You (or the Ella user) can request deletion of specific memories or the entire account at any time via hello@ella-ai-care.com, and we will complete it within 30 days. A saved-memory illustration is deleted when you delete its memory or the account. Server backups are kept briefly (currently up to three days) before rotating out, so deleted data leaves backups automatically within that window.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit. Access to production systems is limited to the people operating the pilot.

Your rights

California residents have rights to access, correct, delete, and port their personal information, and to be free from discrimination for exercising them (CCPA/CPRA). Email hello@ella-ai-care.com to exercise any right.

Not a medical service

Ella is a personal companion and reminder tool, not a medical device. Ella does not diagnose, treat, or monitor medical conditions, and is not a substitute for professional care or emergency services. If someone may be in danger, call 911.

Changes and contact

We'll notify pilot families directly about material changes.
Ella AI Care · Palo Alto, California · hello@ella-ai-care.com