Privacy policy
What we collect when you use Undertold, why we need it, who helps us process it, and how to get it changed or deleted.
This is a working first draft for a Sweden-based consumer service. Company details are placeholders, and the text will change before launch.
Who we are
The data controller is Undertold (company details to be confirmed) (organisation number and registered address to be confirmed), operating Undertold at undertold.app. For anything about your personal data, write to hello@undertold.app.
What we collect
- Account: your name, email address and a hashed password. We never store your password in readable form.
- Preferences: language, preferred narrator and the interests you choose.
- What you make: the topics and notes you submit, proposals and your edits to them, the finished documentaries, the questions you ask about episodes and the answers, and any problem reports you send.
- Listening history: which episodes you play, how far you got and whether you finished, so we can keep your place and suggest what to hear next.
- Billing: your plan, minute balance and a ledger of minutes used and bought. Card details are handled entirely by our payment provider; we never see or store your card number.
- Location, only when you use Nearby: your device's coordinates are sent with your request to find places near you. They aren't saved to your account, but they can appear in our server logs (see retention below). If you create a story about a place, that place's name and coordinates are saved with the episode.
- Waitlist: if you ask to be told about new apps, your email address and where you signed up.
- Technical data: IP address, browser type and server logs, used to keep the service running, prevent abuse and enforce rate limits.
Why we use it, and the legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis (GDPR art. 6) |
|---|---|
| Creating your account, producing and playing your documentaries, answering your questions | Performance of our contract with you |
| Billing, minute accounting and bookkeeping | Contract, and legal obligation (Swedish Bookkeeping Act) |
| Recommendations based on what you listen to | Legitimate interest in making the service useful; you can object |
| Security, abuse prevention and rate limiting | Legitimate interest in protecting the service and its users |
| Reviewing problem reports and correcting episodes | Legitimate interest in accuracy |
| Waitlist emails | Consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
We don't sell your personal data, and we don't use it for third-party advertising.
Who processes it for us
We use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf under data processing agreements:
- AI model providers (currently Google, through its Gemini APIs) receive the topic, notes and episode content needed to research, write, voice, score and illustrate your documentary, and to answer your questions. We use API terms under which this content is not used to train their models (to be confirmed per provider before launch).
- Payment provider (Stripe) processes subscriptions and top-up purchases.
- Hosting and storage (provider to be confirmed) runs our servers, database and audio files.
- Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) receives the coordinates of your Nearby search from our server, to find places with articles near you. No account data is sent with them.
- Google Fonts serves the typefaces used on our pages, which means your browser connects to Google's servers.
Transfers outside the EU
Some providers may process data outside the EU/EEA, for example in the United States. Where they do, we rely on the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, plus additional safeguards where needed.
How long we keep it
- Account data, what you make and listening history: for as long as you have an account. When you delete your account, they are deleted within 30 days, except where we must keep something by law.
- Billing records: 7 years, as required by Swedish bookkeeping rules.
- Server logs: up to 90 days.
- Waitlist emails: until the app launches and we've told you, or until you ask us to remove you.
Episodes you've shared by link stop being reachable when you delete them or your account.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you can ask for access to your data, a copy in a portable format, correction, deletion, restriction of processing, and you can object to processing based on legitimate interest. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Write to hello@undertold.app and we'll respond within one month.
If you think we've handled your data wrongly, you can complain to the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten, IMY) at imy.se, or to the authority where you live.
Children
Undertold is not intended for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data. In Sweden, users under 13 need a parent's consent.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we use your data in a way that matters, we'll tell you by email or in the app before the change takes effect.