Privacy Policy

Effective October 8, 2026 · Last updated October 8, 2026

Beni (“Beni,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) makes a voice companion for older adults living at home, together with an iPhone app and a web account at my.beni.family for the family members who look after them. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with — including our AI provider — and the choices you have.

By using the Beni speaker, app, web account or website, you agree to the practices described here.

1. Who this policy covers

Family members and caregivers who use the Beni app or my.beni.family to set up a speaker, choose a companion, talk to Beni and read conversation summaries.
People who talk to Beni — usually an older adult at home, and anyone else who speaks with the speaker or the in-app companion.
Website visitors to beni.family.

The person who sets up a speaker for someone else is responsible for telling them that conversations with Beni are recorded, transcribed and summarised as described here, and for obtaining any consent their jurisdiction requires.

2. Information we collect

Account information

Name, email address and sign-in details (including Sign in with Apple or Google), and, if you provide it, a phone number.

Conversations

When someone talks to Beni or sends it a message, we process the audio of their voice and the content of the conversation so Beni can understand and reply. We store transcripts of conversations, and may store recordings of what was said to Beni, together with the summaries, highlights and memories Beni creates from them.

Apple Health data (optional)

Only if you turn it on in the iPhone app. See section 3.

Speaker and device information

Speaker identifiers, firmware version, connection status and diagnostics; the companion persona and settings you choose; and an approximate location for the speaker (a city or area you set, or one derived from its network) used for local weather, news and search results. To set up a speaker, the app sends your Wi-Fi network name and password straight to the speaker over Bluetooth; we do not store your Wi-Fi password on our servers.

iPhone permissions

Bluetooth — only to find and set up your speaker.
Location — only so iOS lets the app read the name of your current Wi-Fi network during setup. We do not store or send your phone’s location.
Microphone — when you talk to Beni in the app.
Speech recognition — for dictation inside the app; it runs on your device.
Camera and photos — only when you choose to attach a photo in chat.
Notifications — to deliver messages from Beni and account alerts.

Purchases

Talk-time purchases in the iPhone app are handled by Apple. We receive a record of what was bought, never your card details.

Connected services (optional)

If you choose to connect another service to Beni — for example a fitness account or a third-party tool — we receive the information that service shares for that connection, and store the credentials or tokens needed to keep it connected.

Website

Basic technical information such as IP address, browser type and pages visited, used to run and secure the site.

3. Apple Health data

Sharing Apple Health data with Beni is optional and off until you turn it on in the iPhone app and grant permission in the iOS Health sheet.

What we read

Beni only reads from Apple Health; it never writes to it. Depending on the categories you allow, we read: sleep, steps, walking and running distance, flights climbed, active energy, workouts, mindful minutes, heart rate, resting heart rate, walking heart rate average, heart-rate variability, respiratory rate, blood oxygen, walking steadiness, sleeping wrist temperature and VO₂ max. You can allow or deny each category individually.

How it is used

The app turns these readings into a short daily summary (for example “7 h 20 min of sleep, 4,300 steps so far today”) and uploads it to our servers, linked to your account and the speaker you chose. When Beni has a conversation, it is given the latest summary and recent trends from the past few days, so it can respond to how you are doing — for example noticing a short night’s sleep. Raw samples stay in Apple Health on your iPhone.

Our commitments for Health data.

We never use Health data for advertising, marketing or profiling, and never sell it or give it to data brokers.
We share it only with the service providers that run Beni for you — our AI provider, OpenAI, when it is part of a conversation (section 5), and our cloud hosting provider (section 6) — and only to provide the Beni service.
We do not store Health data in iCloud.
We disclose it otherwise only if the law requires it.

Turning it off

Turn Health sharing off in the Beni app, or remove Beni’s access in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Health. The app then stops uploading new readings and Beni stops using them in conversation. Daily summaries uploaded before then stay with your account until you delete your account or ask us to delete them (see section 9).

4. How we use information

To run the companion: understand what is said and reply by voice and text.
To give Beni context: the chosen persona, things it has learned in earlier conversations, local weather and news, internet search results, and Health summaries if shared.
To show family members conversation transcripts, daily summaries and highlights in the app and at my.beni.family, and to relay messages Beni is asked to pass on.
To set up, update and troubleshoot speakers, provide support, and keep the service secure and reliable.
To process purchases and measure talk time.
To send service messages and, if you opt in, product news.

We do not use conversations or Health data for advertising, and we do not sell personal information.

5. Our AI provider (OpenAI)

Beni’s conversations are powered by OpenAI. To produce a reply, we send OpenAI’s API, on your behalf:

the audio of the speaker’s voice and/or a transcript of what they say;
the conversation and the context we assemble for it — such as the persona, earlier conversation history and memories, approximate location, and Health summaries if you have chosen to share them;
questions Beni looks up on the internet, together with an approximate location, to return relevant results;
conversation transcripts, to write the daily summaries and highlights family members see.

OpenAI processes this data to return results to us. Under OpenAI’s API terms, data sent through the API is not used to train OpenAI’s models by default, and we require our AI provider to protect it consistently with this policy.

The iPhone app asks for your explicit agreement before any of this data is sent to OpenAI. If you do not agree, the features that rely on our AI provider are not available.

6. Other service providers

We use trusted providers to operate Beni, who may process personal data only on our instructions and must protect it:

Google Cloud and Firebase — hosting, databases, file storage, sign-in and notifications.
Apple — Sign in with Apple, in-app purchases, Apple Health and push notifications.
OpenAI — as described in section 5.
Connected services you choose — only the data needed for the connection you set up.

We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the safety, rights or property of our users, the public or Beni. We do not sell, rent or trade personal information.

7. Data retention

We keep account information, conversations, summaries and Health summaries for as long as your account is active, or as long as needed for the purposes in this policy or required by law. When you delete your account, we delete its conversations, summaries, Health data, speaker links and settings, except where we must keep something to meet a legal obligation.

8. Security

Data is encrypted in transit and stored with our cloud provider, which encrypts it at rest, with access limited to the people and systems that need it to run Beni. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we use commercially reasonable safeguards to protect your information.

9. Your rights and choices

Access the information we hold about you, or get a copy of it.
Correct it, or delete it — including deleting your account from the app’s Account settings.
Withdraw consent to AI processing or Health sharing at any time (features that need it will stop working).
Manage Health permissions in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Health.
Object to or restrict certain processing, where the law gives you that right.

To use any of these, or to ask us to delete stored Health summaries without closing your account, email hey@heybeni.com. If you are in the EEA or UK, you may also complain to your local data protection authority.

10. Children

Beni is made for adults and is set up and managed by adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

11. International users

Your data may be processed in countries other than your own, including the United States, where our providers operate. Where required, we use appropriate safeguards for these transfers.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will change the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, tell you in the app or by email. Continuing to use Beni after an update means you accept the revised policy.

13. Contact us

For questions, requests or privacy concerns — including access and deletion requests — email hey@heybeni.com.