Privacy Policy

Who we are

Morning Hello is a text-message service run by its two founders from Shreveport, Louisiana. In this policy, "we" means Morning Hello. The account holder is the person who signs up and pays. The person receiving check-ins is the person we text each day. The circle is everyone the account holder adds to hear about them, the account holder included.

Email questions about this policy to support@morninghellos.com.

What we collect

We collect only what the service needs to send the messages and show them to the right people.

• For the person receiving check-ins: their first and last name, their phone number, their city and state (to set the time zone), the time of day the message should arrive, any times they are usually out, and every reply and answer they send, kept word for word. We also keep the date their number was confirmed. When they choose to record an answer, we also keep the recording and the text written out from it. What they type on the answer page is saved as they type, and kept even if they never send it. If they also record an answer on that page and never send the recording, the unsent words on that page are deleted along with it.
• From each text they send: a reading of whether it mentions anything on a fixed list of ours, such as a fall or chest pain, and how sure the reading is. It is kept with the text and holds none of their words.
• From their life story answers: a short list taken from fixed lists of ours: subjects they have mentioned or said do not apply to them, such as children, a career, or a faith; anyone close to them who has died, by relation only, such as a parent; and which of our questions an answer already covered. It holds none of their words.
• For each person in the circle: their name, phone number, and email address, and their place in the order in which they are told about a morning with no reply, and when they last opened the tree of life, to show what is new to them.
• For the account holder: an email address and a password, the dates they accepted these policies and agreed to receive texts, the date they confirmed that the person receiving check-ins agreed to the messages, and, once a card is added, the payment details held by our payment provider. We never see the full card number. Anyone else in the circle who sets up a sign-in has an email address and a password too. Passwords are stored in a form that cannot be turned back into the password.
• The record of what was sent and when: each message, its delivery result, and the times at which each step of a missed morning happened.
• When someone visits the site or signs in: the technical details every web server receives, such as the IP address and the type of browser, which our hosting provider keeps in its logs for a short time, and the cookies described below.
• When someone who is not part of any account texts our number: the text and the number it came from. We do not reply to it or use it for anything.
• When someone left an email address on this site before signups opened: that address and the page it was left on.

What we do not collect

No phone location, no contacts, no other apps, no sensors, nothing from the phone beyond the messages and recordings the person chooses to send. The microphone is used only while they record an answer, on a page they opened, after their phone asked them. We do not use a recording to identify anyone. We do not collect the gender of the person receiving check-ins. We do not score their health or their mood. What we note from their messages is described under "How messages are read", and it is used only to run the service. Their words are passed on as they sent them, with two limits: a text to the circle quotes at most 200 characters, and a character a text message cannot carry is swapped for the nearest plain one, or for a question mark when there is none, as with an emoji.

Their words are theirs

Every reply and every answer is kept exactly as the person sent it. Once it is sent, nobody edits it and nothing summarizes it. It is shown to the people in their circle and to nobody else.

How messages are read

Each text they send is read by an AI model to pick out a short list of things the people in their circle would want to know about, such as a fall or chest pain. The model only picks these out. Fixed rules that we wrote decide whether anyone is texted. Answers to the life story questions are read by the same model. It notes which subjects on a fixed list of ours an answer mentions, such as children, a career, a faith, or that someone close to them has died, and it picks the next question from questions we wrote in advance. Every life story question is one we wrote or one someone in their circle added: the model never writes one. We keep the list of subjects to choose later questions and for nothing else, and it is not shown to the people in their circle. The same model writes the short paragraph about the week's check-ins in the weekly email. It is given a list of what happened, such as which mornings had a reply and who was texted, and never what anyone wrote. The model is provided by Anthropic, which does not use what we send it to train its models.

Recorded answers

A person can answer a life story question by recording it on the answer page instead of typing. The recording goes from their phone to our storage and is written out as text by a speech-to-text service, so that they can read the words, change them, and decide whether to send them. If they ask, an AI model tidies the written-out words: punctuation, paragraphs, grammar, filler words, and repeats. It adds nothing, they see the result before sending, and they can undo it.

When they send the answer, we keep the recording with it. The people in their circle can listen when signed in, and through a private link in the weekly email; anyone who has that link can listen without signing in. A recording that is never sent is deleted within a day, with the words written out from it. The speech-to-text service's copy is deleted as soon as we have the words, and it is set not to use recordings to improve its own models.

Health information

A reply can mention someone's health, such as a fall or chest pain, and we keep a reading of whether it does. We use that only as this policy describes: fixed rules decide from the reading whether to text the circle, and the reply itself is shown to the circle. We never sell it, use it for advertising, or use it to judge anyone's health.

Why

To send the daily check-in and the daily question, to text the main contact when the check-in is answered, to text the main contact, and one more person if needed, about a check-in with no reply or a reply that needs attention, to keep the person's answers as the story of their life, and to send the weekly email to the circle. We also use the circle's email addresses and phone numbers for the messages an account needs: sign-in codes, invitations, password resets, billing notices, and notices when texts pause or start again. Nothing else. We do not use anyone's information for advertising, and we do not send marketing emails or texts.

Who can see it

The people in the circle, whom the account holder adds. Our staff can see it when needed to run the service or to answer a question from the circle. Nobody else. We never sell personal information, and we never share it for anyone else's marketing.

We will disclose information if the law requires it, such as under a valid court order, or if it is needed to protect someone from serious harm. If Morning Hello is ever sold or merged with another company, the information would pass to the new owner, who would have to keep to this policy, and the account holder would be told by email first.

The companies that help us run it

Messages are carried by a text-message provider, email by an email provider, and payments by a payment provider. Replies and answers are read by an AI provider. Recordings are stored by a storage provider and written out by a speech-to-text provider. Errors are reported to an error-reporting provider, without anyone's words. Our domain runs through a network provider, the service runs on a hosting provider, and emails to our support address arrive in an inbox at an email provider. Each receives only what it needs to do its part, and each is bound by its own data protection terms to use it only for that. Today those are Twilio for text messages, Resend for email, Stripe for payments, Anthropic for the AI model, AssemblyAI for writing out recordings, Sentry for error reports, Cloudflare for the domain, forwarding the support address, and storing recordings, Render for hosting, and Google for the support inbox. Our database is kept in the United States, and stored recordings in North America.

Cookies and storage on your device

The site sets only the cookies needed to sign in: one keeps a signed-in person signed in for up to a month, or until they sign out, and the others protect the sign-in form. On the answer page, the phone keeps a small note so that an unfinished recording can be found again after the page reloads; it holds none of their words. On the tree of life, the browser remembers for the rest of the visit that the opening has already played.

We use no advertising or analytics cookies, and no other company follows visitors on our site. Because we do not follow anyone across other sites, and let no one else do so on ours, the site works the same way whether or not a browser sends a signal asking sites not to follow its user (often called DNT).

How we protect it

The site and our connections to the companies that help us run it are encrypted, and those companies encrypt the database and the stored recordings. Text messages travel over the phone network, as every text does. Access to the systems that hold it is limited to the people who run the service. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach that affects someone's information, we will tell the account holder and anyone else affected as the law requires.

How long we keep it

The person's replies, answers, and sent recordings are kept as they were sent for as long as the account exists, because the archive is the service. The list of subjects from their answers is kept with them. To close the account, email us. Closing it stops every message, and the archive stays as it was, recordings and the links to listen included, so nothing a person said is lost, unless deletion is asked for.

The account holder, or the person receiving check-ins, can ask by email for the archive to be deleted: their replies, answers, recordings, the list of subjects, and the account's details. We delete it within 45 days of the request, including from our backups, ask our providers to delete any copies they hold, and confirm by email what was deleted and when.

Server logs are kept by our hosting provider for a short time and then discarded. An email address left before signups opened is kept until it is used to say signups are open, or until its owner asks us to delete it.

Your rights

The account holder can sign in to see this week's replies and answers, every past week, and the tree of life, and can change the details in Settings. For a copy of everything we hold, or to close the account, email us and we will do it by hand. The person receiving check-ins does not need an account: they, or someone acting for them with their permission, can email us for a copy of their words and recordings, a correction, or their deletion. They can also stop the messages at any moment by replying STOP, without explaining.

Where the law of your state gives you further rights over your information, you can use them by writing to the support address. We may confirm a request by texting or emailing the person it is about. We answer within 45 days, and we never treat anyone differently for using these rights.

Text messages

We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. Mobile phone numbers and the consent to receive messages are never sold, are not shared with affiliates, and are used for nothing other than the messages described here.

The person receiving check-ins gets up to two messages a day, plus a reminder when a check-in goes unanswered and an occasional reply to a message they send. The main contact gets one short message on each day the check-in is answered. Otherwise, people in their circle receive a message only when there is something to tell them: a code to confirm their phone, a check-in with no reply, a reply that needs attention, or a change to the account. Message frequency varies.

Message and data rates may apply. The full program, including how to stop, is on the SMS Consent page.

Children

The service is for adults. We do not knowingly collect information about anyone under eighteen.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that matters, the account holder is told by email before the change takes effect. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed.