Privacy Policy
Callbuddy answers the phone calls you don't recognize. To do that it has to handle some of the most sensitive data a phone produces: phone numbers, recordings of conversations, and transcripts of them. This policy says plainly what we collect, why, who processes it for us, how long we keep it, and how you delete it. Callbuddy is operated by Stephan Hamberger ("we"). Contact: hello@callbuddy.app.
The short version
- Your contacts are never uploaded. Only anonymized fingerprints of phone numbers leave your phone, so people you know can ring through.
- We only ever hear calls that your carrier forwards to your Callbuddy number. Calls you make, calls from your contacts, and emergency calls never reach us.
- Recordings are deleted on the schedule you choose. Transcripts and summaries stay until you delete them.
- We don't sell data, we don't run ads, and we don't track you across other apps or websites.
- You can delete any call, your whole history, or your entire account from inside the app.
What we collect and why
| Data | Why we need it | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Your phone number and optional display name | Your number is your account. We text you a code to confirm it's yours, and the assistant uses your name when it introduces itself. | Our servers |
| Your Callbuddy screening number | The number your carrier forwards unanswered calls to. | Our servers |
| Contact fingerprints | If you allow Contacts access, each contact's phone number is normalized and hashed (SHA-256) on your phone. Only the hash is uploaded, so the assistant can recognize a known caller and let them through. Names, notes, and the numbers themselves never leave your device. We re-hash the fingerprints with a secret key before storing them. Contacts access is optional; you can add trusted numbers by hand instead. | Your phone; hashes on our servers |
| Trusted and blocked numbers you add manually | Same fingerprint treatment as contacts. | Your phone; hashes on our servers |
| Screened calls: caller's number, time, duration | To show you who called and to let you call or text back. | Our servers and your phone |
| Recordings and transcripts of screened calls | The assistant's conversation with the caller is transcribed, summarized, and rated so you can read it in a glance and listen if you want to. | Our servers and your phone |
| Assistant chat messages | Messages you send to the Assistant tab, and the calls it places for you. | Your phone; recent messages are sent to our servers to generate a reply |
| Settings | Protection level, greeting, recording retention, so they follow you across devices. | Our servers and your phone |
| Push notification token | To deliver call summaries to your phone. | Our servers |
| Subscription status | Handled by Apple. We do not receive your payment details. | Apple |
We collect no analytics, usage statistics, advertising identifiers, or location data. The app contains no advertising or analytics software.
Callers
If you call a Callbuddy number, you are speaking with an automated assistant on behalf of the person you called. The assistant introduces itself as an assistant. The conversation is recorded, transcribed, summarized, and rated by automated systems, and shown to the Callbuddy user, who can call or text you back. If you'd like a conversation removed, contact hello@callbuddy.app with the number and time of the call.
Who processes data for us
We use these providers under contracts that restrict them to processing data on our instructions:
- Twilio (United States): phone numbers, call routing, call recording, speech-to-text and text-to-speech during the live conversation, and the SMS sign-in code.
- Deepgram: transcription.
- Anthropic: the AI model that talks to callers, writes summaries, and rates calls. Anthropic does not train its models on this data.
- ElevenLabs: the assistant's voice.
- Google Cloud (United States): servers, database, and file storage, encrypted at rest.
- Apple: push notifications and subscriptions.
We don't sell or rent your data, and we don't share it with anyone else except when the law requires it.
How long we keep it
- Recordings: deleted after the period you choose in Settings: right after transcription ("Never keep"), 7 days (default), or 30 days.
- Transcripts, summaries, and call history: kept until you delete the call or your history.
- Assistant chat: stored on your phone; delete it there.
- Everything: deleting your account (Settings › Callbuddy Account › Delete Account) removes your account, screening number, contact fingerprints, calls, recordings, and transcripts from our systems. Backups are purged within 30 days.
Security
All traffic uses HTTPS. Recordings are stored encrypted and served only through short-lived signed links. Contact fingerprints are keyed with a secret held in a managed key store. Phone numbers, recordings, and transcripts are kept out of application logs. Access to production data is limited and logged.
Your rights
You can see, export (by asking us), correct, and delete your data. Most of this is in the app. For anything else, or if you live in a place with specific privacy rights (California, Canada, the EU/UK), email hello@callbuddy.app and we'll respond within 30 days. We don't discriminate against you for exercising these rights.
Children
Callbuddy is not for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from them.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll say so in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top is always the current version.