Voice consent & provenance

This page explains how ECOS captures, uses, and protects a person’s voice — and how we make sure an Echo can always be identified for what it is.

Consented capture only

ECOS only records a voice with the explicit, informed consent of the person speaking. There is no passive listening, no background recording, and no ability for a third party to record another person’s voice without their knowledge. Consent is captured in-app before any recording begins.

Public is always opt-in

Every Echo is private by default. Nothing reaches the public feed at /discover unless the storyteller explicitly chooses to share it. A public Echo can be made private again at any time by its owner, from within the app.

Revocable at any time

Consent to record, to share, and to synthesize voice is separate and independently revocable. Revoking consent removes the affected recordings and voice model from active use. [LEGAL REVIEW] — exact retention windows, deletion timelines, and jurisdictional obligations are being finalized with counsel.

Voices of deceased individuals

Recordings and voice models of someone who has passed away can only be added, kept public, or used to synthesize new speech with the documented permission of a legally recognized representative (for example, an estate executor or a person designated by the storyteller while living). ECOS will not create synthetic speech in a deceased person’s voice without that documented permission. [LEGAL REVIEW]

Provenance & watermarking

Every Echo carries provenance metadata that identifies whether the audio is an original human recording, a transcript read back in the storyteller’s voice model, or an organizational rendering by ECOS. Synthesized audio is watermarked so it can be detected as such. Our goal is simple: an Echo should never be able to be passed off as something it is not.

Never used to train other models

Your voice recordings and voice model are never sold and are never used to train general-purpose AI models. They exist to serve you and the people you choose.

Questions? Reach us at Contact or read the full Privacy Policy.