Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 8, 2026

The short version: your questions are private, you can post anonymously, we never show ads, and we never sell your personal information.

This policy explains what Village ("Village," "we," "us") collects when you use askvillage.ai and the Village app, how we use it, and the choices you have. Village is in a private beta, and we'll update this policy as Village grows.

What we collect

Information you give us

Your profile: the name or nickname you choose, your kids' age ranges, and, if you share them, your ZIP code (we use it to fill in your town and pick your local circle, and never show it to anyone), the communities you pick (for example "Working Parents"), and life moments (for example "Just bought a home").
Google sign-in: if you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account ID, email address, and first name. We don't receive your Google password or access to your Google data.
Your questions to Village's AI ("Ask"): saved to your account so you can see your chat history. Only you can see them. You can delete any chat at any time.
Your family memory: what you share about your family so Ask can remember it, such as your kids' names or nicknames, birth months, feeding, sleep, health notes and allergies, milestones, routines, and childcare. It's filled in two ways: things you add yourself on your Me page, and, if "Learn from my chats" is on, details Ask notices in your chats (Ask tells you each time it remembers something, with an Undo). See "Your family memory" below.
Saved posts: the posts you save to come back to. Only you can see your saved list, and the person who wrote a post is never told you saved it.
Posts and replies in circles: visible to members of that circle. If you post anonymously, other members see "Anonymous parent," not your name. We still link anonymous posts to your account behind the scenes, so that you can be messaged privately without being revealed, and so we can act on reports of abuse.
Photos and documents: you can add photos to posts, replies, and private messages, and hosts of their own circles can also add PDFs. They're stored privately and only shown to the people who can see where you shared them (the circle's members, the pod for pod-only posts, or the other person in a private message). They never have a public web address. Photos are shrunk on your phone before upload, which also removes hidden details such as where the photo was taken. To keep kids safe, each photo is checked by an automated system (an AI model from our provider, Anthropic) before anyone else can see it, and photos that are sexual, show a child unclothed, are graphic, or are hateful are refused. Anthropic doesn't use these photos to train its models.
Private messages: visible only to you and the other person. Our team may review a message if it's reported to us.
Waitlist: your email, and if you share them, your kids' age ranges and city, plus how many friends joined with your link, so we can hold your place in line and send your invite.
Survey answers: stored separately from your email, so your answers stay anonymous.
Feature requests and reports you send us.

Information collected automatically

Sign-in cookies that keep you logged in.
Notification settings: if you turn on notifications, your browser gives us a technical address used only to deliver Village notifications to that device.
Website analytics: we use Google Analytics on our public pages only (the home page, Our story, Get the app, the invite request and joining pages, and the login page) to understand how people find Village. Google Analytics does not run inside the Village app, so it never sees your questions, circles, posts, or messages. Invite and referral codes are removed from page addresses before anything is sent.
Basic technical logs from our hosting provider (such as errors), used to keep Village running and secure.

How we use it

To run Village: answer your questions, place you in relevant circles, show posts, deliver messages and notifications.
To tailor answers, for example using your kids' age ranges and city to make an answer more relevant.
To match questions: "Help a parent" shows you questions from parents with similar kids' ages, city, or communities. Your profile is used for matching, but other members never see your details through it, and anonymous questions only show "Matched to you."
Anonymous insights (your choice): if you leave "Help improve Village" on, the text of your questions to Ask may be stored without your name or account, alongside your kids' age ranges and city, so we can learn what parents need. Turn it off any time in your profile, or for a single chat with "Off the record."
To build Village's parent data: aggregated answers from surveys and community polls (for example, "58% of parents…") are shown as statistics, never tied to a person.
To keep Village safe: review reports, hide or remove content, and block abuse.
To run the referral program and let you know about important changes.

Your family memory

Private to you. Only you can see it. It's never shown to other parents, never shown in circles, and never used for "Help a parent" matching.
Never in community data. It's never used for anonymous insights, statistics, or research, even if "Help improve Village" is on.
Only used to answer you. It's sent with your questions to Ask so answers fit your family, and for nothing else. It's never used for ads (we have none) or sold.
You're in control. See everything that's remembered on your Me page, edit or delete any item, or "Forget everything" at once. Turn off "Learn from my chats" any time, and Ask stops noting new things. Chats marked "Off the record" are never remembered.
What Ask won't keep: it's told not to save one-off moments, details about people outside your family, or anything about a mental health crisis, self-harm, or abuse.
Deleting a chat doesn't delete what was remembered from it; remove those items on your Me page. Deleting your account deletes your family memory.

What we never do

We never show ads or run sponsored answers.
We never sell your personal information or share it for advertising.
We never show your questions to other parents unless you choose to post them, for example with "Ask real parents too," where you pick the circle and whether to post anonymously.

Who helps us run Village

We use a small number of service providers, who may process your information only to provide their service to us:

Cloudflare: hosting, database, content delivery, and speech-to-text for voice dictation.
Anthropic: the AI that writes answers in Ask. Your question, recent messages in that chat, your profile details needed for the answer (kids' age ranges, city, communities), and your family memory are sent to generate a response. If "Learn from my chats" is on, your newest message and your family memory are also sent so the AI can note anything worth remembering. When you use "Ask AI" in a circle, your question and the matching posts and replies from that circle (without anyone's names) are sent to write the summary. Each photo you upload is sent once, by itself, to be checked for safety before it's shared.
Google: Google sign-in, and Google Analytics on our public pages.
Skimlinks: some links to stores (marked "commission") go through Skimlinks so Village can earn a small commission. Skimlinks only receives information if you tap one of those links; no Skimlinks code runs on Village pages. We count taps per store, never who tapped.
Apple, Google, and Mozilla push services: to deliver notifications you turned on.

Voice dictation: when you use the microphone button, your recording is sent securely to Village and turned into text using speech recognition running on Cloudflare (our hosting provider). The audio is used only to create the text and is never stored.

We may also share information if required by law, to protect someone's safety, or as part of a merger or acquisition, in which case this policy would continue to apply to your information.

Your choices and rights

Delete any Ask chat from your chat list.
See, edit, or delete your family memory, or turn off "Learn from my chats," on your Me page.
Change or remove your ZIP code on your Me page.
Turn anonymous insights off in your profile, or use "Off the record" for a single chat.
Post or reply anonymously, block anyone, and report anything that feels wrong.
Turn notifications off in your phone or browser settings.
Ask us to access, correct, export, or delete your information, or to delete your account, by emailing hello@askvillage.ai. Depending on where you live (for example California or the EU/UK), you may have additional rights, and we honor them.

How long we keep it

We keep your information while your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete or anonymize your personal information within 30 days, except where we need to keep something for safety, legal, or security reasons. Aggregated statistics that don't identify anyone may be kept.

Security

Village uses encrypted connections (HTTPS) everywhere, secure sign-in cookies, and access controls on our systems. No service can promise perfect security, so please use a nickname you're comfortable with and avoid sharing details like your full address in posts.

Children

Village is for parents, parents-to-be, and other adults. It isn't intended for anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect information from children. Please don't post identifying details about your children, such as full names or school names.

Not medical advice

Village shares parent experiences and summaries of public guidance. It doesn't replace your pediatrician or other professionals. In an emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number.

Changes

If we make important changes, we'll update the date above and let members know in the app.

Questions? Email hello@askvillage.ai.