The Joan standard
Your life. Your voice. Your decision.
You are handing us your mother’s memory. The only honest way to earn that is to say exactly what we do, exactly what we will not do, and how you can check.
Four promises
What Joan guarantees.
- 01
Your stories remain private
Conversations, recordings, and drafts are used only to build your family’s archive. They are not used for advertising, training public models, or sharing with anyone outside the people you invite.
- 02
Nothing enters the archive without approval
The storyteller reviews what is written, corrects it, keeps parts private, or removes them. Unapproved material stays out of the archive.
- 03
Details stay connected to their conversation
Names, places, and dates are kept with the call they came from, so the finished story can be checked against the original telling.
- 04
Joan never invents parts of your life
If something was not said, it does not belong in the archive. Joan may ask a follow-up question. Joan does not fill gaps with fiction.
Authorship
Joan writes the story. The storyteller approves it.
Joan is software, not a person, and Joan does the writing. There is no ghostwriter, no editorial staff, and no human rewriting your parent’s words into a house style. We say this on the page rather than letting you assume otherwise, because it is the kind of thing that only ever gets worse when someone finds it out on their own.
What that buys you is a different kind of guarantee than a writer could give. Joan works only from what was said, keeps every finished story attached to its recording, and hands the last word to the storyteller. Being able to check the writing against the telling is worth more here than a byline.
Limits
What Joan will not do.
Stated as limits rather than values, because a limit can be held to and a value cannot.
- 01
Joan does not generate a storyteller’s voice
An audio edition is built from the storyteller’s real recordings — the actual person, saying the words they actually said. Joan does not synthesize new speech in anyone’s voice.
If we ever build that, it will require its own explicit permission, asked for separately and refusable on its own. Agreeing to be recorded will never quietly mean agreeing to a reusable voice model. The line we will not cross without that separate permission is generating speech the storyteller never said.
- 02
Joan does not fill gaps with fiction
If it was not said, it does not go in. Joan asks a follow-up question instead of writing a plausible bridge, and every finished sentence stays traceable to the recording it came from.
- 03
Joan does not publish, sell, or train on your family
Conversations, recordings, and stories are not sold, not licensed, not used for advertising, and not used to train public or third-party models.
- 04
Joan does not keep material the storyteller rejected
Approval is not a formality that happens after the fact. Anything the storyteller keeps private or removes does not enter the archive, and they never have to explain why.
In plain words
The questions people are too polite to ask.
Is Joan a person?
No. Joan is software. It makes the calls, asks the questions, and writes the stories. We use a name because a voice with a name is easier to talk to than a system, not to suggest there is someone on the other end.
So who actually writes the finished story?
Joan does. There is no ghostwriter and no editorial staff. Joan shapes the conversation into a story using the storyteller’s own words, and the storyteller approves it before it counts. We would rather say this plainly than let you discover it later.
Does a person at your company read my family’s stories?
Not as a matter of routine. A member of our team sees a conversation only when you ask us for help with it, or when we have to investigate a safety or technical problem. When that happens it is recorded, and we will tell you if you ask.
Are our conversations used to train AI models?
Your conversations, recordings, and stories are not used to train public or third-party models, and they are not used for advertising. They are used to build your family’s archive.
How do we know Joan did not invent a detail?
Every finished story stays linked to the recording it came from, so any sentence can be checked against what was actually said. Joan is built to ask a follow-up question rather than fill a gap, and anything that still comes out wrong is corrected by the storyteller at approval.
Can Joan make our parent’s voice say something they never said?
No. Joan does not generate speech in a storyteller’s voice. An audio edition uses their real recordings — the actual person saying the actual words. If we ever build anything that synthesizes new speech, it will require its own separate, explicit permission from the storyteller, and it will never be bundled into permission to record.
Who owns the stories?
The family does. We hold them to run the service and to build your archive. We do not publish them, sell them, or license them to anyone.
Who can see the archive?
Only the people the family invites. It is private by default, and the storyteller decides who may read or hear each story.
Can we get everything out, or have it deleted?
Yes to both. Write to us and we will send you your stories and original recordings, or delete them permanently. We are building this into the app so it does not depend on emailing us, and until it is there, a person will do it by hand.
What happens if we stop our membership?
Joan stops calling. Ending a membership does not delete anything: the stories already approved and the recordings they came from stay yours, and you can export them.
What happens when the storyteller dies?
We deliver everything already finished, stop billing immediately, and charge nothing further. The family keeps the archive and the original recordings.
What if the storyteller changes their mind about being recorded?
They can withdraw permission at any time, and Joan stops recording. Stories they already approved stay in the archive unless they ask us to remove them, which they are allowed to do without giving a reason.
The legal versions of these commitments live in the privacy policy and the terms. If the two ever disagree with this page, tell us — the plain-language version is the one we intend to keep.
The first chapter
Start with one conversation and decide for yourself.
Free, no card, and the storyteller approves the story before anyone else reads it. If they do not enjoy the call, you have learned that for nothing.