whim

Privacy notice · Updated 13 October 2026

Privacy, in full

Whim is a curious little friend for children aged 3 to 6. Because children use it, we keep as little as we can, and we explain all of it here in plain words.

In short

  • No recordings or photos kept. Your child’s speech and camera snapshots are used to reply in the moment, then let go.
  • Voice and face recognition stay on your phone, as a short list of numbers, not a recording or a picture.
  • We keep only what we need to invite you and let your phones in.
  • No ads, no tracking, no selling. Not now, not ever.
  • Ask us anything: [email protected] to see, fix or delete your details.

Who we are

Whim (heywhim.ai) is a small private beta, made by a parent in Singapore. “We” and “us” on this page mean the Whim team. For anything about your data, email [email protected]. We handle personal data in line with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA).

What we keep, and for how long

Your waitlist sign-up

What
Your email, first name (if given), your child’s age, the languages you speak at home, your note, the language of the form, and when you signed up.
Why
To decide who to invite next, to send your invite, and to learn which families Whim should serve.
Kept
Until you ask us to delete it.

Your Whim access

What
A sign-in key for your family and a sign-in for each phone (up to five), stored only in scrambled form (a hash), plus how many conversation turns you used today.
Why
To let your phones in, and to keep daily limits fair.
Kept
While you’re in the beta. Turn counts reset every day.

Sign-in codes

What
The 6-digit code we email when you sign in on a new phone, stored scrambled and in memory only.
Why
To check it’s really you.
Kept
10 minutes at most.

Server logs

What
Your IP address, the time, what was asked for (a page, a reply) and your browser type.
Why
To keep Whim safe from abuse and to fix problems.
Kept
A short time, then deleted on a rolling basis.

Emails you send us

What
Whatever you write to [email protected].
Why
To answer you.
Kept
In our inbox until it’s no longer needed, or you ask us to delete it.

What happens in a conversation

Whim only listens while it’s awake: a tap wakes it, and it drifts off to sleep after a quiet spell. When your child talks:

  1. The phone sends what your child said, and a few camera snapshots taken while they were talking, to our server.
  2. The speech is turned into text, and the AI model reads the text and looks at the snapshots to write a short, gentle reply.
  3. The reply is turned into the buddy’s voice and played on the phone.

Once the reply is made, the speech and snapshots are let go: we don’t keep recordings, photos or transcripts of your family’s conversations. To keep the chat flowing, the conversation so far is held in memory during the session only, and it goes when the session ends. Every session has a time limit.

If you add your child’s first name and age in the Grown-ups’ corner, they’re stored on your phone and sent with each session, so Whim can talk to your child by name and at their level.

Voice and face recognition (your choice)

You can teach Whim your child’s voice or face, so it talks to your child and not to the TV or other grown-ups. When you do, a few short voice clips or photos are sent to our server and turned into a voiceprint or faceprint: a short list of numbers that can’t be played back or turned back into a picture. The print is sent back to your phone and stored there; the clips and photos aren’t kept.

During a session, the print travels with it so Whim can check who’s talking or looking, and it’s dropped when the session ends. Forget it any time in the Grown-ups’ corner. Each person set up on the phone has their own.

How we test Whim

We try Whim out with our own child first. For our own family’s sessions only, we may keep text transcripts (up to 14 days) and voice clips (up to 48 hours) to find and fix mistakes. Beta families’ sessions are not recorded.

Services that help run Whim

We use these services only to run Whim, and we share with them only what each needs:

Some of these services are outside Singapore. Where your data goes overseas, we pick providers that protect it to a standard comparable to the PDPA.

What we don’t do

On your device, the website remembers only your language choice. The app keeps its settings, your sign-in and any voice or face prints on your phone.

Children

Whim is for children aged 3 to 6, set up and looked after by a parent or carer. Grown-ups sign up and choose the settings; we never ask children for personal details. If you think a child has given us information without a grown-up, tell us and we’ll delete it.

Your choices

We reply within 30 days, and usually much sooner.

Keeping it safe

Everything travels encrypted (HTTPS). Sign-in keys, codes and passwords are stored only as hashes, so even we can’t read them, and only the Whim team can open the admin tools.

Changes

Whim is a beta, so this notice may change. We’ll update it here and change the date at the top, and if we change how we use your data in a big way, we’ll email beta families first.

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