What Heardby keeps, and what it never has
Why this exists
Heardby was built by someone who spent years in HR listening to drivers and mechanics on their breaks. The people above you can only fix what reaches them. This is how it reaches them, without your name on it.
You're being asked to talk to Heardby about your job. Here is exactly what happens to what you say, in one page. The long version is in our Privacy Policy and Terms, and nothing here contradicts them.
What we keep
- The words of your conversation.
- The language you chose.
- The hour it finished, rounded. 2:00, not 2:17.
Before we save your conversation, we remove names, phone numbers, emails and anything that looks like an ID number from it.
We delete the conversations themselves 12 months after the report. The report stays.
That's the whole list.
What we never have
- Your voice. If you dictate, your phone's keyboard does the transcribing and only the text reaches us.
- Your name.
- Your email or phone number.
- Your IP address or anything about your device.
- Any login. You don't make an account, so there isn't one.
- The exact time. We round it so nobody can match it to a clock-in.
- We don't text your people and we never ask for their numbers. The link goes out from your own phone.
A note on your own phone that you finished, so you aren't asked twice. It never leaves the phone.
If you leave before the end, nothing reaches us at all. Your phone keeps your unfinished answers for up to 7 days so you can pick up where you left off; that stays on the phone.
If several answers are nearly identical, the report may say so, without saying whose.
What your employer sees
A report about the whole team, not about anyone in it. A topic appears only when five or more people raised it. Quotes are edited to remove anything that could point to one person. Your employer never sees your conversation and cannot ask us for it, because we have nothing that says it's yours. Taking part is voluntary, and nobody is told whether you did or didn't. Your employer may publish a short job preview for applicants built from what five or more people on your team said. It never includes names, quotes, or anything fewer than five people raised. Your employer can download its own history from Heardby (reports, what it said it would do, and the like); the conversations themselves are never part of it.
What the report can't be used for
Your employer agreed in writing that the report may not be used to make or inform any decision about an individual's hiring, promotion, pay, hours, discipline or termination, and that they will not try to work out who said what. If you believe a report quoted something that identifies you, tell your employer or write to hello@heardby.co.
The one exception
If you describe a safety hazard, harassment, or something illegal, the report will say it was raised, without saying who raised it. You were told this on the screen before you started.
If you use the benefits line
We keep only the question you type, after removing names, phone numbers, emails, birth dates and ID or claim numbers, and the hour, rounded. We don't keep the answer, nothing links your questions together, and nothing about your device is kept. Your employer sees a question only when five or more people asked something similar. The line explains your plan documents; it doesn't decide anything about you.
If you use the open line
We keep your words after removing names, emails, phone numbers and ID numbers, your language, and the hour, rounded. Entries aren't linked to one another or to a person or device. Your employer sees monthly topics only with at least five entries, as paraphrases, never quotes. Serious safety, harassment or legal concerns appear anonymously regardless of count. Entries below five may carry into the next month for up to 90 days; all raw entries are then deleted. Monthly digests are kept. No note on your phone marks you as finished; you may return another time.
Who reads this
Software, not a person. Someone behind Heardby may read a transcript only while fixing a reported problem, and even then can't tell whose it is.
What the AI does, and what it never does
What it does:
- Asks the questions and the follow-ups.
- Groups what people said into themes.
- Drafts explanations and rewrites for a person to review.
- Answers benefits questions only from the employer's documents.
What it never does:
- Scores, ranks or rates any person.
- Predicts whether a named person will leave.
- Writes the employer's commitments to the team.
- Shows anything fewer than five people said.
- Makes decisions about anyone.
Heardby LLC · hello@heardby.co · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use