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Privacy Policy — Tether

Version — the version currently published, and the same text bundled in the Tether app.

Version 2026-09-07.4

At a glance

  • What we hold: the photos, videos, recordings and writing you add, the names you give people in them, and the account, sharing and order details needed to run Tether (§2).
  • What we do with it: run Tether, help you organise and print your memories, and fix problems — nothing else (§3).
  • Face recognition groups your photos by person. It is on once you allow photo access, and you can turn it off or delete your face data at any time (§4).
  • No ads. We never sell your information, and our providers may use it only to do work for us (§6).
  • We do not use your content to train AI models (§3).
  • Deleting your account deletes your private content after a 30-day grace period; what you shared stays with the people you shared it with (§7).
  • Your rights: download a copy of everything, correct it, delete it, or ask us anything at privacy@mytether.co (§8).

1. Who we are

Tether is a mobile app for keeping family photographs, videos, voice notes and written memories, sharing them with people you choose, and turning them into printed photo books. In this policy, "we" means the company that operates Tether. You can reach us at privacy@mytether.co or through Feedback in the app.

This policy explains what information we hold about you, what we do with it, who else sees it, and the choices you have.

2. The information we hold

2.1 Your account

Your email address, name, username and profile photo, and your subscription plan. Sign-in — by password, Google or Apple — is handled by a sign-in provider on our behalf; we never see your password.

2.2 Content you add

The photographs, videos, voice recordings and writing you save in Tether, and the details you add about people in your memories — names, relationships, dates. Those details are yours and stay in your account.

With each file we keep basic technical details, the date and place it was taken where your camera recorded them and you allow it (§8), preview copies, transcripts of recordings, and the results of the AI analysis in §3.

2.3 Face data

If face recognition is on, we detect faces in your photographs and match them against faces already in your own library so photos can be grouped by person. This creates a face template for each face — biometric data. §4 explains this in full.

2.4 Information from your device

With your permission, the app reads your photo library so you can import from it, and uses your camera, microphone and location. Your device also gives us a push-notification address so we can send you notifications you have turned on.

2.5 Sharing

Who you are connected with, the shared spaces (tethers) you belong to and what you post in them, what you have shared with whom, who you have blocked, and the collections (gathers) you organise or contribute to.

2.6 Books and orders

The books you make and their page layouts. For an order: the recipient's name and delivery address, the shipping method, prices, payment references and delivery tracking. Payment card details are collected by our payment processor, never by us.

2.7 Usage and diagnostics

How the app is used, keyed to your account, and error reports when something goes wrong. These are described in §5.

2.8 A record of significant actions

Sharing, transferring, blocking, joining or leaving a tether, deletion and export requests are written to a permanent record of who did what, and when. We keep it as evidence of what happened to your data, and it is not deleted when your account is — see §7.

2.9 What we do not collect

We do not run advertising, attribution or cross-site tracking in the app, and we do not sell personal information.

3. What we do with it

  • Run Tether: store and show your content, deliver what you share, and keep the app working on your devices.
  • Understand your photos with AI: judge which imported photos are worth keeping, describe them, spot duplicates, transcribe recordings, and draft book captions and layouts. You can turn Smart Photo Analysis off in Settings.
  • Group photos by person: face recognition, §4.
  • Print and deliver books: send the finished book and the delivery address to our printer and track the parcel.
  • Take payment: subscriptions and book purchases.
  • Notify you: only in the categories you have turned on.
  • Keep Tether safe and accountable: security, abuse prevention and the record in §2.8.
  • Improve the product: understand which features are used (§5).

Smart Import. When you use Smart Import, small preview copies of photos from your library are sent to our servers, and to our AI provider, so we can suggest which ones to keep — before you have chosen to save any. Photos you do not keep are not added to your library.

AI training. We do not use your content to train AI models.

Legal bases (EU/UK). Running Tether, printing and payments: performance of our contract with you. Face recognition: your explicit consent. AI features, diagnostics and product analytics: our legitimate interests in providing and improving the service. Notifications: consent. The record in §2.8: legal obligation and legitimate interests.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are used in California law.

4. Face recognition

What it is. Face recognition finds faces in your photographs and matches them against other faces in your own library, so Tether can group photos by person and help you name people. To do this we create a face template for each face. A face template is biometric data. Templates are kept separately for each account and are never matched against another user's library.

It is optional, and on by default. It is switched on when you allow Tether to access your photo library during setup, where we tell you this will happen.

How to turn it off. Settings → Privacy & Security → Face Recognition. From that moment no new photograph is analysed for faces. You then choose whether to delete the face data already held or keep it. Forget Faces in the same place deletes it at any time. The people you have named, and their names, stay — a name you typed is not biometric data. Turning recognition back on covers new photos only.

When it is deleted. Face templates are deleted when you ask us to (above), when your account is deleted, and one year after you last used Tether, whichever comes first. We email you 30 days before that last one, and signing in is enough to stop it.

Other people's faces. A family library contains faces of people who do not use Tether, including children. By keeping face recognition on you confirm you are entitled to have those photographs analysed.

5. Usage data and error reports

We collect product analytics — which features are used, keyed to your account — and error reports from the app and our servers, which carry your account identifier so we can tell whose problem it is. Neither carries your name or email address. We use them only to keep Tether working and to improve it.

There is currently no switch to turn these off.

6. Who else sees your information

Service providers. Companies that help us run Tether, acting on our instructions and only for the purposes above: cloud hosting and storage, sign-in, payment processing, print fulfilment and parcel tracking, AI processing, push notifications, place lookup, and analytics and error reporting. Our printer receives the recipient's name and address and the finished book. Our AI provider receives the photos, recordings and text being analysed and, for captions, the names you have given people in them. A current list of these providers is available from privacy@mytether.co.

People you share with. Other Tether users see what you share with them or post in a shared space, and people you invite can contribute to a collection through a link without an account. A printed book carries a QR code that opens its digital extras, so anyone holding the book can scan it.

When the law requires it, or to protect Tether and its users.

Providers may not use your information for their own purposes.

7. Deleting your account

Ask in the app: Settings → Privacy & Security → Delete Account. Or without the app: https://mytether.co/delete-account/ explains how to ask by email from the address on your account; we confirm with you before anything is deleted.

Pause instead, if you prefer. Deactivating keeps everything and stops notifications, hides you from search, and stops a card subscription renewing. You lift it yourself. The one-year face-data clock in §4 keeps running while you are paused.

A 30-day grace period starts when you ask for deletion. You can cancel during it. Then deletion runs and cannot be undone.

What is deleted. Your profile, your sign-in, your private memories, photographs, recordings and files, your face data, the people you added, your books, your notification addresses, and a card subscription (the Terms, §10, cover billing and store subscriptions).

What is not deleted, because it belongs to other people now:

  • Memories and books you shared with a person or a tether stay with them as their own copies, permanently. Leaving does not take back what you gave. If you want something withdrawn, unshare it before the 30 days run out.
  • Photos you posted in a shared space, or that another member uses as a cover or contact photo, stay there.
  • Contributions you made to someone else's collection, and collections you organised as a gift for someone, stay with that person.
  • An anonymised account record, so that content other people now own still shows who it came from.
  • The record of significant actions in §2.8.
  • Purchase records held by our payment processor and printer for their own tax and legal reasons.

8. Your choices and rights

Get a copy of your data. Settings → Privacy & Security → Download My Data. The export contains everything we hold that is yours, with every photo, video and recording at full size. It leaves out other people's personal data and live credentials. Face templates are described rather than included — how many faces, how many named, your consent status — because the templates themselves cannot be read or used by anyone. A finished export can be downloaded for 7 days.

Delete your data. §7.

Correct, object, restrict, port. Update your profile and content in the app. Other requests: privacy@mytether.co or Feedback in the app.

Withdraw consent. Notification categories: Settings → Notifications. Face recognition: §4. Location: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services stops the place a photo was taken being saved from then on; places already saved stay. Smart Photo Analysis: Settings → AI.

California. You have the right to know, delete and correct, and to limit the use of sensitive personal information. Face templates are sensitive personal information; the Face Recognition switch and Forget Faces are how you limit their use — they delete the templates rather than merely stopping their use. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising.

EU and UK. You have the rights above under the GDPR, and the right to complain to your data protection authority.

9. Children

Tether is for adults keeping family memories. Family libraries naturally contain photographs of children, which are analysed like other photographs, including for faces while face recognition is on. Details you add about children — names, birthdays — are part of your content and stay in your account. Guests contributing through a link give only a display name.

10. Security and where your data is held

Your content is stored and served through access-controlled, expiring links, never public ones. Face templates are kept separately for each account. We use industry-standard safeguards to protect your information in transit and at rest.

Your data is held in the United States. If you use Tether from elsewhere, your information is transferred there.

11. Retention

We keep your content until you delete it or delete your account, except as follows:

Data How long
Face templates Until you turn face recognition off or use Forget Faces, your account is deleted, or one year after you last used Tether — whichever is first
Photos imported but never kept Moved to Trash after 30 days (90 on a paid plan), then permanently deleted 30 days later
Items in Trash 30 days, then permanently deleted
Data exports Downloadable for 7 days
Account deletion grace period 30 days, then deletion runs
A paused account Kept until you lift the pause; nothing is deleted
The record of significant actions (§2.8) Kept indefinitely

12. Changes to this policy, and contact

We will tell you in the app when this policy changes in a way that matters, and the version at the top is the copy currently in force. Questions: Feedback in the app, or privacy@mytether.co.