What we collect, who sees it, what we'll never do.
Vela handles family-coordination data — events, tasks, shopping items, who's picking up whom, the occasional school flyer you forwarded. That's intimate stuff. This page is the document that says, in plain English, what we do with it. If the in-app settings say one thing and this page says another, the in-app settings are wrong and we need to know.
01What we collect.
The data your family puts in: events, tasks, shopping items, photos, voice notes, and inbox forwards you send to Vela. Plus the metadata around them — when you sent something, from which platform, and which family member it belonged to.
Plus the operational minimum: your email (so we can write to you), your subscription tier (so we know what you've paid for), and a usage counter (so we can show you the action-count anchor on pricing). That's the list.
The data we have on your family is the data you sent us, plus a counter and your email. There is no shadow profile, no "interest graph," nothing assembled from third parties.
02Who sees it.
People inside your family see the family's data. Vela (the AI) sees it so she can answer the family. The vendors we work with (next section) see only the slice they need.
We do not sell, share, rent, or license your data to anyone else. We do not use your data to train public AI models.
Inside Vela, access to your family's data is strictly limited to what's necessary to provide the service — in practice, support looks at a specific issue only when you ask us to, and nothing beyond it.
03The processors we work with.
Vela is built on a small set of third-party services. The full register — who they are, what each one does for Vela, and what data it touches — is rendered plainly in How it works, chapter 06.
We don't sell your family's data and we never train models on it — and our AI providers' API terms state the same on their side. This is the list today: when it changes, we update this page and email everyone on the list before the change ships.
04How long we keep it.
We keep your family's data only as long as necessary to provide Vela's service. When you delete your account, we permanently delete your personal data, events, tasks, and conversation history within 30 days. Some anonymized usage statistics may be retained for product improvement.
05Exporting and deleting.
You can export your family's data anytime — Vela builds a zip of your events, tasks, shopping, and conversation history and emails you a download link. To delete your data, email support@vela.family and we'll take care of it.
Leaving a family is separate from deleting your data — you can step out of a household without removing it for everyone else. Email us and we'll sort it out.
06Kids.
Kids are tracked without accounts — a parent or guardian adds them to the family and removes them when needed. No account, no email, no login. Vela never collects PII directly from a child.
07Where you live.
Vela is a small, early-stage product, and we're keeping this simple while we grow. Wherever you live, if you want to see, export, or delete your family's data, email support@vela.family and we'll take care of it. As our data practices formalize, this page gets more specific — and everyone on the list hears first.
08Connected accounts (Google Calendar).
If you connect your Google Calendar, Vela asks Google for access to your calendar events, plus the email address of the account you connect (so you can see which account is linked) — nothing else in your Google account. Every way of connecting — the app, the web, the chat bot — requests read-write access (the calendar.events scope), because the calendars you pick stay in step both ways: your Google events appear in the family view, and an event added, moved, or cancelled in Vela follows back into Google. Vela only ever reads or writes the calendars you pick — the rest of your account is untouched.
We store only what that needs: the secure connection token and the events you bring into Vela. Disconnect any time and we revoke the token; delete your account and the calendar data goes with everything else, on the same 30-day timeline above.
Vela's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We never sell this data, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models — and we transfer it to no one except as needed to provide the calendar feature to you.
09When this page changes.
This policy is in effect today for the data Vela collects right now — the email you give us to join the waitlist, and anything you send the family bot if you already use it. As new surfaces open — the Vela app, family inboxes at @mailvela.com — this page grows to cover them. Material changes — a new vendor, a new data category, a new retention rule — get an email to everyone on the list before the change ships, with the diff. Cosmetic changes (typos, wording) get a note in the changelog at /changelog.
If you'd like to be told when this changes: you already are — you're on the list.