Privacy Policy

Who we are

Waridi builds voice technology for African languages, starting with Swahili. We are based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This policy explains what personal data we collect when you use waridi.io, Waridi Studio, our API and our voice products, why we collect it, and the choices you have. If anything here is unclear, write to us at hello@waridi.io.

We intend to handle personal data in line with Tanzania's Personal Data Protection Act, 2022 and its regulations, and with the data protection laws of other countries where we offer our services. Where this policy and the law differ, the law applies.

The data we collect

• Account data. Your name, email address, organisation, country and billing details when you sign up or request early access.
• Content you send us. Text you submit for text-to-speech, audio you submit for transcription or dubbing, agent configurations, and the outputs we generate for you.
• Voice data. Recordings used to create a cloned voice, and the consent statement recorded by the voice owner. Voice recordings can identify a person, so we treat them as sensitive data.
• Call data. If you run Waridi Agents on a phone line, the audio, transcripts and metadata of calls handled on your behalf, such as caller number, time and duration.
• Usage and device data. API request logs, minutes of audio processed, error reports, browser type and approximate location derived from IP address.
• Communications. Messages you send to our team and your replies to surveys.

We do not knowingly collect data from children under 18 for voice cloning or speech data programmes.

How we use it

• To provide, secure and support the services you asked for.
• To bill you and keep financial records required by law.
• To detect and prevent fraud, abuse and misuse of voice cloning.
• To improve our models, but only where you have opted in, or where the data comes from our separate, consented speech data programmes. API customer content is not used to train our models by default.
• To tell you about changes to the service. Marketing emails are optional and every one includes an unsubscribe link.

Legal bases

We process personal data because it is needed to perform our contract with you, because you have given consent (for example to voice cloning or model improvement), because we have a legitimate interest in running a secure service, or because the law requires it.

Voice data and consent for cloning

A voice can only be cloned with the verified consent of the person whose voice it is. Before a cloned voice is created, the voice owner records a spoken consent statement, which we store with the voice. The voice owner may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us; we will then disable the voice and delete the source recordings, except where we must keep limited records to investigate abuse or meet a legal obligation. Read more in our article on voice cloning and consent.

Customers' callers and end users

When a business uses Waridi to handle its calls or produce audio, that business decides why the data is processed and is responsible for informing its callers. We act on its instructions as a processor. If you called a business that uses Waridi, please contact that business first; we will help it respond to you.

Sharing

We do not sell personal data. We share it only with:

• service providers that host our infrastructure, process payments or send email, under written agreements that limit their use of the data;
• telephony carriers needed to connect calls you route through us;
• authorities, where the law requires it or to protect people from harm;
• a successor, if Waridi is ever reorganised or acquired, subject to this policy.

International transfers

Some of our providers may store or process data outside Tanzania. When that happens, we use contractual and technical safeguards and follow the transfer requirements of the Personal Data Protection Act.

Retention

We keep account data while your account is open and for a limited period afterwards to meet legal and accounting duties. API inputs and outputs are kept for a short operational window, which you can shorten in your settings, then deleted. Cloned voices are kept until you or the voice owner delete them. Call recordings follow the retention period set by the business that runs the agent.

Security

We encrypt data in transit and at rest, limit staff access to what each role needs, and log access to sensitive data. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach affecting your data we will notify you and the relevant authority as the law requires. See our Security page for more.

Your rights

Subject to the law, you can ask to access, correct or delete your personal data, object to or restrict certain processing, withdraw consent, and receive a copy of data you gave us. Email hello@waridi.io. We may need to verify your identity first. You may also complain to the Personal Data Protection Commission in Tanzania.

Cookies

Our website uses a small number of cookies needed to keep you signed in and to understand, in aggregate, how pages are used. We do not use advertising cookies.

Changes

We will update this policy as our products move from early access to general availability. When changes are significant, we will tell you by email or in the product before they take effect.

Contact

Waridi, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania · hello@waridi.io