Calling & Consent Policy

1. Who we call

CallDear places companionship calls to older adults at the request of their own family. A family member, usually an adult son or daughter, adds their relative to a family account, and the assistant calls that one person on the schedule the family sets.

We never call anyone from a list and never call for marketing or sales. An older adult receives regular calls only after they have personally given consent as described below. Family members on the account receive automated calls only about that account: the consent call they start themselves, and urgent alerts if they get alerts by phone (section 6). The volume is small: one person, at most one scheduled conversation a day.

2. How consent is given: the consent call

Before any regular call, the family member starts a consent call from the family app. It works like this:

1. We call the family member first. The assistant says it is a computer program and asks them to press 1 when they are ready to call their relative.
2. We call the relative from the assistant number assigned to them. So the first call they ever receive from the assistant has their own family member on the line.
3. The two of them talk. This part of the conversation is not recorded. The family member explains, in their own words, what they would like to set up.
4. When they are ready, the family member presses 1 again. The assistant says that it is a computer program, not a person, and that the recording starts now.
5. The assistant asks one fixed question. In the current version of the wording (en-0.3) it is:

   “[Family member’s name] is setting up an assistant for you. It will call you from this number, talk with you, and remember your conversations so it can pick up where you left off. It will let your family know how you’re doing, and if you say something that would worry them, it will pass that on in your own words. Are you happy for it to call you?”

6. The relative answers in their own words. The assistant then says that the recording has stopped, and nothing more is recorded.
7. The family member sees a transcript of the answer and confirms in the family app whether it was a yes. If they are not sure what it meant, they can ask the question again.

Regular calls start only after the person called has answered and the family member who heard the answer has confirmed that it was a yes. A family member cannot give consent on someone else’s behalf: the question is put to the person, and only their own answer is recorded. Until the family member confirms a yes, no regular calls take place. If the answer is no, there are no calls, and we do not try to change anyone’s mind. Saying no to being recorded and saying no to calls are recorded as different answers; either one stops the setup.

What we keep as proof of consent

The audio of the recorded part (the notice, the question and the answer, and the family member’s voice if they speak during it), its transcript, the family member’s confirmation, the number the call came from, the time, and the version of the wording. Consent may need to be shown long after the call, so we keep these for 7 years after the last event connected with them: the consent call, the last call made with that consent, its withdrawal, or the deletion of the person’s information. While the person is still registered with us, we keep their most recent consent record (a yes, a no or a request to stop) until a newer one replaces it or their information is deleted, because it is what tells us whether we may call them. They are kept even if the person’s other information is deleted at their or their family’s request, as described in our Privacy Policy. If the wording of the question changes, each consent stays tied to the version the person actually heard.

When the family member records the person’s answer as a no, to the calls or to being recorded, the audio and transcript of that call are deleted at our next daily deletion run, normally within 24 hours and in any case within 30 days, and we keep only a short record of the answer, without their voice or words.

3. Which number calls

Each person is assigned an assistant phone number when their family adds them, and the consent call comes from that number. Regular calls also come from our own phone number. Every call shows our real number as caller ID: we never hide it or make a call look as if it came from someone else.

For questions about a call, email us at support@calldear.com.

4. When and how often we call

• Scheduled calls come only on the days and within the time window the family chose.
• Every call to the person comes only between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in their local time.
• At most one scheduled conversation a day. If the person does not answer, the assistant tries up to three times within about an hour, then lets the family know instead of trying again.
• After a call in which something worrying came up, the assistant may make one extra check-in call, 12 to 36 hours later depending on how serious it sounded. It can fall on a day the family did not choose, or be a second conversation that day, but it still comes within the family’s time window and between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., and never while calls are paused or after consent has been withdrawn.
• The family can pause calls at any time, for example during a visit or a hospital stay.
• The assistant ends a call whenever the person wants to, and never tries to keep them on the line.

5. How every call begins

The assistant is AI software: a computer program with a computer-generated voice, not a person. It says so at the start of every call to the older person it calls. With the assistant called Lida, for example:

• The first call, and any call after a break of more than two weeks, says who is calling, that it is a program, and that it is calling at the family’s request: “Hello! This is Lida, your digital companion — I’m a program, calling at your family’s request.”
• Later calls open more briefly, with the person’s name: “Hello, [name]! It’s Lida again, your digital companion — I’m a program.”
• A check-in after a worrying call opens like this: “Hello, [name]! It’s Lida, your digital companion — I’m a program. I thought I’d call and see how you are today.”

If the person asks whether they are talking to a real person, the assistant says plainly that it is a program.

The assistant never asks for money, bank or card details, Social Security numbers, passwords or one-time codes. If anyone asks for these in its name, it is not us: hang up.

6. Calls and text messages to family members

The family members on an account hear from the assistant only about that account:

• The consent call. It starts with a call to the family member who requested it, as described in section 2.
• Urgent alerts by phone call. If something in a call suggests the person may be in danger, family members who get alerts by phone receive an automated call from the assistant. It says, for example: “Hello. This is Lida, your family’s voice companion. I’m calling about something urgent: [the reason]. Please reach your relative right now.” It says this twice and hangs up. Because it is urgent, this call can come at any time of day or night, and the assistant tries up to three times.
• Text messages. Family members who get alerts by text message receive urgent alerts and notices about the calls, for example that a call did not go through. Messages are sent only when there is something to report, so how many you receive varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop text messages, or HELP for help.

The family member who opens the account gets alerts by phone call and text message if they gave a phone number, and by email if they gave an email address. Other family members get alerts only if they agreed to receive them. Anyone can change or turn off how they get alerts in the family app, or ask us by email at support@calldear.com. Text messages are covered by our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

7. How to stop the calls

The person who receives the calls can stop them at any time, without giving a reason:

• Say so during any call — for example, “Please stop calling me” or “Don’t call me again.” The assistant confirms once, without trying to change their mind (“Understood. I won’t call again. If you ever want the calls back, just tell your family. Take care.”), the calls stop, and the family is told.
• Email us at support@calldear.com with the phone number that receives the calls. The person can write themselves, or someone can write on their behalf.

The family member who set up the calls can also pause them in the family app, or ask us to stop them.

How quickly we act

A request made during a call takes effect immediately: no further calls are scheduled. A request sent by email is honored as soon as we read it, and in any case no later than 10 business days after we receive it. We reply by email once the calls have been stopped.

After an opt-out, calls resume only if the person gives consent again in a new consent call. We keep a record of the opt-out, with its date, together with the consent records described in section 2, so that we keep honoring it. If the person’s information is later deleted at their or their family’s request, that record is kept, and the assistant still cannot call them again unless they give consent in a new consent call.

8. Recording and transcription

• The consent call. Only the consent part is recorded: it begins with a spoken notice that recording is starting, then the question and the answer. The family member’s voice is recorded too if they speak during that part. The conversation before it is not recorded.
• Regular calls. Every regular call is transcribed (turned into text) as it happens by our speech recognition provider, so that the assistant can understand and respond, remember earlier conversations, and give the family a summary. We do not keep audio recordings of regular calls. Word-for-word transcripts are deleted automatically after 90 days. What else we keep, and for how long, is described in our Privacy Policy.

9. Changes and questions

If we change this policy, we update the effective date above. If a change affects what a person agreed to in the consent call, we ask them again before relying on it.

Questions about this policy: support@calldear.com. Our contact details are on the Contact page.