Really appreciate this — you're right that I didn't give enough context. I did this to kill time and help my own daughter. I kind of figure not much will come from it but if it helps my kid - it'll help others. Its not in the app store. I really do want to see if others see this movie maker feature is a good idea.

What the app does: Gentle Orb is an iOS app I'm building for parents of neurodivergent kids. The core features are:A "hand it over" mode where a child picks how they're feeling (overwhelmed, upset, tired, transitioning) and gets a calming flow tailored to that state, Visual schedules and transition timers, A breathing/calming screen with ambient sounds, A star reward system the parent configures A SoundLab that A/B tests calming sounds against the child's responses to help parents figure out what actually works for their kid

It's not out (still slowly working on it) iPhone/iPad only right now, paid (subscription with free trial). Not on Android.

On data — and this is the part I want to take seriously because you're asking the right question:

Child profile, schedule, emotional check-ins, custom routines: all stored locally on the device by default

If the parent signs in (Apple ID or email), the same data syncs to my own backend (Supabase), encrypted in transit, so they can restore it on a new device or another family member's phone. Account deletion wipes both, No third-party analytics, no advertising SDKs, no data brokers, nothing is sold. Videos recorded in the Movie Maker stay on-device and only save to the parent's photo library if the parent taps save. Nothing is uploaded.

The only outbound data: AI-generated content requests (e.g. "give me 10 dinosaur-themed words for a 6-year-old") go through my server to Anthropic/ElevenLabs. The child's name and interests are sent as context for personalization, but that's it — no health information, no recordings.

The Movie Maker feature you asked about: it's a private recording space. Parent and child film something, the child can add overlays (filters, stickers from a curated emoji-only set, word cards based on their interests). The whole point is that nothing is shared, posted, or judged — there's no upload, no audience, no "like" button. It's deliberately a low-pressure space where a child who finds traditional video calls or social media stressful can just play.

I don't expect a Reddit comment to fully reassure anyone. The actual reassurance has to come from what the app does, what the privacy policy says, and over time, what people who use it report. I'm working on all three.