How Altai Ventures LLC ("Altai") handles information across this website, its homes, and its apps. Questions go to [email protected].
1. General & website
This policy covers altaiventures.co and the homes, apps, and systems described on it. Altai Ventures LLC is the company behind all of it.
What the website collects
When a message is sent through /contact/ or a similar form, Altai receives what's provided — typically a name, an email address, and the content of the message — and uses it only to respond to that inquiry.
No sale of personal data
Altai does not sell personal data, and does not run third-party advertising or behavioral tracking on this website.
Third parties
Where a service is used to run part of the site — payment processing for a stay, or email delivery for a reply — that provider handles the data needed to perform that specific job, under its own privacy terms.
Retention
Information is kept only as long as it's needed to respond to an inquiry, run a stay, or meet accounting and tax recordkeeping obligations.
Children
This website is not directed at children. The one Altai product built for children, Bee Buddy, is addressed on its own below.
Changes
This page shows the version currently in effect. When it changes in a material way, the effective date above is updated.
Governing law
This policy is governed by the laws of the State of California, consistent with the terms at /terms/.
2. Stays
Some homes, like 769 Santa Ray, offer direct booking through this website. Others are long-term rentals and take inquiries through /contact/ instead.
Direct booking & payment
When a stay is booked directly, payment is processed by Stripe. Stripe collects and handles the payment details under its own privacy policy; Altai does not store full card numbers.
Guest information
Name, contact details, stay dates, and anything else provided for a reservation are used only to manage that stay — confirmations, check-in details, and communication before, during, and after — and to meet recordkeeping requirements.
Inquiries about a home
A message about availability for a long-term home is used only to respond to that question. It does not create a lease, a reservation, or a guarantee of availability.
House rules
Every stay is also subject to the house rules provided at booking or check-in for that property. Those rules set expectations for the stay itself; they don't change how personal data is handled.
Guest data is never sold, and is shared only with the service providers needed to run the stay, or when required by law.
3. Apps
Altai builds seven iOS apps: LandlordHours, LensWords, Bee Buddy: Spelling Bee, NeuRest, Critterbook, Handly: Learn Poker Offline, and Stone by Stone.
Built to stay on-device
Altai designs its apps to work on-device. The data an app generates — logged hours, captured words, spelling progress, sound preferences, hands played — stays on that device unless a feature plainly says otherwise, such as an iCloud sync a person turns on themselves.
No ads, no data sales
None of Altai's apps carry third-party advertising, and none sell personal data.
Anonymous analytics & crash reports
Some apps — currently Handly and Critterbook — send anonymous usage signals (and, for Handly, crash reports) so Altai can fix bugs and improve the app. This data is tied to a random per-install identifier, never to a name, email, or advertising ID, and it is never used to track anyone across other apps or websites. It is processed by PostHog, Inc. on servers in the United States, solely to operate and improve the app. Where an app collects these signals, it says so here and offers a switch in its own Settings to turn sharing off.
App by app
- LandlordHours — hours and notes logged against a property stay on-device (and in a personal iCloud account, if sync is enabled). Altai does not receive or store those property records on its own servers.
- LensWords — a captured image is processed to produce the word and its examples, and is not kept by Altai once that processing finishes.
- NeuRest — sound settings, and any optional Apple Health signal a person chooses to share, stay on-device and are used only to shape that person's own sessions.
- Handly: Learn Poker Offline — play history and stats are stored on-device to track personal progress against the bots. Handly also sends the anonymous usage and crash signals described above; the "Share anonymous usage data" switch in its Settings turns that off.
- Critterbook — the family field guide runs on-device, and the photos scanned with its lens are processed on the device and never sent to Altai. The one thing that ever leaves the device is a nomination, and only when someone taps “Nominate this creature”: it sends the creature’s common name, an optional short note, the device’s country or region setting, and a random anonymous ID the app generates — never the photo, a name, an email, a precise location, or an advertising ID. Altai uses nominations only to see which creatures families would like added to the guide, and to hand-paint the most-requested ones. The anonymous ID simply lets a person check the status of their own nominations; it is not tied to anyone’s identity and is never used to track them across other apps or websites. An optional note stays private — it is only ever shown back to its author and to Altai to help decide what to paint, and is never published or shown to other users. Critterbook also sends the anonymous usage signals described above — which features get used, tied only to the same kind of random identifier — and a parent can turn this off with the “Share anonymous usage data” switch in its Settings. If a family turns on reveal notices, the app periodically checks for newly painted creatures in the background; that check is anonymous and sends no identifier at all. Questions about Critterbook data: [email protected].
- Stone by Stone — a reading journal. Books, passages, and reflections stay on-device, and in a personal iCloud account if sync is enabled. A title search sends the search text to the Google Books API to find the book and its cover; Altai does not receive or store what someone reads or writes. Text captured from a page with the camera is processed on the device and never sent to Altai.
- Bee Buddy: Spelling Bee — built for children, with no accounts required to play. Altai does not knowingly collect personal information from children, does not track a child's activity across other apps or sites, and shows no third-party ads inside the app.
