Effective 14 October 2026. This page covers the website virtualarnold.org and the Virtual Arnold apps for iPhone and Android, which show the same website.
In short: there are no accounts, no advertising and no tracking. Questions you ask are sent to the services that write and speak the answers. Questions and answers may be kept in the public archive and shown to other visitors, so please don't put personal information in a question.
What happens when you ask a question
- Your question (typed or spoken) is sent to the Virtual Arnold answer service on our own server. It searches Schoenberg's writings with the help of Voyage AI (which turns the question into a search) and has the reply written by Google's Gemini model. Recent turns of your conversation are sent with it, so that he can follow the conversation. If our service is unavailable, the question goes to the earlier answer service run by the Jewish Heritage Network instead.
- Our answer log. Our server keeps a record of each question and answer, with the page settings used (such as the voice and answer style, and whether it was asked in the app), so that we can find and correct mistakes. No name, email or account is attached to it.
- If you use the microphone, your recording is sent to ElevenLabs only to turn it into text. Virtual Arnold does not keep your recording.
- The answer text is sent to Cartesia or ElevenLabs to be spoken in Arnold's voice, and the voice is sent to Anam or Simli to animate the portrait.
- The archive. The question, the answer, its recorded audio and subtitle timings are saved on our server and can appear under "Others asked" and in the public Archive. No name, email or account is attached to them. Questions and answers that look offensive or contain an email address, web address or phone number are held back and not shown until we have checked them. Answers that leave the public archive (it shows at most 500) are kept on our server, no longer public, so that they can be restored; we delete any of them on request.
- Shared links. If you press Share under an answer, a copy of that question and answer (and its recording, if there is one) is kept on our server under an unlisted link (virtualarnold.org/a/…), which anyone who has the link can open. It stays until it is removed; we delete it on request or if it is reported and breaks these rules. The number of times a link is opened is counted, without any link to you.
- Ratings (1–5 stars) and how often a stored answer is played are counted, without any link to you.
Other information
- Contact form. If you write to us, your message, and your name and email address if you give them, are emailed to us so that we can reply, together with the internet address it was sent from (to deal with abuse). We don't use them for anything else.
- Network address. To prevent abuse, the server counts requests per internet (IP) address per hour. It keeps only a scrambled form of the address, for that hour. A scrambled form is also kept with each question in the archive, so that someone who misuses the archive can be blocked; it can't be turned back into the address. Our web host also keeps ordinary server logs.
- Settings on your device. Choices such as the portrait, the voice or "Big picture" are remembered in your own browser or app (local storage). They stay on your device.
- A device number for fair use. The site stores a random number in a cookie (
va_dev, kept for a year) so that its hourly usage limits can count each device separately. Without it, everyone on one network, such as a museum's Wi-Fi, would share a single limit. It contains nothing about you and is not used for anything else. - Anonymous usage counts. To improve the menus and the app, the page counts which buttons, menus and settings are used, how many questions are asked in a visit (not what they say), which error messages appear, where a visit came from (the name of the referring site only), the browser language, and roughly how long a visit lasts. Each page visit gets a random number that is not stored on your device; no internet address or other identifying detail is kept with these counts.
- Your permission first. Before your first question, the app (and the website) shows what is sent and to whom, and asks Allow or Don't Allow. Nothing you type or say is sent to any of the services below until you tap Allow; you can withdraw this permission at any time (see below). The app asks for the microphone only so that you can speak your question. Files you download (an answer's audio or video) are saved through your phone's own Share sheet, where you choose.
Who processes it
| Service | What it receives | What for |
|---|---|---|
| Google (Gemini) | Your question, the earlier turns of the conversation, and passages from Schoenberg's writings | Writing the answers |
| Voyage AI | Your question (and, for a follow-up question, the previous one) | Searching Schoenberg's writings for the passages that fit the question |
| Jewish Heritage Network (arnold.jhn.ngo) | Your question and the earlier turns of the conversation | Backup answer service, used only when ours is unavailable |
| ElevenLabs | The recording of your voice, only when you use the microphone; the answer text | Turning spoken questions into text; speaking the answers |
| Cartesia | The answer text | Speaking the answers in Arnold's voice |
| Anam, Simli | The answer text and the spoken answer | Animating the moving portrait |
| Our web host | Everything our server stores (see above) | Running the site and our answer service; storing the archive and the answer log |
Virtual Arnold does not send these services your name, email address, contacts, location or any account, but anything you write or say in a question is passed on as it is. All of them also see the internet address your request comes from, as every web service does.
Same protection. We share data only with the services listed here, and only what each one needs for its task. Each is bound by its terms of service and data-processing terms to use the data only to provide its service to Virtual Arnold and to keep it confidential and secure, giving it protection equal to that described on this page. Where a service lets its customers exclude their data from being used to train its AI models, we have chosen that setting. We change or stop using a service that does not meet this standard.
How we use the data
- To answer your question in writing, in Arnold's voice and with the moving portrait.
- To show questions and answers in the public archive and under "Others asked" (held back first if they look offensive or personal).
- To find and correct mistakes in the answers, and to improve the site and the app (answer log, ratings, anonymous usage counts).
- To prevent abuse (hourly limits and blocking misuse of the archive).
We use it for nothing else: no advertising, no profiles of visitors, no sale of data.
Your permission and how to withdraw it
Your permission is stored only on your device (in the app or browser). To withdraw it, tap the button below. Nothing more is sent; the next time you ask a question you will be asked again, and you can choose Don't Allow. To have a question you asked removed from the archive, see "Removing something from the archive" below.
What we don't do
- No user accounts, no advertising, no third-party analytics or tracking tools (only the anonymous usage counts described above), no selling or sharing of data for marketing.
- No tracking across other apps or websites.
Children
Virtual Arnold is meant for a general audience interested in music and history. It is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.
Removing something from the archive
Every answer, in the conversation and in the archive, has a Report this answer link. A report of offensive content or personal information hides an archived answer at once until we have checked it; reports are sent to us by email and are not linked to you.
If a question you asked appears in the archive and you would like it removed, write to us through the contact form or at info@virtualarnold.org, saying which question it is, and we will delete it.
Changes and contact
If this page changes, the date at the top changes with it. Questions about privacy: info@virtualarnold.org.
Virtual Arnold is an AI interpretation built from Arnold Schoenberg's writings, created by E. Randol Schoenberg.