Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

AdviceBuddy.ai ("AdviceBuddy", "we", "us") is operated by AdviceBuddyAI, Inc. This policy covers the website at www.advicebuddy.ai and the AdviceBuddy mobile apps. AdviceBuddy offers self-checks and general wellness activities. It is not a healthcare provider, therapy, or an emergency service. The open-ended AI chat that AdviceBuddy used to offer has been retired.

2. What we collect

• Account: your email address and how you sign in (email and password, Google, or Sign in with Apple in the iOS app). If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your name and email address (and, from Google, your profile picture).
• Check-ins (with your consent): your answers to the check-in questions (PHQ-2/PHQ-9, GAD-2/GAD-7, PSS-4 and, if you answer the self-harm question with anything other than "not at all", the Columbia follow-up questions), your 1–100 readings and levels, whether an answer suggested you may be at risk, and the activity plans we suggest. This is sensitive health information.
• Consents: what you agreed to (18+, Terms, storing check-ins, the optional AI plan), when, and on which version of the wording.
• Kept only on your device: your safety plan, your before/after ratings in the calming activities, and any chat history left from the retired chat. We don't receive these.
• Billing: your plan, trial and renewal dates, and payment references from Stripe (web) or Google Play / the App Store (apps). We never see or store your card number.
• Settings: your voice and video guide preferences.
• Mobile app extras: if you turn on notifications, a device token so we can send them; if you turn on the app lock, Face ID or fingerprint checks happen on your phone and we never receive them.
• Therapist applications: if you apply to be listed as a therapist, the details you enter in the form, including your licence number.
• Technical data: like any website, our hosting provider receives your IP address and browser details when you visit, and keeps short-lived logs for security and troubleshooting.

Free-text questions are not part of the check-in: you only tap answers.

3. Your consent

• At sign-up you confirm you are 18 or older and agree to our Terms and this policy.
• Before your first check-in we ask, separately, for your consent to collect and store your check-in answers and readings for the purposes in section 4. Without it you can't take the check-in.
• Optional, Premium only: your separate consent to send your score levels to our AI provider so it can word your activity plan (section 5). Without it you get our standard plan.
• You can withdraw either consent any time in Settings → Privacy. Withdrawing doesn't delete what was already stored; you can delete it by deleting your account.

4. How we use it

• To score your check-ins, show your readings and history, and suggest activities and a plan.
• To show crisis resources when an answer or a reading suggests you may need help now.
• To run your account and subscription, and to send service emails (sign-up, trial reminders, billing).
• To keep the service secure and prevent abuse.
• To produce anonymous totals for an employer, only for groups of at least 5 people (section 6).
• With your permission only, to measure visits to our public pages and our ads (section 8). We never use your check-ins or health information for advertising, and we never sell your data.

5. Service providers that process your data

We use these service providers. Each receives only what it needs:

• Supabase: hosts our database and sign-in, so it stores your account, consents and check-ins.
• Vercel: hosts the website and its servers, and provides cookieless visit counts.
• Anthropic (Claude): only if you are on Premium and gave the optional AI consent, it receives your three 1–100 readings, your overall level, your focus area and the list of activities, to word your activity plan. It never receives your name, email, account ID, answers, self-harm answers or history. Under Anthropic's commercial terms this data isn't used to train their models.
• Modal: runs the voice and video models we use to pre-record the guide clips (the same fixed questions and steps for everyone). It does not receive your answers or readings. When the website reads your plan aloud, any wording that wasn't pre-recorded is read by your own device's built-in voice; we only use voices that run on your device, so that text isn't sent anywhere.
• Stripe (web) and Google Play, Apple and RevenueCat (apps): handle payments and subscriptions.
• Namecheap: hosts our email and sends our account and billing emails.
• Google Analytics and Meta: only on our public pages and only if you accept cookies (section 8). They never run inside the app.

How long each provider keeps data depends on its own terms and settings. We don't promise a specific deletion period for any provider.

6. Employer and team accounts

If your access comes from your employer or another organisation, that organisation's administrator can see:

• your email address, whether you've joined, and when you last used AdviceBuddy (to manage seats);
• anonymous totals for the whole group, such as how many members' check-in results fall in each range. These totals are only shown once at least 5 members have taken part, so no one can be singled out.

Administrators can't see your own answers, scores or safety plan, and they are never told if an answer suggested you may be at risk.

7. Crisis safety

If you answer the self-harm question with anything other than "not at all", or your readings are in the highest range, AdviceBuddy shows crisis lines (988 in the US, with a link to international helplines) straight away. This is automatic: no person watches answers in real time, we don't notify anyone, and we don't contact emergency services for you. If you are in danger, call 911 or 988.

8. Cookies and analytics

With your permission, we use two tools that set cookies in your browser. They only run on our public pages (such as the homepage, pricing, Teams and our guides). They never run once you sign in or use the app, so they never see your check-ins, scores, plans, activities, account, checkout or crisis pages:

• Google Analytics: to understand which pages people visit.
• Meta Pixel: to measure whether our ads on Facebook and Instagram lead people to our public pages. We don't send Meta or Google sign-ups, purchases or anything about your health.

Neither loads until you choose "Accept". If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat that as declining and they stay off. You can change your choice any time with "Cookie settings" at the bottom of any page. We also use Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights, which count visits and loading speed without cookies and without identifying you; we remove any extra details from page addresses before they are sent. Your check-in answers and readings are never sent to any analytics tool. The mobile apps contain no advertising or analytics tools.

9. Security and how long we keep data

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest by our database provider. Access to production systems is limited to the people who run AdviceBuddy. On the mobile apps, your sign-in and safety plan are kept in the phone's secure storage.

• Account, consents, check-ins and plans: kept while your account is open, deleted when you delete it.
• Security and server logs: kept for a short period, then deleted.
• Billing records: Stripe, Google Play and Apple keep their own records, which we and they may need to keep for tax and accounting.
• Backups: our database provider keeps backups for a limited time; deleted data disappears from them as they expire.

10. Your rights and choices

• See and download your data: Settings → Privacy → Download my data gives you a copy of everything we store about you.
• Withdraw consent: Settings → Privacy.
• Delete your account at www.advicebuddy.ai/delete-account or in the app (Settings → Delete account). This deletes your account and the check-ins, plans and consents linked to it straight away. If you pay through Google Play or the App Store, cancel the subscription there too.
• Or email us at privacy@advicebuddy.ai to ask for a copy, a correction or deletion; we'll respond within 30 days. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under state law, and you can appeal a decision by replying to our answer.

11. Adults in the US only

AdviceBuddy is for adults aged 18 and over in the United States. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; if you believe a child has used AdviceBuddy, email privacy@advicebuddy.ai and we'll delete the account.

12. Changes and contact

If we change this policy in a way that affects how we use your health information, we'll tell you and ask for your consent again where the law requires it. Questions: privacy@advicebuddy.ai, or by post to AdviceBuddyAI, Inc., 329 Primrose Rd Ste 117053, Burlingame, CA 94010-4093, United States. Our Terms of Service also apply.