Clear answers about your privacy and safety

What information PsychPal collects

• Account information: name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash).
• Profile information: age, gender, location, occupation, education level (optional).
• Wellness data: conversation history, daily check-ins, mood logs, journal entries, appointment information, exercise completion.
• Payment information: subscription status, billing cycle, transaction IDs. Full card details are handled by Stripe (web and Android) or Apple (iPhone in-app purchases). PsychPal does not store them.
• Technical data: device type, operating system, IP address, usage data, cookies.

Why each category is needed

• Account information: to create and secure your account.
• Profile information: to personalize your experience.
• Wellness data: to deliver the AI companion, journaling, mood tracking and continuity features.
• Payment information: to manage your subscription.
• Technical data: to keep the app running, fix bugs and improve performance.

Named service providers

• Anthropic (Claude): main AI that generates PsychPal's replies, accessed through the Emergent AI gateway.
• Emergent: app hosting and the AI gateway that passes requests to Anthropic and OpenAI.
• OpenAI: voice transcription (Whisper) and text-to-speech only.
• MongoDB Atlas: database hosting (Canada, Montreal, ca-central-1; AES-256 encryption at rest).
• Stripe: payments on the web and Android.
• Apple and RevenueCat: iPhone in-app purchases and subscription status.
• Resend: main transactional email (Gmail / Google Workspace as a backup).
• Twilio: SMS for appointment reminders you turn on, and check-in texts to your support person that you choose to send.
• Google: Sign in with Google, and Google Places for the therapist search.
• FingerprintJS: one free trial per device.
• Meta (Facebook Pixel): aggregate marketing analytics on the website only. Never includes conversation or journal content.

Where data is stored and processed

Primary account and wellness records — including conversation history, journal entries, mood data and check-ins — are stored on MongoDB Atlas servers in Montreal, Quebec (ca-central-1 region), encrypted at rest with AES-256.

Some processing happens outside Canada, mainly in the United States, through service providers such as Emergent, Anthropic, OpenAI, Stripe, Apple, Twilio, Resend, Meta and Google. When your data is processed by these providers, it is protected by Data Processing Agreements and, where applicable, Standard Contractual Clauses that require a level of protection comparable to Canadian law.

What is and is not used for advertising

PsychPal never uses the contents of your conversations, journals or mood data for advertising. Meta Pixel events are pseudonymous aggregate signals (page views, sign-ups, subscription events) — they do not include the content of your private sessions.

You can disable Meta Pixel tracking with any standard ad-blocker or browser tracking-protection setting.

Is user data used to train AI models?

No. Anthropic and OpenAI process your content under their API terms, which do not allow it to be used to train their general AI models. PsychPal's own periodic journal analysis is used only to personalize your experience. It is never shared, sold, or used to train general models.

Voice transcription and retention

Voice recordings are transcribed using OpenAI Whisper and then discarded. Only the text transcript is retained. PsychPal does not store audio files of your voice.

Conversation, journal and account deletion

You can delete individual conversations, journal entries or your entire account from within the app at any time.

See the Privacy Policy for how long we keep information. To request deletion, contact support@psychpal.ca.

Data retention

See the Privacy Policy for how long we keep information.

Safety-event detection and records

PsychPal uses an AI classifier to recognize language that may indicate a credible threat of harm. When a message is flagged, a safety incident record is created. This record contains a timestamp, severity tier, a snippet of up to 500 characters of the flagged message, and your user ID and email.

Automated detection is not guaranteed to identify every situation. PsychPal is not a crisis or emergency service. If you may be in immediate danger, call emergency services or contact 988.

Safety incident records are retained as described in the Privacy Policy.

Every AI reply is also checked by a second automated system before you see it. If you write about harming yourself, PsychPal immediately shows crisis help lines and offers to text your support person. That record is anonymous: it keeps no message text, name or email.

Who may review a safety incident

Safety incident records may be viewed only by members of PsychPal's safety team whose emails appear on a server-side allow-list. Every view and action is written to an immutable audit log.

Full conversations are sealed. They can be opened only for one specific person, for a legal reason such as a court order, after a 72-hour waiting period and a second verification step. Access is read-only, ends after 24 hours, and is permanently logged.

PsychPal does not autonomously contact law enforcement or emergency services based on a safety event.

Automatic text alerts to emergency contacts are currently switched off.

Support Circle vs Safe Contacts

Security controls

• Encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS).
• Encryption at rest (AES-256) for all stored data.
• Secure password hashing (bcrypt).
• Role-based access controls.
• Secure session management with HTTP-only cookies.
• Audit logging of all administrative access to personal data.
• Regular security audits and updates.

Age requirement

PsychPal is for adults 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.

Your privacy rights and contact

Under PIPEDA and applicable Canadian privacy laws you have the right to access, correct, port, restrict, object to and delete your personal information. You may also withdraw consent and lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

PsychPal is operated by Renovo Cleaning Inc. (operating as PsychPal). To exercise any right, contact us at support@psychpal.ca. We will respond within 30 days.