Clear answers about your privacy and safety

What information PsychPal collects

• Account information: name, email address, encrypted password.
• 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 — 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

• OpenAI: AI conversation processing, voice transcription (Whisper), text-to-speech.
• Stripe: payment processing.
• MongoDB Atlas: database hosting (Canada — Montreal, ca-central-1, AES-256 encryption at rest).
• Gmail SMTP (Google Workspace): transactional email.
• Twilio: SMS delivery for safety-team and emergency-contact alerts only.
• FingerprintJS: browser fingerprinting to enforce the one-per-device free trial limit.
• Meta (Facebook Pixel): aggregate marketing analytics. Pixel events are pseudonymous and never include conversation or journal content.

What is stored in Canada

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.

What processing may occur outside Canada

Some service providers (OpenAI, Stripe, Twilio, Meta, Google) operate primarily in the United States. 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.

PsychPal does not claim that all processing occurs in Canada.

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. Your data is not used to train OpenAI's general AI models. OpenAI processes your conversations under a Data Processing Agreement that prohibits this use. PsychPal's own periodic journal analysis (using Anthropic Claude Haiku) 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. Account data is retained for seven years after closure to meet Canadian healthcare records norms, then permanently deleted. Safety incident records are retained for two years.

To request earlier deletion, contact [email protected].

Retention periods at a glance

• Active account data: retained while your account is active.
• Closed account wellness data: 7 years, then permanently deleted.
• Safety incident records: 2 years.
• Audit logs: 7 years (immutable).
• Payment records: 7 years (Canadian tax law).
• Encrypted backups: up to 30 days after deletion.

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 data is never sold, never shared with advertisers, and never used to train AI models.

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. Access to the full conversation beyond the 500-character snippet requires a separate, rarely used credential that is itself audit-logged.

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

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 health information.
• Regular security audits and updates.

Your privacy rights and contact

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

To exercise any right, contact Privacy Officer Jules Poiron at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.