Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 28, 2026 · Effective: March 28, 2026

Be Candid (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the Be Candid mobile application and website at becandid.io (collectively, the “Service”). We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy describes what information we collect, how we use it, who can access it, and the choices you have.

Be Candid handles sensitive personal data related to behavioral health and intimate relationships. We treat this responsibility with the seriousness it deserves. Your journal entries are encrypted before they reach our database. Your partner never sees your browsing history. Your therapist only sees what you explicitly consent to share.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Account Information

When you create an account, we collect your email address, display name, and password (hashed, never stored in plain text). You may optionally provide a phone number for SMS notifications and a timezone for scheduling.

1.2 Screen Activity Categories

Be Candid monitors your device screen activity to detect content that matches the accountability categories you selected during onboarding (e.g., “Pornography,” “Social Media,” “Gambling”). We record the category and severity level of detected activity, along with a timestamp and the platform (iOS, Android, or web).

We do NOT collect: URLs visited, screenshots, screen recordings, browsing history, app usage logs, or the specific content you viewed. Our on-device detection identifies the category of content without transmitting the content itself to our servers.

1.3 Journal Entries

You may write journal entries using our Candid Journal feature. Journal content — including freewrite text, guided prompt responses (tributaries, longings, roadmap), mood ratings, and tags — is encrypted using AES-256-GCM encryption with per-user derived keys before it is stored in our database. This means even our database administrators cannot read your journal entries without your encryption key.

1.4 Check-In and Conversation Data

We store check-in responses (mood ratings, self-assessments), conversation outcome ratings (1-5 scale, feeling words), and AI-generated conversation guides. Conversation guides and outcome notes are encrypted before storage.

1.5 Partner and Relationship Data

When you invite an accountability partner, we store their name, email address, phone number (optional), and relationship type (friend, spouse, mentor, coach, therapist, pastor). We track relationship-level XP and engagement metrics to power the relationship level system.

1.6 Spouse-Specific Data

If your accountability partner is your spouse, additional data is collected with their explicit consent: spouse journal entries (encrypted, separate from the monitored user’s journal), impact check-in responses (feelings, trust meter, safety assessment), and Committed Contender milestone progress. See Section 4 for the spouse consent model.

1.7 Therapist Portal Data

If you connect a therapist, we serve them a read-only view of your data based on five independent consent toggles you control (journal, moods, streaks, outcomes, patterns). See Section 4.3.

1.8 Device and Technical Data

We collect device identifiers for push notification delivery, session information for security (device fingerprint, IP address, login timestamps), and basic usage analytics. We use this data for security (detecting unauthorized access), improving the Service, and delivering notifications.

1.9 Payment Information

Payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe, Inc. We store your Stripe customer ID, subscription plan, and subscription status. We do not store credit card numbers, bank account details, or other payment credentials. See Stripe’s privacy policy at stripe.com/privacy.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

  • Operate the Service — detecting flagged content, generating AI conversation guides, delivering notifications, and processing journal entries.
  • Generate AI-powered content — your flagged categories, severity, and timing are sent to the Anthropic Claude API to generate personalized conversation guides and weekly reflections. Journal content is sent to Claude only for the weekly reflection feature, and only from entries made during the relevant week.
  • Send notifications — push notifications, email alerts, and SMS messages related to your accountability activity, check-in reminders, and journal prompts.
  • Improve the Service — aggregated, de-identified usage patterns help us improve features. We never sell or share individual-level data for this purpose.
  • Prevent abuse — brute force protection, session monitoring, and rate limiting protect your account.

3. Encryption and Security

3.1 App-Layer Encryption

Journal entries, conversation guides, conversation outcome notes, spouse journal entries, and weekly reflections are encrypted using AES-256-GCM with per-user keys derived via HKDF from a master encryption key. This encryption occurs in our application layer beforedata reaches the database. Even if the database were compromised, encrypted fields would be unreadable without the application-layer keys.

3.2 Infrastructure Security

Our database (hosted by Supabase on AWS) encrypts all data at rest using AES-256 and all data in transit using TLS 1.2+. Row Level Security (RLS) policies enforce that each user can only access their own data at the database level. Authentication is handled by Supabase Auth with bcrypt password hashing.

3.3 Push Notification Privacy

Push notifications displayed on your lock screen are sanitized to remove sensitive details. Partner alert notifications say “Your partner could use your support” — not the category name or any identifying information. This prevents accidental disclosure if someone else sees your lock screen.

3.4 Session Security

We track active sessions and limit concurrent sessions to five per account. New device logins trigger a push notification to your existing devices. You can view and revoke sessions from Settings, and “Log out everywhere” is available for emergencies.

4. Who Can See Your Data

4.1 Your Accountability Partner

Your accountability partner can see:

  • That a flag was triggered (category and severity)
  • When it happened (date and time)
  • An AI-generated conversation guide
  • Your focus streak length
  • How many journal entries you wrote that week (the count, not the content)
  • Conversation outcome ratings (after both sides submit)
  • Relationship level and XP

Your accountability partner cannot see:

  • URLs or websites you visited
  • Screenshots or screen recordings
  • Your journal entry content (unless spouse and explicitly shared)
  • Your mood or check-in responses
  • The content of push notifications you receive

4.2 Spouse-Specific Consent

If your partner is your spouse, they have their own private journal that you cannot access unless they explicitly share a specific entry using a per-entry toggle. Spouse impact check-ins (feelings, trust meter) are only visible to you if the spouse enables the “Share with partner” toggle on each individual check-in. The default is private.

4.3 Therapist Access

If you connect a therapist, you control their access through five independent consent toggles: journal entries, mood timeline, focus streaks, conversation outcomes, and pattern analysis. Each toggle can be changed or revoked at any time from Settings. The therapist portal is read-only — therapists cannot modify, delete, or add to your data. When you revoke access, the therapist loses access immediately.

4.4 Crisis Detection

Our crisis language detection scans your journal freewrite text for distress indicators (e.g., expressions of self-harm or suicidal ideation). This detection runs entirely on your device (client-side). If detected, a resource banner is displayed privately to you with contact information for crisis helplines. This detection is never sent to our servers, never shared with your partner or therapist, neverstored, and never blocks you from saving your journal entry.

5. Third-Party Service Providers

We use the following third-party services to operate Be Candid:

  • Supabase (database, authentication, file storage) — SOC 2 Type II compliant. Data stored in AWS US regions.
  • Anthropic (AI conversation guides and weekly reflections via Claude API) — data sent to Claude is not used to train AI models. See anthropic.com/privacy.
  • Resend (transactional email) — sends alert emails, journal reminders, and weekly digests.
  • Twilio (SMS notifications) — sends text-based alerts and check-in reminders.
  • Vercel (web hosting and serverless functions) — hosts the web application and API.
  • Stripe (payment processing) — handles subscription billing. We never store payment card details.
  • Expo (mobile push notifications) — delivers push notifications to iOS and Android devices.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing or advertising purposes. We do not display ads in Be Candid.

6. Data Retention

You control your data retention period through Settings (configurable from 30 to 365 days). Events, journal entries, alerts, and conversation data older than your retention period are automatically purged. You can also manually purge specific data types at any time from Settings.

Account data (email, name, preferences) is retained as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, all associated data is permanently deleted within 30 days.

7. Your Rights and Choices

  • Data Export: You can export all your data (events, journal entries, alerts, check-ins, conversation outcomes) as a JSON file from Settings at any time.
  • Data Deletion: You can selectively purge events, journal entries, or alerts from Settings. You can delete your account entirely, which permanently removes all associated data.
  • Consent Management: You can adjust therapist consent toggles, partner visibility settings, and journal reminder preferences at any time from Settings.
  • Notification Preferences: You can control push notification, email, and SMS preferences from Settings.
  • Account Portability: The data export feature provides your data in a portable JSON format.

8. Children’s Privacy (COPPA)

Be Candid is designed for users aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 years of age. Users must confirm they are at least 18 years old during account creation. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a person under 18, we will delete that information and terminate the associated account.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at privacy@becandid.io.

9. Law Enforcement and Legal Disclosures

We may disclose your information if required by law, subpoena, court order, or other legal process. We may also disclose information if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of any person or to prevent illegal activity. We will notify you of such requests unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.

Important: Because journal entries and conversation data are encrypted at the application layer, a database-level subpoena would return encrypted data that cannot be read without our application-layer decryption process. We will respond to valid legal process but cannot decrypt data that has been purged per your retention settings.

10. International Users

Be Candid is operated from the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, your data will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the Service, you consent to this transfer.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email and/or by posting a notice in the app at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at:

  • Email: privacy@becandid.io
  • Mailing address: [Address to be provided]