PathClear (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use the PathClear mobile application and related services.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information that you voluntarily provide when using PathClear:

Account Information: Email address and encrypted password (if you create an account). Anonymous device-based accounts are also supported.
Recovery Data: Check-in entries (mood, energy, sleep, craving intensity), journal entries, craving logs, goals, and safety plan details.
AI Interaction Data: Conversations with the AI companion, activity preferences, and slip logs (when you choose to share them).
Device Information: Device identifier (for anonymous authentication), device type, and operating system version.
Location Data: Only when you explicitly grant permission for location-based activity recommendations. Location is never tracked in the background.

2. How We Use Your Information

Your information is used solely to provide and improve PathClear's recovery support features:

Generating daily insights, progress reports, and risk assessments
Powering the AI companion with context about your recovery journey
Recommending personalized activities based on your interests and location
Detecting potential crisis situations in journal entries (with your consent)
Sending password reset emails (if you register with email)

3. AI Processing & Anonymization

When your data is processed by our intelligence engine, all personal identifiers are stripped before processing. Names, email addresses, and location details are removed through our anonymization pipeline. The AI model never receives information that could identify you personally.

You can disable AI analysis and data processing at any time in your Privacy & Data settings. When disabled, we immediately stop all AI processing of your data.

4. Data Encryption

Sensitive data — including journal entries, check-in notes, AI conversations, and craving logs — is encrypted using AES-256-GCM encryption before being stored in our database. This is the same encryption standard used by financial institutions and government agencies.

5. Data Retention

We retain your data according to the following schedule:

Check-ins: 1 year
Craving logs: 1 year
Journal entries: 2 years
AI conversations: 6 months
Activity records: 1 year
Dismissed alerts: 90 days

After these periods, data is automatically and permanently deleted.

6. Your Rights & Controls

You have full control over your data:

Access: View all data we store about you
Export: Download a complete copy of your data at any time
Delete: Permanently delete your account and all associated data
Consent: Toggle data processing and AI analysis on or off
Audit: View a log of all data processing activities on your account

7. What We Do NOT Do

We do not sell your personal data to anyone
We do not display advertisements
We do not share your data with third parties for marketing
We do not track your location in the background
We do not use your data for purposes other than recovery support

8. Third-Party Services

PathClear uses the following third-party services:

Google Gemini AI: For generating insights, reflections, and companion responses (data is anonymized before processing)
Sentry: For error tracking and crash reporting (no personal data is included)
Resend: For sending transactional emails (password resets only)

9. Children's Privacy

PathClear is not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new policy in the app and updating the “Last Updated” date.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at: privacy@pathclear.app