Privacy policy
Version of 2026-11-07.
Who we are
The Otter is a personal, family app with no commercial purpose that helps caregivers follow and coordinate support for a parent. This policy explains what we do with personal information, in line with Quebec’s Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25).
What we collect
For your account: first name, last name, email, chosen language, password (never kept in plain text) and, if you turn on Face ID, your device’s public key (never your face or your passcode). For your relative’s care, what the circle enters: profile, contacts, medications and doses, appointments, journal, tasks, messages, documents and health insurance number. To run the app: technical error reports and a single usage event (a successful sign-in), with no health data.
Why
Only to run the app: sign you in, share information with circle members, send the codes, invitations and reminders you asked for, and fix errors. Nothing is sold, rented or used for advertising or profiling. No artificial intelligence tool reads your data.
Who can see it
Circle members, according to their role: a “Caregivers only” conversation or a private note shows only to the people intended. Documents and the health insurance number are encrypted and open only after Face ID or the phone passcode. The technical team only accesses data for an incident or at your request, and cannot read an encrypted document without the key kept outside the database.
Where the data is
The database and files are hosted in the United States (Supabase, Virginia region), and the app’s code runs in Washington (Vercel). Documents and the health insurance number are encrypted by the app before they are stored; everything else is encrypted at rest by the provider. The other providers are also in the United States: Resend sends account emails (your address and the email content: a code or an invitation); Sentry receives error reports and PostHog the sign-in event, with no health data and no stored IP address; Apple delivers notifications, encrypted, whose text never contains health data. These communications outside Quebec were assessed in a privacy impact assessment.
How long
Your information is kept as long as your account exists. An invitation is erased 30 days after it expires or is accepted. A deleted message loses its text at once; a deleted journal entry disappears. The database has no automatic backup; the encrypted backup copy of files, at most 30 days. Error reports and the usage event follow their provider’s retention, with no health data.
Security
Sign-in by password or Face ID; documents and health insurance number encrypted; access limited to the circle by the database itself; offline data encrypted on your device and erased at sign-out. No system is perfect: if an incident presents a risk of serious harm, we will inform you and Quebec’s Commission d’accès à l’information.
Your rights
You may ask to access your information, correct it, receive it in a common format, delete it (with your account), and withdraw your consent at any time. Write to confidentialite@theottercare.com: we answer within 30 days. You may also file a complaint with Quebec’s Commission d’accès à l’information.
Person in charge
The person in charge of the protection of personal information is The Otter’s founder. Contact: confidentialite@theottercare.com.
Consent and changes
By creating an account, you accept this policy; its version and the date you accepted it are recorded. If it changes, we will tell you in the app before the new version applies.