Draft for the private pilot — placeholders in brackets must be completed before launch.

Privacy notice

Last updated 1 October 2026. This notice is for members in the United Kingdom. If you live in the United States, read our US privacy notice.

This notice explains what personal data DadMode collects, why, who it is shared with, how long it is kept and the rights you have under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018). DadMode is for adults aged 18 or over.

The short version. We use what you tell the coach to coach you. Most of it is encrypted before we store it. An AI provider (OpenAI, or Anthropic or Google as backups when OpenAI is unavailable) reads your messages, and the parts of your saved record a reply needs, so the coach can reply. We do not sell your data, show you adverts or use advertising cookies. You can see, download and delete your data yourself, and deleting your account also cancels your subscription.

1. Who we are

DadMode is provided by [TRADING NAME] ([COMPANY NUMBER IF ANY]), [REGISTERED ADDRESS]. We are the controller of the personal data described here. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration number [ICO REGISTRATION NUMBER].

Contact us about privacy at [CONTACT EMAIL]. You can also send /bug or /feedback to the coach in Telegram, but please use email for formal requests.

2. What we collect

When you use the coach in Telegram

If health tracking is on, we also keep encrypted coaching follow-ups and session feedback from your own messages. This helps the coach remember unresolved concerns and which approaches you said helped or were impractical. Up to 20 concerns can remain open; we retain up to 30 closed concerns, 60 session-feedback records and 30 recent log-write storage checks. A storage check compares saved fields, not the accuracy of food estimates. You can mark a concern resolved or reopen it. These records are included in your account export and removed with health-data or account deletion. Follow-ups use your existing notification choices and contact limits; they do not enable a new reminder subscription.

Before you share health information. Straight after it checks that you are 18 or over, and before it asks about your body, food, sleep, injuries, conditions, medication or eating history, the coach asks whether we may use the health information you share to coach you. The question says what we collect (your training, food, weight, sleep and health readings), why (to coach you), and who processes it (our hosting provider stores it and our AI provider processes it to write replies), and links both our UK and US privacy notices. We keep a record of your answer, when you gave it and which version of the question you saw. Members who joined before this question existed are asked it at their next message. If you say no, you still get general coaching: we do not keep health readings, weight or meal details, and the coach does not use any we already hold; onboarding skips the health questions; the coach keeps no notes about injuries, conditions or medication; what the coach says about a photo you send is not kept; learning signals keep only their category, not your words; and automatic health imports are switched off. Challenge counts you ask the coach to track (such as reps or distances) are kept either way. Until you answer, the message you sent is held, checked by our safety screen (a voice note is transcribed for that check only) and answered once you reply. Our chat history itself is still kept, as described in section 6. You can change your answer at any time (see section 3).

When you use the dashboard

Connected tools (optional)

Payments (paid membership)

The pilot waitlist

Security records

Cookies and browser storage

All of these are strictly necessary for the service to work, so we do not ask for cookie consent. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies, and our pages load no third-party fonts, scripts or trackers.

3. Why we use your data and our lawful bases

PurposeDataLawful basis
Providing coaching in Telegram and the dashboard, including transcription, photo and document reading, food lookups, your plan, saved meals and coaching preferencesTelegram identity, onboarding answers, messages, transcripts, diary, plan, saved meals, preferences, usage recordsContract (Article 6(1)(b)): we need this to provide the service you asked for
Using health and medical information, including onboarding answers about conditions, imported health readings, numbers read from health screenshots and your data log (meals, workouts, body measurements and notes)Special category health dataContract (Article 6(1)(b)), plus your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a))
Challenges, goal tracking and the reminders and nudges you ask forChallenge ledger, reminders and their delivery record, the messages the goal tracker readsContract (Article 6(1)(b)); for health information, your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a))
Safety screening, which stops the coach answering where a topic needs a clinician or specialist support, the eating-disorder safety marker that keeps calorie and weight advice off, and the under-18 blockMessages, safety screening records, safety markerLegitimate interests in keeping users safe (Article 6(1)(f)); for health information, your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a))
Profiling to personalise coaching and check-ins: working out your readiness call, trends, drifts and (where safe) a calorie suggestion, and choosing which check-in to send and when (see section 8)Data log, health readings, coach memory, messages, check-in history and outcomesContract (Article 6(1)(b)); for health information, your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a))
Short service messages in Telegram about new features and useful commands (at most one a day; reply “mute” to stop them)Telegram chat ID, message preferences, a record of what we sentLegitimate interests in helping members use the service (Article 6(1)(f))
Improving the service using redacted learning signals, feedback and support notes. An AI model suggests general coaching lessons, and a person reviews and approves each one before it is used for all usersRedacted learning excerpts, feedback, support notesLegitimate interests in improving coaching quality and safety (Article 6(1)(f)); for health information, your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a))
Billing and managing subscriptionsStripe IDs, subscription statusContract (Article 6(1)(b)); legal obligation to keep financial records (Article 6(1)(c))
Security, abuse prevention, encrypted backups and keeping the service runningHashed IP records, rate-limit counters, pseudonymous logs, the encrypted backup of our data storeLegitimate interests in protecting users and the service and being able to recover from a failure (Article 6(1)(f))
Telling you when a place opens, if you join the pilot waitlist on the pilot page without an invite codeEmail address, the sport or activity you picked, and the date you joinedYour consent (Article 6(1)(a)): you can withdraw it at any time by emailing [CONTACT EMAIL], and we will delete the entry

Explicit consent and how to withdraw it. We use health information only with the explicit consent you give when the coach asks (section 2), and we keep a record of it. You can withdraw consent at any time:

Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did before. Without health information the coach can only give more general advice.

Objecting to service improvement. You can object to your redacted signals being used by emailing [CONTACT EMAIL] or by deleting your data with /delete_me confirm. Approved lessons are general coaching rules. They are checked so they do not contain names, contact details or information about any one person, and they are not linked to you.

We do not sell your data or use it for advertising.

4. Who we share data with

We use these providers to run DadMode. Where they act as our processors, they may only use the data on our instructions.

Our message-processing service runs on a computer we control in the United Kingdom. It receives your Telegram messages, calls the providers above, writes to our data store at Netlify and makes the nightly encrypted backup. Admin alerts (for example that a crisis referral was sent, or a payment was disputed) go to our own admin Telegram chat and name you only by a pseudonymous code, never your words.

We may also disclose data if the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety, or as part of selling or reorganising the business (in which case this notice would still apply).

5. International transfers

Netlify, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google (sign-in and the Gemini API), Stripe, Dropbox and some nutrition databases process data in the United States or other countries outside the UK, and Telegram runs its service from several countries. Where we send personal data outside the UK, we rely on UK adequacy regulations (including the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, where the provider is certified) or, where a provider is not covered, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in our agreement with that provider. [CONFIRM TRANSFER MECHANISM FOR EACH PROVIDER] Contact us for a copy of the relevant safeguards.

6. How long we keep data

DataHow long
Profile, onboarding answers, subscription status, check-in preferences, feedback and support messagesUntil you delete your account or ask us to delete them
Conversation history, including transcriptsThe most recent 1,000 entries; older entries are overwritten automatically. All deleted when you delete your account
Diary entriesUntil you delete your account. We keep the most recent 1,000
Optional symptom diary and ongoing coaching contextUntil you remove it in the dashboard, delete your health data, or delete your account. The symptom diary holds up to 2,000 observations; new entries are refused at capacity rather than silently dropping history. Reviews do not expire clinical boundaries. Erasing the diary does not erase separate conversation history; backup retention follows the policy below
Personal access tokens (hash, label and dates) and notes from your connected toolsTokens until you revoke them with /disconnect or delete your account; the most recent 30 notes until you delete them or your account
Health readings and consent recordUntil you delete them, or delete your account
Data log (logged meals, workouts, body measurements and notes)Until you remove items with /undo or /log delete, or delete your account. There is no automatic expiry, because the log exists to show longer-term totals and trends
Challenges and their ledgerUntil you archive or correct them, or delete your account. At most 30 challenges and 2,000 entries each
Reminders and nudges, and the record of the ones we sentUntil you delete them or your account. At most 24 reminders; only the most recent 120 deliveries are kept
Your plan, saved meals and coaching preferencesUntil you delete your account. The plan keeps its 30 most recent changes and at most 80 meals are saved
Your own OpenAI API key (founding members only)Until you delete it with /delete_key or delete your account
Learning signals (redacted excerpts)180 days, or sooner if you delete your account
Safety screening records180 days, or sooner if you delete your account
Records of automatic lesson suggestions90 days. Their suggested text is removed sooner if anyone deletes their account
AI usage records (model, token counts, time)Until you delete your account
Daily usage counters and per-account message-rate counters35 days
Message processing records used to avoid duplicate replies7 days
One-time dashboard links15 minutes, then removed by a daily clean-up
Hashed security records (invite, admin sign-in and import attempts)The count resets after 15 minutes (invite and admin sign-in attempts) or 24 hours (import requests). The record holds only the hash, a count and a time, is not linked to your account, and is deleted after two days without use
Pilot invite cookie30 days
Pilot waitlist entry (email address, chosen sport and the date you joined)12 months, then deleted automatically by a daily clean-up. Email [CONTACT EMAIL] to have it deleted sooner. It is encrypted at rest and is not linked to a DadMode account
Payment records held by StripeAs long as Stripe and UK tax law require (usually six years)
Prepaid credit ledger and checkout sessions (the pack, credits and status of each checkout you open)Paid ones until you delete your account; a checkout that was never paid is deleted automatically after 30 days
Coach memory (notes about your preferences and circumstances, and if-then plans you agreed to)Until you remove them with /forget or delete your account. We keep at most 60 notes and 20 plans; when there are more, the least certain and oldest notes are dropped first
Check-in state and outcomes (which kinds of check-in we sent and when, whether you replied within a day, this week’s focus, and, encrypted, the number a check-in was about and how it changed a week later)Until you delete your account. Only the most recent 30 check-ins and 30 outcomes are kept; older ones are overwritten automatically
Eating-disorder safety markerOne mild screen expires after 30 days. A hard referral or repeated mild screen stays until a person removes it after a review, or you delete your account
Free-trial marker (a one-way keyed hash of your chat ID and the date the trial was used)Kept after you delete your account, with no fixed end date, so that a free trial cannot be started again by deleting and re-joining. It holds no chat ID, name or other details
Encrypted nightly backups of our data store30 days, then deleted automatically
Approved general coaching lessonsKept while useful. They contain no personal data

When you delete your account, we first cancel any subscription and delete your customer record at Stripe (if Stripe cannot be reached, nothing is deleted and you can try again). We then delete the data listed above from DadMode’s store, including redacted learning signals linked to your pseudonymous code, and we try to delete your dashboard login. If deleting the login fails, we tell you and finish the job manually. For 7 days afterwards we keep a marker holding only your chat ID, so that a message still being processed when you deleted cannot re-create your data. Deletion does not remove copies held by Telegram, your phone or your export app, or data a provider keeps for a limited time under its own terms. We keep a one-way marker that a free trial was used, to prevent repeat trials. It cannot be turned back into your chat ID.

Backups. Every night our service makes a copy of our whole data store, encrypts it so that it can be opened only with a separate, passphrase-protected recovery key, and stores it on our own computer and in Dropbox. Records that are encrypted in our store stay encrypted inside the backup as well. Each backup is deleted after 30 days, so your data can stay in a backup for up to 30 days after you delete your account. To make sure a restore from backup can never bring it back, we keep a deletion record for one year: a one-way code derived from your chat ID with a secret key, the date of deletion and the pseudonymous code of your learning signals. It holds no chat ID, name or content, and it is used only to skip your data when a backup is restored. It is then deleted.

7. Your rights

You have the right to:

How to use them:

We will reply within one month. For complex requests we can extend this by up to two more months, and if so we will tell you why. We may need to confirm who you are first.

8. Automated decisions and profiling

Every message, transcript and document goes through an automated safety check before the coach replies. If a message suggests a situation that needs a clinician or specialist support (for example thoughts of suicide or self-harm, signs of an eating disorder, pregnancy, some medical conditions or medications, performance-enhancing drugs, dangerous weight cutting, or that you are under 18), the coach may decline to give a plan and point you to appropriate help instead. The coach may also reply more cautiously. If the check finds signs of an eating disorder in your own messages, we also keep the safety marker described in section 2, so the coach stops giving calorie and weight advice from then on. After a safety concern, reminders, nudges and check-ins pause for a while.

Profiling. To personalise your coaching, our code automatically analyses your data log (meals, workouts, body measurements and notes), your health readings if you have connected them, your coach memory and your check-in history. From these it works out:

This analysis only shapes the coach’s messages. It has no legal or similarly significant effect on you: it does not decide your price, your access to the service or anything outside coaching, and how you feel always counts for more than the numbers. You can turn it down or off at any time: reply “mute” or send /mute to stop all check-ins; send /mornings off to stop the morning readiness note; send /disconnecthealth or /deletehealth to stop using or delete health readings; remove items from your data log with /undo or /log delete; remove memory notes with /forget; or delete everything with /delete_me confirm. You can also object by emailing [CONTACT EMAIL].

None of these checks has legal or similarly significant effects on you. The under-18 check blocks coaching; if you have a subscription, contact us and we will cancel and refund it. If you think a check got it wrong, including the eating-disorder safety marker, email [CONTACT EMAIL] and a person will look at it.

If you are in crisis. The coach is not a crisis service. In an emergency call 999. You can call Samaritans free on 116 123, any time, or text SHOUT to 85258.

9. Age

DadMode is only for people aged 18 or over. If someone tells the coach they are under 18, their account is blocked from coaching straight away. They, or a parent or guardian, can delete everything at once with /delete_me in Telegram, or by contacting us, and we will delete any account we confirm belongs to someone under 18.

10. How we protect your data

DadMode is not end-to-end encrypted. Our service holds the keys: Telegram messages, transcripts, documents and image analyses are decrypted and processed in readable form by our service and our AI provider so the coach can reply, and authorised admins see feedback, support and safety records in readable form. Usage, billing and subscription records are protected by our hosting provider’s storage security rather than our own extra encryption. No system is completely secure. If a breach puts your rights at high risk, we will tell you and the ICO as the law requires.

11. Complaints

Please contact us first at [CONTACT EMAIL]. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

12. Changes to this notice

We will update this notice when our practices change and change the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we will tell you in Telegram or the dashboard before it takes effect.

See also our terms of use. Members in the United States: US terms · US privacy notice.