Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

SupportBuddy is developed and operated by Petran SW (Petros Alexakis), an independent software developer based in Greece. If you have any questions about this policy, contact us at [email protected].

2. What SupportBuddy Does

SupportBuddy is an AI-powered companion app designed to support people with autism spectrum disorder. It uses voice input, text chat, and personalised settings to provide a calm and familiar communication experience. Because of the sensitive nature of this purpose, we designed the app to store as much data as possible on your device only, not on remote servers.

3. Information We Collect and Where It Is Stored

Stored on your device only (never sent to our servers):

• Your first name and date of birth
• Gender preference (used only to personalise language)
• Communication preferences (explanation style, calming method, voice preference)
• Sensory sensitivities and triggers
• Personal interests
• Overload warning signs
• Safe foods
• Emergency contact name and phone number
• Your conversation history with the AI companion
• Daily message usage count
• Language and date format preferences

All of the above is kept in your device's local storage (AsyncStorage) and is deleted if you uninstall the app.

Sent to third-party services to operate the app:

• Conversation messages — what you type or say in chat is sent to Anthropic (the maker of the Claude AI) to generate a response. Anthropic does not store your messages beyond the immediate request. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
• Account authentication — if you create an account, your email and password are managed by Google Firebase Authentication. See Firebase Privacy Policy.
• Subscription status — if you subscribe, your purchase is processed by Apple or Google, and subscription status is managed by RevenueCat. We never see your full payment details. See RevenueCat Privacy Policy.

4. Microphone and Voice Data

SupportBuddy requests microphone permission so you can speak to the app instead of typing. Speech is processed entirely on your device using Apple's built-in speech recognition (iOS) or Android's built-in speech recognizer. We do not record or store audio files. The transcript produced by your device is then sent as text to the AI, as described above.

5. How We Use Your Information

• To personalise the AI companion's responses to suit your communication style, age, and language
• To provide voice input and text-to-speech output
• To enforce the free-tier daily message limit and manage your subscription
• To remember your preferences between sessions

We do not use your data for advertising profiling. We do not sell your data to any third party.

6. Advertising

Free-tier users may see ads served by Google AdMob. AdMob may use a device advertising identifier to show relevant ads. You can opt out of personalised ads at any time in your device settings (iOS: Settings → Privacy → Tracking; Android: Settings → Google → Ads). Premium subscribers see no ads. See Google's Privacy Policy.

7. Children's Privacy

SupportBuddy is designed to be used by or with people of all ages, including children with autism. We take children's privacy seriously:

• All personal profile data is stored on the device only — not on any remote server.
• We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 in a way that allows us to identify them.
• We recommend that a parent or guardian assist with initial setup for users under 13.
• If you believe a child has provided personal information beyond what is stored locally on the device, please contact us at [email protected].

8. Your Rights (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area, you have the following rights under the General Data Protection Regulation:

• Access — request a copy of the data we hold about you
• Erasure — request deletion of your personal data (most data is on your device and can be deleted by uninstalling the app)
• Correction — request correction of inaccurate data
• Portability — receive your data in a structured format
• Object — object to any processing based on legitimate interests

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Data Security

Profile data is stored locally on your device and protected by your device's own security. Data in transit to Anthropic and Firebase is encrypted over HTTPS. We do not operate our own servers that store your personal information.

10. Data Retention and Account Deletion

Device-local data is retained until you uninstall the app or clear app data. Firebase Authentication data is retained while your account is active. You can request full account deletion — including all personal data — at any time via our account deletion page. We will process deletion requests within 30 days. Anthropic does not retain your conversation messages beyond the immediate API request.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. For significant changes we will notify you via an in-app notice.

12. Contact

For any privacy-related questions or data requests, please contact:
Petran SW — Petros Alexakis
[email protected]