Privacy Policy

BotherMe.co (“BotherMe,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates an SMS-based micro-habit tracking service. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our text message services and website at botherme.co.

We take your privacy seriously. We make money from subscriptions, not surveillance. If you have questions, email us at privacy@botherme.co.

1. Information We Collect

2. How We Use Your Information

• Deliver our service— Send you daily text messages, track your streaks, and generate progress reports.
• Personalize your experience— Customize message content based on your setup answers and reply history.
• Accountability alerts— If you opt in, notify your designated accountability buddy when you miss consecutive days.
• Safety escalations— For certain services (e.g., ElderCheck, SobrietyCounter), detect potential crisis situations and provide resource information or alert emergency contacts.
• Improve our service— Analyze aggregate, anonymized usage patterns to improve message timing, content, and service design.
• Billing— Process subscription payments through our payment processor (Stripe).

3. What We Do NOT Do

• We do not sell your personal data to third parties. Ever.
• We do not use your data for targeted advertising.
• We do not share your phone number, reply content, or health-related data with data brokers, advertisers, or marketing companies.
• We do not use your data to build advertising profiles.

4. Data Sharing

We share your information only in these limited circumstances:

• Twilio— Our SMS infrastructure provider. Twilio processes your phone number and message content to deliver texts. See Twilio's Privacy Policy.
• Stripe— Our payment processor. Stripe handles billing information. We do not store your credit card details. See Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• Your accountability buddy— If you opt in, we send limited notifications (e.g., “Your person missed their medication 2 days in a row”) to the phone number you provide. We never share your full reply history with them.
• Law enforcement— Only when required by valid legal process (subpoena, court order). We will notify you unless legally prohibited from doing so.

5. Data Retention

• Active accounts— We retain your data for as long as your account is active.
• After cancellation— We delete your reply history and setup answers within 30 days of account cancellation. Your phone number is retained for 90 days to prevent accidental re-billing, then deleted.
• Anonymized data— Aggregate, anonymized statistics (e.g., “72% of HydroNudge users hit their water goal”) may be retained indefinitely.

6. Data Security

We protect your data with industry-standard measures including:

• Encrypted database connections (TLS/SSL)
• Twilio webhook signature validation to prevent spoofed messages
• No plain-text storage of sensitive data (accountability buddy numbers are stored but never displayed in full)
• Access controls limiting employee access to production data

No system is 100% secure. If we discover a breach affecting your data, we will notify you via SMS and email within 72 hours.

7. Your Rights

You can:

• Access your data— Text STATUS to see your active services and streaks. Email us for a full data export.
• Delete your data— Text STOP to cancel all services. Email privacy@botherme.co to request complete data deletion.
• Pause without deleting— Text PAUSE to stop all messages while keeping your data and streaks intact.
• Opt out of accountability alerts— Text HELP and we'll walk you through removing your buddy contact.

8. SMS-Specific Disclosures

• Message frequency varies by service (1–4 messages per day per service).
• Message and data rates may apply depending on your mobile carrier plan.
• Text STOP at any time to unsubscribe from all services. Text HELP for support.
• Supported carriers include AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and all major US carriers.

9. Children's Privacy

BotherMe is not intended for use by individuals under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn we have collected data from a child under 13, we will delete it promptly.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes via SMS to your registered phone number. Continued use of our services after notification constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.