Health Apps
Darcy is an AI companion app from Vireo Health Apps. This policy explains what Darcy keeps about you, why, who else handles it, and how you can see or delete it. If you have any questions, email hello@vireohealthapps.com.
Who we are
Vireo Health Apps is run by [LEGAL NAME], [POSTAL ADDRESS], who is responsible for your data (the "data controller"). We're registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number ZC268037.
- Darcy never records or stores your voice. It keeps a written transcript of your conversations, and short notes it remembers about you, so it can pick up where you left off.
- You don't give us your name, email or phone number to use Darcy. Your account is anonymous.
- We never sell your data or use it for advertising, and Darcy has no ads or tracking tools.
- In the app you can see and edit what Darcy remembers, pause its memory, download everything, or delete everything.
What Darcy keeps, and why
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation transcripts: the written text of what you and Darcy say, line by line | So Darcy can remember earlier conversations, and so you can download them | Until you delete all your data |
| Summaries: a short write-up of each conversation, including the general mood and anything left open | So Darcy can catch up with you next time without rereading everything | Until you delete all your data |
| Memories: short notes such as "Has a sister, Jo, in Leeds", and the name you go by | So Darcy remembers the people and things that matter to you | Until you edit or delete them in "What Darcy remembers", ask Darcy to forget them, or delete all your data |
| Reports you send about one of Darcy's replies: that reply, the four lines before it, your reason and comment | To find and fix replies that were wrong or harmful | Until we've reviewed them, or until you delete your data in the app, which removes them too. |
| Daily usage: minutes used today, plus your phone's language setting and any other languages you've spoken to Darcy. This is stored under a scrambled form of your phone's Android ID, not your name or account. | To give you your daily time allowance, and to learn which languages to support next | While you use Darcy. It contains no conversation content. |
| Darcy Plus subscription: whether you have Plus, and Google Play's purchase reference | To give you Plus, and to handle renewals, cancellations and refunds | While you're subscribed, then as long as we need it for our records |
| On your phone only: your chosen voice, your settings, and the date you confirmed you're 18 or over (not your date of birth) | To run the app the way you set it up | Until you delete your data or uninstall Darcy |
Conversations can include personal things, such as your health, feelings or relationships. Only share what you're comfortable with. If you pause memory in Settings, nothing new is saved or summarised while it's paused, though Darcy still uses what it already remembers.
Your voice
While you're talking, your voice goes from your phone to Google's Gemini AI model, which turns it into Darcy's replies and into the written transcript. We never record or store the audio. Google handles it for us as described below.
Safety checks
To make sure the crisis helplines card comes up when it should, each thing you say, with a few lines before it, is checked by an AI model for signs of suicide, self-harm, abuse or an emergency. The check doesn't store what you said. Our server logs only technical details such as the time and the result, never what you said. The helplines card is always free and never limited.
Language statistics
We count how many phones use each language setting, and how often people speak to Darcy in each language. These counts hold only language codes and numbers, such as "fr: 12", and can't be linked to you. We use them to decide which languages Darcy should learn next. Darcy speaks English only for now.
Who else handles your data
We use Google's services to run Darcy. Google acts on our instructions and doesn't use your data for its own purposes:
- Google Firebase and Google Cloud store your data (Firestore, in London) and run our servers (Cloud Functions, in London). They also provide the anonymous account and check that requests come from the real Darcy app (App Check and Play Integrity).
- Gemini models through Firebase AI Logic, run by Google Cloud in the EU, power conversations, summaries and safety checks. Under Google Cloud's terms, Google doesn't use this data to train its models.
- Google Play handles Darcy Plus payments. We never see your card details.
We keep your data in the UK and EU where these services allow it. Where Google handles some of it outside the UK, for example for sign-in, it does so under the UK's approved safeguards for international transfers.
We'd share data with anyone else only if the law required us to.
Our legal basis
- To provide Darcy (conversations, memory, your allowance, Plus): it's needed for the service you've asked for.
- For anything you tell Darcy about your health, feelings or other sensitive matters: your explicit consent, which you give when you set up Darcy. You can withdraw it at any time by deleting all your data in Settings.
- For safety checks, reports and language statistics: our legitimate interest in keeping Darcy safe and improving it, balanced against your privacy. We keep this data to a minimum.
- Where the law requires us to keep or share something.
Your choices and rights
- See and edit what Darcy remembers, in Settings → What Darcy remembers.
- Download everything we hold about your account, in Settings → Download my data.
- Delete everything, in Settings → Delete all my data. This permanently removes your conversations, summaries, memories, name, any replies you've reported and your account, and resets the app.
- Ask Darcy to forget something, just by saying so.
Under UK data protection law you also have the right to ask for a copy of your data, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to how we use it, or to restrict how we use it. Email hello@vireohealthapps.com. Your account is anonymous, so we may ask you to send the request from inside the app, or to give us something that shows the data is yours. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Security
Your data is encrypted when it travels between the app and our servers, and when it's stored. Each account can reach only its own data, and only the real Darcy app can talk to our servers.
Adults only
Darcy is for people aged 18 and over. We don't knowingly hold data about anyone younger. If you think a child has used Darcy, email us and we'll delete their data.
Darcy is an AI
Darcy is an AI, not a person, and not a therapist or a doctor. If you're in danger or thinking about harming yourself, contact your local emergency services or a crisis line. Darcy can show you the numbers.
Changes to this policy
If we change how Darcy uses your data, we'll update this page and change the date at the top. For big changes, we'll tell you in the app.