What happens to my data when I stop using an AI mental health app?
By Siri Bandagiriye · With many apps, your data stays on a server until you delete it. Before you leave, delete your history or your account from inside the app, and check the privacy policy for how long anything is kept.
With many apps, it simply sits on a server unless you ask for deletion. Before you leave, delete your account, or at least your history, from inside the app.
Check the privacy policy for how long anything is kept after you leave.
The standard we hold ourselves to is simple: when you ask Saati to forget, it forgets.
What the research says
Under Canada's private-sector privacy law (PIPEDA), organizations should keep personal information only as long as it is needed and use effective ways to destroy, erase or anonymize it.1
In Canada, you can withdraw your consent for a business to use your personal information at any time, subject to legal or contractual limits and reasonable notice.2
The American Psychological Association advises app users to look for options that limit data sharing and to request that their data be deleted.3
Written by Siri Bandagiriye
I've been a Buddhist monk and mindfulness teacher for 30 years, and for six years a chaplain with Correctional Service Canada, sitting with people in crisis. I built Saati in Halifax as a companion for the ordinary hard days. If you'd like to see what it's like, it's free to try.