Privacy Notice

1. Who we are

Claressence is a private reflection companion designed to help people think more clearly, reflect on their experiences and gain greater clarity of thought.

Claressence is an independent service operating under the trading name Claressence.

For privacy questions or requests concerning your personal data, please contact:

Email: claressence@outlook.com

Correspondence address:
Unit 173368, PO Box 7169, Poole, BH15 9EL

2. What information we collect

When you create and use an account, we may collect and process the following information:

• Your email address and account information.
• Your conversations and messages with Claressence.
• Daily reflections, summaries, insights or other information generated from your use of the service.
• Technical information required to operate, secure and maintain the service.
• Information relating to your use of the service, such as account activity and usage limits.
• Information relating to subscriptions and payments, such as subscription status, transaction information and payment history.

Conversations may contain whatever information you choose to share with Claressence. This may include sensitive personal information or special category information, such as information concerning your health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, sex life or sexual orientation.

3. How we use your information

We use your information to provide, operate and improve Claressence.

This may include:

• Creating and maintaining your account.
• Storing and displaying your conversations.
• Generating AI responses to your messages.
• Generating daily reflections, summaries and insights.
• Enforcing usage limits and maintaining the security of the service.
• Identifying errors, technical problems and opportunities to improve the service.
• Evaluating the usefulness and performance of the service and identifying ways to improve it.
• Managing subscriptions, payments and subscription status.

4. Lawful bases for processing

We process personal information only where we have a lawful basis for doing so.

Depending on the particular processing activity, we may rely on:

• Contract — where processing is necessary to provide Claressence to you, maintain your account, provide subscription services or otherwise perform our agreement with you.
• Legitimate interests — where necessary for purposes such as maintaining security, preventing misuse, identifying technical problems and improving the service, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
• Legal obligation — where we need to process information in order to comply with an applicable legal requirement.
• Consent — where we ask you to consent to a particular use of your information.

5. Special category information

Because Claressence is designed as a private place for reflection, you may choose to share information that is treated as special category personal data under data protection law.

This may include information concerning your health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic or biometric information, sex life or sexual orientation.

Where Claressence processes special category information that you choose to provide in order to generate responses, reflections, memories or insights, we rely on your explicit consent.

You may withdraw your consent to this processing at any time by contacting us at claressence@outlook.com.

Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn. Because processing information you choose to share is fundamental to the operation of Claressence, withdrawing consent to the processing of special category information may mean that we are unable to continue providing some or all of the service to you.

6. AI processing

Claressence uses artificial intelligence to respond to messages and to generate certain reflections and insights.

Your messages may therefore be transmitted to third-party AI service providers for processing on our behalf.

Claressence currently uses OpenAI's API to provide AI processing.

OpenAI states that data submitted through its API is not used to train or improve its models unless the customer explicitly opts in to data sharing. OpenAI may nevertheless retain certain information for abuse monitoring and service operation in accordance with its applicable policies and settings.

7. Payments and Stripe

If you purchase a paid subscription, payments are processed using Stripe.

Stripe may process information necessary to process your payment and manage payment-related services. This may include payment method information, contact and billing information, transaction details, subscription status and information relating to refunds or disputes.

Claressence does not directly store your full payment card details.

Depending on the particular processing activity, Stripe may process personal information as a processor acting on our behalf and may also process certain information as an independent controller for its own purposes, including security, fraud prevention and compliance with legal and regulatory obligations.

Stripe's handling of personal information is also governed by its own applicable privacy information and terms.

8. Other service providers

We use third-party service providers to operate Claressence. These may include infrastructure, authentication, database, hosting, AI and payment service providers.

In particular, Claressence currently uses Supabase for authentication and database services, OpenAI for AI processing and Stripe for payment processing.

These providers may process personal information as necessary to provide their services and subject to their applicable contractual, privacy and legal requirements.

9. Where information is processed

Your information may be processed or stored in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, the United States or other countries where our service providers operate.

Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that the transfer is made in accordance with applicable data protection law.

10. How long we keep information

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide and operate the service, maintain security, resolve disputes and comply with legal obligations.

You may request deletion of your account and associated personal information by contacting us at:

claressence@outlook.com

Some information may need to be retained for a limited period where required for legal, security, payment, accounting or technical reasons.

11. Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, you may have rights including:

• The right to request access to your personal information.
• The right to request correction of inaccurate information.
• The right to request deletion of your information.
• The right to request restriction of processing.
• The right to object to certain processing.
• The right to data portability in applicable circumstances.
• The right to withdraw consent where we rely on consent as the basis for processing.

To exercise a right or ask a question about your information, contact:

claressence@outlook.com

12. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we use your personal information, please contact us in the first instance at:

claressence@outlook.com

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection.

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: ico.org.uk

13. Cookies and similar technologies

Claressence may use essential cookies or similar technologies necessary to maintain authentication, security and the operation of the service.

We will not use non-essential tracking technologies unless appropriately disclosed and, where required, consent is obtained.

14. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure.

However, no internet-based service can guarantee absolute security.

15. Early access and service development

Claressence is an evolving service and we may continue to develop, test and improve its features as we learn how people use it.

Features may change over time and the service may occasionally experience errors, interruptions or other technical issues.

16. Not a medical or crisis service

Claressence is designed as a private place for reflection and gaining clarity of thought.

It is not a medical service, mental health service, counselling service, psychotherapy service or crisis service.

Claressence should not be relied upon for diagnosis, treatment, emergency assistance or other professional healthcare advice.

17. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time as Claressence develops.

Where appropriate, we will notify users of material changes and provide an updated effective date.

18. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how your information is handled, please contact:

Email: claressence@outlook.com

Correspondence address:
Unit 173368, PO Box 7169, Poole, BH15 9EL