Draft — under review. This page is a draft for GatherRelay’s private beta. It is still being reviewed and may change. Questions: support@gatherrelay.com.
Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy
This policy is about health information: what GatherRelay keeps, why, where it comes from, who it is shared with, and how you can see it, delete it or stop it being kept or shared. It is written for the Washington My Health My Data Act, and it applies to everyone who uses GatherRelay. “We” means Synergistic Solutions Unlimited LLC, the company that runs GatherRelay. Our general privacy policy covers everything else.
What health information we keep, and why
Health information means information about someone’s health, care or treatment that can be linked to them. In GatherRelay that is:
- Care papers you upload: advance directives, medical and financial powers of attorney, health-information authorizations, guardianship papers, do-not-resuscitate or medical-order forms, insurance cards, and other papers you choose to keep.
- Records you type in: medication lists, allergy lists and emergency contacts.
- Family updates: short notes about a person, such as how an appointment went.
- Your choices about it: which kinds of information you agreed we may keep and share, with whom, and when you changed that.
- The fact that you use GatherRelay to keep care papers, or to help someone who does.
We use it in these ways only:
- to keep it for you and show it to you;
- to show it to the people you choose, in the way you choose;
- to check uploaded files for viruses before anyone can open them;
- to keep the service secure and working, and to fix problems;
- to answer your questions and requests;
- when the law requires it.
Passkeys do not give us health or body information. Face ID, a fingerprint or a screen lock is checked on your own phone or computer; GatherRelay never receives a face scan or a fingerprint. We do not collect your location.
Where it comes from
- From you, when you type it in or upload a paper.
- From helpers you allow: a helper you let update your information, and a helper you let post family updates about you.
- From the papers you upload.
- If you help someone else: from that person, who chooses what to share with you.
When a helper types in information about you, that information is about you, even if the helper lives in another state. We treat it under this policy in the same way.
What is shared, and with whom
Only the kinds of information you choose are shared: care papers, medication lists, allergy lists, emergency contacts and family updates.
They can be shared with:
- People in your care circle that you pick, such as family members and helpers. You pick them on your sharing screen, paper by paper, and for each family update.
- People in the circle that a helper picks for a family update the helper writes about you, if you allowed that helper to post updates.
- Everyone in a circle group (Everyone, Family, Friends or Coworkers) that a family update is addressed to. Group updates follow current group membership, which an authorized circle manager can change, so people who join or are added later may see earlier updates.
We have no affiliates (related companies) that receive health information. We do not share it with anyone else unless the law requires it.
These companies process information for us, under their service agreements with us, only to provide GatherRelay:
- Cloudflare runs the website. Pages, including what is on them, pass through it.
- Supabase stores the database and uploaded files, in the United States.
- Twilio sends sign-in codes by text. It gets your phone number and the code only, never health information.
- Resend sends emails. It gets your email address and short account notices only, never health information.
Virus checks run on a computer kept by the person who runs GatherRelay, not by an outside company.
Your agreement comes first
When you first sign in, GatherRelay asks three separate questions: whether you agree to the beta terms, whether GatherRelay may keep health information, and, separately, whether it may share health information with the people you pick. You can say no to sharing and still use GatherRelay for yourself. We record which wording you answered, and when. If the wording changes, we ask again.
Agreeing to share does not share anything by itself. Each time, you choose who can see your records, which papers each helper can open, and who sees each family update. Each of those choices is your agreement to that particular sharing. If we ever want to keep a new kind of health information, or use it for a new purpose, we will tell you and ask you first.
Your rights and how to use them
- See it. You can ask us to confirm whether we keep health information about you, for a copy, and for the actual recipients of your health information with their contact details. You can download individual available papers yourself; an account-wide export is not ready, so we will confirm the scope and a secure way to send a copy.
- Stop it. You can withdraw your agreement to keeping or to sharing at any time, after signing in, under “Your agreements”. Stopping sharing ends helpers’ access to your records and papers, their ability to post new updates about you, and updates written only for helpers, straight away. It does not yet stop access to family updates already posted to circle groups; only the writer can delete those. We are building a change so updates follow withdrawal.
- Delete it. You can ask us to delete your health information and your account. Today you can delete typed record entries and your own family updates in the app. There is no uploaded-paper delete button yet, hiding a paper does not permanently erase its stored file, and full account deletion and permanent file removal are not ready; they are being built. We record your request, tell you what we can complete now, and confirm what has actually been completed. When deletion is ready, it will include asking the companies that process information for us to delete their copies and telling the people you shared with. An automated backup schedule and removal of old backup copies have not been verified for this beta. Copies someone already downloaded or printed are outside GatherRelay.
- Ask us to look again. If we say no to a request, you can appeal.
How to ask
- After signing in, use Request my data or delete my account. You do not need any other account.
- Or email support@gatherrelay.com.
It costs nothing. We will complete valid requests within the applicable legal deadline (for Washington, 45 days, with one extension of up to 45 more days that we explain to you within the first 45) and explain any lawful extension. Before we act, we check that the request is really from you, using a phone number or email address you already gave us. We will never ask for a sign-in code, recovery code or password.
Appeals
To appeal, choose “Ask us to look again at an answer” under Request my data or delete my account, or email support@gatherrelay.com with “Privacy appeal” in the subject. We will answer in writing within 45 days and explain our decision. If we still say no, you can complain to the Washington State Attorney General at atg.wa.gov/file-complaint.
What we never do
- We never sell health information.
- We never use it for advertising, and we never use it to train AI models.
- We never set up virtual boundaries around clinics or other places of care to track or message people (geofencing). GatherRelay does not use location at all.
Questions: support@gatherrelay.com.