Updated: July 22nd 2024
A4i respects an individual’s privacy and will only collect, use and disclose personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy. We recognize every individual’s right to privacy and acknowledge our obligation to preserve the confidentiality of personal information.
This Privacy Policy applies to the A4i administered The App for Independence in its collection, use and disclosure of personal information in the course of an individual’s participation in the program.
A4i does not use or disclose personal information except for the purposes of delivering program communications for The App for Independence, and/or any other services provided by A4i as it relates to participation or personalization surveys with The App for Independence. A4i reserves the right to update its Privacy Policy at any time and such modifications shall be effective immediately, unless otherwise stated.
A4i reserves the right to update its Privacy Policy at any time and such modifications shall be effective immediately, unless otherwise stated.
Personal Information
This privacy policy is subject to the relevant [provincial/state] legislation, Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPIEDA”) OR Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) as well as other applicable legislation and regulations.
Personal information being collected includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (mobile number, email), their health (e.g medication or sleep habits) or their activities and views (e.g opinions expressed by an individual, or evaluation of an individual). Personal information, however, does not include business information (e.g., an individual’s business address and telephone number), which is not protected by privacy legislation.
Accountability
MEMOTEXT, owner for A4i Inc., is responsible for personal information under its control and has designated a Privacy Officer who is accountable for this Privacy Policy and applicable governing laws. The Privacy Officer may be contacted as follows:
Privacy Officer MEMOTEXT
326 Rushton Road
Toronto, Ontario
M6C 2X9
1-877-636-6838
memo@memotext.com
Identifying Purposes
A4i will identify the purposes for which personal information is collected at or before the time it is collected. The purposes for which information is collected, used or disclosed is: to answer requests for information. When A4i uses personal information that has been collected for a purpose not previously identified, it will identify the new purpose for the individual to whom the personal information relates prior to using the information in that manner, except as permitted or required by law.
Consent
A4i will make a reasonable effort to make sure individuals understand how their personal information will be used by A4i. A4i will obtain consent of the individual for the collection, use or disclosure of personal information.
An individual’s consent may vary from express written consent to implied consent, depending upon circumstances and the type of information. We will collect, use or disclose personal information without consent, only where permitted or required by law.
You can also cancel your subscription to such communications by uninstalling The App for Independence from your phone.
Limited Collection
A4i limits the collection of personal information, both the amount and the type of information, to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by A4i. A4i collects personal information by fair and lawful means and for purposes that a reasonable person would consider appropriate in the circumstances. We may collect information about your device, such as your device ID and device type, as well as usage information about your device, when you access the app.
Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention
A4i will not use or disclose personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected for The App for Independence, except with the consent of the individual or as required or permitted by law.
A4i may disclose personal information to a government authority that has asserted its lawful authority to obtain the information or where A4i has reasonable grounds to believe the information could be useful in the investigation of an unlawful activity, or to comply with a subpoena or warrant or an order made by the court or otherwise as permitted by applicable law. Documents will be destroyed by way of shredding and electronic files will be deleted in their entirety. When hardware is discarded, A4i will ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.
Here are the three purposes for which we process data and the type of data that is processed to fulfill each purpose:
To provide our services and understand your needs
By using the A4i app, you are providing personal and non-personal data. We collect, store, and process this data to provide you with appropriate messaging, push notifications, feed content, as well as improvement to our services. The amount we collect has been minimized wherever possible to respect your privacy. The types of data we collect are:
Device data
This data informs us about the device you use to access our services, such as the model, name and identifiers, device settings, the application identifier, and crash information.
Event and usage data
When you use the A4i app and interact with its features, we collect your interactions and process your data to understand usage behaviour. This information, which may include: use of features; frequency and duration of use; usage flow within the app, is aggregated on a group level to understand which features are most useful to our users and which features may need improvement to provide you with the best experience of the app.
IP address
We collect IP addresses provided by your browser or mobile device to deliver the service to your device. We also use the IP address to determine your approximate location for statistical and analytics purposes.
To deliver personalized communications
The data you input into the A4i app and/or into any intake/follow-up surveys about your health, activities, events, and as submissions to feed content help us to customize your experience within the app, personalizing your future feed content and communications. This data also includes passive data collected from the sleep tracker, sound recorder, and any wearable integrations if applicable. This data is considered sensitive personal data and is only stored and used when you give explicit consent by creating an A4i account. The types of data we collect are:
Personal data for account creation and messaging
We need some of your personal data, such as your phone number to create your account and send you SMS notifications.
Health and sensitive data
We store health data, such as: your appointment dates and notes (if provided by you); medication names and regimen; symptoms or events you track in the app (e.g. goals tracked in the goal tracker, data inputted in the notes for your doctor feature or shared to the feed, reported auditory hallucinations using the sound detector, reported mental health scores in the wellness check-in); and passive data collected from features such as the sleep tracker and/or any wearable integrations through Google Health Connect or Apple HealthKit. A4i uses this data for the purpose of providing our services to you.
To advance scientific research about schizophrenia and psychosis
The vision of A4i is to use collected user data for the purposes of scientific and medical research about schizophrenia and psychosis – to improve the delivery and design of digital health tools to support individuals living with schizophrenia/psychosis, health outcomes, and the coordination of their care. Data that is used for scientific research has been deidentified following a strict protocol that involves the removal of any information that could be used to identify any specific user. Results of scientific research are published in academic/clinical journals as well as in digestible newsletter updates and articles that are easy to read for all of our users.
If you do not wish for your data to be used for these purposes, you may withdraw your consent to the use of your data by deleting your account. If you do this, your data won’t be included in any future research partnerships.
Accuracy
A4i will venture to ensure that personal information will be accurate, complete and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used.
Safeguards
A4i protects personal information by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of information. We are committed to keeping personal information secure, and have appropriate technical, administrative and physical procedures in place to protect personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, modification, disposal or destruction.
In addition, methods of protection and safeguards include, but are not limited to, locked filing cabinets, restricted access to offices, security clearances, need-to-know access and technological measures including the use of passwords, encryption and firewalls.
We limit access to personal information to those who have a business need. We keep personal information for the period of time deemed reasonable either to fulfill the identified purposes or in accordance with the law, whichever time frame is longer. We establish retention criteria based on the type of information collected.
Openness
A4i will make available to individuals specific information about is policies and practices relating to the management of personal information. All questions or enquires about this Privacy Policy or our personal information management practices are to be directed to our Privacy Officer.
Individual Access
When a request is made to A4i, we will inform an individual of the existence, use and disclosure of their personal information and provide access to that information, except where access is not required by law. Upon request, individuals can review the accuracy and completeness of their personal information and may have it amended, if appropriate. The app may include hyperlinks to websites which are independent from The App for Independence. By clicking on such hyperlinks, you will be leaving our app. A4i does not exercise any control on the operation of these websites and the fact that they are listed on our app does not incur A4i’s liability in any manner. Any personal information you submit through these websites is subject to such websites’ privacy policy.
Challenging Compliance
Any questions about our Privacy Policy are to be directed to our Privacy Officer. We will inform individuals who make inquiries or lodge complaints about our procedures, and we will investigate all inquiries or complaints. We will notify the complainant of the outcome of the investigation and any relevant steps taken to rectify the issue, including any amendments to our policies and procedures.