We do not sell your information
Frankie is paid for by members, not by advertisers. Your health information is not used for advertising, and we do not share it with ad networks.
Your body, your information.
At Frankie, privacy is a product decision, not a slogan. We will never sell your information. We do not show ads in the app. We do not use your chats, documents, journal, or recordings to train AI models.
Frankie is built in Australia for people navigating pregnancy. This policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share personal information, including health information, when you use the Frankie app, and related services (together, the “Services”).
Health information stays in service of you
We use what you tell us, upload, or record so Frankie can answer questions in your context, summarise documents, prep appointments, and keep your records in one place.
You are in control
You can access, correct, and delete your information. You can delete your account in Settings. You decide whether a partner can join, and you choose which documents they can see.
Partners only see what you share
Linking a partner shares pregnancy basics (such as your name, due date, care model, and state). Documents stay private unless you mark them shared. Your chats, journal, and appointment recordings are not visible to them, unless you elect for them to be.
We do not train AI on your information
When Frankie needs a language or speech model, we send the minimum needed to a contracted processor. That is not used to train our models, or theirs, under our API terms.
Frankie is for adults
You must be 18 or older to create an account or join as a partner.
Who we are
This Privacy Policy is issued by the operator of Frankie (“Frankie”, “we”, “us”), based in Australia.
Frankie is a pregnancy companion app. It is not a medical device, not a diagnostic tool, and not a substitute for your midwife, GP, obstetrician, or emergency services. If something feels urgent, contact your care team or call 000.
We handle personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). Health information is sensitive information under that Act. We collect it only where it is reasonably necessary for the Services, and we rely on your consent to collect and use it.
If this policy and anything you see in the app disagree, this policy applies.
We may update this policy. If we make a material change, we will tell you in the app or by email. The current version is always at frankieapp.org/privacy.
Personal information we collect
We collect personal information when you use the Services. Some of it is ordinary account information. A lot of it is health and wellbeing information that you choose to give us.
If you do not provide information a feature needs, that feature may not work. You can still use other parts of Frankie.
Information you give us
Account. Email address, password (stored by our auth provider in hashed form, we do not see your password), and confirmation that you are 18 or older.
Profile and pregnancy. Preferred name, partner’s name (if you add one), age, due date or dating method (LMP or conception date), whether this is a first pregnancy, previous pregnancies and births, blood type, medical conditions you list, care model (for example public hospital, shared care, private obstetrician), care provider name, hospital or clinic, and location.
Intake and wellbeing. How you are feeling about pregnancy, optional short anxiety check-in answers (not a diagnosis), living situation, education level, support network, goals, and anything you write about challenges at home. This is used to match tone and practical support, not to label you.
Chat. Messages you send Frankie, and Frankie’s replies. Chat may include symptoms, worries, test results you share, and other health details. We also keep conversation titles and summaries so Frankie can remember context over time.
Documents. Photos or PDFs of scans, bloods, letters, referrals, and similar records, plus text we extract and a plain-English summary. You choose whether each document is private or shared with a linked partner.
Journal. Notes, vents, photos you attach to journal entries, and related prompts. Journal entries belong to your account and are not shared with a partner.
Appointments. Visit type, dates, clinician, location, questions you want to ask, and notes or debriefs after a visit.
Appointment recordings (optional). If you choose to record a visit, we collect the audio, a transcript, and a summary. You must confirm that everyone being recorded has agreed. Recording without permission may be unlawful in your state or territory. If someone does not consent, do not record.
Planning. Birth plans and other planning answers you save in the app.
Partner Mode. If you invite a partner, we collect an invite code and the partner’s name, email, password, and age confirmation. See Partner Mode.
Support. If you email us, we collect whatever you send so we can reply.
Waitlist. If you join the waitlist on frankieapp.org before the app is available to you, we collect your email address so we can tell you when Frankie launches and send occasional product updates.
Information we collect automatically
App use (first-party analytics). We record a small set of product events so we can see whether onboarding and core features work, for example that the app opened, a screen was viewed, signup succeeded or failed, a chat message was sent, or a document was uploaded. These events store an app-generated identifier, optional account id once you are signed in, platform (iOS / Android / web), app version, and allowlisted properties only (for example “onboarding step name”). We do not put chat text, document contents, names, emails, transcripts, or other health content into this analytics table. You can ask us to delete this with your account.
Device and technical information. Information needed to run the app and keep it secure: app version, operating system, push notification token (so we can send reminders you have enabled), approximate network information, and crash diagnostics.
Crash reports. If crash reporting is enabled, we send technical error reports to Sentry. Reports are configured so they do not include request bodies, cookies, auth headers, screenshots, or session replay. A crash report may include a user id and the fact that an error occurred.
Website. See Website, waitlist, and similar technologies.
We do not collect your precise GPS location. Your Australian state or territory is something you choose during onboarding so Frankie can keep advice in an Australian care context.
Information from others
Your partner. If you accept an invite, the pregnant person has already created a link. We receive the invite code they shared with you.
Operating system vendors. Apple and Google may process information according to their own policies when you use their app stores, push notification services, or device permissions.
Payment providers (when billing is live). If you subscribe, a payment processor will collect card or billing details. Frankie does not store full card numbers. We may keep subscription status, plan, and invoices.
How we use your information
We use personal information to provide, protect, and improve the Services.
Create and run your account. What we use: Email, password, age confirmation. Why: So you can sign in and we can keep the account to you.
Personalise Frankie. What we use: Pregnancy profile, care model, state, intake answers. Why: So answers and appointment pathways fit Australian maternity care and your situation.
Chat. What we use: Your messages, profile, relevant document summaries, planning context. Why: To reply in context. Emergency-sounding messages may trigger a fixed safety response and a safety log instead of (or as well as) an AI reply.
Documents. What we use: Files you upload. Why: To store them, extract text, summarise in plain English, and surface follow-up flags for you.
Appointments. What we use: Dates, questions, recordings you choose to make. Why: To remind you, help you prepare, transcribe, and summarise a visit.
Journal and planning. What we use: What you write and save. Why: To keep your notes and plans in one place.
Partner Mode. What we use: Invite details; pregnancy basics; documents you mark shared. Why: So a support person you invite can help, within the limits you set.
Safety. What we use: Chat text that matches emergency or self-harm phrases. Why: To stop and point you to real-world help (including 000, your care team, Lifeline, PANDA, 1800RESPECT).
Security and abuse prevention. What we use: Account, device, and usage signals. Why: To authenticate you, rate-limit the API, and investigate misuse.
Product improvement. What we use: First-party funnel events only. Why: To see where people drop off and whether features work, not to read your health content.
Reliability. What we use: Crash reports. Why: To fix bugs.
Service messages. What we use: Email, push token. Why: Account, security, and feature messages (for example appointment reminders you have enabled).
Foundation Member / website updates. What we use: Waitlist email. Why: To email you about Frankie. You can unsubscribe.
Legal. What we use: Relevant records. Why: To meet the law, handle claims, or protect someone’s safety.
We do not:
- Sell or rent your personal information.
- Use your health information for advertising.
- Share your health information with ad networks, data brokers, or social media advertising tools.
- Use your chats, documents, journal, or recordings to train AI models.
- Put personalised or non-personalised ads in the app.
Frankie is not funded by advertising. If that ever changed, we would update this policy and ask for any consent the law requires before using health information that way.
Why we collect your information (Australian Privacy Principles)
Under the Privacy Act we collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for our functions: providing Frankie, keeping it secure, and communicating with you.
Health and other sensitive information. We collect this with your consent. You give that consent when you create an account, complete onboarding, type in chat, upload a document, start a recording, or use an optional check-in. You can withdraw consent by deleting information in the app, turning a feature off, or deleting your account. Withdrawal does not undo processing already done.
Other personal information. We also collect and use information where it is reasonably necessary to:
- Perform our contract with you (provide the Services you signed up for).
- Protect the Services and other people.
- Meet a legal obligation.
- Handle a complaint or claim.
You do not have to use optional features (recordings, partner sharing, journal photos, anxiety check-in).
Your privacy rights
You can:
- Access the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct information that is wrong or out of date (much of this you can edit in the app).
- Delete your account and the information stored with it.
- Ask questions about how we handle your information.
- Complain to us at privacy@frankieapp.org.
- Withdraw consent for optional features or for our handling of health information, including by deleting your account.
How to withdraw consent
In the app:
- Update profile and pregnancy details in Settings.
- Change a document from shared to private on that document.
- Unlink a partner in Settings.
- Delete a document.
- Delete your account in Settings (this is permanent).
By email: Write to privacy@frankieapp.org. We will need to verify that the request comes from you, usually via the email on the account. We aim to respond within 30 days. If we need longer, we will say why.
Deleting your account removes your login, profile, chats, documents and stored files, journal, appointment recordings, planning items, product analytics events tied to you, and related app records from our live systems. A linked partner loses access to that pregnancy. Deleting a partner login does not delete the pregnancy account.
Some information may remain for a limited time in encrypted backups until those backups rotate, in security logs, or where we must keep it (for example a legal claim, or a safety incident we are required to retain). Processors such as OpenAI and Sentry keep technical logs under their own retention rules. We ask them to delete personal information they process for us when we delete your account, where that is available.
Once deletion of identifiers has started, we may not be able to restore the account.
We may refuse a request that is unfounded, excessive, or would unreasonably impact someone else’s privacy, and we will explain if we do.
Partner Mode
If you are 18 or older, you can invite a partner or support person. You stay in control. You create the invite, you can unlink them, and you choose which documents are shared. Unlinking stops further access. It does not automatically erase information they already saw on their own device.
What a linked partner can see
- Your name, due date, gestational week, care model, and state.
- Documents you mark as shared (or new uploads, if you turn on “share all documents”; you can still mark any document private).
- Their own Frankie chat, which uses pregnancy context so they can support you. That chat does not include your private messages.
What they cannot see
- Documents marked private.
- Your journal.
- Your chats with Frankie.
- Appointment recordings, transcripts, and debriefs.
- Full medical profile detail that has not been shared through a shared document.
What we collect from a partner. Name, email, password, age confirmation. We do not collect the partner’s health information to run Partner Mode.
Partners must also be 18 or older.
How long we keep information
We keep personal information while your account is open and as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy.
If you delete your account, we delete it from live systems as described in Your privacy rights.
If you delete the app but do not delete your account, the account and cloud data remain until you delete the account or we close unused accounts after a long period of inactivity (we currently treat this as up to three years, unless you ask us to delete sooner).
Waitlist emails are kept until you unsubscribe or we close the list, then deleted or suppressed.
We may keep limited records longer where the law requires or allows it (tax, legal claims, security investigations, or safety events).
Security
We take steps appropriate to health information, including:
- Encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and encryption at rest with our storage provider.
- Private storage buckets for documents, journal media, and appointment audio (not public links).
- Access limited to what is needed to operate the Services.
- Authentication and API rate limiting.
- Crash reports that exclude request bodies and credentials.
- Product analytics that reject health content.
- Account deletion that removes stored files and app rows.
No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure. Please choose a strong password and do not share it. On a shared phone, use the device passcode or biometrics.
If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to cause serious harm, we will assess it under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme and notify you and the OAIC as required.
To report a security issue, email privacy@frankieapp.org with the subject “Security”.
Children’s privacy
Frankie is not for children. You must be 18 or older to create an account or join as a partner. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
If you believe a person under 18 has created an account, email privacy@frankieapp.org. We will delete that account.
How we contact you
We may send:
- Service messages — email confirmation, security notices, appointment reminders, and other messages needed to run your account. You cannot opt out of essential service email while the account exists, but you can disable push notifications in device settings.
- Product updates — if you joined the waitlist or asked for Frankie news. Unsubscribe using the link in the email.
We do not send third-party advertising emails.
Device permissions
The app may ask for:
- Camera / photos, when you attach images to chat, photograph documents, or add journal photos. You can deny in system settings; those features will not work.
- Microphone, for appointment recording. You can deny; you can type notes instead.
- Notifications, for reminders you enable. You can turn off in system settings.
- Network, to sync with Frankie’s servers. You can use the app only when you choose to go online.
Frankie does not read Apple Health or Google Health Connect.
Your operating system may show other system prompts. We only use the data from a permission for the feature you are using.
Website, waitlist, and similar technologies
The marketing site at frankieapp.org is separate from the in-app health record.
Waitlist. We use your email to tell you about Frankie. We do not sell waitlist emails. Cloudflare Turnstile runs on the form to reduce bots; that may process your IP address and device signals.
Google Analytics. The website uses Google Analytics to understand page views and traffic. It may collect approximate location (from IP), device type, and pages visited. This is not connected to your in-app chats or documents. Google handles this data under its own policy. If you prefer, you can use browser controls or Google’s opt-out tools.
We do not currently use advertising cookies or social-media ad pixels on the site.
Storage and overseas disclosure
Frankie is based in Australia. Much of the infrastructure we use is overseas, including the United States.
That means your personal information, including health information you put into chat, documents, and recordings, is likely to be disclosed to and stored in countries that are not Australia. Those countries may not have privacy laws that are substantially similar to the APPs.
By creating an account and using a feature, you consent to that overseas disclosure for the purposes in this policy. We take reasonable steps to ensure processors handle information in line with this policy, including contractual terms with OpenAI, Supabase, and other providers.
If you do not want health information sent overseas, you should not use chat, document upload, or recording features, and you may choose not to use Frankie.
Frankie is not medical care
Frankie does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Information in the app can be wrong or incomplete. Always follow your clinician.
If chat suggests an emergency, contact 000 or your care team. Frankie may log that a safety phrase was detected so we can keep that pathway working. That log is not a clinical record of an emergency.
Changes
We will review this policy at least annually and when we add features that change how information is handled. The effective date at the top will change when we publish an update.
Contact
Privacy questions and requests: privacy@frankieapp.org