Privacy Policy

The short version

The app records health information about you, and we guard it as the most sensitive thing we hold. What you write down about your own recovery, your mood, symptoms you notice, your medicines and the exercises you do, is health information under South African law.

What we never hold is anything clinical. There are no diagnoses, no medical records, no clinical notes and no assessment results, and nothing in StrokePath is written by a doctor or a therapist about you. It is an educational service, not a clinical one.

Health information is "special personal information" under POPIA and carries a heavier duty of care. We ask for your permission before the app records it, we collect only what is needed to show you your own progress, and you can download or delete all of it at any time.

What we collect

Account details: your name and email address, so you can sign in and so we can contact you about your membership.

Enquiry details: if you contact us, whatever you choose to send us, which is usually a name, an email address or phone number, and your message.

Payment details: handled entirely by Paystack. We are told whether a payment succeeded and what it was for. We never see or store your card details.

Website usage: if you accept analytics cookies, anonymised information about how this website is used, such as which pages are visited and roughly what kind of device you are on. It does not identify you personally, and it is not collected at all if you decline. This applies to this website only. The app itself carries no analytics and no tracking of any kind, so nothing you record in it is ever measured, reported or counted.

What you record in the app: your mood and any note you add to it, symptoms you log and how urgent they felt, your medicines and which doses you have taken, exercises and brain-training sessions, water, position changes, your goals, and what you tick off each day. This is health information about you. It is used to show you your own progress, and for nothing else.

Why we collect it

• To give you access to the service and keep your account working
• To take payment and manage your membership
• To answer your enquiries
• To understand which parts of the service help, so we can improve them

We do not sell or rent your personal information to anyone, and we do not use it to advertise to you.

Sharing with your family

Recovering from a stroke is rarely something one person does alone, so a record can be shared with the people helping. Sharing never happens on its own. Someone with access has to invite each person by email, and that invitation expires after seven days and can be withdrawn before it is accepted. We store the email address that was invited, so that we can send and manage the invitation.

Everyone who joins has their own account and their own password. Nobody shares a login. Each person is given one of three levels of access when they are invited:

• Owner can see and record everything, invite and remove people, and close the record
• Editor can see and record everything, but cannot invite or remove anyone
• Viewer can see the record but cannot change anything in it

Those limits are enforced by the database itself rather than only hidden in the app, so a viewer cannot record anything even by going around the screen.

Everything in a record is about one person, the person recovering. If you are a caregiver, StrokePath does not keep a record of your own health. It keeps what you observe about the person you are caring for.

If someone is removed from a record, their access ends at once and the copy held on their device is erased the next time that device connects. If that device never connects again, it keeps the copy it already had. That is a limit of any app built to work without a signal, and we would rather say so than let you assume otherwise.

The launch list

StrokePath is not open to the public yet, so the website offers a list you can join to be told when it is. If you join it, we hold your email address and, if you gave one, your first name. Nothing else. We do not need and do not ask for anything about your health or the health of the person you care for in order to add you.

Joining is something you do on purpose: the box is never ticked for you, and enquiring through the contact form does not put you on the list. We use it to tell you when StrokePath opens and to send occasional news about it until then. We do not sell or share the list, and we do not use it to advertise anyone else.

You can leave at any time, and we would rather you left than stayed on a list you did not want. Every email we send carries a way off it, or you can reply to any of them, or email info@mystrokepath.com. We remove the address rather than keeping a record that you once asked to be removed.

Who processes your information

• Paystack processes payments. Your card details go to them, never to us.
• Our hosting and email providers store and transmit data as needed to run the service and to reply to you.
• Our analytics provider processes anonymised usage data, and only if you have accepted analytics cookies.
• Our email provider stores the launch list and sends the emails we send through it, on our instruction and for no other purpose.

Each of them is bound by an agreement to protect your information and to use it only to provide their service to us.

Where your information is stored

Some of our providers store data outside South Africa. POPIA permits this where the recipient is bound by protections comparable to South African law, or where you have consented to it. Because the app records health information, where that information is stored is a decision we are taking with legal advice rather than on convenience, and we will name the country here once it is settled.

How long we keep it

Account information is kept for as long as you have an account. If you close it, we delete your personal information except where we are required to keep records, mainly payment records under South African tax law. Enquiries are kept for as long as needed to deal with them and to follow up.

Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

• ask what personal information we hold about you
• ask us to correct anything that is wrong
• ask us to delete your personal information
• object to how your information is being used
• withdraw consent for analytics at any time

To exercise any of these, email info@mystrokepath.com. If you believe your information has been mishandled, you can complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa (inforegulator.org.za).

Children

The service is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from a child without the consent of a parent or guardian. If you believe we have, contact us and we will delete it.

Cookies

This website sets no cookies of its own. It remembers your analytics choice, and whether you prefer the light or dark theme, in your own browser rather than in a cookie, and neither of those ever reaches us. Analytics cookies are set by Google, and only if you accept them.

You can decline without losing any functionality, and if you accept and later change your mind, use Turn analytics off at the foot of any page. That removes the choice and stops the analytics loading.

The app sets no cookies at all, and has no analytics. It keeps your record on your own device so that it goes on working without a signal, and it contains no advertising and no tracking. The only third party involved is Google, and only if you choose to sign in with a Google account.

Security

Information is transmitted over encrypted connections and access to it is limited to what is needed to run the service. No system is perfectly secure, so if a breach affects your personal information we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The current version is always on this page, with the revision date at the top.

See also our Terms and Conditions.