Patiently: Medical AI Notes

Your privacy is the foundation of Patiently. This policy explains what information the app handles and how it is used. Our philosophy is simple: Your data is yours. It is stored on your device, and you control if and when it is shared with third-party services to enable AI features.

1. Information You Provide & How It's Stored

All the personal and health information you create in Patiently is stored exclusively on your device within the app's secure container. We do not have a central server that collects or stores your personal data.

This includes:

Audio Recordings: The audio files of your medical visits are saved directly on your device.
Transcriptions, Summaries, and AI Analysis: All text generated from your recordings, including transcripts, summaries, follow-up questions, and extracted topics, remains on your device.
Family Member Information: The names and birth years you enter for family members are stored only on your device.
Chat History: Your conversations with the AI chat assistant are saved on your device.
"For You" History & Cache: Your history of viewed articles and the cache of recommended articles are stored on your device.

Important: Because this data is stored locally, if you delete the app, this information may be permanently lost unless you have a device backup.

2. When and Why Data is Shared with Third-Party Services

Patiently uses third-party AI services from providers like Apple, OpenAI, and Google (Gemini) to perform tasks like transcription and analysis. You have control over which provider you use for these features in the app's Account settings.

Your data is sent off-device when you choose a cloud-based AI provider.

Here is exactly what is sent and when:

For On-Device Transcription (Apple):

When you select Apple for transcription, the entire process happens on your device. Your audio recording is never sent to Apple or to us. This is the most private option.

For Cloud-Based Transcription (OpenAI or Gemini):

If you select OpenAI or Gemini for transcription, your audio recording is sent to that service for processing. The service transcribes the audio and returns the text to the app.

For AI Analysis (Summaries, Questions, Topics):

After a transcript is created, if you use a feature to summarize it or generate questions, the text of the transcript is sent to the selected AI provider (OpenAI or Gemini) for analysis. Your original audio file is not sent again.

For "For You" Article Recommendations:

To find relevant articles, only the general medical topics (e.g., "Hypertension," "Lisinopril") extracted from your transcripts are sent to the selected search provider (OpenAI, Gemini, or Perplexity). Your full transcript or personal information is not sent for this purpose.

For AI Chat:

When you send a message in the Chat tab, that message and the text of relevant summaries from your visits are sent to the AI provider to generate an informed response.

3. Our Proxy Server

To protect our keys, data sent to third-party services first passes through our secure proxy server. This server acts as a simple relay; it does not permanently store the content of your recordings or transcripts. Its sole purpose is to forward your request to the AI provider you have selected.

4. Data We Do Not Collect

We want to be crystal clear about what we don't do:

We do not have user accounts.
We do not maintain your email address, or other contact information.
We do not use analytics to track your behavior inside the app.
We do not sell or share your data with advertisers.

5. Your Control and Data Deletion

You are in full control of your data. You can delete any recording or transcription from within the app at any time. When you delete a recording, the audio file and all associated data (transcript, summary, etc.) are permanently removed from your device.

6. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we will notify you through the app or other means. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

7. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at legal@patiently.me

iOS App Privacy Policy