Privacy policy

1. Who we are

SafeHold is run by Digibex Ltd. SafeHold is a trading name of Digibex Ltd. In this policy, "SafeHold", "we" and "us" mean Digibex Ltd.

We are the data controller for the information in SafeHold. That means we decide how it's used, and we're responsible for looking after it under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

2. What we collect

Your account

Your email address, your first name if you choose to give it, your password (stored scrambled, so nobody can read it), when you agreed to our terms and gave your consent, and your settings (for example discreet mode or the "shared computer" option).

If you choose Continue with Google, Google tells us your email address, your name and a link to your Google profile picture. We use the email to run your account.

Your records

Everything you choose to put into SafeHold: your family situation, your children's first names, your log, the professionals and their promises, appointments, to-dos, letters and emails, notes, voice notes, photos, missing-child grab sheets, missing episodes, school attendance, your co-parenting record, and anything else you add. Some of this is very sensitive. See section 4.

Anything you're typing is saved as a draft while you type, so nothing is lost. Drafts are kept on your device and in your account, and are cleared when you save or choose "Start fresh".

Where you heard about us

If you came to SafeHold from one of our adverts or a partner's link, the link carries a short label (for example "facebook" and the advert's name). When you sign up, we keep that label with your account so we can see which adverts help parents find us. We only ever look at totals. We don't use cookies or store anything on your device for this, we don't keep the advert company's click ID, and we never tell Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google or anyone else that you signed up.

If you pay for SafeHold Plus

Your plan, when it started and renews, and whether payments went through. Your card details go straight to our payment provider, Stripe. We never see or store them. If you delete your account, we stop your subscription straight away and ask Stripe to remove your saved card. Stripe keeps payment records for as long as tax law requires.

If you contact us

Your emails and messages, and replies from SafeHold staff. If you agree, SafeHold staff keep short notes of your conversations so they can support you (see section 10). You can see, save a copy of, or delete those notes yourself at any time, in Message SafeHold.

If you join the Community

Your posts, comments, "This helped" taps, reports and blocks, and how you chose to appear (a username or "Anonymous parent").

Before a post or comment goes up, SafeHold checks it automatically for things that could identify a child (like a name, a school, an address or a phone number), abusive words and safety worries. The check runs in our own database in London, not by AI. If something is found, you're asked if you'd like to change it, or it's held for the SafeHold team to look at first. If a post, comment or message to SafeHold suggests someone could be in danger, it's flagged so the SafeHold team can follow SafeHold's safeguarding plan, and you're shown numbers to ring straight away.

Other parents never see your email, your real name or your account. Posts, comments and messages are encrypted again inside the database, like your records.

Security information

A record of important events on your account, such as sign-ins, data downloads, consent changes and deletions. It records that something happened and when, never what your records say. Each time you log in, we also note the kind of device and browser (for example "Chrome on a Mac"), so we can show you where you're logged in and email you if someone logs in on a device we haven't seen before. We don't keep your IP address or where you are for this. Our providers also keep short-lived technical logs (such as IP addresses) to keep the service secure.

What SafeHold can and can't see

SafeHold staff can see, to run SafeHold and help with your account: your first name (if you gave one), your email address, your plan and whether payments went through, when you joined, when you last logged in, whether two-step log-in is on, your discreet email setting, whether you agreed to news emails, and your Community username. We may use your first name in account emails, news emails and replies to you.

SafeHold staff can never see anything you record in SafeHold: your log, your children's names, notes, letters, files, grab sheets, missing episodes, your co-parenting record or messages to the other parent. SafeHold is built so that our staff can't open your records.

The link between your Community username (or "Anonymous parent") and your account is only shown to SafeHold staff when moderating the Community, for safety, and is never used for emails or marketing. Discreet mode keeps email subject lines neutral, and news emails only go to people who ticked to receive them. Every time SafeHold staff open your account's details, it's recorded, and it shows in your own activity log.

What we don't collect

We don't access your phone contacts or track your location. There are no advertising IDs and no tracking for adverts on the website or web app, and no analytics that can see what you've written.

3. Why we use it, and the legal reasons

The law says we must have a reason, called a "lawful basis", for each way we use your information. Here they are.

4. Sensitive information and your consent

The things you record in SafeHold often include health information, information about abuse or exploitation, and information about the police or crimes. The law calls this "special category" and "criminal offence" information, and gives it extra protection.

We only keep it because you've given your explicit consent, by ticking a clear box when you set up your account. We record when you agreed and which wording you agreed to. Until you agree, SafeHold can't save any records at all.

You can withdraw your consent at any time in More in the app. Because SafeHold can't work without it, withdrawing stops anything new being saved straight away, and we'll then help you download your records and delete your account.

5. Information about your children and other people

Your records will include information about other people: your children, other family members, and professionals such as social workers, teachers and police officers.

If you use Co-parenting (SafeHold Plus), your records will also include information about your children's other parent: what you call them, handovers, what they said, money spent on the children and who paid, agreed changes, and what you've shared with them. This is private to you. The other parent never sees any of it, and we never contact them. It's encrypted and protected in the same way as the rest of your records, and is included when you download your data and deleted when you delete your account.

• We keep it only so that you can keep your own records. It's private to you.
• We never publish it, share it, or contact anyone named in your records.
• Please record facts honestly, and only share your records with the right professionals. Our terms of use say more.
• If someone named in a parent's records contacts us, we'll explain that we can't see or search parents' records, and we'll help as far as the law allows.

6. Who can see your information

• You. Only you can see your records, through the app, once you've logged in.
• Not SafeHold staff. Our database rules stop anyone at SafeHold, including our staff, from opening your records. Our admin tools only show account details (such as your email, plan and when you last logged in), totals, and things you've chosen to send us (messages, "Something not right?" and Community posts), never your records.
• Who uses our admin tools. SafeHold's founder and, as SafeHold grows, a small number of trusted staff. Each staff member is only given the parts of the admin tools their job needs (for example, only the Community for a moderator, or only account help for customer support), and none of them can ever open your records. Before they can use anything, they agree in writing to keep everything confidential and to follow our safeguarding plan. Everyone uses two-step log-in, is logged out after 15 minutes without use, and every action (such as sending a password reset link or removing a post) is written to a log that can't be changed. Actions about your account also show in your own activity log. Staff never see or set your password.
• Support, only if you ask. If you need help with your records, you can send us a screenshot or a download yourself. We'll only ever look at your records with your written permission, and that would be logged.
• Other Community members only see what you post there, under the name you chose. SafeHold staff and our moderators can see which account wrote a post, only for safety and moderation.
• The services we use (section 7) only handle your information on our instructions, under signed agreements.
• The law, and keeping people safe. We'd only hand over information if the law required it, for example under a court order, and we'd tell you unless the law stopped us. If a message or post you send us makes us think a child or someone else is in serious danger, we may pass on what you told us and your account details (such as your email address) to the police or children's services, following our safeguarding plan. We'll tell you unless that would put someone at risk.

SafeHold isn't an emergency service. It doesn't alert anyone, and it never contacts the police or social care for you.

7. The services we use, and where your information is kept

Your records are stored in London, in a database we own and pay for, run by Supabase on Amazon Web Services' London data centre. Backups stay in the same region.

We use a small number of other services ("processors") to run SafeHold. Each one only handles what it needs, on our instructions, under a signed data processing agreement. Some are based outside the UK. Where information goes outside the UK, it's protected by the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (or the UK Addendum to the EU's standard contractual clauses), or the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified.

We'll update this list before we switch on any new service.

8. AI help

• SafeHold's AI features use Anthropic's Claude, through Anthropic's business service. What you send isn't used to train AI.
• Nothing is sent to AI unless you press an AI button, ask the SafeHold assistant something, or forward an email into Files (forwarded emails are explained automatically, so they're ready when you open them). You can switch automatic explaining off in More, under Your family and privacy.
• We send only what that feature needs (for example, your recent log entries and open promises). "Help me reply calmly" in Co-parenting sends only the message you paste, what you want to say, and your name for signing off. Photos of letters are only sent when you ask us to explain a letter. Photos of children are never sent to AI.
• The assistant reads your records only for the request you've made. Chats aren't kept unless you save them.
• You always see what the AI wrote, and can change it, before you use it. Two things are saved straight away so you can change them after: "Sort my list", and the explanation of a letter or forwarded email, which is kept with it in Files.
• AI can make mistakes. Check anything before you rely on it.

Talking instead of typing

• The "Talk instead" button uses the speech-to-text built into your phone or browser. SafeHold never receives or keeps the sound, only the words that appear in the box.
• Where your device can do this on the device itself, it does. If it can't, your browser or phone maker (for example Google in Chrome, or Apple in Safari) turns the speech into words on their own servers, under their own privacy policy. We tell you this before you use it the first time, and you can choose to type instead.

9. Emails

• Account emails (log-in links, password resets, receipts, security notices and changes to our terms) are always sent. You need them to use your account safely.
• Tips and news are only sent if you ticked the box when you signed up. Every one has a one-click unsubscribe, and you can change your mind in More.
• Messages from SafeHold (now and then, a note to everyone) appear in Messages in the app. You may also get a notification. We only email them to people who ticked "tips and news from SafeHold", and never in discreet mode.
• In discreet mode, emails come from "My List", with plain subject lines that never mention children, social care, safety or SafeHold.

10. How long we keep things

11. How we keep it safe

• Everything travels over a secure, encrypted connection.
• Everything is encrypted where it's stored. On top of that, the most sensitive parts (such as your log, grab sheets, missing episodes, notes and names) are encrypted again with a key kept separately, so a copy of the database on its own can't be read.
• Strict database rules mean each person can only ever reach their own records. These are tested automatically every time we change anything.
• You can choose "This is a shared computer" when you log in somewhere that isn't yours. SafeHold then logs you out after 5 minutes without use, and clears what it saved in that browser when you log out. You can switch on two-step log-in (a 6-digit code from an app on your phone, as well as your password). Once it's on, our database itself refuses your records until the code has been entered. "Log out on all devices" ends every log-in straight away.
• You can set an unlock PIN, and on phones use Face ID or your fingerprint. Your PIN is kept only on your own phone or computer, scrambled, and is never sent to us. Face ID and fingerprints are checked by your phone; we never see them.
• Only one owner account can manage the database, and it uses two-step log-in.
• If something ever went wrong, we have a plan. We'd tell the ICO within 72 hours where the law requires it, and tell you without delay if you could be at risk.

12. Your rights

You have the right to:

• see your information, and get a copy (More > Your account > Download my data);
• correct it (you can edit anything in the app);
• delete it (More > Your account > Delete my account);
• take it with you to another service (the download is a standard file);
• withdraw your consent at any time (More > Your account > Take back my agreement to keep records);
• object to, or limit, how we use it (untick tips and news in More > Your account, take back your agreement, or delete anything you like).

You do all of these yourself, in the app, straight away. This is on purpose. Your records are private and locked away, so no one at SafeHold can read them, and an email alone can't prove who sent it. Logging in to your own account is how we know it's really you, so nobody else can ever get a copy of your records, change them or delete them by pretending to be you.

If you can't log in, use "Forgot your password?" on the log-in screen to get back in. If you're stuck, or have a question about your rights, email hello@safehold.org.uk. It's free, and we'll reply within one month. We'll explain how to do it in the app, but we can't send, change or delete anyone's records because of an email.

13. Adults only

You must be 18 or over to use SafeHold. We ask you to confirm this when you sign up. There are no accounts for children.

14. The iPhone and Android apps

The SafeHold apps for iPhone and Android are being built now. They use the same account, the same database in London and the same protections as the web app. This is how they'll work. We'll confirm it here before they're in the App Store and Google Play.

• Paying in the app. If you subscribe in the app, Apple or Google take the payment. RevenueCat (US) links the subscription to your account using only a random account number: never your email, name or records.
• Sign in with Apple, if you choose it. You can choose "Hide my email", and we'll use the private address Apple gives us.
• Reminders. Phone reminders go through Apple's and Google's own push services, via Expo (US), which passes them on. They only ever say "You have a reminder" or "You have a new message": never names, titles or details. You see the details when you open SafeHold.
• Adverts on Facebook and Instagram. An optional Meta (Facebook) tool only counts app installs, sign-ups and purchases from our adverts. It's off, and not even started, unless you say yes. On iPhone, Apple also asks you. It never receives anything about your records, your children or how you use SafeHold, and you can switch it off any time in More.
• Photos and the camera are only used when you choose to add a photo. The apps never use your location or contacts.
• Phone backups. On Android, SafeHold is left out of Google's phone backups. Your records are in your account, not on the phone.

15. If SafeHold changes, is sold or closes

If we make an important change to this policy, we'll tell you by email and in the app before it takes effect.

If SafeHold is ever sold or closes, we'll tell you well in advance and give you time to download your records.

16. Contact us or complain

Email hello@safehold.org.uk. We reply within 5 working days. Please don't use email for emergencies: if a child or anyone is in danger, ring 999.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.