Privacy Policy
Last updated: 24 May 2026
1. Who we are
BetterCall.ie ("BetterCall", "we", "us") provides clinical reference tools, optional signed-in features (tasks, topics, portfolio-style tracking), team collaboration for healthcare teams, and related services for qualified healthcare professionals in Ireland and similar jurisdictions.
For privacy questions: privacy@bettercall.ie. For operational matters: conor@bettercall.ie.
2. What this policy covers
This policy applies to the BetterCall.ie website, the BetterCall mobile apps (iOS and Android) when they communicate with our services, and Progressive Web App behaviour where applicable. Read it together with our GDPR information sheet (health data and Teams), Terms of Use, and Medical disclaimer.
3. Categories of personal data
Depending on which features you use, we may process:
- Account and authentication: identifiers from your sign-in method (email/password, Google, or Sign in with Apple via Firebase Authentication), such as user ID, display name, and email address. With Sign in with Apple you may use Apple's private relay email; we receive only what Apple provides for account operation.
- Clinical reference usage (signed-in): activity that supports in-app features (for example topics viewed, tasks, or similar product data tied to your account where those features exist).
- Doctor / locum profile and documents: information and files you upload (for example CV, training certificates, referee contact details, professional identifiers) stored in Firebase Firestore and Firebase Storage.
- Jobs and applications: application materials you submit through BetterCall Jobs flows.
- Calendar and rota-style features: events and metadata you save or sync for scheduling or on-call tracking. On mobile, with your permission, we may read or write calendar events to display shifts alongside your personal calendar.
- Team collaboration (clinical): patient identifiers, clinical notes, thread entries, tasks, and related data entered by authorised team members. Team instant messaging may use end-to-end encryption where enabled: message payloads may be stored as ciphertext; limited metadata (for example sender id, timestamps) may still be processed for delivery and abuse prevention.
- Reference requests: referee email addresses and related request metadata; transactional email may be sent through our email provider when configured.
- Support and feedback: content you send when contacting us or suggesting edits to clinical content.
- Push notifications (mobile): device push tokens stored to deliver shift, task, or team notifications you opt into.
- Technical data: standard server and security logs (IP address, user agent, timestamps) generated when you use the site or APIs.
4. Mobile app: device permissions
The mobile app may request device permissions only for features you use. You can deny permissions in system Settings; some features will not work without them.
- Camera and photos: to photograph wristbands, notes, or medication lists for transcription helpers you initiate.
- Microphone and speech recognition: for voice notes on patient threads. On supported devices, speech may be processed on-device by Apple or Google before text is sent to our servers.
- Calendar: to sync shifts, on-call, and leave with your device calendar when you enable that feature.
- Face ID / Touch ID (optional): to lock the app locally after sign-in; biometric data stays on your device and is not sent to BetterCall.
5. Purposes and legal bases (summary)
We process personal data to provide the service you request, maintain security, improve reliability, and meet legal obligations. Typical GDPR bases include: contract (providing the platform to account holders), legitimate interests (securing accounts, debugging, proportionate product improvement, abuse prevention), and consent where we ask for it. Special category (health) data in Teams and similar clinical modules should only be processed with an appropriate Article 9 basis obtained by the responsible clinician or organisation—see the GDPR information sheet.
6. AI-assisted features
Clinical team features (approved pilot teams only) send patient-related text, images, or audio from your team workspace to Google Cloud Vertex AI (Gemini models) in the European Union via our servers—for example thread summaries, encounter listen finalisation, clinical image transcription helpers, and clinical suggestions. That data is processed for the request; photos and audio for AI are not retained on BetterCall servers afterward. We do not use those submissions to train our own models; Google's Cloud terms and safeguards apply.
Other features (reference topics, portfolio document checks, job helpers, and similar) may use separate Google AI services where no patient health data is involved. Do not paste identifiable patient information into those general tools.
7. Advertising and tracking
BetterCall does not sell your personal data. We do not use your app activity for third-party advertising or cross-app tracking. We do not request Apple's App Tracking Transparency permission for advertising purposes.
8. Recipients and subprocessors
This section is the authoritative list of subprocessors for clinical pilot data. The Pilot Controller Acknowledgement refers controllers here rather than repeating provider names in the agreement itself.
We use reputable infrastructure and service providers who process data on our instructions, including:
- Google Firebase / Google Cloud — authentication, Firestore (EU eur3 for clinical data), file storage, and (via server APIs) Vertex AI for clinical features described above.
- Netlify (and comparable hosting providers) — delivery of the website and APIs, and technical logs.
- Resend (or comparable email providers) — transactional email when enabled (such as referee invitations).
- Apple — when you use Sign in with Apple, Apple processes authentication according to their privacy policy; we receive tokens and account identifiers needed to operate your BetterCall account.
Providers may be located outside the European Economic Area; where required we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as Standard Contractual Clauses) offered by the relevant vendor.
9. Retention
We keep information for as long as your account exists and as needed to provide features, comply with law, resolve disputes, and enforce our terms. Some clinical artefacts may be subject to longer retention under healthcare law—teams and organisations using BetterCall remain responsible for statutory medical records retention where applicable.
10. Security
We use TLS in transit, access rules on databases, authenticated APIs for sensitive operations, and defence-in-depth practices appropriate to a small platform. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure; you should protect your device and account credentials.
11. Your rights and account deletion
Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, port, or object to certain processing, and to withdraw consent where processing is consent-based. To exercise rights against BetterCall-held account data, contact privacy@bettercall.ie.
You may delete your account and personal data held on BetterCall from the mobile app (Profile → Close account permanently) or by contacting us. For patient records entered by a hospital team, the healthcare organisation or clinician is typically the controller for clinical decisions and subject access requests—we will assist where we are permitted.
You may lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) or your local supervisory authority.
12. Children
BetterCall is intended for qualified healthcare professionals. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect children's personal data.
13. Changes
We will update this policy when practices change materially. The "Last updated" date reflects the latest revision. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance where permitted by law.