balance app Privacy Policy

balance privacy policy

This page is designed to help you understand why and how we use your personal data. By personal data we mean information that relates to a living individual and which can identify or be identified with that individual.

We are balance, a trading name of Balance App Limited a company with number 12369730 and registered office at Winston House, Church Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6HB.

We may use your personal data to:

• enable you to access the balance app and website (the “app”);
• provide you with health information and support in connection with the menopause;
• enable you to log information within your journal on the app;
• allow you to participate in our community on the app;
• generate anonymised statistics to share with others for the purposes of research; and
• send you information about the app, our company and the development of the app.

The above is an overview of how your personal data may be processed and is by no means exhaustive – please see below for information on how specific types of personal data are collected, processed and shared.

Below, we have tried to provide you with as much information as we possibly can to explain how your personal data may be used. This means there is a lot of information on this page so we have split this information into expandable sections, enabling you to find the information that you are most interested in or the information that is most relevant to you.

You may contact us by:

• email on info@balance-app.com; or
• writing to us at Winton House, Church Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 6HB.

[T]     How is your data processed to enable you to access the app?

Data collected directly from you

We obtain the following personal data directly from you:

• your user name;
• your date of birth; and
• a valid email address.

We refer to this information as the “access data”.

How long is access data kept for?     

We retain your access data for up to 7 years after the date on which your membership account is closed.

How do we use your access data?

We use your access data to log you in to the app and to verify that you are a real person.  Our legal basis for processing this data is contractual necessity. Without this processing we wouldn’t be able to authorise you to access and use the app.

 [T]    How is your data processed to provide health information and support?

Where do we obtain your health data from?

When you first register for the app and at various points after that we will ask you to provide health data and complete questionnaires about your health and wellbeing.  This includes questions about your symptoms, medication and health background and the questions asked as part of a modified “Greene Climacteric Scale” questionnaire.  You can update your answers at any time via the app.  We refer to this personal data below as “health data”.

How long is your health data kept for?

We retain all your health data for up to 7 years after the date on which your membership account is closed, after which it will either be deleted or anonymized.

How do we use your health data?

We use your health data to provide you with tailored health information and support and so that it can be used in the generation of health reports.

Our legal basis for processing this data is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by  notifying us using the contact details contained in the “Your rights and how to exercise them” below, and deleting the app.  As the data involved relates to your health, then we shall ensure that any such consent obtained is explicit consent.  

Please note that without your consent to do this, we will be unable to offer you access to the app.  This is because your health data is necessary for us to provide the support and information.

[T]     How is your data processed to enable you to log information?

Where do we obtain your journal data from?

Once you have registered to use the app, you may complete a daily journal with health and wellbeing data using the app.  We refer to this personal data below as “journal data”.

How long is your journal data kept for?

We retain all your journal data for up to 7 years after the date on which your membership account is closed, after which it will either be deleted or anonymized.

How do we use your journal data?

We store your journal data so that it is readily accessible to you and can be used in the generation of health reports.

Our legal basis for processing this data is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by  notifying us using the contact details contained in the “Your rights and how to exercise them” below, and deleting the app.    As the data involved relates to your health, then we shall ensure that any such consent obtained is explicit consent. 

Please note that without your consent to do this, we will be unable to offer you access to the app.  This is because your journal data is necessary to complete your journal and to generate healthcare reports.

[T]     How is your data processed to allow you to participate in our community?

Where do we obtain your community data from?

Once you have registered to use the app, you may choose to engage in experiments, to provide treatment reviews, and share stories.  You can agree to share details of the following with other members of the community on the app: your age, location, bio, symptoms, stories, experiment, your followers and who you are following.  We refer to this personal data below as “community data”.

How long is your community data kept for?

We retain all your community data for up to 7 years after the date on which your membership account is closed, after which it will either be deleted or anonymized.

How do we use your community data?

We store your community data on the app and will display the community data that you have chosen to share with others with other members of the community.

Our legal basis for processing this data is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by  notifying us using the contact details contained in the “Your rights and how to exercise them” below, and deleting the app.  By sharing within the community you are making your shared health data public.

[T]     How is your data processed to allow anonymised statistics to be shared with others?

We also use your health data and journal data to generate anonymous statistics that may then be used by us and shared with third party for research purposes.  This means that your health data and journal data may be used to generate statistics, but you won’t be identifiable from that data.  Our legal basis for processing this data is consent, which you can withdraw at any time by notifying us using the contact details contained in the “Your rights and how to exercise them” below, and deleting the app.  As the data involved relates to your health, then we shall ensure that any such consent obtained is explicit consent. 

[T]        How is your data processed to enable us to send you information about the app, our company and the development of the app?

We will use your access data (see the “How is your data processed to enable you to access the app” section above for more details as to what this data is) to contact you and provide you with information about our activities and developments and improvements to the app.  We do so on the basis of our legitimate interests in keeping you up-to-date with changes in our business and products.  In doing so, we will offer you an opportunity to refuse marketing when your details are first collected and in subsequent messages.

[T]     Who do we share personal data with?

Internally, we only grant access to personal data to those people that need access to that data to carry out their role.

Externally, we may share from time to time share personal data with the following categories of recipients:

• our service providers, for instance:
  • the companies that manage our IT infrastructure;
  • companies that provide us with cloud based IT systems; and
  • our external advisors, for instance IT consultants, accountants and lawyers,

and where we share personal data with service providers we will always ensure that the service provider is committed contractually to only use personal data in compliance with our instructions and data protection law;

• our regulators, law enforcement, intelligence services and other government authorities, where they require us to do so; and
  • potential buyers of or investors in our business where necessary in connection with a due diligence exercise.

[T]     Transfers of personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA)

          The EEA is a group of countries that share the same basic data protection law, and therefore the law assumes that where your personal data is transferred between these countries it enjoys a similar level of protection.

We generally store and process personal data inside the EEA.

          However, in some circumstances the third parties who assist us in providing the services (suppliers), may transfer personal data outside the EEA.

Where suppliers do so, we require our suppliers to do so in compliance with UK data protection laws, typically requiring them to enter into standard contractual clauses approved by the European Union as providing equivalent protection to what would be in place had the personal data remained in the EEA.

We can provide more information on the non-EEA countries to which we transfer your personal data on request.

[T]     Your rights and how to exercise them

The law gives you certain rights in respect of the personal data that we hold about you.  Below is a short overview of those rights (for more information about the rights you have in respect of your personal data please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office website: www.ico.org.uk).

• Access.

With some exceptions designed to protect the rights of others, you have the right to a copy of the personal data that we hold about you.

Access to the personal data we hold on you in free of charge however, we may make a reasonable charge for additional copies of that data beyond the first copy, based on our administrative costs. 

Where you have given us your personal data (i.e. you have input it into the app), you may have the right to receive your copy of this data in a common electronic format. If you wish, we can provide copies of this data to other people, if it is technically feasible to do so.

• Correction.

You have the right to have the personal data we hold about you corrected if it is factually inaccurate. This right does not extend to matters of opinion.

• Deletion.

In some limited circumstances, you have the right to have personal data that we hold about you erased (“the right to be forgotten”).  This right is not generally available where we still have a valid legal reason to keep the data (for example, in connection with a legal claim or because we are obliged to do so by law).

• Objection.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on “legitimate interests” as our legal basis for processing, but we may be able to continue processing if our interest outweighs your objection.

• Opting out of marketing.

You have the right to require us to stop using your personal data to send you marketing information. If you want us to stop sending you marketing information, the quickest and most efficient way is to use the provided “unsubscribe” links in our communications (although you can contact us direct if you prefer).

• Temporary Restriction.

You also have the right in some circumstances to request that temporary restrictions are placed on how we process your personal data, For example if you contest its accuracy or where we are processing it on the basis of our legitimate interest and you contest our assessment that our interest overrides your rights.

• Withdrawing Consent

If we are processing your personal data on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, in which case we will stop that processing unless we have another legal basis on which to continue.

Please be advised that in certain circumstances withdrawal of consent to continue processing your personal data may have further impact on your future access to, or benefit from, the service or part of the service.

In most cases, the easiest way of withdrawing your consent is via the privacy section of the “settings” page of your profile on the app.

To exercise any of your rights you can:

• email us on info@balance-app.com; or
• write to us at Winton House, Church Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 6HB.

Please note that in order to protect your privacy, we may ask you to prove your identity before we take any steps in response to a request you have made.

We treat the protection of your personal data with the utmost importance but if you have cause to complain, we would always ask that you contact us first so we can attempt to resolve the matter for you. However, you also have the right to lodge a complaint about our handling of your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office.  You can contact them on 0303 123 1113 or via their website www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

[T]     Changes to this policy

          We may change this privacy policy at any time. Where we make significant changes, for instance where we use your personal data for materially different purposes, we will email you to let you know.