Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

MamaAlert ("we," "us," or "our") is a maternal health application designed to support women through pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and menstrual health tracking. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal and health data with the utmost care, transparency, and respect.

This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the rights you have over your information. By using MamaAlert, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

2. Data We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

• Preferred name — used to personalise your experience
• Phone number — used for SMS health updates and emergency alerts
• Due date / pregnancy week — used to deliver week-appropriate health information
• Delivery type — vaginal or C-section, used to personalise postpartum guidance
• Baby's name — optional, used for personalisation only
• Days postpartum — used to track your recovery stage
• Menstrual cycle data — cycle day, phase, period dates
• Preferred language — used to send communications in your language
• Emergency contacts — names and phone numbers of people to alert in an emergency

2.2 Health Data You Log

• Symptoms you report (nausea, pain, swelling, bleeding etc.)
• Weight logs
• Mood logs
• Appointments and medical notes
• Questions asked to Nura (our AI health assistant)

2.3 Automatically Collected Data

• Device type and operating system version
• App usage patterns (features used, frequency)
• Crash reports and error logs
• Push notification interaction data

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your data exclusively to provide and improve MamaAlert services:

• Delivering personalised weekly pregnancy, postpartum, and menstrual health information
• Sending weekly SMS health updates tailored to your pregnancy week and language
• Powering Nura, our AI health assistant, to provide contextual responses to your questions
• Detecting symptom patterns that may indicate health risks and alerting you appropriately
• Sending emergency alerts to your designated emergency contacts when you trigger one
• Sending push notifications for important health reminders and alerts
• Improving the accuracy and quality of our health information and AI responses
• Aggregated, anonymised research to improve maternal health outcomes in Nigeria

4. Data Sharing

MamaAlert does not sell your personal data. We share data only in the following limited circumstances:

4.1 Service Providers

We work with trusted third-party providers who process data on our behalf:

• SMS providers (Termii, Africa's Talking) — to deliver your weekly health SMS. They receive your phone number and message content only.
• Push notification services — to deliver health reminders to your device
• Cloud infrastructure providers — to store and process app data securely
• Anthropic (Claude AI) — Premium users' health questions are processed by Claude AI to generate responses. Anthropic's privacy policy applies to this processing.

All service providers are contractually bound to use your data only for the purpose we specify and to protect it appropriately.

4.2 Emergency Situations

When you trigger an emergency alert, your designated emergency contacts will receive an SMS notification. This is a core feature you explicitly consent to when adding emergency contacts.

4.3 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your data if required by Nigerian law, a court order, or to protect the safety of our users. We will notify you of such requests where legally permitted.

4.4 Anonymised Research

We may share anonymised, aggregated data (never personally identifiable) with public health organisations, research institutions, or our accelerator partners (including UNICEF) to support maternal health research in Nigeria.

5. Data Security

Protecting your health data is our highest technical priority. We implement the following security measures:

• Encryption of data in transit (TLS/HTTPS for all communications)
• Encryption of sensitive health data at rest
• Secure authentication with password hashing
• Regular security reviews and vulnerability assessments
• Access controls — only authorised team members can access user data
• Audit logs for any access to sensitive health records

While we implement industry-standard security measures, no system is 100% secure. In the unlikely event of a data breach that affects your personal data, we will notify you within 72 hours in accordance with NDPR requirements.

6. Your Rights

Under the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) and general data protection principles, you have the following rights:

• Right to access — request a copy of all data we hold about you
• Right to correction — ask us to correct inaccurate data
• Right to deletion — request that we delete your account and all associated data
• Right to portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to withdraw consent — stop SMS communications at any time by replying STOP to any message
• Right to object — object to any processing of your data you believe is not justified
• Right to lodge a complaint — with the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB)

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at mymamalert@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Children's Privacy

MamaAlert is designed for adults aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has created an account, please contact us immediately at mymamalert@gmail.com and we will delete the account promptly.

8. SMS Communications

If you provide your phone number and consent to SMS, MamaAlert will send you:

• Weekly pregnancy health updates tailored to your current week
• Emergency alerts (only when triggered by you)
• Critical health warnings relevant to your stage of pregnancy

To stop SMS at any time: Reply STOP to any message we send, or contact us at mymamalert@gmail.com. Standard network SMS rates from your mobile provider may apply.

We use Termii and Africa's Talking to deliver SMS messages. Your phone number is shared with these providers solely for message delivery purposes.

9. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. Specifically:

• Account data — retained until you delete your account
• Health logs — retained for the duration of your account plus 12 months
• SMS logs — retained for 6 months for troubleshooting purposes
• Anonymised usage data — may be retained indefinitely for research

When you delete your account, all personally identifiable data is permanently deleted within 30 days. Anonymised aggregated data may be retained for research.

10. Regulatory Compliance

10.1 NDPR (Nigeria Data Protection Regulation)

MamaAlert complies with the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019 and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. As a health data processor, we maintain appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data.

10.2 GDPR Alignment

While primarily a Nigerian service, MamaAlert follows GDPR principles including lawful basis for processing, data minimisation, purpose limitation, and transparency. This protects users across all jurisdictions.

10.3 HIPAA Principles

Although HIPAA is a US regulation, MamaAlert voluntarily applies its core principles — including safeguarding Protected Health Information (PHI), limiting disclosure, and ensuring user access rights — as a standard of care for our users' health data.

10.4 Health Data Special Category

Under NDPR, health data is a "special category" of personal data requiring explicit consent and heightened protection. By using MamaAlert and providing health information, you provide explicit consent to the processing described in this policy. You may withdraw this consent at any time by deleting your account.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. When we make significant changes, we will:

• Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page
• Send a notification via the app
• For material changes affecting your rights, seek fresh consent where required

We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of MamaAlert after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.