Who we are
ViaCara Ltd is a referral platform that connects people in the United Kingdom with therapists, counsellors, coaches and hypnotherapists.
- Company number: 17138185 (England and Wales)
- ICO registration: ZC116531
- Registered office: 66 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NA, United Kingdom
- Data protection contact: dataprotection@viacara.com
We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.
Which laws apply
ViaCara is a UK-based service and we process personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
We offer ViaCara to people in the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands. We do not yet target the European Union or the European Economic Area. If you use ViaCara from there, we process your personal data under UK GDPR as set out below. When we begin to actively serve the EU or EEA, we will also comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR, Regulation 2016/679).
The UK holds an adequacy decision from the European Commission (valid until December 2031), meaning personal data flows freely between the UK and the EU without additional safeguards.
The Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are two jurisdictions with their own data protection laws. The Bailiwick of Guernsey includes Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm. The Bailiwick of Jersey is separate.
If you use ViaCara from anywhere in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, we process your personal data under the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017, regulated by the Office of the Data Protection Authority (ODPA). If you use ViaCara from Jersey, we process your personal data under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018, regulated by the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner (JOIC).
Both laws are modelled on the EU GDPR and give you the same rights set out in this policy, including the right to explicit consent before we process information about your health, faith, sexuality or ethnicity (see "Legal basis" below).
We have no office, staff or equipment in the Channel Islands. Neither island's local registration duty, nor Jersey's duty to appoint a local representative, applies to a service offered to island residents on that basis alone. We still meet the substantive protections in both laws.
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) cover storage on your device and access to stored information. This includes cookies and browser storage.
Schedule A1 paragraph 4 allows storage that is strictly necessary for a service you request. We use this exemption for authentication, app security, conversation continuity and interface choices.
PECR regulation 22 governs marketing email. We send marketing email only to clients who opted in, and every such email has a one-click way to stop.
You can join our email updates with an email address alone. We create an account for that address and send you a confirmation link. Confirm your address through that link without signing in.
The link works for 24 hours. We send updates only after you confirm your address. You can submit your address again for a new link.
EU representative
When we actively serve clients in the EU or EEA, we will appoint a representative under Article 27 of the EU GDPR. Their contact details will be published here. In the meantime, EU and EEA residents can contact us directly at the data protection contact above.
What we collect and why
When you have a conversation with us
- What you share: the content of your conversation (text or voice). We use this to understand your needs and find the right professional for you
- Voice data: if you choose to speak with us, your audio is processed in real time by our speech-to-text service. Raw audio is not stored after the conversation ends. Only the text understanding is retained
- Extracted preferences: communication style, service type, practical requirements (such as availability, location and language), and optional preferences you express about the practitioner themselves (such as gender, sexuality, age bracket, ethnicity, faith, neurodivergence, or physical disability). You can decline to give any of these. Your preferences about the practitioner themselves guide our recommendations rather than exclude people outright. Retained while your account is active
- What would make sessions easier, if you tell us: adjustments such as a quieter room, step-free access, longer sessions or notes in writing, and whether you need each one every time. If none fits, you can say it in your own words. Only your own answer records them, not anything we work out from what you say. We use them to find a practitioner who can offer them: one you need every time leaves out a practitioner whose list of the adjustments they offer does not include it, or whose room's verified details show it lacks it. One you would like counts a little in the ranking. You can decline. Retained while your account is active
- Whether a reduced rate would help, if you tell us: we may ask if a lower fee would help you. You can say no. We do not ask why, and you do not need to prove anything. We use your answer to check which fees fit your budget: a practitioner's reduced rate counts only if you said yes. If you say yes, we tell the practitioners we introduce you to that a reduced rate would help. We tell them only that, not why. We also note on each recommendation whether its fee was a reduced rate, so we can check that introductions at a reduced rate go as well as the rest. A practitioner decides who their reduced rate is for. Retained while your account is active
- What you have tried before, if you tell us: we may ask whether you have tried anything for this before, such as therapy or self-help. You can skip the question. Your answer helps us ask better questions and pick up where you left off. What you say in your own words can shape the approaches we suggest and the summary a practitioner reads. Kept with your other answers from the conversation
- Context about you that you choose to share: when you disclose things about yourself, we keep what you asked for separate from what you disclosed, so you remain in control of how it is used. We will not use disclosed context to infer unstated preferences without surfacing what we've inferred to you first
When you create an account
- Email address: to send you your recommendations and keep you updated. We do not share this with professionals until you choose to connect
- Name: if you provide one. Optional
- Phone number: optional, unless you book a telephone session, when it becomes required. We verify it with a one-time code sent by SMS. A verified number lets you recover your account if you lose access to your email, and your practitioner receives it on each booking so they can reach you directly. If you have verified your number, we also text you when a professional proposes a time for your first session, and once more before that time lapses. If you delete your account, we remove it from your booking history
Before you book
- What a professional sees first: when your recommendations include someone, we ask whether they can take you on. We send them a short summary of what you are looking for and your preferred times. We also tell them why we came to them, such as that their fee fits your budget
- How we check the summary: before we send it, we check the summary for anything that could identify you, such as a name or a place. If we cannot take it out, we send no summary
- What we hold back: we do not send your email address or phone number before you book. An identity or experience preference shows only as one line saying they fit it. It does not say which preference it was
- Links you open to a practitioner's own pages: when you are signed in, a recommendation can link to the practitioner's website, a directory listing or their register entry. When you open one, we record which link, from which recommendation, when, the page you were on and a one-way code made from your browser details. We do not keep your IP address. We use the record to learn which practitioners people look into, so we can improve our recommendations. The practitioner does not see it
When you book a session
- The session you booked: the practitioner, the date, the time and the length of the session
- How the session runs: the format you chose, such as online, in person or by telephone
- Whether it went ahead: whether the session was completed or cancelled. Your practitioner sees the same record
- What your practitioner told us after an introduction: two weeks after we introduce you, we ask your practitioner whether you are working together, chose someone else or did not connect. We use the answer to see how well our introductions work. If it disagrees with what you told us or booked, a person at ViaCara reviews the mismatch. It does not show in your account, and it does not change who we recommend
- How we connected you: the shortlist that led to the booking and why your practitioner was on it. This is the same explanation you can open in the "How we connected you" drawer on your recommendations
- Times your professional proposes: after an introductory call, the dates, times, formats and prices your professional proposes for your first session. We keep them with your recommendation until you book, the times lapse or your professional withdraws them
- How your mind works, if you told us: when you shared a neurotype, such as being autistic or having ADHD, your practitioner sees it on the booking so they can prepare. If you also said how you know, they see that too: diagnosed, waiting for an assessment or recognised in yourself. You do not need a diagnosis, and this does not change who we recommend
- What would make sessions easier, if you told us: your practitioner sees the adjustments you asked for on the booking, which you need every time and anything you said in your own words, so they can prepare. Before you book, you see exactly what they will see
- Your share link, if you are signed in: after you book a first session, we offer a link you can send to someone who might want support. The link carries a short code that belongs to your account. It does not show your name. We use it only to count how many people find us through a shared link. We do not tell you who used your link, and nobody earns anything from it
When you send us feedback
- Your note: you can send us a note from your account or from a recommendation link, tell us that a recommendation feels off, or tell us why you stopped looking when you end a search from one of our emails. We add the address of the page and the reference of any error that just happened. For a recommendation, we add the parts you ticked. When you stop a search, we keep the reason you picked, and the AI language model also lists what your note says was missing, such as times, place or price. You can add a screenshot of the page, which you see before you send it. A note or a screenshot can hold details about your health, so we ask for your explicit consent each time. An AI language model sorts your words and the parts you ticked by type, such as a fault, a feature idea or a question, and notes their tone. It also checks your words for signs that you may be at risk, so the team reads that note first. We remove email addresses and phone numbers from your words before it reads them, and it does not receive your account details or your screenshot. Apart from that, only the ViaCara team reads your note, to fix what went wrong and to answer you. The email that tells the team about a note carries only this context, not your words or your screenshot. To withdraw your consent, write to the data protection contact and we delete your notes and screenshots
- A concern about a practitioner: from a recommendation you can tell us that a practitioner described their training, registration or prices wrongly, or about their conduct. We keep what you write and which recommendation it is about. It can hold details about your health, so we ask for your explicit consent each time. Only the ViaCara team reads it. An AI language model checks your words for signs that you may be at risk, so the team reads it first, and does nothing else with them. We remove email addresses and phone numbers before it reads them. To be fair to both sides, we may ask the practitioner for their side, and we do not share your health details with them. We record what we decided. We do not judge the sessions themselves
When you browse our site
- Browser context at the moment you start talking to us: when you begin a conversation, we also receive a snapshot of your preferred language, approximate time of day, device type (mobile, tablet or desktop) and the referring page. This helps us make the conversation feel relevant: we can start in your language, suggest times that fit your day, and not ask questions the context already answers. None of this is sent to us unless you start a conversation, and it is treated as triage data under the retention rules below
- A link someone shared with you: if the link carries a share code, we keep the code with this snapshot when you start a conversation. It tells us that you came from a shared link, so we can count how many people find us that way. It does not change your recommendations. A practitioner whose link you used earns one credit when you book a paid session. We email them that someone who used their link booked. We do not tell them who you are or whom you booked. Nobody else who shared a link hears that you used it
- Marketing campaign parameters (UTM): if you arrived from a link that contains
utm_source,utm_medium,utm_campaign,utm_termorutm_content, we capture those values so we can see which content is actually helping people find support. We use this for our own tuning decisions, nothing more. These values are also only sent when you start a conversation and follow the same retention rules - Ad click codes, only if you agree: if you came from an ad on Meta, Google, LinkedIn or Microsoft, the link carries a click code from that platform. When you start a conversation, we ask whether we may tell that platform how far you got. If you agree, we keep the code and the time you agreed. For Meta we also keep your browser and device type, because Meta needs it. We then tell that platform, and no other, when you start, when your recommendations are ready and when you book. Each message carries the click code, the step and its time, our reference for the message and, for Meta, your browser and device type. We send the platform none of your name, email address, phone number or words. If you decline, we keep nothing for ad measurement. We delete the code 90 days after you agree, or at once when you withdraw. To withdraw, switch off Ad measurement on your dashboard, or write to the data protection contact at the top of this page. A withdrawal stops future messages; it cannot recall one already sent
- Analytics: we use a cookieless analytics service to count visits and button presses on our site and in your account. It processes your IP address and browser information to create a daily identifier. It does not store raw IP addresses
The analytics identifier changes each day and cannot link your visits across days. It is not linked to your ViaCara account.
In your account, the service receives only the kind of page, such as a booking page. It also receives the button name and the website you came from. It does not receive which booking or person the page is about, or anything you type.
The provider keeps event and session records for up to three years to calculate statistics. Daily rotation does not delete those records.
- Where you are, roughly: the network that delivers our pages estimates your country from your IP address. Inside the UK it estimates which nation, and on a practitioner's invite page whether you are in or near Manchester. The page you receive carries that estimate. A page listing helplines can then put the right nation first, because the numbers differ. Where a page uses it, every nation stays listed and you can pick another. The estimate is worked out while the page is sent to you. We do not store it or attach it to your account, and you can change anything it decides
To keep the service safe from misuse
- Your IP address: when you start a conversation, recover your account or join our updates, we count the requests from your IP address. A limit then stops one address from overloading the service or trying many guesses. Our conversation service keeps only a one-way code made from the address, and the secret behind that code changes every day
What we do not collect
- We do not buy data from third parties
- We do not use tracking cookies or advertising cookies
- We do not build advertising profiles or audiences ourselves, and we do not share what you tell us with an ad platform. UTM parameters we capture are used for our own tuning decisions (understanding which pages help people find support). The only data an ad platform receives about you is described under "Ad click codes" above, and only if you agree
- We do not sell your data. We share it only as needed to provide the service, or for the ad measurement you agree to
Practitioners: see the dedicated privacy notice
If you are a practitioner, this client policy does not cover the data flows that apply to you (waitlist signup, public-register discovery, profile import, billing, introductions). Those are documented separately in our practitioner privacy notice, alongside the practitioner terms of service.
Legal basis
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Providing recommendations | Article 6(1)(b): performance of a contract |
| Processing information about your health, faith, sexuality or ethnicity | Article 9(2)(a): explicit consent |
| Improving the service | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests |
| Keeping a record of a booked session | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests |
| Sending service updates | Article 6(1)(b): performance of a contract |
| Sending ViaCara news you asked for | Article 6(1)(a): consent |
| Telling the ad platform you came from that you started, that your recommendations are ready and that you booked | Article 6(1)(a): consent, with Article 9(2)(a): explicit consent |
| Researching published stories for our campaigns | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests |
| Crediting a practitioner whose link you started from, once you book a paid session | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests |
| Inviting feedback on the service | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests |
| Reading a screenshot you add to your feedback | Article 6(1)(a): consent, with Article 9(2)(a): explicit consent |
| Checking a note, a concern or a recommendation you tell us feels off for signs that you may be at risk | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests, with Article 9(2)(a): explicit consent for any detail about your health |
| Sorting a note or a recommendation you tell us feels off by type and tone | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests, with Article 9(2)(a): explicit consent for any detail about your health |
| Reading and answering a note you send from your account | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests, with Article 9(2)(a): explicit consent for any detail about your health |
| Protecting the service from misuse and abuse by limiting the requests from one IP address | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests |
| Reviewing a concern you raise about a practitioner | Article 6(1)(f): legitimate interests, with Article 9(2)(a): explicit consent for any detail about your health |
| Reviewing a recommendation you tell us feels off | Article 6(1)(c): legal obligation, with Article 9(2)(a): explicit consent for any detail about your health |
| Keeping a record the law requires us to keep | Article 6(1)(c): legal obligation |
| Telling you, within three months of an introduction, that we suspended that practitioner or could no longer confirm their registration | Article 6(1)(c): legal obligation |
| Acting on a safeguarding concern where someone may be at risk | Article 6(1)(d): vital interests, with Article 9(2)(g): substantial public interest under paragraph 18 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 |
| Keeping health-related evidence for a legal claim | Article 9(2)(f): establishing, exercising or defending a legal claim |
Who processes your data
We use a small number of carefully selected service providers to operate the platform. All core infrastructure is hosted in the European Union.
| Category | Purpose | Data residency |
|---|---|---|
| Content delivery and security | Serves pages, protects against attacks, counts visits to practitioner referral links by day, manages DNS and estimates your country and UK nation from your IP address so a page can put the right helplines first, and your rough area so a practitioner's invite page can show a line that fits it | Global network (request metadata only) |
| WebRTC relay | Relays voice connections when direct peer-to-peer fails. Sees your IP address and connection metadata; does not process audio content | Global network (EU points of presence preferred) |
| Static content hosting | Hosts marketing site pages | EU |
| Object storage | Stores uploaded files (e.g. profile photos, booking documents and practitioners' training documents, insurance documents and membership certificates) | EU |
| Cloud hosting | Runs the application | EU (Frankfurt) |
| Database | Stores your account and profile data | EU (Frankfurt) |
| Language understanding | Processes your conversation to extract preferences, sorts the feedback you send by type and tone, checks it for signs that you may be at risk, lists what was missing from a note you write when you stop looking and reads training and insurance documents a practitioner uploads | EU and EFTA |
| Practitioner research | Researches a practitioner's public professional presence during onboarding, with their consent, so we can pre-fill their profile | Global network (public professional information only) |
| Outreach research | Finds practitioners' own public websites so that we can introduce our service to them. Receives a postcode district and a type of practice from us, and no personal data. It reads public websites as a separate controller | Global network (public professional information only) |
| Voice processing | Converts speech to text in real time | EU and EFTA |
| Analytics | Measures page visits and button presses without cookies; processes IP addresses and browser information without storing raw IP addresses | EU |
| Error and service monitoring | Records technical faults and service logs so we can diagnose problems quickly (no conversation content) | EU |
| Email delivery and SMS | Sends booking confirmations, invitations, other service emails and the marketing emails you asked for on our behalf. Sends the one-time code that verifies your phone number, and texts about times a professional proposes, by SMS | EU |
| Authentication | Manages your login securely via passkeys | EU |
| IP geolocation | Infers approximate country from your IP address for routing | Local offline database (no data sent to provider) |
| Postcode geocoding | Converts your postcode to approximate coordinates so we can recommend nearby practitioners | Open-source geocoding service (postcode only) |
| Address lookup and venue maps | Our servers send a practice address as a practitioner types it, to suggest addresses. When you view a venue, your browser loads the venue map picture from its EU servers | EU |
| Typography | Loads fonts for the website | Self-hosted (same-origin, no third-party CDN) |
| Advertising platforms: campaign management | Runs our own paid campaigns to reach people who need support. Receives account and campaign configuration only, not audience lists | Global network (varies by platform) |
| Advertising platforms: ad measurement, only if you agree | Receives the click code from its own ad, which step you reached and when. Meta also receives your browser and device type. Meta Platforms, Inc. measures as our processor and is a joint controller with us for ad delivery. Under Meta's UK Controller Addendum, we are responsible for collecting the data and your consent, and Meta is responsible for its own use for ad delivery. You can exercise your rights with either of us. Google LLC and Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited are separate controllers. LinkedIn Ireland receives it as our processor | Meta, Google and Microsoft: US. LinkedIn: Ireland, with US processing |
A detailed sub-processor list is available on request. Use the contact address at the top of this page.
Every processor we share your personal data with signs a written agreement that meets the requirements of Article 28 of the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR. Most keep your data inside the UK or the European Economic Area, where no further safeguard is required by law. Where a provider may move your data further, its agreement puts a recognised UK transfer safeguard in place. That safeguard is often the International Data Transfer Addendum.
People named in stories we research
To prepare our own campaigns, we read published news and research. A story can name a person, such as the author of a study or someone quoted in an article. We use only what the published source says, to check its facts and write about it. We keep it apart from every client and practitioner record. The research service we use receives this information under its own terms, as a separate controller.
We do this in our legitimate interest in telling people about our service. Telling each person directly would take a disproportionate effort, so we publish this notice instead. To object or to ask what we hold, use the contact address at the top of this page.
When a practitioner mentions you
A practitioner can send us a note about how the service works for them. We ask them to leave out details about their clients, but a note can still mention one. An AI language model checks each note for signs that someone may be at risk, so our team reads that note first. If a note suggests that you may be at risk, we use it only to act on that concern, not to change your recommendations or bookings.
We do this to protect people who may be at risk. A note rarely tells us who you are, so we cannot tell you directly and publish this notice instead. You can object, or ask what we hold about you, through the same contact address.
How we use artificial intelligence
Our service uses artificial intelligence to help understand what you are looking for and connect you with someone who fits. Here is how it works and what it does not do.
What the AI does. When you have a conversation with us (by text or voice), an AI language model processes what you share to understand your needs, preferences and practical requirements. It extracts structured information, such as the type of support you are looking for, your communication style preferences and your availability, which is then used to find suitable professionals.
The description on a recommended practitioner's profile. When we recommend a practitioner, an AI language model writes the short "About working with" description on their profile so that it speaks to what you shared. It works from the practitioner's own words about themselves, and does not quote you or name a diagnosis. If it cannot write one that passes our checks, you see the description every visitor sees.
Before a practitioner reads your summary. An automatic check looks for anything in the summary that could identify you. When it finds something, an AI language model rewrites the summary without it, and the check runs again. If the check cannot clear the summary, the practitioner gets no summary.
What the AI does not do. The AI does not diagnose, treat or make clinical decisions. It does not assess your mental health. It does not decide who you should see. It does not recommend a therapy for a condition. When it describes an approach, it tells you what that approach is like, not whether it will help you. Its role is to listen carefully and understand what matters to you, so that the right information reaches the algorithm that ranks practitioners.
How we connect you. Once your preferences have been extracted, the ranking is performed by a rule-based, deterministic algorithm. AI does not perform the ranking. This algorithm scores practitioners against your stated needs using transparent, auditable logic. Every scoring factor and its weight can be inspected and explained. There are no opaque machine learning models anywhere in the ranking pipeline.
Quality review. We keep a short record of how the conversation progressed (which questions were asked, which signals were detected, how long each turn took) so we can improve the system. Where it notes the words behind a signal, it removes them by the date in the retention table below. Your conversation itself is also kept for a short time for this review, and a team member may read it during that window.
Crisis safety. If anything in your conversation suggests you may be at risk, we show you emergency contact details. When the signs look serious, they appear in the conversation straight away. We also keep a brief flag on your profile, not the words you said. It lets the professional you book with know to be attentive to your wellbeing.
Your conversation and your route to recommendations always continue. This safety check is automatic and runs on each message you send; nobody watches your conversation as it happens.
EU AI Act. The EU AI Act sets rules for AI systems offered in the EU. It can also apply when output from an AI system outside the EU is used there. This scope is set by Article 2.
We offer our client service in the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands. This does not by itself put us outside the Act.
We reviewed our current client conversation and referral service against the practices Article 5 prohibits. Our assessment did not identify a prohibited practice in that service. We do not infer emotion from your face or voice.
Our system helps you find a professional based on your stated preferences. It does not provide healthcare, make clinical assessments or replace professional judgement.
This is our own assessment, not independent certification or a legal opinion. It does not settle the risk classification of every part of our service. We review it when our service or the law changes.
Automated decisions and how we connect you
When you finish a conversation with us, we suggest only practitioners who offer what you asked for. Their registration is checked and their insurance is current. Their account is active and can take an introduction. They offer the type of service you chose, for the people the sessions are for. You share a language, they work in a format you chose and their lowest single-session fee is within your budget or up to 15% above it. When you said your times are fixed, their times overlap yours, and for sessions in person they work close enough to you. When you need a change to your sessions every time, no list they gave us leaves it out and no verified room detail rules it out. A deterministic, rule-based algorithm then ranks those practitioners against the preferences you shared. It is not an AI decision and it does not make a healthcare or clinical judgement. You can open the "How we connected you" drawer on any practitioner's profile to see the main factors that contributed to that ranking, and you can tell us if a recommendation feels off.
The ranking decision is significant and taken by automated processing, so the UK GDPR requires safeguards around it. Under Articles 22A to 22C of the UK GDPR you have the right to be told about the decision, to make representations about it and to contest it. The "How we connected you" drawer is where you do those things. You also have the right to obtain human intervention on our part: if you want a person to look at how you were connected rather than the automated explanation, email the data protection contact at the top of this page and we will review it by hand.
Ranking transparency
The main parameters that affect ranking are: how the practitioner works (how warm, structured and direct they are) against the working style you prefer, which counts most; their areas of focus against what you raised, which counts next; how fully you share a language; how much room the practitioner has in the coming week (the hours they set aside, less the calls already booked through ViaCara and, for a practitioner who connected a calendar, the time it shows them busy); the practitioner's booking and response history; distance, for sessions in person; and the therapy approaches you chose, with how well the practitioner's record backs each one. Smaller adjustments come from any identity or affinity preferences you chose to share, the changes to your sessions you would like, your first choice of format, availability overlap and budget fit. When you ask for more than one type of service, the top practitioner for each type moves up a little. Booking and response history has two parts: how often an introduction led to a first session and how often the practitioner answered our availability requests before they ran out (declining counts as an answer). It describes how a practitioner uses ViaCara, not how therapy went. Until a practitioner has had five introductions, it stays at a neutral value. A practitioner's lived experience of what you raised, or of a related condition, also counts. We do not use hidden numeric scores or opaque machine-learning models to order results. The "How we connected you" drawer explains every dimension that compares you with the practitioner. Booking and response history is about the practitioner alone, so this page describes it and the drawer does not show it.
Our page on how we rank the professionals we suggest explains every factor in plain words.
Artificial intelligence in your recommendations
Artificial intelligence is used to understand and structure what you tell us during the conversation. When you refine your recommendations, it can also describe therapy approaches that fit the way you have said you want to work. It suggests approaches from how you want to work, not from a condition or difficulty you have described, and an approach becomes one of your preferences only if you choose it. The ranking itself is performed by the deterministic algorithm described above. See the "How we use artificial intelligence" section for more detail on how AI handles your conversation.
International data transfers
All core data (your profile, account and recommendations) is stored in the EU (Frankfurt, Germany). See "Who processes your data" above for how we safeguard data that travels beyond this. We send your data only to a country with adequate protection or an equivalent safeguard in place.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to:
- Access: request a copy of your data
- Correction: fix anything that is wrong
- Deletion: have your data removed. Deleting your account is one act, and we cannot undo it. The retention table below marks every record that stays
- Restriction: pause processing while you raise a concern
- Portability: receive your data in a machine-readable format
- Objection: tell us to stop processing for a specific purpose
- Withdraw consent: for information about your health, faith, sexuality or ethnicity, at any time. For marketing email, turn it off in your account at any time. Every marketing email also has a one-click link to stop
To exercise any of these rights, email the data protection contact at the top of this page. We will respond within one calendar month.
What deletion does
Deleting your account closes it in the same act. Your conversation, its recommendations, the reasons behind them and your sign-in are destroyed together. We cannot undo it, and nobody can restore them.
If you come back to ViaCara later, you start a new conversation from the beginning. Your phone number leaves your booking history straight away.
Nine kinds of record stay behind, each for the period the table below gives:
- the record of each introduction to a practitioner
- your past bookings
- the documents shared for those bookings
- any payment record
- the security record of your sign-ins
- a dispute record
- a safeguarding record
- a request not to be contacted
- the record of this deletion request
Ask us and we will list what we kept for your account. Nothing that stays lets anyone rebuild your conversation or your recommendations.
Data retention
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Voice audio | Not stored; processed in real time and discarded |
| Triage conversation transcripts | Deleted within 30 days |
| The words you typed or said at each step | Removed within 14 days |
| Incomplete triage | Deleted within 14 days of last activity |
| Quality records (no raw text), such as conversation checks and the practitioner links you open | Deleted within 90 days |
| The words behind each theme we picked up in your conversation | Removed within 90 days. The theme itself is kept while your account is open |
| What you send when a recommendation feels off | Deleted within 90 days |
| A concern you raise about a practitioner | Deleted within 12 months |
| Feedback you send us | Deleted within 90 days |
| A screenshot you add to your feedback | Deleted within 30 days |
| Extracted preferences | While your account is active, deleted on request |
| Your share link code | Kept while your account is open, deleted with your account |
| Your answers when we cannot recommend anyone | Held for 60 days while we check them against new professionals and email you if one fits, then deleted unless our safety check raised a concern. Every 14 days we email to ask if you are still looking, and telling us you are starts the 60 days again. Pausing the search does not change the 60 days |
| Records of a session you booked | Kept for six years after the session is completed or cancelled, in case either side raises a dispute. It stays if you delete your account, with your phone number removed |
| Documents for a session you booked | A signed intake form, contract or invoice is kept for six years after the session is completed or cancelled, in case either side raises a dispute. It stays if you delete your account |
| Record of an introduction | Which practitioner we introduced you to, your first name and when. Employment agency law requires us to keep it for one year after their last introduction. It holds nothing about your needs. It stays if you delete your account |
| Record of a notice we sent you about a practitioner | Which practitioner, when and why. Kept for one year after that practitioner's last introduction, like the record of an introduction. It stays if you delete your account |
| Payment records | ViaCara is free to you, so there is usually nothing here. Where a payment does exist, UK tax and accounting law require us to keep the record for six years from the end of that financial year. It stays if you delete your account |
| Email address | While your account is active, deleted on request |
| Name | While your account is active, deleted on request |
| Phone number | While your account is active. Removed from your booking history if you delete your account |
| Authentication credentials | Retained for the duration of your account and deleted on account closure |
| Phone verification codes | A record of each code we send is deleted within 30 days. We do not store the code itself in readable form |
| Security record of sign-ins and account changes | Each event is kept for six years, then deleted. It stays if you delete your account, so we can investigate suspicious activity |
| IP addresses counted to limit misuse | Our conversation service keeps only a one-way code, not the address, and the code changes every day. Our forms keep the address with a one-minute count, then delete it within two weeks |
| Live update delivery copies | Eligible for deletion after one day. An hourly cleanup removes expired copies. |
| Analytics | Event and session records are kept for up to three years. The daily identifier changes each day and is not linked to your account |
| Marketing consent and its withdrawal | Held until withdrawn; the withdrawal is kept as evidence |
| Ad click code and browser type, if you agreed | Deleted 90 days after you agree, or at once when you withdraw |
| Record of the ad measurement messages we sent | Which step, which platform, the outcome and when, with no click code. Deleted 12 months after the message |
| Updates-only account | If you join our email updates and do not start a conversation, we delete the account when you stop the emails, or 24 months after you last confirmed the emails |
| Unconfirmed updates signup | If you do not confirm your address, we delete it after 30 days |
| Marketing delivery log | The log of marketing emails we sent you is kept for 24 months, then deleted |
| Request not to be contacted | Kept for as long as we could otherwise contact you again, so that we do not. It stays if you delete your account |
| Record of a data rights request | Kept for three years after our final response. It stays if you delete your account, because it is the evidence we answered you |
| Dispute records | Where a dispute is raised, the related evidence is kept for six years after it is resolved or closed. It stays if you delete your account |
| Safeguarding records | Where a safeguarding concern is raised, the related records are kept for eight years after the case closes or the last safeguarding contact, whichever is later. This is our policy, not a legal minimum. It stays if you delete your account, and it keeps your name, so the concern can still be acted on |
Cookies and browser storage
We do not use tracking cookies or advertising cookies. We use the cookies and browser storage below.
| Name | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|
hanko cookie | Our sign-in service sets this first-party cookie. It keeps you signed in | 12 hours |
_viacara_session cookie | Protects form submissions and carries short-lived app notices. It does not keep you signed in | Your current browser session |
vc_resume browser storage | Holds your profile ID and private resume token. This lets you continue or refine your conversation | Used for up to 30 days. It stops working sooner if we delete the related profile. We remove an expired value when the site next checks it |
viacara-mic-tooltip-dismissed browser storage | Remembers that you dismissed microphone help | Until you clear this site's data |
vc_nav_search_opener browser storage | Carries your site-search query to a conversation when no search result fits | Until the home page opens the conversation, or you close the browser tab |
vc-theme browser storage | Remembers your light or dark theme choice | Until you change the choice or clear this site's data |
vc-audio-speed browser storage | Remembers the playback speed you chose for article audio | Until you change the choice or clear this site's data |
vc-audio-resume browser storage | Remembers where you stopped each article's audio, so you can resume it | Until the recording ends, we replace the recording or you clear this site's data |
Each item supports a feature you request. Schedule A1 paragraph 4 covers automatic authentication, security and saved website choices.
These uses are strictly necessary under that clause. PECR Regulation 6 therefore does not require consent. We do not show a consent banner.
None of these items tracks you across other websites.
Our analytics service uses no cookies or persistent visitor identifiers. It does not write to browser storage. It processes IP addresses as described above, without storing them.
To keep this promise, we do not embed third-party review widgets, which would set their own cookies. Where we show our review standing, it is a static figure with a plain link out to the review platform.
Keeping in touch
Near the end of your conversation with us, after you give us your email address, we ask one question. Would you like occasional emails about ViaCara and new ways we can help? The choice is unselected until you make it. If you say nothing, we record nothing.
You can also join our email updates on our site with your email address alone, as described above.
If you say yes, or join that way, we email you now and then about ViaCara and what we offer. What you shared in a conversation with us stays out of these emails. We send them only to an email address you have confirmed.
You can stop at any time from your profile page or from the one-click link in any email. Stopping changes nothing about your recommendations or the service you receive.
Reviews and feedback
After you book your first session we may email you once to ask how it felt to find support with us. This is optional, the email carries a one-click unsubscribe, and you can decline at any time. We ask only about your experience of the service, not about your health or your sessions.
If you choose to leave a review, you do so on an independent public review platform under its own terms. That platform, not us, controls the review you publish there, so please keep what you write to your experience of finding support and avoid sharing personal health details on a public page.
Changes to this policy
We will update this page when our practices change. Significant changes will be communicated by email to active users.
Complaints
If you are not satisfied with how we handle your data, you can contact us at the data protection contact at the top of this page or lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). If you are resident in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, including Alderney and Sark, you may lodge a complaint with the ODPA. If you are resident in Jersey, you may lodge a complaint with the JOIC.
Last updated: October 2026
This policy is written in plain language and is periodically reviewed for accuracy.
