Privacy at Saheli

Saheli holds some genuinely private things about your family: where the person you care for lives, what help they need, what language they pray in. We've tried to write this the way we'd want it written for our own family: plainly, and without hiding anything in the middle of a long sentence.

The short version

• We collect what the service needs to work, and not more.
• We never sell your information, and we never will.
• Your information is stored on servers in the United States. That is legal in Canada, but you should know it.
• Our team can read messages sent through Saheli when we're looking into a safety concern.
• You can ask us for a copy of everything we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete your account. Write to hello@saheli.ca.

Who we are

Under Canadian privacy law, Saheli is the organisation responsible for the personal information described here. If you have a question or a complaint about any of it, write to hello@saheli.ca and a person will answer you.

What we collect

If you have an account

Your email address, and your name if you give us one. There is no password. We sign you in by emailing you a link, so we never hold one.

If you're arranging care for someone

Details about the person you're looking after, which you give us: their name, where they live, the languages they're comfortable in, the traditions and religious practices that matter to them, and what kind of help would make their week easier.

Some of that is sensitive, an address and a religion in particular. We ask for it because it is the only way to show you companions who can actually get there and who the person will be at ease with. You choose what to tell us, and you can change or remove any of it.

If you apply to be a companion

What you tell us in your application: your work history, the languages you speak, when you're available, and references. A criminal record check is optional; if you provide one, we review it and your profile carries a record-checked badge. You may also choose to send us certificates. If you're accepted, the parts of your profile you've chosen to publish become visible to families using Saheli.

Documents like a record check are stored privately and are never published. They are seen only by the Saheli team members who review applications.

Messages and things you send us

Messages you send through Saheli, and anything you send to us by email or through the contact form.

Every message is checked automatically, by software, for phone numbers, email addresses, swearing and slurs, because our terms ask people to keep contact inside Saheli and to stay respectful. A message that breaks that rule isn't sent; if one gets through, that part of it is removed. No person reads your messages as part of this check.

If you pay for visits

Your card number goes directly to Stripe, our payment provider, and never touches Saheli's systems. What we keep ourselves is the money history: which visits were charged, for how much, and what was refunded — we have to be able to account for every dollar.

If you're paid as a companion

To pay you, Stripe must verify who you are. When you set up direct deposit, we send Stripe the name, date of birth, phone number and address from the application Saheli vetted, so direct deposit is set up in the identity we checked. You see these before anything is sent, and nothing is sent to Stripe until you press the button. The form you fill in sits on a Saheli page, but it is Stripe's own form: what you type in it, including your bank account number and any photo of your ID, goes straight to Stripe. Saheli never sees it and never stores it.

When you provide personal data in connection with setting up and receiving direct deposits, Stripe receives that personal data and processes it in accordance with Stripe's Privacy Policy. Stripe can also obtain information from credit agencies to verify your identity, and uses it for the purposes described in that policy.

When you press Start or End on a visit, your device's location at that moment is recorded — those two moments only, never during a visit and never at any other time — to confirm care happened at the arranged address. Declining location does not block starting or ending a visit. These coordinates are visible only to Saheli staff and are never sold or shared.

Automatically, when you use the site

We use Vercel Web Analytics to count page views and see which pages are slow. It does not use cookies, does not follow you to other sites, and does not build a profile of you. We remove personal details from the page addresses it records before they are reported.

The only cookie Saheli sets is the one that keeps you signed in. Without it, you would be signed out on every page you opened.

Why we collect it, and your consent

We use your information to run the service you asked for: to sign you in, to show you companions who suit your family, to let you talk to each other, to review companion applications, to look into safety reports, and to reply when you write to us.

Giving us any of it is your choice. You can withdraw your consent at any time by asking us to delete your account, though we won't be able to keep providing the service afterwards.

Who can see it

• Companions see what you choose to share with them when you get in touch, including where the person lives, because they need to know whether they can get there.
• Families see the parts of a companion's profile the companion has chosen to publish. They never see a companion's documents or record check.
• The Saheli team can see account details, companion applications and supporting documents, and messages sent through Saheli when we are looking into a safety concern or a report of abuse. We look at messages for that reason and no other.
• The companies that run our infrastructure, listed below. They process information on our instructions and are not permitted to use it for anything else.
• The authorities, if we are legally required to hand something over, or if we believe someone is at risk of serious harm.

We do not sell your personal information to anyone, for any purpose. We do not share it with advertisers.

Where your information is kept

Saheli uses six outside services. Some of them process data in the United States or another country:

• Supabase: our database, file storage and sign-in, hosted in Ohio, United States.
• Stripe: processes every payment, based in the United States. It holds family card details, and for companions the identity and bank details it needs to send direct deposits.
• Vercel: hosting for the website itself.
• Resend: sends our emails, including your sign-in links, from northern Virginia, United States.
• Cal.com: schedules companion interviews and receives the applicant's name, email address and chosen interview time.
• Google Maps Platform: suggests addresses as you type and turns an address into map coordinates so we can find nearby companions. It receives the address text being looked up.

Canadian privacy law allows a Canadian organisation to store personal information in another country, and we remain responsible for protecting it wherever it sits. While information is outside Canada, the laws and authorities of that country may apply in ways that would not apply if it stayed in Canada.

How long we keep it

• Account and family information: while your account is open.
• Companion applications and supporting documents: while you are listed, and for a period afterwards so that we can answer questions about a placement.
• Messages: while your account is open, so that you and the people you've spoken to keep a record of what was agreed.
• Contact form messages: until they've been dealt with, and for a while afterwards for our own records.

When you delete your account we remove your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required to keep something, for example a record relating to a safety investigation or a legal obligation.

Keeping it safe

Every table in our database has access rules attached to it, so one family's information cannot be read by another even if something in the app goes wrong. Documents like record checks are stored privately and are never given a public address. We sign you in with a one-time emailed link rather than a password, so there is no password of yours for anyone to steal or guess.

No system is perfectly secure, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. If we ever discover a breach affecting your information, we will tell you and the Privacy Commissioner, as Canadian law requires.

Your rights

Under Canadian privacy law you can:

• ask what we hold about you, and get a copy;
• ask us to correct anything that's wrong;
• ask us to delete your account and your information;
• withdraw your consent;
• complain, and have a person actually look into it.

Write to hello@saheli.ca. We'll reply within 30 days. If you aren't satisfied with how we've handled it, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Children

You must be 18 or over to hold a Saheli account. An adult may create a care profile for someone in their care, including a child. We collect that information from the adult who creates it, not from the child, and we protect it exactly as we protect every other care profile.

Changes to this policy

When we change something meaningful, we'll update the date at the top of this page and tell account holders by email. We won't quietly start using your information for something new.