Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-10-04

senior-bridge is a small, independent service. This policy describes — in plain English — what data we collect, what we do with it, who helps us run the service, and what rights you have. We aim for short and honest over long and lawyered.

1. Who runs this

senior-bridge is operated by SENIOR-BRIDGE LLC, a Kentucky limited liability company based in Louisville, Kentucky, owned and run by Ted Yopp. Contact: [email protected]. There is no parent company, no board, and no investors. The service is currently in invite-only beta.

2. What we collect

• Account data — caregiver name, email, hashed password.
• Senior profile — the senior's name, phone number, time zone, ZIP code, and any context the caregiver or senior enters (faith, things they love, things to avoid, interests, special dates, an emergency contact, etc.).
• Conversations — every text message sent or received between senior-bridge and the senior, with timestamps, and, for phone conversations, a written transcript of what was said. We do not record the audio of phone conversations.
• Things we note from conversations — reminders the senior asks for, upcoming events they mention, a short running summary of recent conversations, and the result of the safety check on each incoming message.
• Caregiver contacts — additional caregivers' names, phone numbers, and email addresses if the primary caregiver invites them.
• Activity log — every send attempt, safety-check result, alert, and login. This exists for safety and accountability.
• Sunday Recap pictures — if turned on, short written descriptions of the senior's appearance and their pets (if the caregiver adds them) and the weekly picture we create. If a caregiver uploads a photo to create a description, the photo is used once and immediately discarded; we never store it. Recap pictures are deleted 30 days after they are sent.
• Phone conversations and scheduled calls (premium options) — if turned on, the senior can call senior-bridge and talk with it, and, once they've said yes by text, senior-bridge can call them for a chat on a set schedule. A missed scheduled call may leave a short voicemail. What they say is turned into text as they speak; we keep the written transcript like a text conversation and never store the audio.
• Voice reminder calls — if a senior chooses phone-call reminders, we create a short audio file of the reminder; it is deleted about 30 minutes after the call.
• Waitlist — if you sign up via this site, we store your email address, the page you came from, your user-agent, and the IP that submitted the form. That's it.
• Setup help requests — if you ask us to call you to help set things up, the name, phone number, best time and any note you give. It's emailed to our support inbox so Ted can call you, isn't stored in our database, and is used for nothing else. We call; we don't text that number.

3. What we do NOT collect

• We do not use Google Analytics, Meta pixels, or any third-party analytics or advertising scripts.
• We do not buy or sell mailing lists, and we do not sell personal information.
• We do not request, store, or process payment-card numbers ourselves; if/when paid plans launch, payments will go through a regulated processor (Stripe) and we'll never see card data.

4. How we use it

• To send the daily companion messages and answer replies, by text or, if turned on, in a phone conversation.
• To check each incoming message for signs of distress, a medical emergency, or a scam, and to alert caregivers when the safety check flags it. A caregiver alert includes the message that triggered it, so the caregiver knows what was said.
• To send reminders (by text, or by phone call if chosen), the optional weekly summary to caregivers who opted in, and the weekly Golden Years Gazette to seniors who receive it.
• To personalize messages with local weather and, if turned on, local events and the senior's interests.
• To diagnose problems, prevent abuse, and investigate any reports of harm.
• To send a single launch-announcement email to people on the waitlist when the service opens to the public.

Text messages (SMS)

• Who gets texts. We never text a number first. Seniors receive recurring automated texts only after they opt in by texting JOIN to our number from their own phone (see how texting consent works). Caregivers and emergency contacts receive alert texts only after they text JOIN from their own phone, and only for the alerts they chose.
• How often. Message frequency varies: usually 2–5 messages a day for seniors; caregivers get alerts only when something needs their attention, plus optional weekly summaries.
• Costs and opting out. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help or STOP to opt out at any time; you'll get one confirmation and no further messages.
• No sharing for marketing. We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. Mobile numbers are not shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging opt-in data and consent are not shared with any third parties. We give phone numbers only to the companies that deliver our messages and calls for us (such as Twilio), and only so they can deliver them.

5. Companies that help us run the service

We use the following service providers. Each receives only what it needs to do its job for us; none may use your data to advertise to you. We never sell your data, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

• Twilio (texts and phone calls) — the senior's and caregivers' phone numbers and the content of texts, pictures, and calls, including the live audio of phone conversations while they happen.
• Deepgram (speech recognition, through Twilio) — what the senior says during a phone conversation, to turn their speech into text.
• Anthropic (Claude AI) — the senior's profile context and recent conversation, to write each message and, when a message asks about something current (like a sports score or the news), to search the web for the answer; incoming messages the first safety check flags for a closer look; ZIP code and interests to look up local events and topics; for the Sunday Recap, the week's messages (to choose happy moments to draw), an uploaded photo of the senior or a pet (to write a description), and the finished picture (to check it before sending).
• Google (Gemini AI) — each incoming message, for the first safety check and to spot reminders and events; and, as a backup if Claude is unavailable, the same context Claude would get; for the Sunday Recap, a written description of the scene (and of the senior's appearance, if provided) to paint the picture.
• ElevenLabs (voice) — the text of a reminder, or of senior-bridge's side of a phone conversation, to turn it into speech.
• Google Workspace (Gmail) — caregiver emails such as alerts and weekly summaries, including the message content described above.
• DigitalOcean (hosting) — runs our server and stores all of the data above, on encrypted storage in the United States.
• Cloudflare (network and backups) — carries all traffic to our website and dashboard, and stores our backups, which we encrypt before they leave our server so Cloudflare cannot read them.

To show weather, we also send the senior's ZIP code to a free ZIP-to-location lookup (Zippopotam.us) and the resulting location to the U.S. National Weather Service. Our web pages load fonts from Google Fonts, which means Google sees the IP address of anyone viewing them.

We will not respond to law-enforcement requests except as required by valid legal process; if we ever do, we will attempt to notify the affected user unless prohibited from doing so.

6. Where it lives

All data is stored on our server at DigitalOcean in the United States, on encrypted storage. Encrypted backups are made every 15 minutes and kept for about 30 days. Our server's technical logs are kept for 14 days; we keep phone numbers and message content out of them.

7. How long we keep it

• Active accounts — data is retained for as long as the account is active.
• Deleting a senior — their profile, reminders, caregivers, summaries, and safety-check results are deleted right away. Their text messages, activity log, and alerts are kept for 90 days in case a safety question comes up, then deleted automatically. Backups containing them are gone about 30 days after that. We keep a minimal record that the deletion happened (the profile's ID and the dates).
• Waitlist — waitlist emails are kept until either (a) we send the launch announcement and you don't sign up, after which we'll purge them within 60 days, or (b) you ask us to remove your email earlier.

8. Your rights

You can ask us to: see what data we have about you, correct it, or delete it entirely — including asking us to delete a senior's message history right away instead of after 90 days. Email [email protected] from the address on file and we'll respond within a reasonable time (we aim for under a week).

If you are a California resident covered by the CCPA: you have the right to know what personal information we collect and to request deletion. We do not sell personal information, so the "do not sell" right does not apply. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (COPPA); senior-bridge is intended for adult caregivers and adult seniors.

9. Cookies

The senior-bridge marketing site sets no cookies of its own. The senior-bridge service sets a session cookie when caregivers log in to the dashboard; that cookie is required for the service to function and is not used for tracking.

10. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top and — for changes that meaningfully affect existing users — email a notice to caregiver accounts.

11. Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns: [email protected].