Privacy Policy

Introduction

Welcome to Growing Us ("we", "us", "our"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have a positive experience using our relationship coaching application. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our service, and informs you of your rights under applicable data protection laws (including the EU/UK GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act).

Data Controller

Blum & Co, operating as Growing Us, is the data controller responsible for your personal data. Its address is 2 Goodchap St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia, and its D-U-N-S Number is 889016981. For all data protection inquiries, including access, correction, or deletion requests, please contact us at our contact form.

If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns first, so please contact us before filing a complaint.

Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account through Sign in with Apple or Google OAuth, we receive:

• Your email address (or Apple's private relay address if you choose to hide your email)
• A unique provider ID used to recognize you on subsequent sign-ins
• Your display name (optional)

We do not receive or store your Apple or Google account password.

Conversation & Coaching Data

To provide coaching insights, we process:

• Audio of your voice coaching sessions (sent to our AI providers for transcription, then deleted after the session is analyzed, and never stored on our servers)
• Transcripts of voice sessions
• Chat messages you send to the coach
• Intake and assessment answers (e.g., relationship goals, check-in responses)
• Analysis results, snapshots, and coaching insights generated for you
• Your feedback on insights (helpful/not helpful ratings)

Usage Data

We automatically collect:

• Device information (type, operating system)
• Usage patterns and feature interactions
• Session duration and frequency

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Send voice transcripts, chat messages, and assessment answers to third-party AI providers (OpenAI and Google) to generate coaching responses, snapshots, and insights
• Personalize your experience and recommend next coaching steps
• Send session reminders, follow-up recommendations, and transactional emails (e.g., your year-in-review)
• Maintain, debug, and improve our service
• Respond to support requests
• Ensure security and prevent abuse

We do not sell your personal data for money, and we do not use your conversations, chat messages, or AI-generated insights to train AI models. We do share a limited set of website and mobile app activity, plus a mobile advertising identifier, with Meta and TikTok for advertising measurement. Under some US state privacy laws (such as California's CCPA/CPRA) this counts as "sharing" of personal information. You can opt out at any time using the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" control in Settings, by broadcasting a Global Privacy Control signal, or via the app's Privacy Mode, as described in "Advertising & Campaign Measurement" and "US State Privacy Rights" below.

Legal Basis for Processing

If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on the following legal bases under the GDPR to process your personal data:

• Consent: for sending your voice transcripts, chat messages, and assessment answers to third-party AI providers (OpenAI and Google). You give this consent in-app the first time you use voice or chat coaching, and you can withdraw it at any time by deleting your data from in-app Settings.
• Performance of a contract: to create and operate your account, deliver coaching sessions, store your session history, and provide the features you signed up for.
• Legitimate interests: to maintain and improve the service (including aggregated, non-identifying product analytics), to keep the service secure, and to prevent abuse. We balance these interests against your rights and freedoms and only rely on this basis where it does not override your privacy.
• Legal obligation: where we are required to retain or disclose data to comply with applicable law.

Because the service involves discussion of relationships and personal feelings, the data you share may include "special category" data under the GDPR (for example, information relating to sexuality or religious beliefs). We process this kind of data only on the basis of your explicit consent, which you provide via the in-app AI consent screen.

AI Processing & Third-Party AI Providers

Growing Us uses third-party AI providers to power voice coaching, chat coaching, and post-session insights. Sending your inputs to an AI provider's API is simply how these features work: the provider processes what you send and returns a response, the same way any app that uses AI operates. It does not mean your data becomes theirs. Before any AI feature is used for the first time, the app shows an in-app consent screen explaining what is sent and to whom, and asks for your permission.

What is sent

• Voice audio from voice coaching sessions (deleted after the session is analyzed, and never stored on our servers)
• Voice transcripts produced from that audio
• Chat messages you send to the coach
• Intake and assessment answers (used to generate your Relationship Pulse Check and personalized coaching prompts)

Who it is sent to

• OpenAI, L.L.C.: ChatGPT and Realtime API models, used for real-time voice coaching, chat coaching, and certain insight generation. See OpenAI's privacy policy.
• Google LLC: Gemini models, used for intake snapshot generation, conversation analysis, and post-session insights. See Google's privacy policy.

These providers process your inputs only to return coaching responses and insights. We do not send your name, email, or account details with these requests, so your inputs are not stored under your identity by these providers. Under their API terms they do not use Growing Us API inputs and outputs to train their models, and they retain content only briefly for security and abuse monitoring before deleting it. The original voice audio is deleted after the session is analyzed, and we only retain the transcripts.

You can withdraw consent at any time by deleting individual sessions or your account from in-app Settings (see "How to Delete Your Data" below).

Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data:

• Encryption of data in transit (HTTPS / TLS) and at rest
• Secure authentication via Google OAuth and Sign in with Apple
• Limited access to personal data, restricted to the small Growing Us team
• Voice audio is deleted after the session is analyzed and is never stored on our servers

Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as necessary to provide our services:

• Account information: Until you delete your account
• Session transcripts and analysis: Until you delete specific sessions or your account
• Audio recordings: Deleted after the session is analyzed; never stored on our servers

Your Rights

Under applicable data protection laws (including the EU/UK GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act), you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right to be informed. You have the right to know what data we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and who we share it with. We have provided this information in this policy.
• Right of access. You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and confirm that we are processing it lawfully.
• Right to rectification. You can ask us to correct any data we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"). You can ask us to delete your data when there is no good reason for us to keep processing it. The fastest way to exercise this right is to delete your account or individual sessions from in-app Settings (see "How to Delete Your Data" below).
• Right to object. You can object to our processing of your data (for example, if you no longer want us to send your inputs to third-party AI providers) by withdrawing consent and deleting your account.
• Right to restrict processing. You can ask us to suspend the processing of your data, for example while you contest its accuracy.
• Right to data portability. You can ask us to provide a copy of your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to withdraw consent. Where we rely on your consent (for example, for AI processing), you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.
• Right to lodge a complaint. If you are in the EEA or UK, you have the right to complain to your local data protection authority. If you are in California, you have rights under the CCPA, including the right to know, the right to delete, the right to correct, and the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell your personal data. We share limited website or mobile app activity and a mobile advertising identifier with Meta and TikTok for advertising measurement, as described in "Advertising & Campaign Measurement" above. You can opt out at any time using the app's Privacy Mode, your browser or device privacy controls, or by contacting us.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at our contact form. We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests. There is no fee for exercising your rights, unless your request is clearly unfounded or excessive.

US State Privacy Rights

If you are a resident of a US state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law (such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and others), you may have some or all of the following rights, subject to that state's law. These rights are not absolute and we may decline a request where permitted by law.

• Right to know and access. Request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of third parties we share it with.
• Right to delete and correct. Request deletion or correction of your personal information. The fastest way is to delete your account or sessions in-app (see "How to Delete Your Data" below).
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell personal information for money, but we do "share" limited advertising identifiers with Meta and TikTok for ad measurement. You can opt out via the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" control in Settings, by broadcasting a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal (which we honor on our websites), or via Privacy Mode in the app.
• Right to limit use of Sensitive Personal Information. Because the service involves discussion of relationships and personal feelings, the information you share may be "sensitive personal information" under laws such as the CPRA. You can ask us to limit the use of your sensitive personal information to what is necessary to provide the service. We do not use your sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you for advertising.
• Right to appeal. If we decline your request, you may appeal by replying to our decision or contacting us at our contact form with "Privacy Appeal" in the subject line. If we deny your appeal, applicable law may allow you to contact your state Attorney General.
• Right to non-discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

Authorized agents. You may use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. We may require the agent to provide proof of authorization and may ask you to verify your own identity and confirm the agent's authority, as permitted by law.

Categories of personal information we collect

The table below summarizes the categories of personal information we collect (using the categories defined under the California CCPA), why we collect them, and the categories of third parties we share them with.

We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age. To submit a state privacy request, contact us at our contact form.

Australia: Your Privacy Rights

Growing Us is operated by Blum & Co, an Australian entity, and we handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This section supplements the rest of this policy for individuals in Australia.

• Access and correction. You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct it. The fastest way is through in-app Settings; you can also contact us at our contact form.
• Overseas disclosure (APP 8). To provide the service, we disclose personal information to service providers located overseas, primarily in the United States (including our AI providers OpenAI and Google, our hosting and email providers, and our analytics provider). By using the service you acknowledge these overseas disclosures. We take reasonable steps to ensure these recipients handle your information consistently with this policy.
• Sensitive information. Information about your relationship and feelings may be "sensitive information" under the Privacy Act. We collect and use it only with your consent, which you provide through the in-app AI consent screen, and only to provide coaching.
• Complaints. If you have a privacy concern, please contact us first at our contact form so we can try to resolve it. If you are not satisfied, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

How to Delete Your Data

You can delete your data directly from the app at any time. No email request needed.

Delete your full account and all data

This permanently removes your account, all sessions, insights, recommendations, and preferences from our servers.

1. Open the Growing Us app
2. Tap the Settings icon (bottom right of the screen)
3. Tap Profile Settings
4. Scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Account
5. Confirm when prompted. This action is permanent and cannot be undone

Delete individual sessions

This permanently removes a single session's transcript, insights, and recommendations, while keeping your account and other sessions intact.

1. Open the Growing Us app
2. Go to the History tab (your past sessions are listed on the home screen)
3. Swipe left on any session to reveal the delete option
4. Tap Delete and confirm

What happens when you delete

• Account and session data is removed from our servers within 30 days
• Session audio was never stored. It was deleted after the session was analyzed
• Analytics data is anonymized and cannot be linked back to you after deletion
• Data cached on your device is cleared immediately

If you have any trouble deleting your data, contact us at our contact form and we will process your request manually within 30 days.

Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party service providers to operate Growing Us. Each is contractually obligated to handle your data only to provide their service to us.

• Authentication & Identity: Google OAuth and Sign in with Apple for secure sign-in. We receive your email address and a unique provider ID; we never receive your password.
• AI & Analysis: OpenAI (ChatGPT and Realtime API models) and Google Gemini. See the "AI Processing & Third-Party AI Providers" section above for what is sent and to whom.
• Product Analytics: PostHog (EU region, eu.i.posthog.com) for understanding feature usage and funnels. We send event names (e.g., "session_started"), device type, and your account ID. We do not send conversation content, voice transcripts, chat messages, or assessment answers. Session replay is disabled.
• Hosting & Email: We use cloud hosting providers in the United States to run our application and store your account and session data, and a third-party email delivery provider for transactional emails such as your year-in-review and replies to support requests. These providers process data only to operate Growing Us.

Each of these providers maintains its own privacy policy describing how it handles information processed on our behalf.

Advertising & Campaign Measurement

We promote Growing Us through paid advertising on platforms such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok, and we measure how well those ads perform. We want to draw a clear line around what this involves:

• On our websites (including andbloom.co and app.andbloom.co) we use the Meta Pixel, a standard measurement tool, to understand which ads lead to actions such as viewing a page, starting the intake survey, or creating an account. To do this, those website events, together with cookies and your IP address, are shared with Meta.
• In our mobile app we use Meta's and TikTok's SDKs to measure and attribute app installs and to help optimize our ads. This may share a device advertising identifier (the Google Advertising ID on Android or Apple's IDFA on iOS), app install/open events, and a limited set of conversion events such as completing sign-in or onboarding, opening the Tip Jar, or completing a Tip Jar purchase. Purchase events include the product identifier, currency, and value. On iOS, access to the IDFA requires your permission through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt.
• We do not share the content of your conversations, your voice recordings, your coaching insights, your survey answers, or your reflection feedback with Meta, TikTok, or any other advertiser.
• You can disable TikTok conversion event tracking using Privacy Mode in the app. You can also decline Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt, reset or delete your Android Advertising ID, or use browser privacy settings to limit advertising measurement. Where the law requires it, including in the EEA and UK, we rely on your consent for this measurement, which we ask for through a cookie banner before the Meta Pixel loads on our websites.
• Global Privacy Control (GPC): On our websites we honor the Global Privacy Control browser signal. If your browser sends GPC, we treat it as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information and do not load the Meta Pixel. You can also toggle "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" in Settings.

Meta and TikTok process the data they receive in accordance with their own privacy policies: Meta Privacy Policy and TikTok Privacy Policy. For details on the cookies and pixels we use on our websites and how to control them, see our Cookie Notice.

International Data Transfers

Growing Us is operated from outside the European Economic Area, and the third-party providers we rely on (including OpenAI and Google) are based primarily in the United States. By using Growing Us, you understand that your personal data may be transferred to, processed in, and stored in countries outside your home country, including the United States, where data protection laws may differ.

Where we transfer personal data out of the EEA or the UK, we rely on the recipient's compliance with appropriate safeguards (such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and, where applicable, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) to ensure your data is given an equivalent level of protection.

Age Limit

You must be 18 or older to use Growing Us. The service is designed for adults in romantic relationships, and is not intended for children. If you are under 18, please do not use the service or provide any personal data to us.

We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at our contact form and we will delete the data promptly.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. Your continued use of the service after any changes indicates acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

Blum & Co, operating as Growing Us

2 Goodchap St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia

D-U-N-S Number: 889016981

Contact: our contact form

Website: andbloom.co

Important Disclaimer

Growing Us is designed to provide communication insights and coaching suggestions. It is not a substitute for professional therapy, counseling, or medical advice. If you or your partner are experiencing relationship crisis, abuse, or mental health concerns, please seek help from qualified professionals.

For crisis resources and emergency support information, please see our Terms of Service.