Rescue Ally Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 10/11/2026
Last Updated: 10/11/2026

1. Introduction

Rescue Ally ("we," "our," "us") is a field medicine documentation app that enables wilderness medicine practitioners to document patient care in remote settings. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, and protect information when you use the Rescue Ally mobile application and related services.

Important: This app is designed for medical practitioners to document patient information during wilderness medicine situations. We comply with:

HIPAA (U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
CCPA/CPRA (California Consumer Privacy Act & California Privacy Rights Act)

If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use our services.

2. Information We Collect

User Information You Provide

Account details: Name, email, phone number
Professional credentials: Wilderness medicine training status and certifications
Communications: Support requests and feedback

Patient Information You Document

Patient details you enter, such as name, age, and sex
Patient conditions
Vital signs, including measured readings such as blood pressure, oxygen saturation, lung sounds, and temperature, and recordings from a connected heart-rate monitor
Treatments
Clinical notes as entered by you during field medicine situations, including time-stamped narrative notes

Information Collected Automatically

Location data: GPS coordinates when you enable location services during rescue operations
Device data: Device type, operating system version, app version, and an identifier the app creates for your device
Usage data: App feature usage, whether app updates downloaded and installed, and crash logs, for service improvement
Install source (Android): The first time you open the app after installing it from Google Play, the app asks Google Play how the install came about and records the answer once. If you reached Google Play through a link, that answer can include the link's campaign details (source, medium, campaign name, content, and search term), a click identifier added by an ad network such as Google Ads or Facebook, the identifier our website gives each tap on its Google Play button, and the times you tapped the link and started the install. If you found the app on Google Play yourself, Google Play says so instead. We link this record to your account and use it only to measure which of our outreach leads to installs. It is part of the app's telemetry, so it is not recorded while "Submit crash reports and telemetry" is turned off in your account settings.

SMS Communications

We optionally collect your phone number as a method of authentication (login) and to contact you about your account. We do not send promotional or marketing text messages. You can opt out by switching to email-based authentication. Text message sign-in is currently available for U.S. phone numbers only. Read the full SMS Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy for more information.

Email Communications

We use your email address to sign you in, to answer your support requests, and to send you notices about your account, your purchase, and changes to these policies.

We also occasionally send product email, for example a one-time message to someone whose free trial ended, letting them know what their purchase options are. These are sent from a separate sending domain, every one of them carries an unsubscribe link, and we honor opt-outs immediately. Opting out of product email never affects sign-in or account email, which you need in order to use your account.

Assessment Sharing Records

When you share an assessment, whether as a message (including a vitals update sent with Send from Vitals History), as a direct app-to-app transfer, or as an exported file, we store a record in your account that the share happened: what was shared, how, and when. For message shares, that record includes the message text you sent. Before a message leaves the app you see a HIPAA reminder, and once you continue, the message is handed to your phone's share sheet and recorded at the same moment. Your phone does not tell us whether a message was actually delivered, so the record is kept even if you close the share sheet without sending. We keep these records specifically for HIPAA audit purposes: protected health information leaving the app is a disclosure, and an auditable record of when it happened, how, and from whose account is part of handling patient data responsibly. Share records sync across the devices you sign in on, the same way your assessments do, so an assessment's sharing history survives a lost or wiped phone. A message you have drafted but not yet sent stays on the device you wrote it on, and drafts do not sync. They are stored under the same protections as the assessment they belong to, and they are deleted when you delete that assessment.

Practice Scenarios

When you play a practice scenario, the app keeps a record of your run on your phone: the choices you made, what you searched for in the field guide during it, and how long it took. That record stays on your phone. It is not sent to us, it does not sync to your other devices, and it is erased when you sign out. The patient in a scenario is invented, so a run contains no patient information. At the end of a scenario you can share Rescue Ally with a friend through your phone's share sheet; that message is a short note and a link to our website, and nothing about your run is included.

Scribe Audio (Preview Feature)

Rescue Ally includes an optional Scribe feature, currently in preview (free to use while we refine it; pricing has not yet been determined). When you choose to use Scribe:

On-device AI: Audio is recorded and transcribed, and observations are extracted, entirely on your device. Your recordings and transcripts are never sent to any third-party AI provider (such as OpenAI or Anthropic) for processing.
AI is not perfect: Scribe's transcripts and suggested observations are AI-generated and may contain errors. You are responsible for reviewing and correcting every observation before relying on it.
Improving the feature: If you accept the in-app Scribe Usage Agreement, your recordings (audio and transcript) are securely uploaded to Rescue Ally, and only to Rescue Ally, to help us improve the feature's accuracy. You can delete a recording at any time; deleting an assessment removes its audio from our servers. The full Scribe Usage Agreement is available on this site.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

Provide and operate the field medicine documentation services
Enable secure documentation and transfer of patient information during medical handoffs
Sync your assessments, vitals, and related records across the devices you sign in on
Respond to your support requests
Offer the free trial once per person, and avoid sending the same product email to one person twice, by recognizing accounts that share a verified email address, phone number, or device
Send you account, purchase, and policy notices, and occasional product email you can unsubscribe from
Improve app features and security
Measure which of our outreach, such as ads and posts, leads people to install the app
Comply with legal and regulatory requirements

We will NEVER:

Sell any medical data
Share patient information except when you explicitly transfer it to other medical professionals
Use patient data for advertising or marketing purposes

4. Information Sharing

We may share your information with:

Medical professionals when you explicitly transfer patient data during handoffs. A direct app-to-app transfer carries the whole assessment, including its heart-rate monitor recordings, and the receiving phone keeps it as its own copy
Your team, if you are a member of a team account: assessments you record under that team can be read by team members your team's administrator has authorized to do so
AWS (our cloud provider) under a signed HIPAA Business Associate Agreement for secure data storage
Payment processors: Apple, for purchases made through In-App Purchase, and Stripe, for purchases made on our website. They handle your payment details; we never see or store your card number.
Legal authorities when required by law

We do not use any third-party AI provider (such as OpenAI or Anthropic) to process your recordings or patient data. The Scribe feature runs entirely on your device, and recordings you choose to share to improve the feature are sent only to Rescue Ally (stored in AWS under our HIPAA Business Associate Agreement).

5. Data Security

We protect your information through:

Encryption: AES-256 encryption for data at rest and TLS encryption for data in transit
Access controls: Multi-factor authentication. Data within a user account is private to that account, with one exception you choose: if you join a team account, assessments you record under that team can also be read by the team members your administrator has authorized.
Secure infrastructure: HIPAA-compliant cloud services with our AWS Business Associate Agreement

6. Data Retention

Data Type	Retention Period	Reason
Account data	Until you delete your account	Service provision
Patient assessments (real incidents)	Until you delete your account	Care record integrity
Practice assessments	Until you delete them or your account	Training use only
Location data	Until you delete the assessment it belongs to, or your account	Part of the care record
Support communications	Until you ask us to delete them	Customer service
Scribe recordings (audio + transcript)	Until you delete the recording or its assessment	Feature improvement (with your consent)
Assessment share records	Until you delete the assessment they belong to	Handoff record keeping
Practice scenario runs	On your phone only, until you sign out or remove the app	Training use only

A finalized real assessment is a care record. Once you finish it as a real incident it cannot be edited or deleted on its own, so that the record you hand off stays the record you wrote. It is removed when you delete your account. Practice assessments carry no such lock and can be deleted at any time. Deleting your account permanently erases your assessments, vitals, recordings and share records; it is not a soft delete.

For organizations that use Rescue Ally under a Business Associate Agreement, the Agreement decides how long assessments recorded under their team are kept and what happens to them when the Agreement ends, so that the organization can meet its own legal and compliance requirements. Where that Agreement and this policy differ, the Agreement governs those records.

We do not delete your data for inactivity. Data is removed only when you delete it, or when you ask us to.

7. Your Privacy Rights

HIPAA Rights (Healthcare Information)

Access and receive copies of your patient health information
Request corrections to patient health information
Request restrictions on use or disclosure
File complaints with the Department of Health and Human Services

California Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

Right to Know: What personal information we collect and how we use it
Right to Delete: Request deletion of your personal information
Right to Correct: Request correction of inaccurate personal information
Right to Opt-Out: We do not sell personal information (opt-out not applicable)
Non-discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights

To exercise your rights: Use the Privacy Center, where you can download a copy of your data or request deletion of your assessments or your entire account. You can also visit our FAQ or email privacy@rescueally.org

8. Data Exports and File Sharing

When you export patient data (such as PDFs for medical handoffs):

You will receive clear warnings about maintaining HIPAA compliance
Exported files are stored in app-controlled space to prevent automatic cloud backups
You acknowledge responsibility for continued HIPAA compliance after export
All export activities are logged for audit purposes
Spreadsheet (CSV) exports include a random identifier for that specific export, and a link built from it, so a file can be traced back to its sharing record. The identifier is randomly generated and contains no information about you or the patient. PDF exports carry no identifier, link, or QR code

9. Breach Notification

If a data breach occurs that affects your information, we will:

Notify you as soon as reasonably possible
Report to appropriate authorities as required by law (HHS for HIPAA breaches, California Attorney General for CCPA breaches)
Provide information about what happened and steps we're taking to address it

10. Children's Privacy

This app is designed for professional medical use and is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without parental consent.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes via email or in-app notification before they take effect.

12. Contact Us

Rescue Ally Privacy Team
Email: privacy@rescueally.org
Phone: +1 (303)-578-8161

For HIPAA-related questions or to file a complaint, you may also contact the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.

This privacy policy is designed to be clear and straightforward while meeting our compliance obligations. If you have questions about how we handle your information, please contact us.