Beside Care Privacy Policy

North Star Digital Labs, LLC (the “Company,” “we,” “us,” “our”) operates Beside Care (the “Service”), available at besidecare.com and associated mobile applications.

© 2026 North Star Digital Labs, LLC. All rights reserved. Beside Care is a brand of North Star Digital Labs, LLC.

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, and protect information when you use the Service. It also explains choices you may have and how to contact us.

1) What Beside Care does

Beside Care is a lifestyle and caregiver support service that helps caregivers understand day-to-day activity by transforming connected home device events (for example, motion events from a camera provider) into short, human-readable summaries, insights, and notifications (“Outputs”).

2) Key promises

1. We do not retain your video footage as part of normal operation. If a short clip is needed to generate an Output, we request it, process it, then discard it, subject to brief, transient technical handling required to transmit and process the data.
2. We do not use your data to train AI models. We use paid AI services to generate Outputs. We do not provide your Content to AI providers for the purpose of training their models.
3. We do not sell your personal information.

3) Definitions

• "Personal Information" means information that alone (or when in combination with other information) identifies, relates to, describes, or could reasonably be linked with you, your household, or your device. We do not consider Personal Information to include information that has been anonymized such that it does not allow a third party to easily identify a specific individual.
• “Content” means information you authorize us to process through the Service, such as event metadata and, if enabled, short media clips needed to generate Outputs.
• “Connected Provider” means a third party service you connect to Beside Care (for example, a camera platform, email/SMS provider).
• “Outputs” means summaries, notifications, insights, and related results produced by the Service.

4) Information we collect

A) Information you provide

• Account information: name, email address, phone number (if provided for SMS notifications), and account identifiers.
• Preferences and settings: device nicknames, schedules, time zone, caregiver notification preferences, and related configuration.
• Support and communications: messages and files you send to us for support, feedback, or troubleshooting.

B) Information from Connected Providers you choose to connect

Depending on the provider and your permissions, we may receive:

• Event metadata: timestamps, event identifiers, device/camera identifiers, and event type labels (for example, motion).
• Device and integration information: device names and other integration data necessary to request events and generate Outputs.
• Authorization credentials: tokens or similar credentials used to access your connected account (stored securely).

C) Media access for summarization (if enabled)

For certain Outputs, we may request a short clip associated with an event. See Section 9 for details on how media is handled.

D) Information collected automatically

• Usage and analytics data: feature usage, pages viewed, clicks, referring URLs, session duration, and in-app actions.
• Device and network data: browser type, device type, operating system, app version, IP address, language, and approximate location derived from IP.
• Logs and diagnostics: timestamps, crash reports, performance metrics, and security logs.

E) Financial Information

We do not collect any financial information about you. However, we partner with third party vendors who will collect financial information about you, including payment information, in connection with your purchase of the Service and any other products. Although we make efforts to select vendors that will respect and protect your privacy, we have no control over any third parties. Thus, we make no guarantees about, and assume no responsibility for, the information or services provided by third parties. We encourage you to visit any third parties to familiarize yourself with their privacy practices.

5) How we use information

We use information to:

• Provide, operate, maintain, and improve the Service, including generating Outputs and delivering notifications you request.
• Authenticate users, maintain account security, and prevent fraud or abuse.
• Monitor performance, debug issues, and improve reliability and features.
• Communicate with you about support, security, billing (if applicable), and service updates.
• Conduct internal research and development and make business decisions about current and future product and service offerings.
• Carry out any other purpose readily apparent to you or described to you at the time the Personal Information is collected.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms.

6) What we do not do

• We do not sell Personal Information.
• We do not build a searchable library of your raw video footage.
• We do not use your Content to train AI models.

7) SMS and text messaging

If you provide a phone number and opt in to receive SMS notifications from Beside Care, you consent to receive text messages from us, including care alerts and account verification codes. Message frequency varies based on your settings and account activity.

Opting out: You may opt out of SMS messages at any time by replying STOP to any message, or by removing your phone number in Settings. After opting out, you will receive a confirmation message and no further SMS messages unless you re-enroll.

Help: For assistance with SMS messages, contact support@besidecare.com.

Message and data rates may apply. Delivery is subject to your mobile carrier's coverage and policies. We are not responsible for charges from your carrier or for delayed or undelivered messages.

8) Cookies and similar technologies

We may use cookies and similar technologies on our website and in the Service for:

• Strictly necessary purposes (security, session management, and core functionality).
• Functional purposes (remembering preferences).
• Analytics and performance measurement (to understand usage and improve the Service).
• Marketing measurement (if enabled, to understand campaign performance, not to interpret your home activity).

We may in the future use tag management tools on our website. You can control cookies via your browser settings and, where available, our consent controls. Disabling certain cookies may limit functionality.

9) Video and audio handling

A) No footage retention (normal operation)

We do not store or retain your raw video footage as part of normal operation. If a clip is requested to generate an Output, it is processed and then discarded, subject to brief, transient technical handling required to transmit and process the data.

B) Rare exceptions

We may temporarily retain limited data if:

• You explicitly opt in to a troubleshooting workflow (for example, sharing a specific event with support), or
• Retention is required for security, abuse prevention, or legal compliance.

If we introduce any feature that materially changes our media-handling posture, we will update this policy and provide notice as required.

10) AI processing

The Service uses paid AI services to transform event metadata, and if enabled, short media clips, into Outputs. Our current AI providers include Google Vertex AI (Gemini), Amazon Bedrock, and Cloudflare Workers AI. We use only paid, enterprise-tier endpoints that are contractually excluded from provider model training.

• No training on your data: We do not train our own models on your Content. We do not provide your Content to AI providers for model training purposes.
• Data minimization: We aim to send only the minimum information needed to generate Outputs.
• Limited human access: We do not routinely have humans review your Content. Limited access may occur for support, trust and safety, or security purposes under confidentiality and access controls.

11) How we share information

We share Personal Information only as needed to provide and secure the Service:

A) Service providers

We use vendors, consultants, and other service providers to host and operate parts of the Service (for example, hosting, databases, authentication, monitoring, email/SMS delivery, analytics, and AI summarization). These providers are authorized to process information only to provide services to us, under contractual, confidentiality, and security obligations.

B) Connected Providers you choose

If you connect a third party provider, we exchange data with that provider to enable the integration you request.

C) Legal, safety, and enforcement

We may disclose information in response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is necessary to comply in accordance with any applicable law, regulation or legal process, or as otherwise required by any applicable law, rule or regulation. Furthermore, we may disclose information if we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements or policies or to protect the rights, property and safety of us or any third party.

D) Business transfers

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, or transfer of all or a portion of our business to another company, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to standard protections.

You expressly agree and consent to the use and/or transfer of the foregoing information in connection with any of the above described proceedings. We cannot and will not be responsible for any breach of security by any third party or for any actions of any third party that receives any of the information that is disclosed to us.

12) Data retention

We retain Personal Information only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including security, dispute resolution, and legal compliance.

• Clip-level summaries and event data: automatically deleted after 90 days.
• Digest summaries: automatically deleted after 180 days.
• Account data: retained while your account is active, and for a limited period afterward for security, fraud prevention, backups, and compliance.
• Media clips: not retained in normal operation (see Section 9).
• Logs and security records: retained for a limited period to maintain security and reliability.

Backups may persist for a limited period even after deletion, and will be overwritten according to our backup cycles.

13) Security

We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect Personal Information, including encryption in transit, access controls, and least-privilege practices. No system can be guaranteed 100% secure.

14) Your choices and privacy rights

Privacy rights vary by location. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to:

• Access and receive a copy of certain Personal Information.
• Correct inaccurate Personal Information.
• Delete certain Personal Information.
• Obtain a portable copy of certain information.
• Opt out of certain processing (for example, targeted advertising, sale, or certain profiling), where applicable.
• Appeal certain decisions we make regarding your request, where required by law.

How to submit a request

Email privacy@besidecare.com with your request. We will verify your identity before responding and may request additional information to protect your account. Authorized agents may submit requests where allowed by law, subject to verification of authority.

California and other state disclosures

We do not sell Personal Information, and we do not share Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms may be defined under certain laws. If we ever change this in a way that triggers opt-out rights, we will provide a clear opt-out method and honor applicable preference signals where required.

Do Not Track

Some browsers transmit a "Do Not Track" (DNT) signal. Because there is no industry-accepted standard for how to respond to DNT signals, the Service does not currently alter its data collection or use practices when it detects a DNT signal from your browser.

15) Household and third party notice

Beside Care is often used in homes with multiple occupants. You are responsible for ensuring you have the legal right and appropriate consent to connect devices, access events, and share Outputs with caregivers or others.

16) Children's privacy

The Service is not intended for children under 13 (or the minimum age required by local law). We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children.

17) International users

If you use the Service from outside the United States, your information may be processed in the United States and other countries where our service providers operate.

18) Third party links and services

The Service may link to or integrate with third party services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, and we are not responsible for third party privacy practices. We do not endorse, screen or approve, and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other websites or applications. Visiting these other websites or applications is at your own risk.

19) Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated policy with a new effective date. Your use of the Services constitutes your acceptance of this Privacy Policy. If changes are material, we will provide additional notice (only as required by law).

20) Other Policies

This Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with the Terms of Service, Security Policy and Vulnerability Disclosure Policy, and any other posted policies that we adopt from time to time (all of which shall be deemed to be incorporated into this Privacy Policy).

21) Severability

If any provision of this Privacy Policy or any application thereof shall be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of this Privacy Policy and any other application of such provision shall not be affected thereby.

22) Contact us