Privacy Policy

Overview

Bigger Than Pain is a personalised recovery platform for people living with persistent pain. To deliver that experience, we collect and process health-related information about you.

Here is the short version:

• In the app, your data is encrypted on your device and in transit between your device and our servers. On our website, everything you send us is encrypted in transit.
• Our servers process your data in readable form to deliver the service - including AI-guided support, personalised movement plans, and recovery tracking.
• We never sell your data or share it with advertisers. We use it to deliver the service. If you request a Clarity Report, we also send you occasional emails from David, and every one lets you unsubscribe.
• If you have an account, you can export or delete all of your data at any time. If you only requested a Clarity Report, email us and we will delete your details.
• If you request a free Clarity Report on our website, the Clarity Report section explains exactly what happens to your answers.

The rest of this document explains the details.

Who we are

Bigger Than Pain is operated by BiggerThanPain Limited, based in Ireland. For the purposes of EU data protection law (GDPR), we are the data controller.

If you are also a patient at David Mc Gettigan Clinic (Dublin or Monaghan) and your BTP account is linked to your clinic record, the same data controller operates both systems. The clinic and BTP are first-party related services under the same controller - your data is not shared with any third party as part of that link.

If you have questions about how your data is handled, you can reach us at support@biggerthanpain.com.

What we collect

We collect different types of information depending on how you use the platform:

Account information

Your email address, a hashed version of your password (we never store your actual password), and basic profile data. This is needed to create and secure your account.

Onboarding assessment

When you first use Bigger Than Pain, you complete a structured assessment covering your pain history, affected body areas, sleep, stress, movement tolerance, and recovery goals. This generates your personalised onboarding report and shapes every part of the system. (The free Clarity Report on our website is separate and does not need an account; see Clarity Report below.)

Chat conversations

Messages you exchange with Biggie, your AI guide. These conversations are stored so that Biggie can learn your context over time and provide more relevant guidance. Conversations include your messages, Biggie's responses, and analytical metadata used to improve the quality of support.

Pain tracking

Pain levels, body locations, triggers, activities, mood, sleep quality, stress levels, weather conditions, and any notes you add. This data powers your pattern insights and feeds into your recovery direction.

Movement and exercise data

Your movement plans, session completions, confidence and tolerance ratings, pain before and after exercise, and progression history. This shapes how your movement plan adapts over time.

Flare-up records

When you log a flare, we store its intensity, duration, triggers, body area, and any regulation or management actions you took. This helps the system adapt during difficult periods.

Recovery tracking

The Functional Recovery Engine computes weekly snapshots of your recovery direction across multiple domains. These snapshots are stored to show you how your recovery is progressing over time.

Video and learning activity

Which educational videos you watch, how far you get, any notes you take, and your progress through learning pathways. This helps the system recommend relevant content.

Payment information

If you subscribe, payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe. We never see or store your card details. We store your Stripe customer ID and subscription status to manage your access.

Wearable data (optional)

If you connect a wearable device (Apple Health, Fitbit, Garmin, Google Fit, Oura, or WHOOP), we receive sleep, activity, heart rate, and recovery metrics from that platform. This connection is entirely optional and can be revoked at any time.

Usage analytics (with your consent)

If you consent, we collect basic usage events - which features you use, page views, and session data. This helps us understand how the platform is being used and where to improve it. No analytics data is collected without your explicit consent, and no data is sent to third-party analytics services. The record of how you use the Home cards, described next, is separate and is kept for every member.

How you use the Home cards (every member)

Home suggests a few next steps, such as continuing your learning, a quick check-in or a chat with Biggie. To check that these suggestions work and lead where they say, we keep a simple record for every member: which cards you were shown, which you tapped or closed, whether the screen a card leads to opened, and whether you did what it suggested within a day.

The record is made of fixed labels only, such as the card's name and "tapped". It never includes your pain scores, anything you wrote, your location, your IP address or details of your device. It stays in our own database and is not sent to any analytics service. Because some cards relate to your health (for example Flare Support or a check-in result), we treat it as health data. We keep it for 12 months and then delete it automatically. It is included when you download your data, it is deleted when you delete your account, and you can object to it at any time (see Your rights).

Clarity Report

The Clarity Report is a free, personalised report you can ask for on our website by answering a short set of questions. You do not need an account. This section explains what happens to the information you give us.

What we collect

• Your first name and email address.
• Your answers to the questions: how long you have had pain and your symptoms, what you have tried, your experience with medical care, your biggest concern, flare-ups, and sleep and energy. These answers are health information.
• How you found us (for example the source, campaign and landing page), if that information is available.

Why we use it

• To write and send your report. Your answers are sent securely to our server, which uses them to choose the education and movement suggestions in your report. An AI model writes the personal summary, and we email you a PDF copy.
• To know which of our content helps people find us. We keep your name, email address and how you found us.
• Occasional emails from David. The Clarity Report is free, and requesting it adds your email address to our mailing list, as the form tells you before you send it. You then get occasional emails from David about recovering from pain. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can unsubscribe at any time; you will still have your report.
• If your answers suggest you may be at risk. If what you write suggests you may be thinking of ending your life or harming yourself, we do not write a report. Instead we show you, and email you, where to get support straight away, and David is told your first name and email address so he can reach out. Your answers are not passed on.

Our reasons in plain terms

• We use your answers because you asked us to write your report from them, and we use them for nothing else.
• We send you occasional emails because you gave us your email address for a free report after being told it includes them. Unsubscribing stops them straight away, with no effect on your report.

What we keep, and what we don't

• We do not save your answers or your report in our database.
• We keep a record of your name, email address and how you found us until you ask us to delete it.
• Your email address is held in our server's memory for 15 minutes to stop repeat requests, and our servers' operational logs may record it for security and troubleshooting.
• So that a page refresh doesn't lose your report, the page keeps a copy in your browser tab (session storage) for up to 24 hours. This copy is not encrypted, stays on your device, and is cleared when you close the tab.
• You stay on our mailing list until you unsubscribe.

Who processes it for us

We use trusted providers (processors) who handle your information on our behalf. We don't sell it to anyone.

• Anthropic (AI model provider) receives your first name and your answers to write the summary in your report. As described in AI and your data, Anthropic does not use API inputs to train its models and may keep them for up to 30 days for trust and safety.
• Resend (email delivery provider) sends your report to you. It receives your email address and the report PDF, and keeps sent messages for its own limited retention period.
• Kit (email marketing provider) sends the occasional emails from David. It receives your email address, first name and how you found us, and how you interact with the emails.
• Our hosting and database providers run the website and servers that your request passes through, and store the record described above.

Your choices

To have your details deleted, or to ask what we hold about you, email support@biggerthanpain.com. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the link in any email.

How we use your data

Everything we collect serves one purpose: to deliver and improve your personalised recovery experience. Specifically:

• Personalisation - Your onboarding data, tracking history, and conversation context are used to tailor Biggie's guidance, your movement plan, and your learning pathway.
• Pattern recognition - Pain tracking and flare data are analysed to surface patterns in your triggers, activities, and recovery trends.
• Recovery tracking - Weekly snapshots measure your progress across body confidence, nervous system regulation, and functional capacity.
• Safety monitoring - The system flags clinical concerns (such as signs of distress or crisis) to ensure support remains safe and responsible.
• Improving the app's guidance - The record of how you use the Home cards shows us which suggestions help and which lead nowhere, so we can fix them. It is not used to make decisions about you.
• Service delivery - Account management, notifications, email communications, and subscription management.
• Marketing emails - Occasional emails from David when you request a Clarity Report (you are told at the point you give your email) or otherwise ask for them. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Legal basis (GDPR): We process your health data on the basis of your explicit consent, which you provide when you create an account and complete onboarding (Article 9(2)(a) explicit consent). We process account and payment data on the basis of contractual necessity (Article 6(1)(b) - delivering the service you subscribed to). We process clinical safety monitoring (such as crisis-language detection and clinical flag escalation) on the basis of legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)), balanced against your interests as a data subject. The legitimate interest is keeping you safe and ensuring the service responds appropriately to clinical concerns. We keep the record of how you use the Home cards on the basis of legitimate interest too (Article 6(1)(f)): making sure the guidance in the app works and leads where it says. Because some cards relate to your health, that record is also covered by the explicit consent you give for your health data (Article 9(2)(a)). Where you are also a clinic client and you have linked your BTP account to your clinic record (see the section below), the cross-system data sharing operates under your separate explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)) captured at the point of linkage. Our Legitimate Interest Assessment is documented in our Information Governance Framework, available on request.

AI and your data

Biggie, your AI guide, is powered by Anthropic's Claude language model. When you chat with Biggie, your messages and relevant context (such as your onboarding summary, recent tracking data, and conversation history) are sent to Anthropic's API for processing.

This means:

• Anthropic receives your messages in readable form in order to generate responses.
• Anthropic does not use API inputs to train their models. This is contractually committed in their commercial API terms.
• Anthropic may retain API inputs for up to 30 days for trust and safety purposes (abuse detection), after which they are deleted.
• No other AI provider receives your personal data. Biggie and the free Clarity Report on our website are the only features that send your personal information to an AI model, and both use Anthropic.

We also use OpenAI's embedding model to power semantic search of educational content (the Vault). This processes course and video content only - your personal data, messages, and health records are never sent to OpenAI.

Third-party services

We use a small number of third-party services to operate the platform. Here is exactly who they are and what data they receive:

We do not use any third-party advertising or tracking services. We do not embed social media pixels or advertising scripts. There is no Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or similar technology on this platform. The only measurement on our marketing website is the anonymous, cookieless page-view counting and the optional attribution cookie described in the Cookies section below. A full technical Record of Processing Activities is maintained internally and is available on request to regulators or users exercising their data rights.

Encryption and security

We take the security of your data seriously, particularly given the sensitive nature of health information. Here is exactly what we do:

• Encrypted in transit - All data between your device and our servers is encrypted via HTTPS/TLS.
• Encrypted on your device - Sensitive data cached on your device (such as chat history and tracking data) is encrypted using AES-256-GCM before being stored in your browser. The encryption keys never leave your device. This applies to the app. The free Clarity Report on our website does not use device encryption: the page keeps your report in your browser tab for up to 24 hours so a refresh doesn't lose it (see Clarity Report).
• Passwords - Your password is hashed using bcrypt before storage. We never store or have access to your actual password.
• Authentication - Sessions are managed via short-lived JWT tokens with HTTP-only refresh cookies.

What this means in practice: Your data is protected against interception in transit and against unauthorised access on your device. On our servers, your data is stored in a form that allows us to process it and deliver the service. We do not claim end-to-end encryption - the server needs to read your data to power features like Biggie, pattern analysis, and recovery tracking.

Clinical quality monitoring

To ensure the Platform operates safely and responsibly, the founder and clinical team may review system-generated summaries of AI interactions and inferred recovery patterns. This review is for quality assurance, safety monitoring, and clinical improvement purposes only.

This access is logged and controlled. No data reviewed in this way is shared with any third party. The purpose is to ensure that the AI guide (Biggie) is responding safely and appropriately, and that system-inferred patterns (such as recovery phase assignments) are functioning as intended.

If you are also a clinic client

Some users of Bigger Than Pain are also patients at David Mc Gettigan Clinic (Dublin or Monaghan). If you are, your BTP account may be linked to your clinic patient record to enable integrated care. This section explains what that means.

What linkage is

Linkage is a cross-reference between two separate systems - BTP and the clinic's patient-records system. It is not data merging. Each system keeps its own data. The link simply allows your clinician (David) to view BTP-derived signals alongside your clinical record when preparing for your appointments.

How linkage happens

If you sign up via a private link shared by David from the clinic (for example, in a follow-up email after your first appointment), our signup process checks whether your email matches a clinic patient record. If it does, you're asked to confirm a 6-digit verification code sent to that email. This proves you own the clinic-registered email and links your accounts. Linkage is never automatic and never set by us without you completing the signup and verification step.

You can use BTP without being linked to your clinic record even if you are a clinic patient - simply sign up via our public signup page instead.

What data flows once you are linked

Once linked, an automated daily process (running at 07:00 in our internal system) assembles a clinician briefing that includes aggregated signals from your BTP account. The signals are:

• Your recovery direction (the BTP four-domain summary)
• Recent flare events (last seven days)
• Your top three triggers and top three helpers from pattern tracking
• Your conversation mood trend
• Orchestration signals the system surfaces about your trajectory

The briefing does not include raw conversation text with Biggie, your full pain-tracking history, or any data not summarised in the bullets above.

Who can access it

The briefing is sent only to David - your clinician - by email. No third party sees this briefing. The two systems (BTP and clinic) communicate over a private internal channel with shared-secret authentication; the cross-system flow operates within first-party clinic infrastructure.

Future use

We may, in future, expand this integration to write between-session summaries derived from BTP signals into your clinical record as treatment notes. We will update this policy and notify you before any such change goes live.

Your control

You can decline to link your BTP account at the time linkage is offered. You can ask us to unlink an existing link at any time by emailing support@biggerthanpain.com. Unlinking removes the cross-reference between systems but does not delete data on either side - see Your rights for what deletion does in each system.

Data retention

We retain your data for as long as you have an active account. Different types of data have different handling:

• Chat conversations - Conversations older than 60 days or exceeding 200 messages are automatically trimmed. The system keeps your most recent 50 messages and generates a summary of earlier exchanges. This prevents unbounded data growth while preserving context.
• Anthropic-side retention - Chat content also flows to Anthropic for AI processing as described in the AI and your data section. Anthropic's separate retention of API inputs (up to 30 days) operates independently of our retention of conversation data.
• Pain tracking, movement, and recovery data - Retained for the life of your account. This history is essential for tracking your recovery progress over time.
• Clarity Report - Your answers and report are not stored in our database. Your name, email address and how you found us are kept until you ask us to delete them; see Clarity Report.
• How you use the Home cards - Kept for 12 months, then deleted automatically.
• Backups - Each night we keep an encrypted copy of our database so the service can be recovered if something goes wrong. Backups are kept for 30 days and then deleted, so after you delete your account your data is gone from every backup within 30 days.
• Login codes and password reset tokens - Expire within minutes and are cleaned up automatically.
• Payment data - Stripe retains payment records per their own retention policy (typically three years for compliance purposes). We store only your customer ID and subscription status.

When you close your account, you can choose to suspend it for 90 days (keeping all your data safe in case you return) or permanently delete everything immediately. If you choose suspension, your data is automatically and permanently deleted after 90 days if you do not reactivate. We will email you a reminder 10 days before permanent deletion. See Your rights for details.

Your rights

Under GDPR and Irish data protection law, you have the following rights:

• Access - You can export a complete copy of your data at any time from your account settings. The export includes your profile, conversations, pain tracking, movement history, assessments, recovery snapshots, video activity, and more.
• Correction - You can update your profile information directly in the app. For corrections to other data, contact us.
• Deletion - You can permanently delete your account and all associated data from your account settings. This process requires email verification for security. When confirmed, your Stripe subscription is cancelled, your Stripe customer record is deleted, and all BTP data across our database is permanently removed via cascading deletion. If you only requested a Clarity Report and have no account, email us and we will delete your details, including from our mailing list.

  If you are also a clinic client: deleting your BTP account removes your BTP data only. Any clinical notes or summaries already in your patient record at David Mc Gettigan Clinic are separately retained for at least 7 years from your last clinical session.

  Legal basis for that retention: GDPR Article 17(3)(e) permits retention where processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims, and Article 6(1)(f) recognises the clinic's legitimate interest in defending against potential professional-liability claims. The 7-year period is anchored in the 6-year limitation period for breach of contract claims under the Irish Statute of Limitations Act 1957 (as amended), with a one-year operational buffer.

  What happens to the link between systems when you delete BTP: the cross-reference pointer (the link itself) is nulled on the clinic side as part of the deletion event. The clinical record fields (your name, contact details, clinical notes, appointment history, etc.) are not touched.

  To request changes to your clinical record itself, contact the clinic directly at david@davidmcgettiganclinic.com.

• Data portability - Your data export is provided in JSON format, which can be used to transfer your data to another service.
• Withdraw consent - You can withdraw consent for optional data processing (such as analytics or marketing communications) at any time through your account settings, or by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email. Because the service cannot function without processing your health data, withdrawing consent for core health data processing is equivalent to closing your account, which triggers our deletion process. You retain the right to do this at any time.
• Object - Where we rely on legitimate interest (the record of how you use the Home cards, and safety monitoring), you can object by emailing support@biggerthanpain.com. We will stop unless we have a compelling reason to continue, such as keeping you safe.
• Lodge a complaint - You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission at www.dataprotection.ie.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@biggerthanpain.com or use the tools in your account settings.

Cookies and local storage

Bigger Than Pain is a progressive web app (PWA). We use a small number of browser storage mechanisms to operate:

• HTTP-only cookies - Used for secure session management (refresh tokens). These cannot be read by JavaScript and are essential for keeping you logged in.
• Local storage - Used for UI preferences (dark mode, panel states) and non-sensitive identifiers (such as your active conversation ID). No health data is stored in local storage.
• Session storage - On the Clarity Report page of our website, your report is kept in your browser tab for up to 24 hours so a refresh doesn't lose it. It is not encrypted and is cleared when you close the tab.
• IndexedDB - Used for encrypted client-side data caching. Sensitive data (chat messages, tracking data) is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before being written here. The encryption keys are non-extractable and never leave your device.

• Attribution cookie (optional, with your consent) - On our marketing website we ask whether we may set one first-party cookie (named btp_attr) that remembers how you first found us - for example, which video, post, or email link brought you here. It stores only that source information (never health data, never form content), lives for 90 days, and is not shared with or readable by any third party. If you decline, nothing is stored and the site works exactly the same. If you request a Clarity Report, this source information is saved with your email in our records and in our email marketing tool. If you later create an account, this source information is attached to your account record so we know which of our content is genuinely helping people find us.

We do not use advertising cookies or any third-party cookies.

Anonymous page-view counting. Our marketing website counts page views and time on page in aggregate using PostHog, an EU-hosted analytics service, in a cookieless mode: nothing is stored on your device, no cross-visit profile is built, and no advertising identifiers are involved. These counts tell us which pages and traffic sources are read most, and nothing about you individually.

Children

Bigger Than Pain is not designed for or directed at anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you via email or an in-app notification before the changes take effect. We will not reduce your rights under this policy without your explicit consent.

Contact

If you have any questions about this policy or how your data is handled:

• Email: support@biggerthanpain.com
• Data Protection Commission Ireland: www.dataprotection.ie