Last updated: June 13, 2026
Bernie is an AI-powered fraud awareness service for seniors, operated by AI for the People LLC ("Bernie," "we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Notice explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we protect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have, including specific rights for residents of California, other U.S. states, and the EEA and UK.
Bernie is not a medical, legal, or financial service. We encourage families to remind their loved ones not to share Social Security numbers, account passwords, or detailed health information when texting Bernie.
AI for the People LLC is the controller responsible for your personal information. For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at privacy@textbernie.me or at the address in the Contact section below.
We provide a short notice at the point of collection (on the enrollment form, and in Bernie's first text message to an enrolled senior) that summarizes what we collect and links to this notice.
When a caretaker enrolls a senior: names, phone numbers, your relationship to your loved one, and the caretaker's email address (for alerts and account management).
When a senior texts Bernie: the message content (including any images or screenshots shared), Bernie's reply, threat-assessment metadata (such as scam type and severity), and response timing. To assess a message, Bernie sends its full content to our AI provider (Anthropic). When we store logs and traces, we apply best-effort automated redaction of common sensitive patterns (such as Social Security, credit card, and bank account numbers, and phone numbers). This redaction is automated and is not guaranteed to catch every sensitive detail, particularly content inside images. This is why we ask families to remind loved ones not to share Social Security numbers, passwords, or detailed health information.
Billing information: if you subscribe to a paid plan, our payment processor (Stripe) collects your payment details. We do not store full payment card numbers.
Automatically collected: basic technical data needed to operate and secure the Service, such as limited log and device data. See Cookies below for website data.
For California disclosure purposes, the categories above include identifiers, customer records, commercial information (subscription), internet or network activity, and the content of communications.
We use personal information to:
For individuals in the EEA and UK, our legal bases are: performance of our contract with you, your consent (which you may withdraw), our legitimate interests in operating and improving the Service, and compliance with legal obligations.
Because seniors forward suspicious messages, the content they share may sometimes include sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, or health details. Under California law, some of this is "sensitive personal information." We do not ask for this information, and we encourage families to keep it out of messages to Bernie. When it is shared, we use it only to provide the Service (to assess whether a message is a scam), we do not use it to infer characteristics about you, and we apply best-effort redaction before storing logs. You may ask us to limit the use of sensitive personal information by emailing privacy@textbernie.me.
We do not sell your personal information for money, and we do not use it for third-party advertising or cross-context behavioral advertising. As of the date of this notice, we have not sold personal information.
We honor opt-out preference signals such as Global Privacy Control (GPC) sent by your browser.
We share personal information only with service providers who process data on our behalf, under contracts that limit their use of the data to providing services to us:
| Subprocessor | Purpose | Data |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude AI for fraud assessment | Elder messages, system prompt, replies |
| Langfuse | LLM tracing for product improvement | Redacted prompt/reply text, latency, tokens |
| Twilio | SMS delivery | Phone numbers, message content |
| Supabase | Database | All app data (families, elders, alerts, conversations) |
| Stripe | Payment processing | Caretaker billing details |
| Resend | Caretaker email (alerts and notifications) | Caretaker email address, alert and transactional content |
| Railway | App hosting | All data in transit |
We may also disclose information if required by law, to enforce our Terms, to protect the rights, safety, or property of users or the public, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets (with notice as required by law).
We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information, including: encryption of data in transit, best-effort automated redaction of common sensitive patterns before we store logs and traces, row-level access controls in our database, and limited internal access on a need-to-know basis. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and to address vulnerabilities promptly.
If we become aware of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify affected users and any regulators as required by applicable law.
We are based in the United States, and our service providers process and store data in the United States. If you access Bernie from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States. For transfers of EEA or UK personal data, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses where required.
We retain personal information for as long as needed for the purpose it was collected:
We may retain information longer where required by law or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims (a legal hold). If retention periods change, enrolled families will be notified before the change takes effect.
Our website uses only the cookies that are essential for the site to function. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. You can manage or clear cookies at any time through your browser settings.
You can request to access, correct, or delete your data at any time by emailing privacy@textbernie.me. Please include the phone number associated with the account so we can verify the request. We will respond within the time required by applicable law (generally within 30 to 45 days). An authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf with proof of authorization. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
Seniors can opt out of Bernie at any time by texting STOP to Bernie's number. This immediately stops all SMS communication and removes the senior from active monitoring.
If you are a California resident, you have the right to:
Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. We do not sell or share your personal information. You may submit a privacy request by emailing privacy@textbernie.me, and we honor opt-out preference signals such as Global Privacy Control (GPC) sent by your browser.
Under California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code 1798.83), we do not share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing. To exercise any California right, email privacy@textbernie.me. We will verify your request and may use an authorized agent process.
If you are a resident of a U.S. state with a comprehensive privacy law (including, for example, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, and Montana), you have the right to confirm whether we process your personal information, to access, correct, and delete it, to obtain a portable copy, and to opt out of any sale or targeted advertising (we do none of these). You also have the right to appeal a decision on your request. To exercise these rights or appeal, email privacy@textbernie.me. We extend these core rights to all U.S. residents regardless of state.
If you are in the EEA or UK, you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, and port your personal information, to object to certain processing, and to withdraw consent at any time (which does not affect prior processing). Our legal bases are described above. Your data is processed in the United States under appropriate safeguards. You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority. To exercise these rights, contact privacy@textbernie.me.
Bernie is intended for adults. The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact privacy@textbernie.me and we will delete it.
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will post the updated version with a new "Last updated" date and, for material changes, notify enrolled caretakers by email. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acknowledgement of the updated notice.
AI for the People LLC
c/o Harvard Business Services, Inc.
16192 Coastal Highway
Lewes, DE 19958
Privacy inquiries: privacy@textbernie.me
Terms of Service