Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Betterself is a financial-wellbeing companion operated in Australia by Betterself Technologies Pty Ltd (ABN 35 696 928 097). We are committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). Our appointed Privacy Officer can be contacted at privacy@mybetterself.com.au.

This policy covers both the Betterself website (mybetterself.com.au) and the Betterself app. It replaces the separate privacy policy previously published on the website.

2. What we collect

We collect the following personal information:

• Identity data: Name and email address (provided during account registration)
• Financial data: Bank transaction descriptions and amounts (from statements you upload or transactions you enter — see section 5)
• Behavioural data: Weekly check-in responses (how your week felt and any pattern you noticed), lapses (slips you record yourself, and times a limit you set was crossed), and your use of the urge-support tools, including how you were feeling and what set it off if you choose to say
• Plan and notes: The plan you write in the app, and reflection notes you choose to save if you have turned reflection notes on
• Goal data: Wellness goals you create
• Usage data: Safety rules, notification preferences, break history
• Pay cycle: How often your pay lands and one recent pay date, if you choose to tell us for the Premium pattern view — never the amount or where it comes from, and you can remove it at any time
• AI wellness coach messages: What you type to the coach, if you turn the AI on (see sections 3 and 9 for what is sent where)
• Website sign-ups: If you use a form on mybetterself.com.au, your email address, which form you used and when you signed up (see Mailchimp in section 9)

We do not collect health records, government identifiers, or biometric data.

2a. Sensitive information

Some of the information you choose to share with Betterself may constitute sensitive information under section 6 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This includes:

• Check-in, lapse and urge-support entries describing how you are feeling, urges, or triggers (health-adjacent information)
• Patterns inferred from your bank transactions about gambling behaviour

We collect this information only with your explicit consent, given when you create your account and again each time you choose to log a check-in or connect a bank. We use it solely to provide the Betterself service to you. We do not disclose it to third parties for any purpose other than the processing necessary to operate the service (see §9). You may withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the relevant data in Settings or by closing your account.

3. How we use your data

Your data is used to:

• Provide, personalise, and improve the Betterself service
• Classify gambling transactions and calculate spend statistics
• Power the AI wellness coach and AI-written insights via Anthropic Claude, only if you turn the AI on. The AI receives what you type to the coach and a summary of your activity (your weekly limit, current streak, goal name, last mood and monthly gambling totals) — never your bank statements or transaction lines. Anything the coach infers from what you tell it appears in its reply and is not stored as a profile about you (see §9)
• Calculate gambling-free streaks and progress milestones
• Send optional email progress summaries (only with your consent)

We do not sell, share, license, or transfer your personal data to third parties for marketing, advertising, or profiling purposes.

4. Data security

• All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest
• Sessions are secured with HTTP-only cookies (7-day expiry)
• We hold no banking credentials and have no ability to move money
• Database access is restricted to our application servers only
• Data is stored with reputable cloud providers under contractual data-protection obligations

5. Bank connection

Betterself does not connect to your bank at launch and does not receive Consumer Data Right data. Your spending comes only from statements you upload or transactions you enter yourself, as described in section 5a.

5a. Statement uploads

You may upload a supported PDF, CSV or statement export. The following safeguards apply:

• Your raw statement file never reaches our servers. It is read entirely within your browser using the File API.
• After the file is loaded, we classify each transaction locally in the browser using the same keyword list applied server-side. Only transactions classified as gambling-related are identified for upload.
• Only gambling-related transactions are uploaded to your Betterself account via an encrypted HTTPS request.
• All other transactions — salary, rent, groceries, and any unrelated purchases — remain on your device and are never transmitted to us.
• After classification completes, the in-memory representation of your file is discarded. We do not cache, store, or log the raw file at any point.
• Duplicate detection is applied server-side: if you upload the same statement twice, previously imported transactions are silently skipped.

The preview screen shown before import lists every gambling transaction we are about to save, and tells you exactly how many non-gambling transactions we are discarding. You may cancel at any time.

Optional spending picture. After an import you can choose to see how gambling fits into your overall spending. If you do, your statement is sorted into spending groups on your device and only the total for each group is sent to us — never the individual transactions behind them. It stays off unless you choose it, and you can turn it off and delete the totals at any time in the app.

6. Data retention

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account (Settings → Delete my account), we begin a 24-hour grace window during which you can restore your account by clicking the link in the confirmation email sent at the time of deletion. After 24 hours, all personal data — including transaction history, check-ins, goals, AI conversation history, and streaks — is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. If a bank connection is ever active, its consent is revoked at the moment you initiate deletion, not after the grace window.

Inactive accounts: if you do not sign in for 24 months, we will send a reminder to your registered email address. If the account remains inactive for a further 3 months after that reminder, we will delete it on the same basis as an explicit deletion request.

Deletion record: after an account is deleted, Betterself keeps a deletion record containing your account identifier, a one-way hash of your email address (not the address itself) and the date of deletion, so that we can show a deletion happened and refuse any charge to a deleted account. It contains no financial data. It is kept for 7 years to comply with Australian record-keeping obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 and tax legislation, and is not used for any other purpose.

6a. Data breach notification

If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm to affected individuals, Betterself will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as soon as practicable, in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

6b. Accountability partners

You may nominate one person to receive a short weekly note about how you are going. If you do, we hold that person’s name and email address for the purpose of sending it, and nothing else.

• They never see financial information. No amounts, no merchants, no transaction details, no account information. The note says how many days you are into a gambling-free run and whether you have been checking in.
• Nothing is sent until they accept. The invitation expires after 7 days if they do not.
• They can stop it themselves, permanently, from a link in any email, without telling you and without our asking why.
• You can remove them at any time from Settings. It takes effect immediately, and they are not notified.
• We hold their details only while the arrangement is live, and delete them when it ends or when you close your account.
• They are never added to any mailing list, never sent marketing, and their address is never used for anything other than this.

If you are the partner and want your details removed, use the link in any email we have sent you, or contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@mybetterself.com.au. You do not need an account with us to make that request.

7. Product analytics

We use PostHog for anonymised product analytics to understand how features are used and improve the app over time.

• Session recording is disabled. We do not record session replays, keystrokes, or the contents of form fields
• Element-attribute values and banking/transaction interface elements are excluded from analytics capture
• Before you sign in, analytics are tied to an anonymous device identifier only. After sign-in, analytics events are associated with your account identifier so we can understand how features are used — but no banking data, transaction content, check-in content, or AI conversation content is sent to PostHog

You can opt out of product analytics at any time in Settings → Privacy.

8. Your rights

Under the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to:

• Access your personal data (Settings → Export my data)
• Correct inaccurate data (Settings → Profile)
• Delete your account and all data (Settings → Delete my account)
• Lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)

9. Third-party services and overseas disclosure

We use the following service providers to operate Betterself. Several are located outside Australia, and some store or process information in a different country from the one they are based in, so each entry names the countries involved. Your personal information is stored or processed in Australia, Singapore, Japan and the United States. Providers that run worldwide networks (Cloudflare, Google and Stripe) may also process it in other countries where they operate. By using Betterself, you acknowledge that your personal information may be disclosed to overseas recipients in those countries. We take reasonable steps to ensure these recipients handle your data in a way consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through contractual data-protection obligations.

10. Children's data (under 18)

Betterself is not directed at, and is not intended for use by, persons under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we become aware that we have collected such information, we will delete it promptly. If you believe we may have collected information from a person under 18, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@mybetterself.com.au.

11. Automated decision-making

Betterself uses automated systems to (a) classify your bank transactions as gambling-related or non-gambling-related, (b) calculate spending statistics, streaks, and progress milestones, and (c) if you turn the AI on, generate AI wellness coach replies, insights and reflections via Anthropic Claude. The coach's replies are suggestions written for you; they do not change your limits, rules or data.

These systems do not make legally significant or similarly significant decisions about you. We do not use automated processing to determine eligibility for financial products, credit, employment, insurance, or any other consequential outcome. You may correct any inaccurate classification at any time in Activity → review transactions, or contact us at privacy@mybetterself.com.au to discuss any automated processing that concerns you.

12. Direct marketing

We do not use your personal information for direct marketing without your consent. The only emails we send by default are transactional (account confirmations, password resets, security notices, policy updates). Optional emails such as progress summaries are off by default and can be enabled or disabled at any time in Settings → Notifications.

13. Cookies and similar technologies

Betterself uses the following client-side storage technologies:

• Session cookies (HTTP-only): required to keep you signed in. These expire after 7 days or when you sign out.
• PostHog cookies: store an anonymous device identifier for product analytics. Can be opted out in Settings → Privacy.
• Sentry storage: stores minimal information needed to attribute browser errors to a session. Contains no personal information.
• Storage on your device: your browser's own storage keeps small preferences, such as a notice you have dismissed, and a temporary copy of what the app has loaded so that screens open quickly.

We do not use third-party advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or cross-site tracking technologies. The website (mybetterself.com.au) sets no cookies of its own and runs no analytics or advertising scripts.

14. Government access and law enforcement

We may disclose personal information if required to do so by Australian law, court order, or to cooperate with an Australian law enforcement or regulatory authority. Where legally permitted, we will notify affected users before disclosure so you have the opportunity to challenge the request.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will give you reasonable notice of material changes by email and by a notice in the app before the new version takes effect. For changes that reduce your rights, we will give at least 7 days' prior notice. If you do not agree to a change, you may close your account at any time before it takes effect. Continued use of Betterself after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

16. Contact us

For privacy inquiries, corrections, or complaints, contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@mybetterself.com.au. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.