Privacy Policy

1. Data Controller

AskFredd was conceived and created by Federico Baranzini, who acts as the data controller for the limited processing described in this policy. For any privacy-related request, you can reach out through his contact page.

2. What Data We Process

AskFredd is intentionally minimal in its data handling:

• No account data. We do not ask you to sign up, and we do not collect your name, email address, or any contact details.
• Questions you type. The queries you submit are sent to our AI service and to a web-search provider so we can generate an answer. They are processed to produce your response and are not linked to your identity.
• Voice input (optional). The homepage features a microphone button that lets you dictate your question by voice instead of typing it. Its use is entirely voluntary: the feature activates only when you press the button and grant microphone permission in your browser. Audio is converted to text directly in your browser using the browser’s built-in speech-recognition API (Web Speech API); no audio recording is sent to our servers, stored, or retained in any way. Once the transcription is complete, the resulting text query is handled exactly like a typed question (see above).
• Technical data. Like most websites, our servers may temporarily process technical information such as your IP address and basic request logs, strictly for security, abuse prevention (rate limiting), and to keep the service running.
• Cookies and local preferences. We use a few essential local preferences (your cookie-consent choice, theme, and acknowledgement of the AI notice) stored in your own browser. With your explicit consent we also use a traffic-analytics tool (see section 6); without consent no analytics tool is ever loaded. We do not use advertising cookies.

3. Please Do Not Share Personal Health Information

AskFredd is an educational tool, not a clinical service. We strongly advise you not to enter personal identifying information or your own health details (such as your name, medical history, or specific symptoms tied to you) into the search box. Ask questions in general, educational terms instead. We do not create patient records and do not want to receive sensitive personal data.

4. Reporting a Problematic Response

Each AI answer includes a report button (triangle icon) that lets you flag a response you consider inaccurate, potentially dangerous, poorly sourced, inappropriate, or affected by a technical problem. When you send a report, an email is delivered to the person responsible for the tool so the content can be reviewed and improved. To allow this review, the report includes the question and the answer involved, plus any optional note you choose to add.

Because the report is sent by email, please do not include any identifying or personal information in it. Do not type names, surnames, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, or any detail that could identify you or another person — either in your original question or in the optional note. Describe the problem in general terms only. The optional note is free text: whatever you write there will be sent as-is, so keep it strictly about the content issue.

Reports are used solely to check and improve the quality and safety of the answers. They are not used to build a profile of you or to retrain the AI models. This feature is optional: it is used only when you actively choose to send a report.

5. Purpose and Legal Basis

We process the limited data above only to:

• generate answers to your questions and display relevant sources;
• keep the service secure, stable, and free from abuse;
• remember your cookie and display preferences on your device.

For users in the European Union, the legal basis is our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) in providing and securing the service, and your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) for non-essential storage where applicable. For users outside the EU, we apply these same principles as our baseline standard everywhere.

6. Third-Party Service Providers and Traffic Analytics

To operate, AskFredd relies on a small number of specialised providers that process your queries on our behalf:

• an AI language model provider, which generates the educational answers;
• a web-search provider, which retrieves live results and sources from the internet;
• our hosting and infrastructure provider, which runs the website.

These providers act as data processors and only receive what is necessary to perform their function. We do not sell, rent, or trade any data with anyone.

Behaviour analytics (SiteBehaviour) — only with your consent

To understand how the site is used and to improve its content and interface, we use SiteBehaviour, a user-behaviour analytics tool. It is disabled by default and is loaded only after you give explicit consent to analytics through the cookie banner or the preference centre. If you decline, or make no choice at all, the script is never loaded and no analytics data is collected.

When analytics are enabled, SiteBehaviour may collect usage data — pages visited, clicks, mouse movement, and navigation path — and in particular it uses heatmaps, session recordings, page-content recording, and feedback recording. These features can capture what you view and how you interact with the pages. Data is processed through SiteBehaviour’s infrastructure (endpoint sitebehaviour-cdn.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com, EU region — Frankfurt). The legal basis is solely your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

Important health-data notice. Because AskFredd covers mental-health topics, session and page-content recordings could capture the questions you type and the answers you view, which may reveal special-category data (Art. 9 GDPR). For this reason we again ask you not to enter your name or any personal or identifying health information in the search box.

You can withdraw consent at any time: use the Cookie preferences button at the bottom of every page. On withdrawal the script is removed and tracking stops. More details in our Cookie Policy.

Google Search Console

We also use Google Search Console, a Google service that helps us monitor the site’s presence in Google Search results (for example the queries that lead to the site, impressions, and ranking). Search Console gives us aggregated, anonymous data about performance in Google Search and does not require any cookie or tracking script to be installed on the site; it therefore does not depend on cookie consent and cannot identify you individually.

7. International Data Transfers (Users Inside and Outside the EU)

AskFredd is accessible worldwide. Because our AI, search, and hosting providers may operate servers in various countries — including outside the European Economic Area, such as the United States — your queries may be processed in a country whose data-protection laws differ from those of your own.

If you are in the EU/EEA: such transfers are made on an occasional basis and rely on appropriate safeguards where available (for example, Standard Contractual Clauses) and, where those do not apply, on the exception for transfers necessary to provide a service you have actively requested (Art. 49 GDPR).

If you are outside the EU/EEA (for example in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Latin America, or elsewhere): by using AskFredd you understand that your queries are processed internationally in order to deliver the service. We still apply the minimal-data and no-profiling principles described here regardless of your location.

8. Data Retention

Conversations are session-based: the questions and answers shown in your browser are not stored in a personal profile and are cleared when you close or refresh the session. Technical security logs are kept only for the short time needed for security and abuse-prevention purposes, then deleted or anonymised.

9. No Ad Profiling or Automated Decisions About You

We do not track you across other websites for advertising, we do not sell your data, and we do not make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you. If you consent to analytics (see section 6), we analyse usage behaviour solely to improve the site, without linking that data to your identity and without using it for targeted advertising. The AI generates general educational content only.

10. Artificial Intelligence and the EU AI Act

AskFredd is an automated AI system. When you use it, you interact with software, not with a person, and no human or clinician reviews the answers before they are shown to you. In line with the transparency obligations of the EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50), we make this clear through a permanent notice in the chat and a mandatory acknowledgement before you can start.

The educational answers are synthetic content generated entirely by artificial intelligence, using large language models accessed through the Abacus.AI platform together with real-time web search. Your queries are sent to these providers only to generate your answer; they are not used to build a profile of you and are not used to retrain the AI models.

Because this tool covers mental-health topics, anything you type could reveal sensitive information (special-category data under Art. 9 GDPR). For this reason we ask you not to enter your name, other people’s names, or any personal or identifying health information in the chat. Full details are set out in our AI Policy.

11. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal data. For EU/EEA users under the GDPR these include the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, and data portability, as well as the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Users in other regions (for example under UK GDPR, or US state privacy laws such as the CCPA/CPRA) may have comparable rights.

Because we do not maintain accounts or user profiles, we typically hold no personal data that can be linked to you individually. If you believe we process data concerning you, you may contact us through the contact page and we will respond in line with applicable law.

12. Children

AskFredd is intended for adults, in particular healthcare professionals and informed members of the public. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from minors.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in applicable law. The most current version will always be available on this page, with the “Last updated” date revised accordingly.

14. Related Information

Please also read our AI Policy, our Disclaimer & Terms of Use, and our Cookie Policy. If you or someone you know is in crisis, see our Emergency Resources page.