Privacy Policy

Sherpa (the app and sherpahabits.com) is run by Aditya Dutta, an individual based in India. There is no separate company. Aditya Dutta is the controller of your personal data, which means the person responsible for it under data protection law. "We" and "us" on this page mean Aditya Dutta operating Sherpa.

Contact for anything about your data: hello@sherpahabits.com.

Your account. You sign in with Apple or Google. We get your name and email from them. If you use Apple's Hide My Email, we only see a private relay address. Sherpa has no passwords.

Your profile. Your name, date of birth, gender and time zone, plus what you tell us during setup: your main goal, the parts of your life it affects, how strongly, and how much time you have each day.

What you do in the app. Daily check-ins, thought records, your tasks and weekly plans, your chats with Sherpa during setup and weekly reviews, summaries of those reviews, and any photos you add as captures. Sherpa also writes a short summary of the person you want to be, based on what you told it.

Base Camp. Posts, replies and trail markers you write, the thanks you give, and any reports you make about other people's content.

Digital Shield. Your blocking schedules. On Android we also store the list of apps you chose to block and a log of when a blocked app was opened, so the shield works and its stats show up in the app. On iPhone, Apple's Screen Time keeps your app choices on your device. We only receive how many apps, categories and websites you picked, never which ones.

Usage and device data. Which features you use and when, app crashes and errors, your device type and operating system, and a push notification token if you allow notifications. These events are tied to a random account ID. They never include your name, email, date of birth, gender, photos, the apps you block, or anything you wrote.

Subscriptions. If you subscribe to Sherpa Pro, Apple or Google handles the payment. We only get your subscription status (for example trial, active or expired). We never see your card details.

This website. If you request access or contact us, we keep your email address and message. We count page visits with a privacy-friendly tool that uses no cookies and doesn't identify you. The site sets no advertising cookies.

We don't collect your contacts, your location, your phone number or your advertising ID.

What you share with Sherpa is about your sexual behaviour and your mental wellbeing. Data protection law in the EU and UK treats this as special category data, and some US states treat it as sensitive. We only use it to run the features you choose to use, and we rely on your explicit consent, which you give when you set up the app and can withdraw at any time by deleting your account.

• To run the app: your daily climb, weekly plans, reviews, Digital Shield and Base Camp.
• To personalise it: Sherpa uses what you tell it to suggest tasks and spot patterns in your check-ins.
• To send the reminders and notifications you turn on.
• To check Base Camp posts before they go live and to act on reports.
• To fix bugs and understand which features help, using the usage data described above.
• To handle your subscription, answer your messages, and meet our legal obligations.

In the EU and UK, our legal bases are: performing our contract with you (running the app you signed up for), your explicit consent (for the sensitive information above), and our legitimate interest in keeping the app safe and working (moderation, security, crash and usage data).

We never sell or rent your data. We share it only with service providers that help us run Sherpa, and only what each one needs for its job:

• Cloud hosting and database: stores your account, app data and photos.
• AI model providers: power your chats with Sherpa, task and plan suggestions, search across your past reviews, and the first check on Base Camp posts. We use their paid business services, under terms that don't let them train their models on your data.
• AI quality monitoring: records AI requests and responses so we can check Sherpa's replies and fix problems.
• Analytics and crash reporting: usage events and error reports, tied to your random account ID only.
• Subscription and payment processing: Apple, Google and a subscription management service.
• Sign-in and push notifications: Apple, Google and a push notification service.
• Website hosting: runs this website and stores the emails of people who requested access.

These providers may only use your data to provide their service to us. For the current list of providers by name, email hello@sherpahabits.com.

Please leave out details that identify you or other people when you chat with Sherpa.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or if we believe it is needed to protect someone from serious harm.

Base Camp is shared with other Sherpa users, so anything you post there can be read by them. You can post as yourself (your name and zone) or anonymously, as a climber at your zone. Trail markers are anonymous both ways: the person who finds one sees only your zone, and you only see that it was found. Every post is checked before it goes live.

Data is encrypted in transit and encrypted at rest by our hosting provider. Database rules mean your account can only read your own private data. Sign-in tokens are kept in your phone's secure keychain. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach affects your data we will tell you as the law requires.

We keep your data while your account exists. You can ask for deletion in the app under Progress › Settings › Delete account, or on the delete account page.

Deletion happens 14 days after you ask. Signing in again before then cancels it. After 14 days we delete your account, profile, check-ins, thought records, tasks and plans, chats and reviews, Digital Shield data, replies, thanks and reports. If you signed in with Apple, we also revoke Sherpa's access to your Apple ID.

Some things work differently:

• Base Camp posts and trail markers stay up so replies to them still make sense, but your name and account are removed from them. If you want them gone too, delete them before deleting your account, or email us.
• Photos. If you added photos as captures, email us after requesting deletion and we will confirm they are removed.
• Usage and purchase records keep your random account ID but no longer link to any profile. Copies held by our analytics, AI monitoring and subscription providers are deleted on their own schedules.
• Base Camp notifications are cleared automatically after 90 days.

Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription. Cancel it in the App Store or Google Play.

Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, or to delete it. Email hello@sherpahabits.com and we will reply within 30 days. We may need to confirm the request comes from your account's email address.

• EU and UK: under the GDPR you can also object to or restrict processing, ask for your data in a portable format, and withdraw consent at any time. You can complain to your local data protection authority.
• US: under California law (CCPA/CPRA) and similar state laws, you have the right to know, delete and correct your data. We don't sell or share personal information for targeted advertising, and we won't treat you differently for using your rights.
• India: under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act you can also nominate someone to act for you. Grievances go to Aditya Dutta at hello@sherpahabits.com.

Sherpa is for adults. You must be 18 or older to use it. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18, and if we learn we have, we delete it.

Sherpa is run from India, and our service providers process data in other countries, including the United States. When data leaves the EU or UK, we rely on our providers' standard contractual clauses or other safeguards the law accepts.

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use your data in a meaningful way, we will tell you in the app before it applies.

Aditya Dutta, Sherpa: hello@sherpahabits.com