Privacy Policy
Your body's data, handled with care.
TwinSelf works with some of the most personal information there is — what your body is doing, day to day. This policy explains, in plain terms, what we collect, where it travels, who touches it, and the control you keep over all of it.
The short version
- We don't diagnose. TwinSelf nudges, summarises, and links you to a human professional. Clinical decisions are always routed to a person, never made by the app.
- Your name never goes to the AI. Before any health summary is sent to our AI provider, it is stripped of information that identifies you.
- We never sell your data. Not to advertisers, not to anyone.
- You stay in control. You can ask to see, correct, or delete your information, or withdraw consent, at any time.
- Health data gets the highest protection. We treat it as Special Personal Information under South African law and only process it with your explicit consent.
Who we are
TwinSelf is a clinician-governed digital health companion operated by Otto Health (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/489859/07), a private company incorporated in South Africa. In this policy, "TwinSelf", "we", "us", and "our" refer to Otto Health (Pty) Ltd, which is the responsible party for your personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
Our details
- Registered office: Cottage 4 Kleindasbosch Farm, Blaauwklippen Road, Stellenbosch, 7600
- Information Officer: Nicolaas Johannes Albertus Smit
- Privacy contact: privacy@mytwinself.com
TwinSelf is not a medical service
TwinSelf is a wellness and longevity platform. It is not a medical device, it does not diagnose conditions, and it does not replace advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified healthcare professional. Where a question falls outside general wellbeing, TwinSelf gives you a general answer and directs you to the appropriate kind of professional.
If you are experiencing a medical emergency — including chest pain, fainting, sudden neurological symptoms, a severe allergic reaction, or thoughts of harming yourself — do not wait for TwinSelf. Contact emergency services immediately on 10177 (ambulance) or 112 from a mobile phone, or go to your nearest emergency department.
Your consent
By signing up for and using TwinSelf, and by connecting a device or sharing health information with us, you consent to the processing of your personal information as described in this policy. Because health information is Special Personal Information under POPIA, we rely on your explicit consent to process it — given when you join and each time you connect a new data source.
You can withdraw your consent at any time (see Your rights). Withdrawing consent doesn't affect processing that already lawfully took place, but it means we'll stop the relevant processing going forward, and in most cases that will mean we can no longer provide the service.
What we collect
Identity & contact information
- Your name, WhatsApp number, and email address
- Account and sign-up details, including your general location, used to refer you to nearby professionals
Health & wellness information (Special Personal Information)
- Wearable and sensor metrics — for example heart rate, heart-rate variability, sleep, recovery and readiness, activity and steps, and where you connect them, blood glucose and blood pressure
- Lab results and health history you choose to share
- Photos you send (for example, meal photos), which we process to extract structured information
- The content of the messages you exchange with TwinSelf
Technical information
- Connection tokens that let us retrieve data from devices you link
- Basic technical and usage logs needed to operate and secure the service
How we collect it
We collect information in three ways:
- Directly from you — when you message TwinSelf on WhatsApp, send a photo, or provide health details.
- From devices you connect — once you authorise a wearable (such as Garmin, Whoop, Oura, Withings, or a connected glucose monitor), we retrieve the relevant metrics through our wearable integration and store them in your record.
- From Apple Health, during our pilot — if you take part in our early-access pilot on an iPhone, we use a third-party app, Health Auto Export, to send a selected set of your Apple Health metrics to a secure endpoint we control. The flow is:
Health Auto Export acts only as a pass-through pipe: it has no account, keeps no copy of your data, and can only read Health data you permit — it cannot see your messages or other apps. The endpoint is protected by an access token. You choose to take part, and you can stop the export at any time by removing it on your phone.
Why we use it
We process your information to:
- Build and maintain your health companion, so it understands your trends and context
- Give you general wellbeing guidance, summaries, and timely nudges
- Recognise when something should be looked at by a professional, and route you to the right kind of provider near you
- Operate, secure, support, and improve the service
- Meet our legal and regulatory obligations
Our lawful basis for processing your personal information — and our explicit-consent basis for health information — is the consent you give us. We process only what we need for these purposes.
How AI is used
TwinSelf uses a large language model, provided by Anthropic, to generate its responses. We've designed the flow to protect you:
- De-identification first. Before a health summary is sent to the AI provider for a response, it is stripped of information that directly identifies you. The AI works with your health picture, not your identity.
- Extract, then discard. Rich inputs such as photos are processed once into structured data; the raw input is not retained in the ongoing conversation.
- Human in the loop for clinical matters. The AI never makes clinical decisions for you — it routes those to a qualified professional.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers ("operators") who help us run TwinSelf, and only as far as needed. Each is bound to protect your information and use it only on our instructions.
Generates TwinSelf's responses from de-identified health summaries.
Securely stores your records. This is our system of record.
Delivers the conversation between you and TwinSelf.
Provide the metrics from devices you connect, with your authorisation.
Passes selected Apple Health data to our endpoint during the pilot. Keeps no copy.
Receives a referral only when you ask to be connected to a professional.
We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of our users and our service.
Cross-border transfers
Some of our service providers are located outside South Africa, so your information may be processed in other countries:
- Your records are hosted in a European data-centre region (Supabase).
- AI processing of de-identified summaries takes place with a provider in the United States (Anthropic).
- Message delivery is handled by a global provider (Meta / WhatsApp).
Where we transfer your information across borders, we do so on the basis of your consent and only to recipients who are subject to laws, binding agreements, or rules that provide a comparable level of protection to POPIA.
How we protect it
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to safeguard your information, including row-level access controls on our database, encryption in transit, token-protected data endpoints, two-factor authentication on administrative accounts, and de-identification of health data before AI processing. No system can be guaranteed perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and to limit who can access it.
If a security compromise affects your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as required by law.
How long we keep it
We keep your information for as long as you have an active TwinSelf account, because your history is what makes the companion useful over time. If you close your account or withdraw consent, we delete or de-identify your personal information within a reasonable period (for example, 90 days), except where we are required by law to keep certain records for longer.
Your rights
Under POPIA, you have the right to:
- Ask what personal information we hold about you, and request a copy
- Ask us to correct or update information that is wrong or incomplete
- Ask us to delete information, or to delete your account
- Object to certain processing
- Withdraw your consent at any time
- Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator
To exercise any of these, message us in the TwinSelf chat or email privacy@mytwinself.com. We'll respond within a reasonable time and may need to verify your identity first.
Complaints
We'd always prefer to put things right directly, so please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to South Africa's data-protection authority:
- The Information Regulator (South Africa)
- Complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
- General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
- Website: inforegulator.org.za
Children
TwinSelf is intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly create accounts for, or process the health information of, children without the consent of a competent person (such as a parent or guardian). If you believe a child has used TwinSelf without that consent, please contact us and we will take appropriate steps.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as TwinSelf grows and as our data practices evolve. When we make a material change, we'll update the date at the top and, where appropriate, let you know in the TwinSelf chat. The version published here is always the current one.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information? We're glad to help.
- Email: privacy@mytwinself.com
- Information Officer: Nicolaas Johannes Albertus Smit
- Otto Health (Pty) Ltd, Cottage 4 Kleindasbosch Farm, Blaauwklippen Road, Stellenbosch, 7600