Privacy policy

What we collect and why

• Orders: your name, email, phone, shipping address and the items ordered, to fulfil and support the order. Payment happens on Moneris' systems; we receive a confirmation and the last digits of the card, never the full card number.
• Epinephrine requests: the patient details, prescriber information and any prescription image you attach, used only to have the request reviewed and dispensed. Health information in a request is treated as sensitive and shared only with the pharmacy (see sharing, below).
• Card registration: the name shown on the emergency page, where the medication is kept, an optional short medical note you choose to write, your email, and up to two emergency contacts with their opt-in status. If you add them: your allergies, date of birth, weight, health conditions, drug allergies and daily medications, which show on the card's page (the allergies under your name, the rest on its summary for paramedics) for whoever taps it. You control every word shown on the card's page.
• Reminder emails: if you enter your medication's expiry date, we use it and your email to remind you 30 days and 7 days before it expires, and on the day. If someone taps “Epinephrine given” on your card's page, we email you the next day with what the page recorded and a reminder to replace it. Every reminder email has a link to stop them, and we keep a record of each one sent so you never get the same reminder twice.
• Taps and alerts: when a card's emergency page is opened we log the time. If the helper's phone shares its location, we send the coordinates to a mapping service (Google Maps, Mapbox or OpenStreetMap) to show the nearest street address on the page; that lookup isn't stored. When a helper presses the alert button, we log their location and text it, with that address, to your confirmed contacts, along with any updates the helper sends afterwards (for example, epinephrine given, or staff alerted). This is the documented tap history the card keeps for you.
• Your account: your email, your time zone (so alert times read correctly) and a record of each sign-in. Sign-in codes and session keys are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form.
• Temp-Alert Discs: each disc's device ID, the name, temperature range and text choices you give it, its battery level, and its temperature readings (the lowest and highest in each 5 minutes) with any alerts they caused. The ResQBand app reads the disc over Bluetooth and never records where you are. Android asks for the Location permission only because Android requires it to scan for Bluetooth sensors; the app doesn't read or store your location. Readings waiting to upload, and your list of discs, are kept on the phone until they upload or you sign out.
• Text messages: contact mobile numbers, a record of each contact's own opt-in and opt-out texts with the time they were sent (our proof of consent), and delivery status, to run the alert program described at /sms. If you turn on Temp-Alert Disc texts, also your own mobile number and the time you confirmed it.
• Food recalls and the ingredient check: recalls come from the public notices of Health Canada, the CFIA, the FDA and the USDA, matched to the allergies on your card or, if you use the app without an account, to the allergies you pick, which are saved on your phone and sent to us only as a filter for the recall list. If you ask for recall emails we keep that choice and when we last emailed you; you can turn them off from any of them or in your account. The ingredient check runs in your browser: what you paste or type isn't sent to us. If you scan a label (you need to be signed in for that), the photo goes to our servers and to Anthropic, through Vercel's AI Gateway, only to read the label's text, which comes back to your browser to be checked. We don't keep the photo or the text. Photograph only the label.
• The ResQBand Library: what you save and the topics you follow are kept on your phone, and in your account if you're signed in. If you turn on notifications, we keep your browser's notification address with those topics and saved items, only to tell you about new things, and delete it when you turn notifications off or your browser stops accepting them; no account is needed and we don't know who you are. If you're signed in and ask for the weekly email, we send it to your account's email, with a one-click unsubscribe. The Library's news and research come from public sources, and an AI model (through Vercel's AI Gateway) writes their short summaries; nothing about you is sent with them.
• Share links: if you make a share link for a school, camp or sitter, whoever has it can see your card's details on a read-only page (your contacts' names and numbers only if you include them). We count how often each link is opened so you can see it in your account. Links run for a year and you can turn them off any time.
• Lost cards: if you report a card lost, its page stops showing your details. If someone who found it sends you a message from that page, we email it to you, with their contact details if they leave any, and we don't keep the message.
• Phone calls: a contact who has joined text alerts can also choose a phone call with each alert. We record that they pressed 1 on our confirmation call (the time and the call's reference), and how each alert call ended (answered or not, and how long), which shows in the card's tap history with the contact's first name. Pressing 9 during a call, turning calls off on the invite page, or texting STOP ends the calls, and that is recorded too.
• This website: the cart is stored in your own browser. With your OK in the cookie banner, we measure visits to our public pages with Google Analytics and measure our Facebook and Instagram ads with Meta's pixel on our shop pages (see Cookies and analytics, below). We do not sell personal information.

Who we share it with

Only what each provider needs to do its job: Clearpoint Pharmacy for medication requests; Moneris for payments; Twilio for text messages and phone calls; Resend for email; Vercel and Neon, which host the site and database; Anthropic, through Vercel's AI Gateway, which translates what you write for your card's page (where your epinephrine is kept and your medical note) into French, Spanish, Chinese and Punjabi when you save it, so a helper who reads one of those languages can understand it, and reads the text off a food label you photograph for the ingredient check; Google, for visit statistics on our public pages (Google Analytics); Meta Platforms, only if you accept cookies, to measure our Facebook and Instagram ads (what it receives is listed under Cookies and analytics, below; medication orders are never sent to Meta). Emergency page content is shown to whoever taps your card; that is its purpose. We disclose information if the law requires it. We never sell personal information. No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Where it lives and how long

Our hosting and database providers store data in North American regions and may process it in the United States under contractual safeguards. We keep order and payment records for the periods Canadian tax law requires, your account with its discs, readings and alerts until you delete it, card profiles and tap history while the card is registered, request records while needed to complete and document the request, and SMS opt-in and opt-out records for as long as we need them to show that consent was given. Ask us to delete a card profile or request record and we will, unless a legal retention duty applies.

Your choices and rights

• Edit or delete your card profile any time with the edit link from your registration email, from your account, or by writing to us.
• Delete your account, with its discs, readings and alerts, your food recall emails and what you saved in the Library, from your account page (in a browser or the ResQBand app). The share links you made stop working. Your Tap Card keeps working.
• Anyone can stop our texts permanently by replying STOP to any message, and stop reminder emails with the link in any of them.
• You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it: info@westernallergy.com or 1 866 335 5294. We answer within 30 days.

Cookies and analytics

We ask before we use analytics or advertising cookies. The banner at the bottom of the page lets you accept or decline, and “Cookie settings” at the foot of every page lets you change your mind at any time. Your choice is kept in one cookie, rq_consent, for 180 days. If you decline or withdraw, Meta's pixel stops and the Google Analytics and Meta cookies are removed from your browser.

Google Analytics. We use it on our public pages (the home page, the shop, product pages and checkout, the Library, questions and articles, and our policies) to see how visitors find and use the site: the pages viewed, the site that sent you, your approximate city, and your device and browser. With your OK it sets Google Analytics cookies so it can recognise a returning browser; without it, it counts visits without cookies (Google's Consent Mode) and can't recognise you. It doesn't receive your name, email, phone number or anything you type into a form, Google's advertising features are switched off, and Google may process this data in the United States. It never runs on the emergency page a card opens, card registration, your account or the ResQBand app, contacts' sign-up links, reminder email stop links, share links, payment links or order confirmations.

Meta's pixel, only with your OK. On our home page, the shop, the ResQBand accessory pages and the cart, it tells Meta that a page was viewed, which accessory you looked at or added to your cart, and when you go to checkout, and it sets Meta's cookies (_fbp, and _fbc when you arrive from one of our ads), so we can see which Facebook and Instagram ads lead to sales. It never runs on the Library, questions and articles, medication pages, checkout, order confirmations, the emergency page a card opens, your account or the ResQBand app. When you place an order with your OK, our server tells Meta about the purchase: the ResQBand accessories and their prices, the order number, your browser's IP address and type, Meta's cookies, and your email, phone, name and shipping city, province, postal code and country in scrambled (hashed) form, so Meta can match it to an ad. Medication is never included, and an order of medication only sends nothing. Meta may process this in the United States under its own policies.

Signing in to your account sets one essential cookie that keeps you signed in; it isn't used for anything else. Your cart lives in your own browser's storage and never leaves it, and the payment step runs on Moneris' systems under their policies. Vercel Web Analytics counts page views across the site without cookies or personal identifiers, with card codes and private links removed from page addresses.

When you arrive from one of our social media posts or profiles, or one of our Google Shopping listings, through a tagged link, we set one first-party cookie, rq_src, for 30 days. It holds only the tags in that link (which platform or listing, which post or product) and when you arrived, so we can count which posts and listings lead to visits and orders. If you place an order while it's set, we note the order number against that post or listing; nothing else about you is attached to it.

Security

Traffic is encrypted in transit, database access is restricted and credentialed, card payment data never touches our servers, and emergency profiles show only what you typed into them. No system is perfect; if a breach creates a real risk of significant harm we will notify you and the Privacy Commissioner as PIPEDA requires.

Children

Cards are often registered for children by a parent or guardian, and that is who we deal with: we do not knowingly collect information directly from children under 13. A guardian can review or delete a child's profile at any time.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the effective date above changes with it, and material changes are flagged on this page. Privacy questions or complaints: info@westernallergy.com, 1 866 335 5294, Western Allergy Services Ltd., Victoria BC, Hamilton ON, St. John's NL. If we cannot resolve a concern you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.