Research Data Agreement
Version 2026-09-08.draft-1 · effective 2026-09-08
Draft. This document has not had a legal review and will change before launch.
In short
- The app sends a count of which categories of harm were detected. Never a message, a name, a handle or an exact time.
- Counts are combined with many other accounts before anyone sees them, so no one can be picked out.
- You can turn this off in settings; what was already combined cannot be taken back because it is anonymous.
1. What this agreement is
Protecting you is one promise; helping us and our research partners understand harm across many people is a different one. This agreement covers the second. It is a separate document with its own version so that it can be changed, and withdrawn, without touching your protection.
This version is a draft pending legal review.
2. What a count contains
When analysis on your phone detects something, the app records that it did. A count is made of: the category detected (for example grooming, bullying, coercion), a severity band, a confidence band, a coarse time bucket, your age band, your language, and the model and rules version that produced it.
- It never contains message text, in whole or in part.
- It never contains your name, your handles, or the handles of anyone you messaged.
- It never contains an exact time, a location, or a device identifier.
3. How counts are kept anonymous
Counts are combined across accounts before anyone can see them, and a combined figure is released only when enough accounts contribute to it that no one account can be inferred; the threshold is set by policy and will be stated in the reviewed version. We do not attempt to re-identify anyone from a count, and we do not link counts back to accounts once they have been combined.
4. Who may use the counts
Guardii, to measure whether protection works and to improve detection. Research partners under a written agreement that binds them to the same rules, for published research into online harm. Actuarial partners, for understanding risk in aggregate. Each partner is named in the reviewed version of this document, and a new partner produces a new version.
5. How long counts are kept
Combined counts are anonymous and may be kept indefinitely. The individual counts that feed them are kept only until they have been combined.
6. How to stop
You can turn research counts off in the app's settings at any time. The phone stops sending them immediately, and your protection continues unchanged. Counts already combined cannot be removed, because nothing in them points back to you.
7. Changes and contact
A change to what a count contains, who may use it or how long it is kept produces a new version, and the app asks you to accept it. Questions go to privacy@guardii.ai.