Mendel

Privacy Policy

Working draft — last updated 2026-07-18. Not final legal text; a lawyer review is pending before publication.

This is a plain-English skeleton for a lawyer to refine. It is not legal advice and is not ready to publish. [Company name / LLC to be filled in.]

1. What we collect

Your account: your name and email, and a password or sign-in method.
How to reach you: your phone number and/or email, and which one you want your recap sent to.
Where you are: your location and time zone — we need this to work out your correct Shabbat start and end times.
Your instructions: the rules you set up and a log of what the service did during Shabbat (used to build your recap).
Emergency contacts: the names and phone numbers or emails of people you ask us to alert. You confirm you have their permission to give us these.
Payment: handled by our payment processor (Stripe). We don't see or store your full card number.

A note on sensitive information. Because this is a Shabbat service, using it suggests something about your religion, which privacy laws treat as especially sensitive. We use that only to provide the service and never to profile or target you. [Lawyer: confirm lawful basis / explicit-consent handling for special-category data where it applies.]

2. How we use it

To run the service for you: work out your Shabbat times, follow your instructions, send alerts to the contacts you chose, and send your recap. We also use it to handle billing and support, and to keep the service secure.

3. Who we share it with

We use a few trusted companies to run the service, and each gets only what it needs to do its job:

Anthropic — powers the chat that helps you set things up.
Twilio — sends text messages.
Resend — sends emails.
[Database host] — stores your settings and history.
Stripe — processes payments.

We don't sell your information. [Lawyer: list processors accurately once chosen, add international-transfer language if any provider is overseas.]

4. Your emergency contacts

We contact the people you list only to deliver the alerts you set up. If one of them asks us to stop, we will. Please make sure you have their permission before adding them.

5. Texts and emails

We only send texts and emails you've asked for or agreed to, and you can opt out anytime (for texts, by replying STOP). [Lawyer: confirm this meets texting and email consent rules in the places we operate.]

Text Messaging (SMS)

What we collect. If you enroll in text messaging, we collect your mobile phone number, a record of your consent (timestamp and source), and logs of messages sent and received. We use this information solely to operate the messaging features of the service.

How you consent. We send text messages only to numbers that have opted in through one of two paths: (1) subscribers, who check an optional consent box during account signup; and (2) designated contacts, who receive a single enrollment text after a subscriber adds them and who receive further messages only after replying YES.

No third-party sharing. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent will not be sold or shared with any third parties. We share mobile numbers only with the service providers that transmit messages on our behalf (e.g., our SMS platform provider), acting solely as processors.

Opting out. Reply STOP to any message to stop receiving texts. Reply HELP for assistance. We retain your number and consent record only as long as needed to operate the service and honor your opt-out, or until you delete your account.

6. Keeping it safe, and how long we keep it

We protect your information with reasonable security measures, and we keep it only as long as we need to run the service or as the law requires. [Lawyer: specify retention periods and breach-notice obligations.]

7. Your choices

You can view, correct, export, or delete your information, and close your account. [Lawyer: spell out the specific rights people have where we operate — these differ by region — and how to exercise them.]

8. Children

The service is for adults and isn't intended for anyone under 18. [Lawyer to confirm.]

9. Changes and contact

We'll post any changes here and, for important ones, let you know directly. Questions: [privacy contact email].