Privacy Policy

Last revised: October 12, 2026

Short version

Beside is a birth-plan and prep app, and this policy covers the app and, briefly, this website. You can sign in with Google or with an email address and password, and we keep only what we need to run your account. Your birth plan, notes, and contraction timer are saved to your account so they follow you across devices, and only you can see them unless you choose to share your plan. The app has no ads and no analytics. We will never sell your information. Ever.

Information we collect

You can sign in with Google, or with an email address and password. We may add Sign in with Apple later.

When you create an account, we store your email address, a user ID, how you sign in, and when your email address was confirmed. If you sign in with Google, we also store the name and profile photo link Google provides. If you sign up with email, we store the first name you enter, if you choose to give one. We show your first name and photo inside the app. We do not use your email for marketing.

Your birth plan choices, preferences, notes and questions for your providers, contraction timer history, the last page you visited, and the ZIP code and radius from your last provider search are saved in our database with your account, so they follow you across devices. Only you can read them, unless you share your birth plan as described below. They are deleted when your account is deleted. Nothing personal is kept in your browser’s storage, and signing out clears what’s there.

Beyond this, the app keeps only the short-lived abuse-prevention counters and the limited error reports described below. If our practices change, we will update this page.

How we use it

We use your account information to sign you in, keep your account working, and show your first name and photo in the app. If you sign up with an email address and password, we use your email to send account messages, such as confirming your address and resetting your password.

When you sign in with email, Beside first checks whether an account already exists for the email address you entered, so it can show you the right next step: signing in or creating an account.

We use what you enter in the app only to provide Beside’s features to you.

Health information

Your birth and medical preferences, notes, and contraction timing are health-related. We treat them as sensitive. We use them only to provide Beside’s features to you, we never use them for advertising, and we never sell them.

Location and provider search

The app does not use your device location and will not ask for location permission. To help you find nearby providers, you can type a ZIP code and choose a search radius. Our server sends that ZIP code and radius, along with search terms such as midwife, OB-GYN, birth center, and doula, to Google Places to find matching listings. Results show each provider’s name, address, map location, and type, with a link to its Google Maps listing.

We save the ZIP code and radius from your last search with your account so the app can remember them for you. Google receives only the ZIP code, radius, and search terms, not your account details. To keep searches fast, we may briefly cache results by ZIP code and radius only, not by user. Google processes these searches under its own privacy policy, and Google’s attribution appears with the results.

Sharing a birth plan

You can share your birth plan by email or with a link. When you do, we store your account ID, the recipient’s email address, a random link code, when the share was created, stopped, and last viewed, and the account ID of the first person who opens it. If you add a note, it goes in the share email but we don’t store it.

The person you share with must sign in or create an account to view your plan. They can see your first name and your birth plan, including your due date, but never your email address, and they can’t edit anything. Their access ends if you stop sharing or your paid year ends.

If a recipient says they’re a provider, we record that with their account ID and the date, and they get a “Shared with me” list of the plans they’ve opened. Only share with people you trust with this information.

Preventing abuse

To prevent abuse, such as someone flooding gift checkouts or testing many email addresses at sign-in, Beside briefly stores a counter for gift checkouts and for sign-in email checks. The counter is based on a hashed value or your IP address, and it is kept for about 10 minutes before it is removed. We use it only to slow down repeated attempts.

Error monitoring

When something in the app breaks, we want to know so we can fix it. Beside uses Sentry, an error-monitoring service from Functional Software, Inc., to receive limited reports about errors and app performance. We set it up to leave out personal details.

Sentry receives:

the type of error, the error message with emails, IDs, and tokens removed, and the stack trace (where in our code it happened)
the page path, without any query string and with share or gift link codes masked
the request method
your browser, operating system, and device type
performance timing for about 10% of page loads
short breadcrumbs of recent navigation and network calls (the method, path, and status only)

Sentry does not receive your name, email address, user ID, IP address, cookies, request headers, or request bodies. It never receives your birth plan or notes, what you type or click, or any session recording. Sentry handles this information under its own privacy policy.

What we do not do

We will never sell your information. Ever. We do not share it for advertising, and we do not show ads. We do not use your sign-in email for marketing. The app has no analytics and no tracking or advertising cookies, and no AI services receive what you write. The only error reporting is the limited, de-identified Sentry reporting described above, which we use only to find and fix problems.

Payments

Beside offers a one-time purchase of one year of paid access. It is not a subscription and does not renew automatically. After a year, your account goes back to free, and your plan and notes stay viewable.

Payments are handled by Stripe on Stripe’s own checkout page. You enter your card or other payment details there, and they never reach our servers. Stripe receives your email address, which we fill in for you, and the payment details you enter. Stripe may also offer Link or other payment methods it supports. Stripe handles that information under its own privacy policy.

From Stripe, we receive and store a record of the purchase with your account: the Stripe checkout and payment reference numbers, the amount and currency, the date you paid, and the date your access ends. We do not receive or store your card number.

If a payment is fully refunded or disputed, the matching year of access ends. If an unopened gift is refunded, its gift link stops working. Our Refund Policy explains when refunds are available.

Near the end of your year, we may send one email to let you know your access is ending and to say thank you. It will not include marketing or a renewal pitch.

Gifts

You can buy a year of Beside as a gift for someone else. When you do, we store your email address, the recipient’s email address, the name and personal note you choose to add, the delivery date if you pick one, the amount, the Stripe checkout and payment reference numbers, and the gift’s status and dates (created, paid, emailed, and opened). When the recipient opens the gift, we link it to their account. Payment works the same way as any other purchase: you pay on Stripe’s checkout page, and your card details never reach us.

We use the recipient’s email address only to send them the gift, and we use yours to send a thank-you confirmation. Stripe also sends you its own receipt. If you gift Beside to someone, please make sure they would be glad to hear from us. We don’t add either of you to any marketing list.

We delete the name and note you add 90 days after the gift is opened. If a gift checkout is started but never paid for, we delete it after 30 days. We keep the email addresses, amount, and Stripe reference numbers for about seven years for tax and accounting records.

Service providers

We use a few service providers to run Beside. They may process information only to operate Beside, and they may not sell it or use it for their own advertising:

Supabase handles accounts and our database, hosted in the United States.
Vercel hosts the app and keeps standard request logs.
Resend sends account emails, such as email confirmation, password reset, and gift emails, birth plan share emails, and the one-time notice when paid access is ending.
Stripe processes payments for paid access.
Google provides Sign in with Google, and Google Places powers the provider search (it receives the ZIP code, radius, and search terms, not your account details).
Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.) receives limited, de-identified error and performance reports, as described in Error monitoring above.

Cookies and storage

The app uses sign-in session cookies to keep you signed in, and a cookie that remembers a display preference. Your saved items are kept with your account, not in your browser. The app does not use tracking or advertising cookies.

How long we keep it

We keep your account information while your account exists. When you delete your account, we delete your saved birth plan, notes, contraction timer history, preferences, any shares you created, the provider flag if you set one, and your login. We keep payment and gift records for about seven years for tax and accounting, with the link to your account removed. Abuse-prevention counters are kept for about 10 minutes. After we delete information, it may remain in our providers’ routine backups for a limited period before it is overwritten.

Your choices

You can delete your account yourself at any time from the You page in the app. You can also ask us to delete it through the contact form or by emailing contact@besidebirth.info. Deleting your account removes your saved plan, notes, timer, preferences, any shares you created, the provider flag, and your login. Payment and gift records are kept for tax and accounting, with the link to your account removed. You can stop sharing your birth plan at any time, and the person you shared with loses access right away.

Children

Beside is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. Beside is meant for adults who are expecting and for birth professionals.

Security

We use reasonable safeguards to protect the information we hold. No method of storage or transmission is perfect.

This website

This policy covers the Beside app and, briefly, this website. The two work differently: the app has no analytics, while this website uses Google Analytics only if you agree to it.

With your permission, this website uses Google Analytics to count visits and see roughly how people find the site: which pages are read, the site or search that sent you here, your general region, and your device and browser type. We use it only to understand how many people read the information about the app.

Analytics only runs if you agree in the cookie notice. You can change your mind any time with the “Cookie settings” link in the footer.

Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser, and Google processes that data under its own privacy terms: How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

We do not use advertising cookies, we do not use analytics for ads, and we do not sell analytics data.

We also use Google Search Console, which shows which Google searches lead to this site. It does not put anything in your browser.

Fonts on this website are served from our own site, so loading them does not send your information to anyone else.

Visiting this site also creates ordinary server logs, such as an IP address and the pages requested. We use those logs to run and protect the site. We do not sell that information either.

Where Beside operates

Beside is operated from and intended for people in the United States.

Changes

We will post updates on this page and change the last revised date.

Contact

This policy is from Beside Birth (“Beside”, “we”). Questions about this policy: use the contact form or email contact@besidebirth.info.