Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 August 2026

PATO ("we", "our", "us") operates the PATO mobile application and web application at app.pato.fit (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our Service.

1. Information We Collect

Account Information: When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and authentication credentials. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your name and email from the provider — we do not receive or store your social login password. If you or your gym opts in to SMS notifications, we also collect your phone number.

Health & Fitness Data: You may choose to provide health and fitness information including:

• Body measurements (weight, height, body fat percentage)
• Nutrition logs (meals, calories, macronutrients)
• Workout logs (exercises, duration, intensity)
• Wellness check-ins (sleep, energy, stress, soreness)
• Goals and progress photos

This data is provided voluntarily through your interactions with our AI coaching assistant.

Apple Health / Health Connect Data: If you use the PATO iOS or Android app, you may connect Apple Health or Health Connect to automatically import your workout history, distance, and active calorie data. This connection is optional, requires your explicit permission, and can be turned off at any time from your Profile. This data is read-only — PATO never writes data back to Apple Health or Health Connect — and is stored in your PATO account to appear alongside your manually logged workouts.

Messages: If your gym uses PATO's messaging feature, we store the text, photos, voice notes, and file attachments you send to or receive from your gym's staff or trainers, along with the sender's name and account details, so that conversations can be displayed and retained for both participants.

Device Information: We may collect device identifiers, push notification tokens, and browser/app version to deliver notifications and ensure compatibility.

Usage Data: We collect data about how you use the Service (features used, activity patterns) to improve the app and, for gym members, to power gamification features like streaks and leaderboards.

2. How We Use Your Information

• AI Coaching: Your health and fitness data is processed by third-party AI providers to provide personalised coaching, meal plans, workout plans, and recommendations.
• AI Quality & Monitoring: We use AI observability tooling to monitor and debug our AI coaching system. This involves storing your chat messages, images, and the AI's responses so we can identify and fix issues with the coaching experience.
• Gym Features: If you are a member of a gym using PATO, certain data (name, activity level, streak, level) is visible to your gym's staff through their management dashboard.
• Messaging: Messages, photos, voice notes, and file attachments sent through PATO's in-app messaging are used to deliver the conversation between you and your gym's staff or trainers, and are visible to both participants.
• Wearable Sync: Workout data read from Apple Health or Health Connect is used to automatically log your training history, so you don't have to enter it manually.
• Gamification: Your activity data is used to calculate points, levels, streaks, and badges. Leaderboard rankings are visible to other members of your gym.
• Notifications: We send push notifications and, where opted in, SMS messages for reminders, coaching responses, and gym updates based on your preferences, using third-party notification delivery providers.
• Payments: Gym membership billing is processed via GoCardless Direct Debit. Purchases made through the in-app Shop are processed via Stripe. We store your subscription status and payment history but never store your bank account or card details directly.

3. Third-Party Services

We engage third-party service providers to help us operate PATO, including for:

• Payment processing — for gym membership billing (Direct Debit) via GoCardless, and for in-app Shop purchases via Stripe
• Cloud database, authentication, and file storage — hosted in Sydney, Australia
• AI and machine learning services — to power coaching conversations, meal-photo analysis, plan generation, voice transcription, and web search grounding
• AI performance monitoring — to help us identify and fix issues with the coaching experience
• Push and SMS notification delivery
• Transactional email delivery
• Cloud application and server hosting

Each third-party service processes data in accordance with their own privacy policies. Our AI service providers process your chat messages and images to generate responses but do not use your data to train their models under our API agreements.

4. Data Storage & Security

Your data is stored in a secure cloud database hosted in Sydney, Australia, with row-level security policies. All data is transmitted over HTTPS. Authentication tokens are stored securely on your device and expire periodically.

We implement industry-standard security measures including Content-Security-Policy headers, input sanitization, and JWT-based authentication. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure.

5. Delete Your Account

You can permanently delete your PATO account and all associated data directly within the app, without needing to contact support:

1. Open the PATO app and go to Profile
2. Tap Delete Account
3. Confirm the deletion when prompted

Deleting your account permanently removes: your profile and login credentials; all chat history with the AI coaching assistant; nutrition logs, workout logs, and progress/body-composition tracking; meal plans and workout plans; goals and milestones; badges, points, and gamification history; saved pantry products; daily summaries; push notification subscriptions and in-app notifications; wearable (Apple Health / Health Connect) connection state; gym class bookings, gym membership records, and hardware access credentials; messages exchanged with your gym's staff or trainers; document signatures; and email preference records.

This action is immediate and irreversible — there is no recovery period, and it cannot be undone once confirmed. We do not currently offer a way to delete only some of your data (e.g. just your chat history) while keeping your account active; deletion is all-or-nothing via the account deletion flow above. If you need a specific subset of your data removed without deleting your account entirely, contact us at [email protected] and we will assist manually.

6. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account using the in-app Delete Account flow described above, your data is deleted immediately, except where we are required to retain it for legal or operational purposes.

Chat history, nutrition logs, workout logs, and progress data are retained to provide continuity in your coaching experience while your account is active.

7. Your Rights

Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, you have the right to:

• Access your personal information
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your data
• Know how your data is being used

To exercise these rights, contact us at [email protected].

8. Children's Privacy

PATO is not intended for users under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child under 16, we will delete it promptly.

9. Gym Membership & Billing

If your gym uses PATO for membership billing, payment is processed via GoCardless Direct Debit. GoCardless collects and stores your bank account details directly — PATO only stores your subscription status, payment amounts, and billing history. GoCardless is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (UK) and operates under strict financial regulations.

Purchases made through the in-app Shop are processed via Stripe. Card details are entered directly on Stripe's secure payment page — PATO never receives or stores your card number.

10. Push Notifications

You may opt in to receive push notifications for coaching reminders, workout prompts, and gym updates. You can disable notifications at any time through your device settings or your PATO profile. We store your push notification subscription token to deliver notifications.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the updated policy in the app and updating the "Last updated" date above.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at [email protected].