Arthritis tracker terms and conditions

You must be aged 13 or older to use this app. If you are under 13, you can ask your parent or guardian to download the app onto their device and help you track your condition. From September 2021, we collect your age data so that we can see if our app has been successful in reaching the intended audience.

We have been investing in Arthritis Tracker to make it easier for you to keep your data safe. From September 2021, you will need an Arthritis Tracker account to use the app. When you set up an account, any current data in the app will be moved online, and anything you continue to add to the app will be also stored online.

Find out more about how to setting up an account and more here.

Where your data is stored

The data on your account is stored on our servers in United Kingdom. We use Microsoft Azure for our servers because it has multiple layers of security built in.

How we protect the data in your Arthritis Tracker account

The safety of your data is our highest priority, and we have built in many ways to keep your data safe within our systems. For example, we have used our own secure servers, and we store your personal data separately to your health data. If you would like more information we would be happy to help, just email apps@versusarthritis.org.

This app is designed to track your health. That means that you will have sensitive data on your device. From September 2021 onwards you will have the option to set a pass code on Arthritis Tracker so that anyone who accesses your phone cannot access your sensitive data.

Arthritis Tracker gives general information about arthritis for people under age 25, not medical advice that’s specifically tailored to you. This app and its notifications link to websites that we own, including www.versusarthritis.org. It’s important to know that Arthritis Tracker and its notifications may also link to websites that we do not own, including Facebook, Instagram, Survey Monkey and others. We are not responsible for content that you find on any websites that we do not own.

If you have any questions or concerns, or if you’re having a lot of bad days, you (together with your parent or guardian if you are not an adult) should discuss these issues with your doctor, nurse or pharmacist.

Arthritis Tracker may link to information about exercise or exercise techniques that you may want to follow. It’s a good idea to get a check-up from your doctor to make sure that exercise will help you. If it’s necessary, your doctor can refer you to a physiotherapist or another healthcare professional who can give you personalised exercise advice.

Arthritis Tracker may link to information about medications, also called drugs. When we refer to drugs, we mean medication that you’ve been prescribed by a healthcare professional to help your condition – we never mean illegal drugs. We have made every effort to make sure that all information about drugs is correct at the time we publish it, but it’s important to remember that information about drugs may change. Arthritis Tracker provides information about drugs as general education, and we do not list all of the possible uses and side effects for drugs.

If you have questions about a drug you are taking or thinking about taking, talk to your doctor. If you are not an adult, you should not start taking new drugs without having a discussion with your parent or guardian.

It’s also important to know that this app is meant to be used by people in the UK. The way that healthcare professionals treat arthritis may be different in other places in the world, so it’s important to get advice from your local healthcare professionals if you’re not in the UK.

By using Arthritis Tracker, you’re confirming that you understand that the advice we provide has limitations.

Why we ask your age

Arthritis Tracker is for people aged 13 and over, so we have to ask your age before you can use the app. From September 2021, we collect your age data so that we can see if our app has been successful in reaching the intended audience.

Analytics

We collect some statistics that relate to your health and wellbeing and the way that you use the app. For example, we collect statistics on the number of good, normal or bad days that you report and any sore joints that you report.

To collect these statistics, we create an individual user record that does not identify you in any way outside Arthritis Tracker. We do not ask your name, and someone looking at the data would not be able to identify you.

We use these statistics to help us understand trends that we can then use to help make the app better. For example, we might put the most commonly used categories at the top of the app instead of at the bottom.

Why we ask how you plan to use Arthritis Tracker

When you download Arthritis Tracker, we ask how often you plan to use it to track your symptoms. We also ask whether you’re a young person with arthritis, a parent or someone just checking out the app. We use this information to help us understand who’s using Arthritis Tracker so that we can make the app even better in the future. We collect this data using a service called Firebase. You can read more about Firebase below.

Other questions we ask and why we ask them

On the first day that you download the app, and then after a period of time has passed, we ask a questions about your experiences at health appointments, how confident you feel about managing your symptoms day-to-day, and whether you’ve been involved with Versus Arthritis before.

Your answers to these questions help us measure the impact that this app is making and to understand whether we are helping people in the way that we want to. We collect this information using a service called Firebase and on our servers. You can read more about Firebase below.

Why we ask for your feedback

We developed Arthritis Tracker to help young people with arthritis, and we use your feedback and ideas to make the app better. We may use quotes from your feedback – without using your name – in reports, articles, social media or promotional materials. If you do not want us to use any quotes from your feedback, please let us know when you fill in the feedback form.

When you fill in our feedback form, the information that you include will be emailed to a member of the Versus Arthritis staff using a company called Mailgun. You can read more about Mailgun below. If you request a certain feature, we will use your email address to tell you if we have plans to develop a feature that is relevant to your request, and to give you an opportunity to be part of the design process.

Notes feature

We back up all your data to your account, so this means your Notes are stored on our servers also. We store your notes separately to your other data as an additional layer of security, however for optimal security please do not include information that would identify you within your notes e.g. name, address, ID numbers etc.

Companies we use to process your data

We use services provided by companies that we do not own to process and store your data. You can read about these companies below.

We use these companies’ services to allow Arthritis Tracker to function. For example, these services allow Arthritis Tracker to send you push notifications or to show you messages in the app. Some of these services may be hosted outside the UK or the European Union.

Storing data

We use Microsoft Azure to run our servers (where your account data is stored). Azure complies with key industry standards of security and reliability and has multiple layers of security built-in. If you would like more information about this please get in touch with us at apps@versusarthritis.org.

Emailing (e.g. re-setting passwords and passcodes)

Mailgun

We use a service called Mailgun to allow you to reset your password and passcode using email.

Mailgun may use other companies to help it process personal data. These companies are called ‘sub-processors’ and include infrastructure providers like Amazon Web Services, Rackspace and Softlayer. As required under the General Data Protection Regulation (also called GDPR), Mailgun and these sub-processors use appropriate measures to keep the data they process secure.

To read more, visit Mailgun’s website: https://www.mailgun.com/gdpr/

Analytics

We use a service called Firebase to collect statistics that are called ‘analytics’. Analytics help us to understand how people use Arthritis Tracker and if it is helping people. Analytics also help us to produce statistics and reports that help us improve Arthritis Tracker or improve other services that we offer to young people with arthritis.

Firebase makes personal data, like your IP address, anonymous. We use a service called Google BigQuery, which connects with Firebase, to make reports. We make these reports using a service called Power BI.

Firebase also links to Google Analytics, which lets us see analytics information about people who visit our website, www.versusarthritis.org, after they click a link in the app.

The reports and statistics that we use from Firebase and from Google Analytics do not include any of your personal data or information that would identify you. We may share these statistics and reports outside of Versus Arthritis.

Firebase collects information about how Arthritis Tracker is being used, and the devices that people use the app on, to help us decide what kinds of improvements we should make to the app in the future. The kinds of information that Firebase collects include the following:

• the version of Arthritis Tracker that someone is using
• the make, model, manufacturer, screen size and operating system of the device that someone is using
• device identifiers, including Identifiers for Advertising (also called IDFAs) and Android Advertising IDs
• Bluetooth and Near Fields Communication (also called NFC) use
• information about how someone uses the app, including:
• general information, such as the date someone first opened the app, the last date someone used the app and how long their app sessions lasted
• health tracking use, such as categories that someone tracked and the types of days that they reported
• sections of Arthritis Tracker that someone used, such as topics in the ‘Info and tips’ section or the number of people who used information about events and social media.

To help us know if the way we promote Arthritis Tracker is working, where people hear about the app, and how we should market the app in the future, we collect information about where you learned about Arthritis Tracker (such as the domain and URL of a website that referred someone to Arthritis Tracker or search terms used to find Arthritis Tracker).

To help us measure the impact that we’re making, Firebase collects IP addresses and then gives us general information about geographic locations for people using the app. We can see what towns and cities users live in, but we do not see more detailed information about anyone’s location.

Firebase collects instance IDs, which identify each time that the app is downloaded. Firebase needs to collect these instance IDs in order to work.

Firebase also collects crash traces, which let us know when Arthritis Tracker has crashed.

More information about Firebase is available here: https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy

We use a service called Bug Snag to identify and investigate bugs (problems and errors) in the app.

Bug snag generates sends data to our developers to help them identify and investigate any bugs or errors that pop up in the app. Below is a list of the types of data that it collects, however you can get the full list website for iOS users and Android users on their website.

Bug snag automatically generates a user ID for your device so we can count the number of users who are affected by a particular issue, however this ID does not identify you in any other way, and is not the same as your Device ID.

Bug snag also collects Device Information (e.g. make, model, operating system, screen, battery and storage levels), app usage information e.g. what version of Arthritis Tracker you are using, how long you were using the app before the error occurred, what screen you were on before the error occurred etc), information about the error itself, and information about the steps that were taken leading up to the error.

Bug Snag encrypts your data both in transit and at rest, and the information is stored using the Google Cloud Platform. You can find out more about how Bug Snag prioritises the security of your data on their security overview on their website.

Push notifications and in-app messages

Arthritis Tracker will send you push notifications and in-app messages. These notifications remind you to track your day, invite you to local events or invite you to our social media community. You may also receive notifications linking to helpful information and content on our website (www.versusarthritis.org), opportunities to take part in surveys to help Versus Arthritis improve our work to support people with arthritis, or to help us campaign to have arthritis taken more seriously.

You can opt out of receiving push notifications by going to your device’s ‘Settings’ feature, clicking on ‘Notifications’, and changing those settings for some or all of the apps on your device, including Arthritis Tracker. However, to get all of the benefits of Arthritis Tracker, we suggest that you allow us to send you push notifications.

We use the services OneSignal, Firebase Cloud Messaging and Firebase In-App Messaging to send you notifications and in-app messages (pop-ups that appear within the app). These use mobile Software Development Kits (also called SDKs) that collect both information that lets them run their service and information that relates to how mobile devices and their users interact with the app and its notifications. You can read more about the information that Firebase collects above.

OneSignal’s SDK collects information in a number of ways, including the following:

• When a device’s operating system allows it to do so, OneSignal may check to see if the device has specific apps installed. OneSignal uses this function for attribution and to make sure that it sends relevant ads and notifications related to those apps.
• OneSignal collects information about interactions with apps and websites.
• OneSignal collects mobile advertising identifiers, such as iOS IDFAs and Android Advertising IDs. This information may be associated with other information, including data segments.
• OneSignal collects information about devices, such as the type of device, the type of operating system it uses, network provider, mobile browser, language settings, time zones and network type.

You can read more about OneSignal’s privacy policy here: https://onesignal.com/privacy_policy

Feedback form data

Mailgun

We use a service called Mailgun to process the information you submit in feedback forms and to send the information to us. Mailgun stores the information you provide in the feedback form for up to 72 hours. This allows the system to try to redeliver the information to us if it could not deliver on the first try.

Mailgun deletes your email address (if you provide it in the feedback form), your IP address and other routing data after 30 days. This is to allow us to troubleshoot if there is an issue.

Companies that Mailgun uses

Mailgun may use other companies to help it process personal data. These companies are called ‘sub-processors’ and include infrastructure providers like Amazon Web Services, Rackspace and Softlayer. As required under the General Data Protection Regulation (also called GDPR), Mailgun and these sub-processors use appropriate measures to keep the data they process secure.

To read more, visit Mailgun’s website: https://www.mailgun.com/gdpr/.

The ‘In your area’ section of Arthritis Tracker includes links to information about Versus Arthritis’ UK events and about our social media community.

To join our social media community or come to an event, you may need to fill in a form. The form will give you information about how we look after your personal data, so take time to read all of the details.

Our social media community has three simple rules:

1. Show respect for others in the group.
2. Try to keep the community a positive space.
3. Be safe and smart – never share personal information with someone you’ve never met.

We may make changes to these ‘Terms and conditions’ and to our ‘Privacy notice’ in the future.

Check back for updates, because we may not always let you know that we’ve made changes. See the link to our ‘Terms and conditions’ in the ‘Settings’ area of Arthritis Tracker.

At Versus Arthritis, we take your rights very seriously. You can ask us to delete copies of your personal data, ask us to stop particular activities, withdraw a consent that you gave us previously or challenge the results of any decisions or profiling.

If you want to ask us to do any of these things, as long as there are no legal or accounting requirements that would stop us, we will fulfil your request.

If you are sure that you do not want to hear from us now or in the future, you can ask us to hold a record that will keep us from contacting you. Contact us at supportercare@versusarthritis.org or call 0300 790 0400 to discuss any concerns you have.

You have a right to ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you. We can provide this copy to you in a machine-readable format that can be transferred elsewhere. If you want to access your information, please send your proof of identity, along with a description of what information you want to see, to us by post. Our postal address is Versus Arthritis, Copeman House, St Mary’s Court, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S41 7TD.

We cannot accept requests for information over email because we need to verify who you are – we need to be sure that we’re giving your data to you, not to someone else.

If you are not happy about how we use your data and want to make a complaint, contact us at supportercare@versusarthritis.org or call 0300 790 0400.

If you are not happy with how a complaint was handled, contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). If you want to, you can contact the ICO without first making a complaint to us. You can find out more about the ICO and your rights at the ICO’s website.

Versus Arthritis developed Arthritis Tracker together with young people who have arthritis or similar conditions. The first version of Arthritis Tracker was funded by the Big Lottery Fund through the Building Change Trust.

Versus Arthritis is the new name for Arthritis Research UK and Arthritis Care. We are a charity registered in England and Wales (number 207711) and in Scotland (SC041156), and a company incorporated in England and Wales (number 490500).

Our registered address is Copeman House, St Mary’s Court, St Mary’s Gate, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S41 7TD.

These terms and conditions were last updated in August 2021.