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by trustle 2301 days ago
Catalin (CTO) here. I very much understand the privacy concern.

To clarify, none of the communication with your coach happens via the Trustle website.

The part that is full of the standard instrumentation and analytics, as you point out, is our onboarding flow. The info you enter here is - who you are, - when you can talk, - and what parenting challenges you face at the broadest level.

Those are the questions required to match you with your coach. The data in those initial three questions flows into Segment and from there into our analytics tools (Amplitude, Google Analytics, conversion tracking for ads, etc.). And while it's all encrypted, etc., you're right to say that it goes to a lot of places internally. We will not ever sell that info, but analyzing it using modern tools internally helps us understand what our users want and how we can do better.

What comes afterwards is end-to-end encrypted conversation with your coach.

Oh, and Trustle is not a health service provider. However, we strive to treat your data with the same level of rigor that a medical service provider would apply; as opposed to the person selling you a vacuum...

1 comments

> and what parenting challenges you face at the broadest level

> The data in those initial three questions flows into Segment and from there into our analytics tools

This is the worrying part. The fact that you're a parent and the particular broad challenges you face are already somewhat sensitive and useful for advertisers. It's fine if this info stays with you internally. It's not fine if your service providers start using it for their own cross-site marketing purposes.

Between individuals, trust works transitively - you trust them, I trust you, therefore I somewhat trust them too, within the scope of our relationship. Between individuals and companies, in the realities of Internet and modern advertising, it unfortunately does not work that way.

(I don't really expect you do anything about third-party analytics on the frongpage; I just want to voice the concerns.)

> we strive to treat your data with the same level of rigor that a medical service provider would apply

Aim higher. I have a doctor in my family, and you wouldn't believe some of the privacy horror stories I hear happen in hospitals.

>Aim higher. I have a doctor in my family, and you wouldn't believe some of the privacy horror stories I hear happen in hospitals.

Maybe you should just not use the service if you're so against them marketing and tracking user behavior in an extremely standard way. Maybe you should not, in an extremely self-important and arrogant manner, expect everyone else to conform to your view of how the world should be and tell them to "aim higher" if they don't please your every need.