Frequently Asked Questions

Your privacy and data security are our top priorities. We've designed TakeCare from the ground up with a security-first approach:

• No password storage: TakeCare only allows sign-in through Google or Apple authentication. We made this choice deliberately. By never storing passwords, we eliminate an entire category of security risks. Your login credentials are handled entirely by Google or Apple's secure systems, not ours.
• Minimal data collection: We only collect anonymous app usage statistics to help us improve the app. We don't track your location, browsing habits, or any personal information beyond what's necessary for the app to function.
• No data sales: We will never sell your personal information or health data to third parties. Period. Your data belongs to you.
• Encrypted storage: All your health data is encrypted and stored securely.

We chose to exclusively use Google and Apple authentication for one simple reason: we don't want to be responsible for storing your passwords. Password databases are a prime target for hackers. Even major companies with dedicated security teams have suffered data breaches that exposed millions of user passwords. By using Google and Apple's authentication systems instead, we:

• Eliminate the risk of a password breach on our end
• Let you benefit from the advanced security measures these tech giants have in place (two-factor authentication, suspicious login detection, etc.)
• Make signing in faster and easier for you
• Remove the need for you to remember yet another password

It's a win-win: better security for you, and less risk for everyone.

When TakeCare's AI analyzes your data to find patterns and correlations, it has no way of knowing who you are. We've architected our system so that personal identifying information is never sent to our AI. The AI receives anonymized health data (meals, symptoms, sleep patterns, etc.) but has no access to your name, email, account information, or anything else that could identify you as an individual.

Think of it like this: the AI sees "Person ate pizza, reported headache 4 hours later" but has no idea that "Person" is you specifically. This separation ensures your privacy is protected even as we use advanced AI to help you find meaningful health insights.

Absolutely not. We will never sell your personal information or health data to anyone. Not advertisers, not data brokers, not anyone. We believe your health data is deeply personal, and it should remain yours. Our business model is based on providing value through our app and optional premium features, not on monetizing your data.

The only data we collect beyond what you log in the app is anonymous usage statistics (like which features are most popular) that help us improve TakeCare. This aggregate data contains no personal health information and cannot be tied back to individual users.

TakeCare turns your everyday meal logs, sleep patterns, exercise routines, and symptom severity levels into powerful insights. Every time you add details about your day, TakeCare processes them through an advanced analysis engine, looking for patterns or "links" among the data you provide.

TakeCare is specifically designed to help people who've struggled for years with elusive chronic issues. By tracking what you eat, how you move, and how you feel day to day, TakeCare uncovers patterns and triggers you may never have suspected, such as an ingredient that's quietly aggravating your condition or a certain type of exercise that consistently eases your discomfort.

TakeCare works best for any condition where there's variability in symptoms, meaning you have good days and bad days, or your symptoms change throughout the day. The key is using the emoji scale to log when your symptoms change, which allows TakeCare to find correlations with what you ate, how you slept, your activity levels, and more.

TakeCare's ability to identify patterns depends on both the quantity and accuracy of the data you enter. In some cases, you may notice correlations in just a few days, while in others it could take weeks or even months.

Simply keep logging your meals, activities, sleep, and symptom severity levels. Over time, TakeCare becomes more precise in spotting meaningful insights. The more consistent you are with logging, the faster and more accurate your results will be.

The progress bar tracks how much data you've contributed. Since TakeCare's deeper analyses require a robust data set, the bar shows how close you are to supplying enough information for a full correlation analysis.

Once it reaches 100%, TakeCare runs a comprehensive review of all your entries to look for patterns and trends that might be affecting your symptoms.

Absolutely! Tap Chat in the bottom bar to talk with your personalized health assistant, Carey (TakeCare Pro). You can ask about anything health-related, such as:

• "My stomach hurts. Any idea why?"
• "How many calories did I eat yesterday?"
• "What foods might worsen my acid reflux?"
• "Show me my sleep patterns this week"

Carey has access to all your logged data and can provide personalized insights based on your unique health history.

There are two main ways to view correlations:

• Root Cause Explorer: Once your progress bar hits 100%, TakeCare conducts a deep, holistic analysis of your health, pinpointing subtle connections you might never notice on your own.
• Hubs: Tap any card on your dashboard (Symptoms, Nutrition, Sleep, Fitness or Medications) to open its hub. There you'll see how sleep, meals, activity and medications line up with your symptom severity over the days you choose.

Symptom severity tracking is how TakeCare measures how your condition is affecting you throughout the day. Instead of just asking "how do you feel emotionally," we're asking "how are your symptoms right now?"

Open your profile (tap the profile icon at the top right of the home page) and select "Edit Notifications." From there, you can:

• Turn off notifications entirely
• Set a different time to receive your daily summary reminders

In the dashboard, tap "History." You can filter by date or entry type (diet, sleep, activity, symptom severity) and then export your chosen history as a PDF.

This PDF can be saved to your phone and sent to your provider by email, file-sharing app, or any secure method your provider recommends.

If your clinician uses the TakeCare clinician portal, they can give you a connect code instead. Enter it in the app and choose exactly what they can see; you can change or stop sharing at any time. Sharing these detailed reports can help your doctor understand your condition better and make more informed treatment decisions.

It's completely up to you how much data you want to enter. TakeCare only collects information that helps generate meaningful insights.

The more specifics you provide about your meals, activities, sleep, and symptom severity, the more accurate your personalized health analysis becomes. Think of it like giving a detective more clues. The more information available, the easier it is to solve the mystery of what's causing your symptoms.

For the most accurate nutritional information, scanning product barcodes is the best method. TakeCare pulls data from several comprehensive databases containing millions of different foods, ensuring precise nutritional details for most products.

However, there are some factors that can lead to discrepancies:

1. AI Photo Analysis: When you use AI Photo Analysis to log meals, TakeCare makes an educated guess based on what it sees in the image. While convenient, this method may not be as precise as scanning a barcode or manually searching for the exact product.
2. Database limitations: While our databases contain millions of foods, they might not have precise info for every product or brand. In rare cases, the system makes an educated guess based on similar items.
3. Entry accuracy: Typos or inaccuracies in how a food is logged can cause mismatched results. It helps if the food name is spelled correctly and closely matches the product label.

For best results, use barcode scanning whenever possible, or search for the specific brand name and variety when logging manually.