Recovery Companion Privacy Policy
Last updated October 21, 2026
Recovery Companion is a free recovery app made by Healing Nations Foundation, an Oregon 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 39-5054760). This policy explains what the app keeps, what leaves your phone and when, who can see it, and the choices you have. Our website has its own privacy policy.
If you are in crisis, call or text 988, then press 1 for the Veterans Crisis Line. In immediate danger, call 911. Nobody watches the app around the clock, so it is not a way to ask for help in an emergency.
The short version
Used on your own, the app keeps everything on your phone. We never receive it.
No ads, no tracking, no analytics, and we never sell your information.
The app never collects your contacts, photos, or anything from your camera or microphone.
The app never tracks where you go. It reads your location only when you ask it to: when you search for meetings near you, and, if your program uses it, on meeting cards. See Location, below.
Your journal and your Companion chats never leave your phone.
If you connect the app to a program, such as a treatment court, probation office, county program or treatment provider, some of what you do after connecting is sent to our server so your program can see it. The app shows you what before you connect and asks you to agree. Nothing from before you connected is sent.
Using the app on your own
Unless you connect to a program, everything below stays on your phone. We never receive it.
The first name or nickname you enter, and your sobriety date.
Your daily check-ins: mood, cravings, the word you pick for how you feel, what is having the biggest impact on you, and whether you used in the past day.
Your morning intentions, your written answers to the module questions, and notes you add to your work.
Your journal.
Your Companion chats. The Companion answers from HNF's own writing, built into the app.
Anything you write in the Community tab. Community sharing is not switched on, so it stays on your phone.
Meeting attendance cards and community service cards you create.
Your streak, day count, recharge days and progress.
Your settings and reminder times, the last place you searched for meetings, and your birth date if you turn on the optional daily reading by sign.
Simple usage counts, including the general topic of Companion messages but never the words.
Reminders are scheduled by your phone itself and do not pass through our servers.
The app is set up so its records are not copied into iCloud or Google device backups. If you add the home screen widget, it shows the day's line or your own intention, your progress, your streak and your days sober on your home screen, where anyone who sees your phone can read it. That small piece may be included in your phone's own backups.
Location
Recovery Companion never tracks where you go and never reads your location in the background. It reads your location only in the two cases below, and only after your phone asks your permission. You can say no, or turn location off for the app in your phone's settings, and everything else in the app keeps working.
Near me, in Find a meeting. When you tap Near me, the app reads your location once, rounds it to about a kilometer, and sends it only to the public Narcotics Anonymous meeting directory to look up nearby NA meetings. It is not sent to Healing Nations Foundation or to any program, and the app does not keep it. AA meetings work differently: your phone downloads a list of AA meetings from our server and picks the nearby ones itself, so our server never learns where you are. When you search by city or ZIP instead, the place you type is looked up by your phone's built-in map service.
Meeting cards, if your program uses location. If you are connected to a program that has turned on location for meeting cards, the app reads your location once when you tap Check in and once when you tap Check out on an in-person meeting card. Those two readings are sent with that card to our server and become part of the record your program receives. If you say no, the card is still saved, and your program sees that location was not recorded.
If you connect to a program
Some people use Recovery Companion as part of a program run by a court, a probation or parole office, a county, or a treatment provider. You connect by entering a code or opening a link your program gives you. If a program requires you to use the app, ask your program contact what connecting means for you.
What your program sets up
Before you connect, your program creates a record for you in our secure portal. It can include your name, a case reference number, your start date, your timezone, the supervising officer who receives your record, and an email address and phone number your program uses to reach you. Your email address and phone number are shown only in the portal, to your program's staff and HNF administrators, and never in reports. If your program sends your invitation by email, we send it through our email provider and record that it was sent. We also record when your invitation link is first opened. Invitation codes expire after 14 days.
A connection runs for a set term, called a reporting license, that your program arranges with us (180 days unless your program sets another length). When the term ends, the app stops sending. What was already sent stays with your program.
What connecting shares
Before the app connects, it shows you what it will share and who receives it, and asks you to agree. We keep a copy of the exact words you agreed to, with the date and time. Only what you do after you connect is sent. Nothing from before you connected, or from any time you were disconnected, is ever sent. Once you are connected, the app sends:
The date and time you finish each daily step.
Your daily check-in: how you rated your mood and cravings, and whether you reported using in the past day.
The word you pick for how you are feeling, and what you say is having the biggest impact on you that day.
The intention you write each morning, whether you started from one of the app's suggestions, and which daily focus you chose.
Your written answers to the daily module questions, which module you read, how long you spent reading, and when you planned or moved it during the day.
For your journal, only that you wrote an entry and how long it was. Never the words.
Meeting attendance cards you create: the fellowship, the meeting, whether it was online, the place you type in, the date, when you arrived and left, when you made the card, and the chairperson's name, phone number and signature. Community service cards record the same, with the site supervisor's name, phone number and signature.
If your program uses location on meeting cards: your phone's location when you tapped Check in and Check out on an in-person card, as described under Location, above.
Recharge days you use when you miss a day.
Your program's portal works out your streak and day count from these records and the start date your program entered. To make the connection work, the app also sends a key that links your phone to your record, the app version, and your phone's timezone setting. Our server also records when your phone last reached it.
What is never shared
The words you write in your journal. Our server keeps only an entry's length.
Notes you add to your module work.
Your Companion chats.
Anything you did in the app before you connected, or while you were disconnected.
Where you go. The only location your program ever receives is the two readings on a meeting card, and only if your program uses location. Your meeting searches are never shared.
Your contacts, your photos, and anything in your other apps.
Who can see it
Your supervising officer and your program's staff, through our portal. The app names your program and your supervising officer before you connect. Signing in takes a password and a code from an authenticator app, and opening or exporting your record is logged.
People your program shares reports with. Your program can download reports of your record and may share them with a court, a supervising officer or another agency under its own rules and agreements.
HNF staff who run the service, only as needed to operate it, support your program, keep it secure, or meet the law.
If you disconnect
You can disconnect at any time in the app's Profile. The app stops sending the moment you do, your program sees that you disconnected, and nothing you do while disconnected is ever sent, even if you connect again later. Anything already sent stays with your program as part of its record. Disconnecting may affect what your program requires of you, so talk to your program contact first.
Meeting cards and other people's information
A meeting card records the chairperson's name, phone number (optional) and signature, and a community service card records the site supervisor's. That is another person's information, so ask them before you record it. If you are not connected to a program, the card stays on your phone.
How we use information
To keep your program record and produce the reports your program uses, if you connect.
To send the invitation email your program asks us to send.
To provide the list of AA meetings in Find a meeting. Our server collects it once a day from the public meeting lists of local AA service offices, and keeps only meeting details, never contact names or notes.
To keep the service secure, including logging sign-ins to the portal, who viewed or exported a record, and some actions from the app, such as connecting. These logs include internet (IP) addresses.
To meet our legal obligations.
We do not sell or rent your information, share it for advertising, track you across other apps or websites, or use it to train AI models.
Service providers and other services
A small number of companies help us run the program side of the app, and they handle information only to provide their service to us: Railway, which runs our server; Neon, which hosts our database; and Resend, which sends invitation emails. Apple and Google distribute the app and may collect information when you download or update it, under their own privacy policies. When you tap Near me in Find a meeting, a rounded location goes to the public Narcotics Anonymous meeting directory (BMLT), which is run by NA volunteers under its own policies. Links in the app, such as 988, meeting directories, online meetings and maps, open other services that have their own policies.
When the law requires it
We may disclose information if the law requires it, for example in response to a valid court order.
Keeping it secure
Everything the app sends to our server travels over an encrypted connection. Our server stores enrollment codes and device keys only in scrambled (hashed) form, requires a password and an authenticator code for every portal sign-in, limits repeated sign-in and connection attempts, and logs who viewed or exported each record. We keep backup copies of the program database so records are not lost. On your phone, the app's records sit in the app's own private storage, so protect your phone with a passcode. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot promise that information will never be accessed without permission.
How long we keep it
On your phone: until you use Delete my data in Profile or delete the app.
Program records, including any meeting card locations: for the period your program sets, which the app shows you before you connect, or longer if the law requires. When a program stops using Recovery Companion, or asks us to delete a record, we delete it unless the law requires us to keep it.
Security logs and backups: only as long as needed to protect the service and recover from data loss.
Invitation codes: they stop working after 14 days if unused.
Your choices
Use the app without connecting to any program. Everything then stays on your phone.
Say no to location, or turn it off for the app in your phone's settings. You can still search for meetings by city or ZIP.
Turn reminders on or off in the app or in your phone's settings.
Disconnect from your program at any time in Profile.
Delete my data in Profile erases everything the app keeps on your phone. If you are connected, it also lets you email us to ask for your program record to be deleted. Your program may be required to keep some of it, and we will tell you what we deleted, what we could not, and why.
Ask us to show you or correct what we hold about you by emailing info@healingnationsfoundation.org.
Depending on where you live, you may have other privacy rights. Email us and we will help.
Age
Recovery Companion is for adults 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe a young person is using the app, email us and we will help remove their information.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If we change what the app sends to programs, the app will ask you to agree again before it sends anything new.
Contact
Healing Nations Foundation, info@healingnationsfoundation.org