Core Elements

Privacy Policy

Core Elements Counselling and Holistic Health, Lethbridge, Alberta. Version 1.1, effective July 20, 2026.

The short version

The full policy below is the complete picture, written to Alberta's PIPA and Canada's PIPEDA.

1. Who is responsible for your information

Your information is under the control of Core Elements Counselling and Holistic Health (Alicia Hinger, Registered Psychologist), Lethbridge, Alberta (the "Practice"). Oldman AI Solutions Inc. builds and hosts the Platform and processes your information only on the Practice's instructions, as its service provider, and never for its own purposes.

2. What we collect

3. Where it is stored

Client information is stored in a dedicated database in a Canadian region (Canada Central). The most sensitive structured content (such as assessment responses) is encrypted at the application layer in addition to encryption at rest.

4. How the AI works with your words

The companion and practices are powered by an AI language model operated by Anthropic, a US-based processor. Before any message leaves our system, personal identifiers (names, emails, phone numbers, and similar) are scrubbed from it. Messages sent to the model are used to generate the reply and are not used to train the model. You are always told when you are talking to an AI. Because the model is processed outside Canada, your scrubbed companion messages are transiently handled in the United States; this flow never includes your identity.

AI tools your practitioner uses. To run the practice, your practitioner uses AI-assisted tools (for example, to draft their own content in their voice, to see a summary of how clients are engaging, or to help write their own clinical notes). These tools use the same processor described above and, like the companion, do not train it. Crucially, they work only with engagement information (such as dates, counts, and a safety-signal level) and, for some practice-management summaries, your first name. They never receive the private things you write: your companion conversations, journal entries, and check-in reflections are structurally out of their reach, the same wall that applies to your practitioner directly.

5. What your practitioner sees

6. Safety signals, stated plainly

If your words in the companion suggest you may be in crisis, the Platform immediately shows you crisis resources (9-8-8, 911, 811, and any additional local resources the Practice has chosen to include). It may also record a quiet signal, a timestamp and severity level only, with none of your words, so your practitioner has context when they next review your engagement in the ordinary course of practice. No alert, email, or report is sent to anyone. Nothing is monitored in real time, and a recorded signal may not be seen for an extended period. If you need help, contact 9-8-8, 911, 811, or the Practice directly.

7. How we protect it

8. How long we keep it

Your information is kept while you have access to the Platform and for as long as the Practice's professional record-keeping obligations require, then deleted. If your access ends, information that is not part of the Practice's required records is deleted in the normal course. A complete deletion on request removes everything the Platform holds about you, with a minimal deletion record kept for accountability.

9. Your rights and choices

Handling follows Alberta's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and, where applicable, Canada's PIPEDA. If you have a concern we cannot resolve, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta.

10. If something goes wrong

If a privacy breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities as required by law, promptly and plainly.

11. Cookies and local storage

The Platform uses no advertising cookies. It uses your browser's local storage for the practical minimum: remembering your space on your device and, if you have not enabled conversation storage, keeping your conversation history on your device only. Clearing your browser data clears that local copy.

12. Changes to this policy

The current version always lives at this page with its effective date above. Significant changes will be made visible in the Platform.

13. Contact

The privacy contact for the Platform is Alicia Hinger, Registered Psychologist, Core Elements Counselling and Holistic Health, Lethbridge, Alberta. Reach her with privacy questions or requests, including a copy of our policies on out-of-country service providers, through coreelements.ca. If a concern cannot be resolved, you may contact the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (oipc.ab.ca).

← Back