Not a Medical Service
CareKin is a peer support platform — a professional and empathetic community where healthcare providers and patients connect, share information, and build trusted peer networks. It does NOT provide medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical decisions.
What CareKin Is Not
CareKin is built for community and connection — not for clinical care:
- We do not store clinical records (such as hospital charts or EMR data)
- We do not process diagnostic data or lab results
- We do not enable prescription workflows or e-prescribing
Anything you share on CareKin is community content you choose to post — not a medical record.
Who We Are
UNIiDIFF LLC ("CareKin") operates the CareKin mobile application. We are registered with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) of Kenya as both a data controller and data processor.
Everyday questions: Settings → Help → Submit a Support Ticket. Critical requests (account deletion, data purge, data rights): uniidiff@gmail.com with a clear subject line.
Identity Data We Collect
At registration: name (only first name shown publicly), email, phone number (registration and login only — never shared), date of birth (age verification only — never shown), gender, and optionally city/region, profile photo, and bio.
How You Sign In
Email and password · Phone number (OTP) · Google Sign-In · Apple Sign-In. Social sign-in providers share basic account details (name, email) only to create or link your CareKin account. Optional biometric unlock is never required.
Health Journey Stage — Special Category Data
Optional health journey stage (e.g. "Newly Diagnosed," "In Remission") is special category data under the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019. Collected with separate, explicit consent to connect you with others on a similar journey. Change or remove anytime from Profile.
Behavioural Analytics
Anonymised, aggregated usage data to improve the platform: screen time, feature events, session timestamps, search queries, and push notification open rates. Individual user journeys are NEVER exposed in admin analytics.
The Marketplace — No Transactions
Free peer-to-peer listing board. CareKin does NOT process payments or collect financial information.
Premium Group Channels — Off-Platform Payments
CareKin does not process premium channel fees. Members pay moderators directly outside the platform.
Phone Number — Registration & Login Only
Used solely to create and access your account. Never used for marketing, never sold, never shared with any third party — ever.
Data We Do NOT Collect
- Your precise location — we do not collect or store precise GPS for tracking; you may enter city or county manually
- Your contact list, call logs, or SMS — we do not bulk-read your contacts or access call or message history
- Biometric templates — optional unlock uses your phone's secure enclave only
- Browsing history outside CareKin
- Data from users under 18 (minimum age: 18)
- Financial or payment data
- Clinical records, diagnostic data, or prescription information
- Marketing or advertising data — we do not serve ads or sell data
- Persistent device identifiers (IMEI, IMSI, SIM serial) linked to your personal data
- Mobile advertising identifiers (GAID or IDFA) for advertising or cross-app tracking
Device Permissions (Optional)
CareKin only requests device permissions when you use a feature that needs them. You can decline and continue using most of the app. Before each sensitive permission, we show an in-app explanation of what is accessed and why.
- Location — only when you tap to detect your county during signup or profile edit. Optional GPS is used only to fill county/sub-county, not stored for tracking. We do not collect your precise location.
- Contacts — we do not access your contact list. When you choose to share a contact in chat, you pick one contact at a time using your phone's system picker — for example, sharing a known physician's or clinic's phone number with someone who needs it. We do not collect call logs or SMS.
- Camera and photos — only when you take or attach a profile photo, marketplace listing image, or message attachment you choose to send
- Microphone — only when you record a voice note you choose to send
- Notifications — only when you enable push alerts for messages and community updates
Biometric Unlock (Optional)
Uses device fingerprint or face recognition to re-open the app after sign-in. Biometric data never leaves your phone or is sent to CareKin servers. Disable anytime in Settings → Account Security.
Who We Share Data With
- Other CareKin members — first name, photo, bio, city, posts (journey stage used internally for matching, not shared publicly)
- Google or Apple — only when you choose social sign-in
- Email delivery provider — email address for account access and recovery
- CDN/cloud storage — profile photos and voice notes (encrypted at rest)
- Firebase/APNs — push notification token only
- Moderation team — reported content only
- Admin dashboard — anonymised, aggregated behavioural metrics only
- Third-party advertisers — NONE. We do not sell or share user data for advertising.
Third-Party Services & SDKs
CareKin integrates third-party code that processes limited data on our behalf: Firebase (auth, push), Google/Apple Sign-In (optional login), Sentry (crash diagnostics), and cloud hosting. These providers are prohibited from selling your data or using it for their own advertising. We remain responsible for their compliance with this policy.
Data Retention
- Identity data: life of account + 90 days after deletion
- Health journey stage: life of account
- Behavioural event logs (raw): 90 days
- Aggregated analytics: 12 months
- Messages: until you delete or account closed
- Reported content records: 2 years
Account deletion is completed within 90 days of your request.
Your Rights Under KDPA 2019
Access · Rectification · Erasure · Restriction · Portability · Object
Exercise rights: uniidiff@gmail.com — Subject: Data Rights
Message Access for Community Safety
Trained moderators may access message content only for community safety — reviewing reports, detecting self-harm or crisis language, harassment, scams, or impersonation — and where required by law. Access is limited to defined moderator roles with audit logging.
Security & Encryption in Transit
Yes — all personal data that CareKin collects and transmits from your device to our servers is encrypted in transit using HTTPS (TLS), including authentication, profile data, messages, photos, voice notes, and analytics sent to our backend. Authentication tokens are stored using your device's secure storage.
Third-party services integrated in the app (such as Firebase, Google Sign-In, Apple Sign-In, and crash diagnostics) transmit data over encrypted connections under their own security practices. One-time SMS verification codes for phone login are delivered via your mobile carrier's SMS network (standard for phone verification).
Messages are encrypted in transit and at rest — not end-to-end encrypted. Trained moderators may access them for community safety, and content may be disclosed where required by law.
Breach response: we notify you and the ODPC within 72 hours if a breach is likely to harm your rights.
Account Deletion
Permanently delete your CareKin account and associated data. Full step-by-step instructions, retention timelines, and a list of what is deleted vs kept: Delete your CareKin account (UNIiDIFF)
Quick steps: Settings → Account → Delete Account in the app, or email uniidiff@gmail.com — Subject: Account Deletion Request - CareKin (UNIiDIFF)
Deletion completes within 90 days (deactivated within 7 days; primary systems purged within 30 days).
Delete Specific Data (Without Deleting Your Account)
Request erasure of selected data categories while keeping your account: Delete specific CareKin data (UNIiDIFF)
Quick steps: Settings → Data & Privacy in the app, or email uniidiff@gmail.com — list the data types you want deleted.
Child Safety
Zero tolerance for CSAM. Report via in-app Report → "Child safety concern" or email uniidiff@gmail.com. Emergency: 999 / 112 · Childline Kenya: 116
Children
CareKin is for users aged 18 and over. Underage accounts are deleted immediately.
Changes & Contact
Material changes notified at least 30 days in advance via in-app notification and email.
Data rights: uniidiff@gmail.com · Complaints: ODPC at www.odpc.go.ke
Your Data Controls — UNIiDIFF / CareKin
UNIiDIFF LLC (developer name on Google Play: UNIiDIFF) provides the following ways to manage your CareKin app data: