Privacy policy

SettleWell Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17333474), registered office Bartle House, 9 Oxford Court, Manchester, England, M2 3WQ ("we", "us", "our") is the data controller for the personal information described here. This policy covers the SettleWell app. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration number ZC195754, and we process your information under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Our privacy-first approach

SettleWell helps you understand your immigration journey without handing over the most sensitive documents in your life. We deliberately never ask for, and never collect:

• BRP (Biometric Residence Permit) numbers or eVisa share codes
• Passport numbers
• National Insurance numbers
• Bank or card details. Payments go through the App Store or Google Play; we never see them
• Copies of your documents. We store the data points you tell us (for example a visa start date), never the documents
• A location history or trail

Lawful bases

• Performance of a contract to create and run your account and provide the service, including alerts and Plus features you pay for.
• Consent for push notifications, the optional calendar and location features, and any marketing (only if you opt in). You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests to keep the service secure, fix problems and understand how the app is used. You can turn usage analytics off in the app.
• Legal obligation to comply with our legal and regulatory duties.

Information you give us

• Your email address, and the first name you choose to give
• Immigration profile data you enter for personalised guidance: visa route, start and expiry dates, nationality, trips abroad (dates, country and a coarse reason), your sponsor's name, and, if you add them, family members' names, relationship and year of birth (never their ID numbers)
• Messages you send to Ask SettleWell
• Anything you tell us when you contact us

Information collected automatically

• Device model, operating system and app version
• Product-analytics events (for example which screens you open and which features you use) linked to a random identifier and your account ID. We never put your immigration dates or other profile details in these events
• Crash and error reports, so we can fix problems
• A push token for your device, if you turn on notifications
• Your IP address, which our providers process to deliver the service

We do not use advertising identifiers, we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and we never use your data for advertising.

Calendar and location (optional, on your device)

The app can help keep your travel record accurate using data that stays on your phone. Both features are off until you turn them on, each explains itself before asking for permission, and you can turn either off at any time in the app or in your phone's settings.

• Calendar. With your permission, the app reads the calendars on your phone to suggest trips outside the UK. The matching happens on your device. Event titles, locations and attendees are never sent to us. If you confirm a suggested trip, we store only its dates, the country, the reason you pick, and a note that it came from your calendar.
• Location. With your permission, the app checks a coarse position (to the nearest few kilometres) now and then to work out one thing: whether you are in the UK. The check happens on your device against a map built into the app, and the position is discarded straight away. No location history is kept or sent to us. Only when you confirm a trip do we store its dates, the country and the reason you pick. With "Always" access the app can notice this in the background; with "While using" it checks only when you open the app.

No calendar content and no coordinate is shared with any provider, AI service or mapping service.

How we use your information

• Provide the service: your settlement timeline, absence tracking, readiness views, alerts and Ask.
• Send you alerts: visa expiry and settlement reminders, and rule changes on your route, by push notification and email. These are a core part of the service.
• Run your subscription: know whether you have Plus and unlock its features.
• Improve and secure the app: fix crashes, understand which features help, and prevent abuse.
• Meet legal obligations: respond to lawful requests where we must.

We do not sell your personal information.

Ask SettleWell (AI)

• Your messages are used to answer you. We keep your conversations so you can return to them.
• No model training. We do not use your messages, profile or any personal information to train or fine-tune AI models.
• Grounded answers. Answers draw on the information you give us and published UK sources such as GOV.UK. Where we can't ground an answer, we say so.
• AI providers. Your question and the relevant journey context are processed by OpenAI and Anthropic to generate answers, and by Voyage AI to match your question to the right guidance. They act as our processors and may not use your data for their own purposes or to train models. The app asks for your permission before your first question is sent.
• Guidance, not advice. AI answers are information only, not legal or immigration advice.

Subscriptions and payments

SettleWell Plus is bought through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google takes your payment and holds your payment details as an independent controller under their own privacy policies; we never receive your card details. RevenueCat, our subscription provider, receives the store's purchase record so we know whether your Plus is active, and when it renews or ends.

Notifications and email

If you turn on notifications, your device's push token is stored with your account. Notifications are sent through Expo's push service and delivered by Apple or Google. Emails are sent through Resend. You can turn push notifications off in your phone's settings, and email alerts off in the app under Profile, Notifications.

Who processes your data

We use a small number of providers. Each acts as our processor: they may use your data only to provide their service to us, on our instructions.

• Supabase database and sign-in (data stored in the EU, Ireland)
• Vercel runs the Ask service (UK)
• RevenueCat subscription status
• Expo push notification delivery
• Resend email delivery
• PostHog product analytics and crash reports (EU)
• OpenAI, Anthropic and Voyage AI Ask (see above)

Apple and Google act as independent controllers for app store purchases and push delivery. We do not share your immigration profile with anyone for their own purposes.

Storage, security and transfers

Your account and journey data are stored in the European Union (Ireland), which the UK recognises as adequate. We use encryption in transit and at rest, row-level access controls so each person can only reach their own data, and need-to-know staff access. Some providers (for example our AI providers) may process data outside the UK and EU; where they do, the transfer is protected by a safeguard recognised under UK GDPR, such as an International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your data.

Your choices in the app

• Usage analytics: turn off in Profile, Privacy and data.
• Ask and AI providers: turn off in Profile, Privacy and data. Ask stays off until you turn it back on.
• Email alerts: turn off in Profile, Notifications.
• Push notifications, calendar and location: manage in the app or your phone's settings.
• Delete your account: Profile, Delete account. This removes your data as described below.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask to access, correct, delete, restrict or port your personal information, object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing, and withdraw consent at any time. We do not make solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you. To exercise a right, email us. You can also complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk, though we'd appreciate the chance to put things right first.

How long we keep data

We keep your information while your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete your personal data within 30 days, except anonymised aggregates, records we must keep by law, and information needed to resolve disputes. Data the calendar and location features keep on your phone never reaches us and is removed when you turn the feature off or delete the app. Deleting the app does not delete your account.

Breaches

If a personal data breach is likely to put your rights at risk, we will tell the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, and tell you without undue delay where the risk is high.

Age

SettleWell is for adults (18 and over). We do not knowingly create accounts for under-18s. If you add a child as a family member, you confirm you are entitled to provide their information.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The date above shows the latest version. We will tell you about material changes before any new or materially different processing begins.

Contact us

SettleWell Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17333474), registered office Bartle House, 9 Oxford Court, Manchester, England, M2 3WQ. Email support@settlewell.uk with the subject "Privacy".

SettleWell provides informational immigration guidance. It is not legal advice and does not provide legal representation. UK immigration advice is regulated; for advice on your situation, consult an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) or a qualified solicitor.