1. Scope and who we are
This policy applies to barination.org and the Bari AI companion operated by BariNation Foundation, a Washington nonprofit corporation (“BariNation,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). It does not govern third-party services such as Givecloud, Mighty Networks, Constant Contact, podcast platforms, or websites we link to. Those providers have their own privacy notices.
BariNation is an education and community nonprofit, not a health care provider or health plan. Information you give us is generally not protected by HIPAA. Please keep identifying health details out of the AI chat and ordinary email.
2. Information we collect
Information you choose to provide
- AI chat content: questions you type, which may reveal health conditions, symptoms, procedures, treatments, medications, care interests, mental-health concerns, or other sensitive information.
- Communications: your email address and the contents of messages you send us.
- Participation information: information you provide if you submit a story, apply to participate in content, or otherwise work directly with BariNation, subject to any additional release or agreement.
Information collected automatically
- Basic technical and analytics data: IP address, browser and device type, requested page, timestamps, referring page, and security or diagnostic events generated when you access the site or our hosting and API infrastructure. If you allow analytics, Google Analytics also receives the public page path, scroll depth, video engagement, file-download events, and broad categories of selected outbound actions, such as donation, community, newsletter, podcast, or contact links.
- AI session data: a random session identifier, the page title and public page excerpt associated with your question, response mode, response, token counts, timing, and error or safety-routing information. Our application logs usage metrics and errors, not the text of your question.
- Browser storage: the AI feature uses session storage for a random session identifier and local storage to remember whether you placed Bari on the left or right side of the screen. We also use local storage to remember your analytics choice. If you allow analytics, Google Analytics may use first-party cookies for measurement. These controls are not used for cross-site advertising.
Information handled by other providers
When you donate, join the community, subscribe to the newsletter, play content on an external platform, or follow another outbound link, the destination provider collects information under its own policy. Givecloud’s widget also loads on our donation page and may receive technical information or place its own cookies or similar technologies.
3. How we use information
We use information to:
- provide the page, resource, communication, or AI response you request;
- operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve site reliability and accessibility;
- detect abuse, fraud, malicious activity, and safety-related messages;
- respond to inquiries and privacy requests;
- comply with law and protect legal rights; and
- manage content or participation when you separately ask to work with us.
We do not use AI chat content for targeted advertising, sell it, or intentionally use it to train AI models.
5. Consumer health data notice
This section applies to “consumer health data” as defined by Washington law.
Categories we collect
If you include them in an AI question or communication, we may collect information about health conditions or diagnoses, symptoms or measurements, surgeries or procedures, treatments, medications, social or behavioral interventions, mental health, care interests, and inferences generated from that information. We do not ask for your legal identity in AI chat.
Sources
We collect consumer health data directly from you when you choose to type or send it. Bari’s response may also make a limited inference from your question in order to provide the requested general educational response or a safety message.
Purposes
We process this data only to provide the answer or communication you request, supply relevant BariNation resources, maintain the short-lived conversation context, route urgent safety language, secure the service, and comply with law. Collection and necessary sharing with our processor occurs because you requested the chat or communication. Do not provide health information you do not want processed for those purposes.
Data shared and recipients
The categories shared are the health-related text you submit, limited conversation context, and the resulting inference or response. We share them with Amazon Web Services as our processor so Amazon Bedrock and Bedrock AgentCore can generate and return the requested response. We have no affiliates with which we share consumer health data. We do not sell consumer health data.
Your health-data rights
Subject to applicable law, you may ask whether we collect, share, or sell your consumer health data; access that data and receive a list of recipients; withdraw consent for future collection or sharing; or request deletion. To exercise a right, email hello@barination.org with the subject “Consumer Health Data Request” and describe the request. You do not need to create an account. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to authenticate the request.
Because AI chat is designed to be anonymous and is not intentionally stored in a BariNation content database, we may be unable to link a past chat to you or retrieve it after the short-lived session ends. We will not discriminate against you for exercising a right. If we deny your request, you may appeal by replying with the subject “Privacy Appeal.” We will respond within the period required by applicable law.
6. Retention
The AI conversation context is designed to last only for a temporary runtime session, generally no longer than 30 minutes, and persistent AI memory is disabled. The chat shown in your browser disappears when you close or reload the page. AWS states that Amazon Bedrock does not use customer prompts or outputs to train its models by default. BariNation’s API and function logs are configured for 30-day retention and contain technical events and usage metrics rather than question text.
We retain emails, contributor records, legal records, and other operational information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose collected, our legal obligations, dispute resolution, security, and legitimate nonprofit recordkeeping. Backup deletion may take additional time where law permits.
7. Security
We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed for the nature of the information we process. No online service is perfectly secure. You can reduce risk by not entering identifying or highly sensitive information into chat or ordinary email.
9. Children
The interactive Services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided information, contact us so we can take appropriate action.
10. Your choices and other privacy rights
You can avoid AI data collection by not opening or using Bari, decline or withdraw optional analytics through the “Cookie preferences” control in the footer, clear browser storage through your browser settings, unsubscribe through links in newsletter messages, and contact a third-party service directly about information it controls. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of personal information, or to appeal a decision. Send requests to the address below. We will honor applicable rights after reasonable verification.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as our Services or legal obligations change. We will post the revised policy and update the date above. Where law requires, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent before collecting, using, or sharing new categories of consumer health data or using them for materially different purposes.
12. Contact us
Email privacy questions or requests to hello@barination.org. Please use the subject “Privacy Request” and do not include medical records, government identification numbers, or other unnecessary sensitive information.