Privacy & Safety

Engineered for people in danger

The hardest part of recognising abuse is often the fear of being caught looking. Every part of Sivolo is designed so that you can use it safely — and so you stay in control of what you keep, and who sees it.

Plain about your messages

When an analysis runs, your conversation is encrypted in transit and read by our backend and by Anthropic to produce your report. A longer analysis runs as a background job: the conversation is held encrypted until the job finishes, then deleted. It is the one part of Sivolo we can read, and our privacy policy explains it in full. Your finished result is held briefly — encrypted so only you can open it — then deleted once it reaches your device.

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Encrypted on your device

Everything stored locally is protected with AES-256 encryption, and the key never leaves your device — so if your phone is lost or stolen, no one else can read your data. And if you’ve enabled Secure Cloud Backup, your own copy stays safe and remains accessible to you from any web browser.

Only what we need

Sivolo doesn’t make you build a profile. Your account needs an email address and a password, and nothing more: no name, no phone number. Payments run through Apple or Google, so your card details never reach us.

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If someone checks your phone

Hidden in plain sight

Abusers monitor phones. Sivolo assumes that and gives you layers of protection that work even if your device is picked up or inspected.

  • Biometric / PIN lock each time Sivolo opens on your phone — on from the start, and you can turn it off in Settings. The web app has no lock and keeps you signed in for up to 30 days after you last use it, so on a shared computer use a private window
  • Panic exit gesture instantly hides Sivolo behind a harmless decoy screen and locks it on your phone, even if you’ve turned the app lock off
  • Your choice of decoy — a working calculator, a notes page or a photo of your own
  • Discreet notifications — alerts on your phone are off unless you turn them on
The Sivolo lock screen: the app stays locked until you unlock it with Face ID, fingerprint or passcode

Actual app screen · example data

If you need help right now

Ready for the moment it matters

Some evidence can only be gathered as it happens, and some calls have to be made in a hurry. Sivolo’s Protect tab is built for both — set it up calmly now, including microphone and location access, so it’s there if you ever need it.

  • Crisis Capture records audio and your location trail as it happens, with your decoy screen covering it. Start it by holding the Protect tile on Home for two seconds, or set up a one-touch start: the Action Button or Back Tap on iPhone, a Quick Settings tile or widget on Android
  • Each capture is sealed into your Journal as an evidential entry, encrypted on your phone. If it’s cut off — a flat battery, the app closed — what was recorded up to that moment is recovered, and with Secure Cloud Backup set up on your phone it’s sent to your backup, encrypted, as it records
  • Emergency call help puts your location on screen, ready to read out — what3words, address and GPS — and opens your dialler with the local emergency number. Sivolo never calls for you: you press call
The Sivolo emergency call screen: a Call 999 button and the location ready to read out
Sivolo Crisis Capture set up and ready, with location and microphone allowed

Actual app screens · example data

When you’re ready to share

You decide who sees what — and you can take it back

Your Trusted Circle builds on Secure Cloud Backup: it lets you share specific message logs and reports with the people you choose to let in — a solicitor, IDVA or counsellor. Reaching out for help shouldn’t mean losing control of your evidence, so you stay in charge at every step.

Because it runs through your secure cloud, you can set it all up and manage it from any web browser — so support stays reachable even if your phone is lost, taken or broken.

  • You choose who sees what. Give someone all your reports, or a kind of evidential journal entry, and new ones are shared with them automatically, unless you set new reports to “Ask me” or “Don’t share”
  • Share with someone in your Trusted Circle — and they never see each other
  • Optionally let chosen members annotate your results, so a professional can review the evidence objectively and add notes
  • Annotations are collated into a single results file — nothing scattered across messages or email
  • Full access rights and instant revocation stay with you
  • You can see when each person last opened what you shared, and how often
  • Emergency access: if you’re ever unreachable, someone you’ve pre-authorised can ask for more access. You’re told straight away and can allow or decline — and up to three people can hold full emergency access

Secure cloud backup Included

A zero-knowledge backup that even Sivolo cannot read, included with every account. It’s locked with a passphrase only you know — and a 12-word recovery phrase you save when you set it up — so your evidence survives a lost, broken, taken or compromised phone, reachable by you alone from any web browser. You can delete all your cloud backup data at any time.

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Trusted Circle Sivolo Plus Optional

Builds on Secure Cloud Backup to let you share specific logs and reports with people you choose — a solicitor, IDVA or counsellor. Members never see each other, and full access and instant revocation always stay with you.

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Tamper-evident timestamps Included

An independent authority signs a one-way fingerprint of your entry — never its contents — recording that it existed at that moment and has not been altered since. Supports credibility if a case goes to court.

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Standards we hold ourselves to

Privacy that’s engineered, documented and accountable.

AES-256
on-device + encrypted result storage · TLS in transit
0
trackers, ad IDs or analytics SDKs
GDPR
/ UK ICO aligned
You
hold the only key to your journal and backup
Being honest about limits. No tool can make a phone perfectly safe if someone has deep access to your device or accounts. Sivolo raises the bar significantly, but if you believe your phone itself is compromised, please reach out to a specialist domestic abuse service for tailored safety advice. If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services — in the UK, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247 (free, 24 hours).

Privacy you don’t have to take on faith

Read exactly what we do and don’t collect in our full privacy policy — or start using Sivolo.

Read the privacy policy See how it works