Finch: Self Care Pet

A little birdie told us, or no, it was the Finch privacy policy that says “When you entrust us with sensitive and personal information, we believe it is our most important responsibility to keep it as safe, secure, and private as we can.” We agree!

When it comes to privacy, Finch: Self Care Pet seems pretty OK. They say then can store any information provided during sign-up, but it seems like it’s not necessary to give up your information to get access to the app, which is good. They do have one feature, called "Super Vibe" that you can choose to use that asks you to give over access to your phone number and share the contacts in your address book. That's a lot of sharing, so Finch has a section in their privacy policy that explains how this information is handled. It's a pretty clear section in their privacy policy and we appreciate that personal information sharing is explained clearly. It's probably good to go read about how they'll hand your contacts' information before unlocking that feature.

We did a quick dip on the Finch subreddit and learned people are confused about how the Super Vibe works, so it might be reassuring to users if they made that a bit more clear inside the app. After all, it caters to the anxious among us (and who isn't anxious these days!). And who wouldn’t be anxious about the prospect of accidentally reaching out to a dusty old contact through your mental health app? They don’t seem to do anything with your contacts without your consent though, to be clear.

They also store anything you write, like your reflections and goals. But you can ask them to encrypt that information so that no one can read it but you (or technically, without your private key) by turning on “Advanced Data Protection.” Yup, we like the sound of that.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. That’s a running theme with the Finch app. Privacy-wise, you choose your own adventure. That’s better than not having a choice, but privacy by default is our preference, since we’re starting to suspect that not everyone likes to poke around in privacy settings as much as we do.

Speaking of choices, unless you disable it, they’re going to share some information about your browsing activity with third parties like Facebook, Amazon, and TikTok to track ad performance. Don't worry too much about this as this practice is super common on the internet and they do give you instructions on how to opt out. We found it kinda funny that in the part where they talk about this, they’re pulling on the ‘ol heartstrings a little by suggesting that advertising “serves to enable small businesses and mom-and-pop shops to have a chance to succeed” and later that “most of the sites and apps you know and love that show ads are probably using interest-based advertising to try to earn enough to stay in business.” Why does it feel like their adorable bird mascot will cry if I restrict my Facebook ad preferences (maybe because restricting that means restricting money)? Maybe we’re just too sentimental. In any case, here’s a palate cleanser: you have the right to delete all your data! As you should.

What's the worst thing that could happen with your cute little Finch Self Care Pet? Well, if you accidentally send your high school gym teacher a virtual hug, that could be pretty awkward. But who knows, maybe it could also make your old gym teacher's day!