Kind, honest and careful.
Dottie is a companion for a good chat. Here's what she does, what she doesn't, and what happens to what's said.
My promises
- I'll always tell you I'm an AI, not a person.
- If something's wrong, I'll tell you to ring for help.
- I'll never ask for money, card details or passwords.
- I'll gently warn you if someone sounds like a scam.
- I won't pretend to be your doctor.
- I'll be honest about who can see our chats.
Love, Dottie
When something's wrong
If someone mentions a fall, chest pain, trouble breathing, signs of a stroke, feeling very unwell or wanting to hurt themselves, Dottie stops chatting and stays calm. She tells them clearly to call the emergency number or the family member you've added.
A red help card appears on their screen with big press-and-hold buttons to call either number, so a stray tap never rings anyone by mistake. On a phone, the button starts the call. On a tablet that can't make calls, it shows the number in large print to dial from another phone. A red Emergency button is always in the corner of their screen, too.
The help card also appears at the top of your family dashboard the next time you open it. Nobody is called or messaged automatically.
Dottie is not an emergency, medical or care service. She doesn't call anyone by herself, and she doesn't replace people checking in. Please keep doing that.
Looking out for scams
Dottie never asks for money, bank or card details, passwords or ID numbers. If someone mentions that a caller or a message asked them for these, she gently warns them it may be a scam and suggests talking to family.
What family can see
- By default: when they chatted, for how long, and a sentence or two about how it went, including anything worrying about health, safety or scams.
- Only if they agree: the full conversations. You turn this on in their profile, and Dottie knows which setting is on, so she can answer honestly if asked.
- Their story book: only the stories they said yes to keeping, written up in their own words. Dottie asks each time, and a no is always fine.
What we keep
- Dottie's short memory notes, so she remembers names and the things that matter. Family can read and clear them any time.
- Conversation summaries and chatting time, for the family dashboard.
- Stories they chose to keep, for the family's story book. The bit of conversation a story comes from is deleted once it's written up.
- Full conversation text, only if sharing is turned on. Otherwise it's thrown away once the summary is written. Turning sharing off deletes the full conversations saved so far.
- You can delete a person's profile, or your whole account, from the family dashboard at any time.
- We don't keep recordings of anyone's voice.
Speech is processed by our AI provider (OpenAI) so the conversation can happen. For some languages, a voice provider (ElevenLabs) reads Dottie's replies aloud. Payments are handled by Link (Sold through Link, LLC), part of Stripe. There's more detail in our privacy policy.
See also: questions and answers, Dottie for families, and our guide to an elderly parent living alone.