Is my patient data secure?

Security and privacy of your data are top priorities for Similia. Practitioners enter sensitive information, so Similia aims to protect it with strong technical and organizational measures.

The HIPAA & GDPR Compliance page at https://similia.io/compliance explains how Similia handles access, encryption, AI processing and deletion, and what practitioners need to verify for their own compliance obligations.

How Similia protects your data

• Encryption in transit: connections to Similia are encrypted.
• Encryption at rest: case data is stored in encrypted cloud databases. Similia is not an end-to-end encrypted service. For the copy that offline mode keeps on a device, see "Offline mode: data kept on your device" below.
• Access control: your cases are available only after you sign in, and only to your account. Sharing a case sends an independent copy to the person you invite, who accepts it while signed in with the invited, verified email address. Later edits to either copy do not sync.
• Secure storage: case data is stored on enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure with access controls and ongoing internal security reviews.
• Consent controls: GDPR consent and separate AI-processing consent can be managed from Settings > Privacy & consent. Withdrawing GDPR consent signs you out, and the app can't be used until you accept it again; your data stays stored until you request deletion.
• Patient Privacy: set Hide patient names in case lists to Yes to keep the Recent Cases and Cases lists behind a placeholder for teaching and screen sharing; an eye button reveals them for the current visit only.
• Data minimization: Similia aims to store only what is needed to provide the app's functionality.

The patient data agreement

If Similia asks how you will use it before you first add case information, choose Patient information (a real person who can be identified from the details or a patient code) or Study material (fictional information, or material that can no longer identify a person). The choice applies to your whole account. Removing a name alone may not make a case anonymous — if in doubt, choose Patient information.

Choosing Patient information opens the Data Processing Agreement (DPA). You give the legal name of the practitioner or organisation responsible for the records, a representative name and role, a business address and country, and a privacy contact email, then accept the agreement on its behalf. You accept it once for the account and the named practitioner or organisation; you are not asked again for each patient. Study and reference use does not require it.

The agreement is shown in your selected language. If Settings > Privacy & consent shows the Patient data agreement card, it lists the accepted version, date and named party, a download of the acceptance record and the exact agreement as JSON, and a Manage data use button to change between study and patient use later. The DPA is separate from patient consent, from the privacy notice and from AI-processing consent: you remain responsible for using patient information lawfully, informing patients and obtaining consent where required. You can also read or print the public agreement at https://similia.io/dpa without signing in; reading it does not record acceptance.

Offline mode: data kept on your device

Offline mode (Beta) is for Pro accounts outside any free trial and runs only in the installed Similia app, never in a browser tab. When it is on, the app keeps a copy of your cases and notes on the device, so the device's own protection matters:

• Cases and notes are kept in the app's own storage on the device. Protect the device with a screen lock and its built-in encryption.
• Downloaded repertories and books are encrypted and tied to your account and the device.
• Signing out removes the cases and notes kept offline. If some changes have not synced yet, Similia asks first: Stay signed in lets them sync, Sign out and discard removes them.
• Turn off in Settings > Offline syncs waiting changes first, then removes the offline copy and the downloads from the device.
• Use offline mode only on a device you control. On a shared computer, use Similia in the browser.

Setup and what works offline are explained in "Using Similia Offline (Beta)".

Cookies and web statistics

Similia uses cookies to keep you signed in and to remember your settings. Usage statistics (Google Analytics, how you found Similia, and page-load timing attached to error reports) depend on where you are. In the EU/EEA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Turkey, Brazil, Israel and Canada, and whenever Similia can't tell where you are, they are off until you switch them on; elsewhere they run until you switch them off. A browser's Global Privacy Control signal turns them off unless you allow them. The choice is saved in that browser for six months and never affects your account or sign-in. You make the first choice in the cookie banner. To change it later, use Cookie settings in the website footer, or, when signed in, the Web statistics checkbox or Open cookie settings under Settings > Privacy & consent > Cookies & web statistics.

The Strictly necessary items are always on: sign-in, language and display settings, the offline cache, bot protection, the support chat inside the app, and anonymous, cookieless page-view statistics.

Separately, Feature-usage analytics is an account setting in the same place. It lets Similia see which features you use and where something fails, under your account id and never with patient content. You can switch it off; support then has less to go on when you ask for help.

Analytics, support, and third-party tools

Similia uses third-party services for:

• product analytics, performance monitoring and error reports, to improve stability and user experience; error reports pass through filters intended to remove patient content before they are sent
• support chat, so you can contact support from inside the app
• feedback collection, to collect feature requests and bug reports

These tools can collect usage information. Patient notes, images and audio are excluded from product analytics and are never used for advertising.

The support chat loads only inside the app, for signed-in users. It is linked to your account email and name so support can find your account. Signing out, or signing in with another account, starts a new chat session, so the next person on a shared computer does not see your conversation.

AI processing

AI-processing consent is required before using AI features that process case notes, images, audio, or other user-provided clinical material — Notes to Rubrics, AI case analysis (AI Analysis), timeline extraction, Similia AI, photo analysis, Live Audio, transcription and dictation. Repertory and Materia Medica semantic search do not need it: they process your search words, not clinical material.

You can withdraw AI-processing consent at any time from Settings > Privacy & consent. If you turn it off while a Live Audio session is recording, even from another tab or device, the recording stops when the change reaches the session and the final AI summary and analysis are skipped; the captured transcript stays available for review.

Settings > Work mode > Manual hides the AI features that find rubrics and remedies, but it does not withdraw AI-processing consent. That consent is what controls whether AI features may process your material.

When you use AI features, the content you submit is processed to produce suggestions, such as SRP symptoms, transcription, summaries, and rubric matches. AI features consume AI credits.

To produce these results, Similia sends only the content the selected feature needs to its AI service providers; semantic search sends the words you search for. Similia does not use your content to train its own AI models, and the Data Processing Agreement commits that patient information is not sold, used for advertising, or used to train or fine-tune AI models. Business Associate Agreements (BAAs), zero-data-retention and no-training terms with Similia's AI service providers apply only where they are contractually in place and enabled for that service, and retention and training controls vary by provider. Before you enter protected health information, confirm the agreements that apply to your practice; for information about these agreements or other compliance questions, email info@similia.io. The Privacy Policy at https://similia.io/privacy and the HIPAA & GDPR Compliance page list the service providers and these controls.

For Live Audio Mode specifically, the audio recording is not saved. The analysis keeps text only: the transcript and the AI summary, plus, in Transcribe + AI analysis mode, the materia medica findings, the case analysis and the rubrics that were added. In an online consultation, Similia records audio only; the shared screen image is never stored or sent. A Transcribe only session mode runs no symptom detection, rubric search, materia medica or case analysis while it records.

Export and deletion

You can export your data from the app: Settings > Privacy & consent > Export Your Data downloads all your personal data as JSON with Export Data (JSON). The export includes your profile, settings, cases, notes and media, annotations, repertory additions, provings, case folders, saved filters and templates, AI chat conversations and the personal input and results of AI analyses. It does not include Similia's internal AI prompts, diagnostic traces or the names of the AI models and providers behind a feature; where an AI provider name appears in an assistant's answer it is shown as "[…]" and marked as a redaction.

Deleting a conversation from the Similia AI history also erases the logs behind it, so a later export does not contain that conversation.

If you delete your account (Settings > Delete account, under Danger zone), Similia removes your account data, including cases and related case data, My Notes, AI logs and live audio logs. Deleted data becomes inaccessible straight away and is removed from active storage. Deleted files can remain in a restricted soft-delete state for up to seven days, backup copies, where they exist, follow their own retention schedules, and some records may be kept longer where the law requires it. In a collaborative proving, a de-identified proving record and other participants' contributions may remain; the Privacy Policy explains these exceptions.

An active subscription, including one still in its free trial, must be cancelled first: Manage Subscription in the Delete account section opens the billing portal. A subscription or trial cancelled in the billing portal stays active until the end of the paid period or trial, and the account can be deleted once it has ended. With Lifetime Pro there is nothing to cancel: tick I understand the Lifetime Pro licence ends permanently first. Deleting the account ends the Lifetime Pro licence and its add-ons for good: they can't be restored, moved to another account or refunded after the 14-day window, and a running payment plan is stopped; see "Lifetime Pro: Pay Once for Similia Pro". An export is a backup file, not a way to restore a deleted account.

If you have questions about privacy or need a data export/deletion request handled, contact support in the app or email info@similia.io.

Updated on: 11/10/2026