1. Who We Are
Ahara is a digital health platform dedicated to supporting people living with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). We provide structured, evidence-informed programmes to help you understand and manage your symptoms day to day.
Ahara is operated by Ahara Health Limited (Company Number: 15708696), registered in England and Wales. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO Registration Number: ZC125201).
Contact: admin@ahara-ibs.com
Website: www.ahara-ibs.com
If you have any questions about how we handle your personal information, please contact us at the address above.
2. What This Policy Covers
This Privacy Policy explains:
- What personal information we collect about you
- Why we collect it and the legal basis for doing so
- How we use and store your information
- Who we may share it with
- Your rights under UK data protection law
- How to contact us with questions or concerns
This policy applies to all personal data we collect through our website, the IBS pattern quiz, email programmes, intake forms, preview-pack distribution, feedback surveys, and end-of-programme assessments.
What we collect right now. At this stage, Ahara offers an educational preview pack, an early-access sign-up, and a short quiz that asks about your IBS pattern (your diagnosed IBS subtype and bowel-habit pattern). If you take the quiz without signing up, your answers are not linked to you and cannot identify you. If you complete the quiz and choose to sign up, we store your IBS pattern alongside your email address so we can personalise your future programme. Because this relates to your health, it is treated as special category data and we only store it with your explicit consent (see Sections 3 and 5). Our general feedback surveys do not ask for health information, symptom details, or clinical history.
Ahara is not providing diagnosis, emergency care, or individual medical treatment through the website, preview pack, quiz, or surveys.
3. What Information We Collect
3.1 Information you provide to us
Now, through the website:
- Your name and email address
- Your IBS pattern (IBS-C, IBS-D, IBS-M, or IBS-U), if you complete the quiz and consent to us saving it. Quiz answers you give without signing up are not linked to your identity.
- Responses to general feedback questions in preview-pack surveys (these do not ask for health information, symptom details, or clinical history)
When you enrol in the programme:
- Symptom severity scores completed during our programme
- Responses to wellbeing screening questions (including brief anxiety and mood questionnaires)
- Responses to pelvic floor symptom screening questions, where relevant to your subtype
- Your preferences regarding further support at the end of the programme
3.2 Information collected automatically
When you visit our website or click links in our emails, we may automatically collect:
- Your IP address and browser type
- Pages visited and time spent on our website
- Email open and click data (via our email service provider)
Please see Section 10 for details of the analytics we use and how cookies are handled.
3.3 Sensitive health information
Some of the information you share with us, including your IBS pattern (IBS-C, IBS-D, IBS-M, or IBS-U) from the quiz and, once enrolled, your symptom details and screening responses, is classified as special category data under UK data protection law. We handle this information with additional care and only process it with your explicit consent.
4. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
4.1 Delivering our programme
- Sending you preview-pack materials, early-access content, or programme-related educational emails you have requested
- Personalising the content you receive based on the IBS pattern you shared through the quiz
- Delivering your end-of-programme assessment and personalised summary report
- Routing you to appropriate next steps based on your assessment responses
4.2 Improving our service
- Analysing aggregated, de-identified outcomes data to assess programme effectiveness
- Developing and refining our content and clinical pathways
4.3 Communications
- Sending you programme-related emails you have signed up for
- Responding to enquiries or requests for support
4.4 Safety
- Identifying responses that suggest the need for clinical attention, and directing you to appropriate care
We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Quiz results are used only to tailor educational content and are not a diagnosis or clinical record.
5. Our Legal Basis for Processing
Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. Depending on how we use your information, we rely on:
Consent: For enrolling you in our programme and sending you the emails you have signed up for. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing admin@ahara-ibs.com.
Explicit consent: For processing your health information, including your IBS pattern from the quiz and any symptom or screening data you provide during the programme.
Legitimate interests: For website analytics and improving our service, where this does not override your rights.
Legal obligation: Where we are required by law to retain or disclose information.
6. How We Store and Protect Your Information
We take the security of your personal data seriously. We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including:
- Secure encrypted storage of all personal data
- Access controls limiting who can view your information within our team
- Regular review of our data handling practices
We store your personal data within the UK and European Economic Area (EEA). Where any data is processed outside the EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in line with UK GDPR requirements.
If you are outside the UK: Ahara welcomes participants from other countries, including Australia and the United States. Wherever you are located, we apply the standards described in this policy to your personal data.
7. How Long We Keep Your Information
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy:
- Quiz and programme data (including your IBS pattern, symptom scores, and assessment responses): retained for up to 3 years to support service evaluation and safety monitoring, then securely deleted
- Email contact data: retained for as long as you remain an active programme participant or subscriber, then deleted within 12 months of your last interaction
- Website analytics data: retained in aggregated, anonymised form indefinitely
You can request deletion of your personal data at any time (see Section 9).
8. Who We Share Your Information With
We do not sell your personal data. We may share your information with:
8.1 Service providers
We use trusted third-party providers to operate our service, including:
- Email delivery platform: Klaviyo
- Website hosting: Vercel
- Website analytics: Plausible Analytics (privacy-focused, cookieless, see Section 10)
- Form and survey tools: Typeform and Google Forms
These providers process data on our behalf and are bound by data processing agreements requiring them to handle your data securely and in line with UK GDPR.
8.2 Clinical or safeguarding referrals
If your assessment responses indicate a need for urgent clinical attention, we may include relevant information in a referral recommendation to your GP or a specialist service. We will always tell you when this is the case.
8.3 Legal requirements
We may disclose your information where required to do so by law or in response to a lawful request from a public authority.
9. Your Rights
Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights:
Right of access: You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Right to erasure: You can ask us to delete your personal data, subject to certain legal exceptions.
Right to restriction: You can ask us to restrict how we use your data in certain circumstances.
Right to data portability: You can request your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
Right to object: You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at admin@ahara-ibs.com. We will respond within one calendar month.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your request or your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.
10. Analytics and Cookies
Our website uses Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics tool that does not use cookies and does not track you across websites. It collects aggregated, anonymised information about how our website is used (such as pages visited and referral sources) without identifying you personally. Because no cookies or similar tracking technologies are set for analytics, no cookie consent banner is required.
If we introduce cookies that require your consent in the future, for example, for advertising or additional functionality, we will ask for your consent before setting them and update this policy.
11. Children
Our service is intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example when our services change or to reflect updates in data protection law. We will notify you of significant changes by email or by posting a notice on our website. The version date at the top of this document will always reflect when it was last updated.
13. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us:
Email: admin@ahara-ibs.com
Website: www.ahara-ibs.com
We aim to respond to all enquiries within 5 working days.