Sage at Home, Backyard Brands
Sage at Home Privacy Policy
This policy explains how Sage at Home and Backyard Brands handle information when participating Backyard Brands customers use the Sage at Home pool-care portal.
1. Introduction
Backyard Brands Inc., operating Sage at Home (“we,” “us,” “our”), is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you use the Sage at Home mobile application and related services (the “Service”).
We comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy legislation, including Quebec’s Act Respecting the Protection of Personal Information in the Private Sector (as amended by Law 25), Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act, and British Columbia’s Personal Information Protection Act.
Sage at Home is offered to you through a participating Backyard Brands dealer. That dealer is an independent business that keeps its own customer records under its own privacy obligations. This policy describes what Backyard Brands does with your information.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information you provide
- Account information: your first and last name, email address, phone number, and language preference
- Home address: street, city, province, and postal code. These are required during onboarding so your dealer can serve and deliver to you.
- Dealer association: the participating Backyard Brands dealer that invited you
- Water-body profile: pool, hot-tub, or swim-spa type, whether it is inground or above ground, surface finish or shell, indoor or outdoor location, water volume, and sanitizer type
- Personalization answers: your self-reported pool-care experience level and your answers to the short onboarding preference quiz, which produce a personalization profile used to shape how Sage talks to you
- At-home test results: readings you enter manually, or read from a test-strip photo where that feature is available
- Chat data: messages you send to Sage, including photos, files, and audio you record in a chat
- Requests and communications: product reorder, question, and subscription requests, messages to your dealer, and emails you send us for support, feedback, or privacy requests
- Preferences: language, notification, and personalization settings
2.2 Information we receive from your dealer
- Professional water-test results, prescriptions, and treatment plans
- Water temperature, equipment notes, and other water-body details recorded by your dealer
- Purchase, subscription, and fulfillment records related to your participation in the program
- Customer contact and account details used to create and maintain your invitation, including information received through connected dealer systems such as Aqua Ace integrations
2.3 Information generated by your use of the Service
- First-party usage events such as app opens and use of the chat, voice, strip-reading, testing, treatment, and supply features
- Conversation topics and personalization signals used to keep guidance relevant to your water body
- Diagnostic events used to measure feature reliability and troubleshoot errors
- Authentication records, and locally stored data on your device such as recent chat context, preferences, treatment progress, and scheduled notifications
2.4 Information we do not collect
We do not collect precise GPS location, and the current apps do not include a third-party advertising or ad-attribution SDK. We do not sell your personal information. Sage at Home is intended for customers who are legally able to manage the account and pool-care decisions; it is not directed to children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18 years of age.
3. How We Use Your Information
- Provide the Service — create and manage your account, maintain your water-body profile and pool-care history, deliver prescriptions and treatment guidance, and process product and supply requests
- Support your dealer relationship — make available to your participating dealer the records it needs to test your water, prescribe treatments, fulfil requests, and support you
- Provide AI-assisted guidance — generate chat answers, voice responses, test-strip readings, and treatment narration
- Communicate with you — send service updates, treatment and alert notifications, respond to inquiries, and notify you of changes to our policies
- Improve the Service — analyze usage patterns, troubleshoot issues, measure feature reliability, and develop new features
- Security and fraud prevention — protect against unauthorized access, detect suspicious activity, and enforce our terms
- Legal compliance — comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes, and maintain required security and audit evidence
4. Consent
4.1 How we obtain consent
We rely on different forms of consent depending on the nature of the information and how it is used:
- Express consent: for sensitive information or uses beyond what is necessary for the Service, such as marketing communications, we obtain your explicit agreement.
- Implied consent: for information necessary to provide the Service you requested, your consent is implied when you accept your invitation and use the Service.
- Acknowledging this policy is not consent to optional marketing, and it is not consent to use your content to train AI models.
4.2 Withdrawing consent
You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions. To withdraw consent, contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@backyardbrands.com. Withdrawal of consent may affect our ability to provide certain features of the Service.
5. How We Share Your Information
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only in the following limited circumstances:
5.1 Your participating dealer
Your pool-care records — water-body profile, professional and at-home tests, prescriptions, treatments, supply and service requests, and messages — are available to the participating dealer that serves you so it can support your pool care. Connected dealer systems, including Aqua Ace integrations, may provide or receive the customer, water-test, prescription, treatment, supply, and service information needed to deliver the program.
5.2 Service providers
We engage trusted third parties to perform services on our behalf, including cloud hosting, AI processing, voice processing, image reading, and email delivery. These providers are contractually bound to protect your information and use it only for the purposes we specify. Section 6 identifies the AI and infrastructure providers we use.
5.3 Business transfers
In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of the transaction. We will notify you of any such change and your choices regarding your information.
5.4 Legal requirements
We may disclose your information when required by law, court order, or government request, or when necessary to protect our rights, property, or safety, or that of our users or the public.
5.5 With your consent
We may share your information for other purposes with your explicit consent.
6. Third-Party AI and Service Providers
To provide AI-assisted guidance, voice interaction, and photo reading, we use the following service providers:
6.1 OpenAI (AI processing)
Purpose: generate AI responses, water-care guidance, and embeddings; transcribe audio you record inside a chat message; and read photos you send, including test-strip photos. Data transmitted:
- Messages you send to Sage and recent conversation context
- Photos and files you attach to a chat message, including test-strip photos
- Audio you record with the chat microphone, for transcription
- Water-body profile details and water-chemistry readings relevant to your question
- Your display name, dealer association, and language preference
- Personalization preferences used to shape the response
6.2 ElevenLabs (voice processing)
Purpose: enable the conversational voice feature and treatment narration. Data transmitted: voice audio input, the associated transcript, and the water-body profile context needed to respond. Audio you record inside a chat message is transcribed by OpenAI instead, as described above.
6.3 Mailchimp Transactional / Mandrill (email delivery)
Purpose: deliver the sign-in emails that carry your one-time code, and other transactional email about your account. Data transmitted: your email address and the contents of the message, including the one-time code.
6.4 Supabase (backend hosting and storage)
Purpose: authentication, database, server functions, and file storage. Data stored:
- Email address and encrypted authentication credentials
- Name, phone number, dealer association, and water-body profile
- Professional and at-home tests, prescriptions, treatment sessions, and supply and service requests
- Chat messages, uploaded photos and files, and preferences
- Legal acknowledgement and account-deletion records
6.5 What we never send to AI providers
We do not transmit your email address, phone number, passwords, one-time codes, or authentication credentials to OpenAI or ElevenLabs.
6.6 Your acknowledgement of AI processing
This policy describes the AI processing above, and the app asks you to acknowledge it before you use Sage at Home. This Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use are versioned, and you will be asked to acknowledge a newly published version before continuing to use the app. If you do not want your information processed as described here, do not use the Service; you may request account deletion at any time.
6.7 AI data retention
AI providers process submitted content to generate responses under their service arrangements with Backyard Brands. We do not authorize them to use your content for unrelated purposes.
6.8 Persistent memory
Sage remembers context from previous conversations, your stated preferences, and your water-body details across sessions so guidance stays relevant. For example, if your pool uses a salt system, Sage will prioritize guidance for that sanitizer. This memory is associated with your account. You may request deletion of stored interaction history by contacting privacy@backyardbrands.com.
7. Data Retention
We keep your personal information for as long as it is needed to provide Sage at Home, to secure the service, and to meet our legal and operational obligations. Retention varies by record and by your relationship with your dealer; we do not apply one fixed period to everything.
- Account and pool-care records: kept while your account is active
- Chat and voice content: kept with your account; the recent conversation context Sage uses for continuity expires on a rolling basis
- Dealer business records: professional tests, prescriptions, purchases, subscriptions, and service history are also your dealer’s records, and are kept for as long as that dealer’s own obligations require
- Records subject to a legal retention obligation, such as tax and transaction records, are kept for as long as that obligation lasts
- Usage and diagnostic records: kept to measure reliability, and stripped of the details that identify you when your account is deleted
7.1 What deletion does and does not do
Requesting deletion restricts portal access. When the request is carried out, your account, water-body profile, tests, treatments, requests, and chat content are deleted, and usage records are de-identified rather than kept against your name.
Deletion is not unlimited. Records may survive in limited, access-controlled form where a legitimate legal, security, transaction, or safety reason requires it, and records your dealer owns are governed by its own retention obligations. Use the Delete Account page to submit and view a request after verifying account ownership.
8. Your Privacy Rights
Under Canadian privacy law, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:
- Access — request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- Correction — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
- Deletion — request deletion of your information, subject to legal retention requirements
- Portability — receive your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format (Quebec residents)
- Withdraw consent — withdraw consent for non-essential processing at any time
- Complaint — file a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the applicable provincial authority
8.1 Exercising your rights
To exercise any of these rights, contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@backyardbrands.com. We will respond within 30 days of receiving your request. There is no fee for access requests unless the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. You can also update available profile details directly in the app, and contact your participating dealer about the customer records it holds.
9. Data Security
We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information, including:
- Encryption of data in transit and at rest
- Row-level database security and access controls limiting who can view your information
- Authenticated requests and restricted server credentials
- Regular security assessments and vulnerability testing
- Employee training on data protection practices
- Incident response procedures for potential breaches
9.1 Your part
No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. Protect your email account, do not share a one-time code with anyone outside your household, never send a code to us or to your dealer, and report suspected unauthorized access to support@backyardbrands.com.
10. Breach Notification
In the event of a security breach involving your personal information that poses a real risk of significant harm, we will:
- Notify affected individuals as soon as feasible
- For Quebec residents: notify within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach
- Report to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and applicable provincial authorities
- Maintain records of all breaches for at least 24 months
11. Data Location and International Transfers
Your account and pool-care records are stored and processed on our managed cloud infrastructure. Several of the providers described in Section 6 — including the AI, voice, and email-delivery providers — operate outside Canada, so the content you send to those features, and the transactional email we send you, may be processed outside Canada and may be subject to the laws of those jurisdictions.
For information processed outside Canada, we rely on contractual safeguards and compliance with applicable cross-border transfer requirements. We will inform you of material changes to where your information is processed and the safeguards in place.
12. Automated Decision-Making
The Service uses AI to generate pool-care guidance, but that guidance is informational and is not an automated decision that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you. We do not use automated decision-making for credit, employment, insurance, or comparable determinations. If we introduce such features in the future, we will update this policy and, where required, obtain your consent.
13. Third-Party Links
The Service may contain links to third-party websites or services, including your dealer’s website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any personal information.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Each update is published with its own version number and effective date, and the app asks you to acknowledge the new version before you continue using Sage at Home. Where a change would materially reduce the protections described here, we will give advance notice by email or in-app notification before it takes effect. The version and effective date shown on this page indicate when it was last revised.
Continued use of the Service after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. If you disagree with the changes, you may request account deletion.
15. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your privacy rights, contact our Privacy Officer:
- Backyard Brands Inc., 830 Brock Rd Unit 3, Pickering, ON L1W 1Z8, Canada
- Phone: +1 866-875-0012
- Privacy Officer: privacy@backyardbrands.com
- General and technical support: support@backyardbrands.com
15.1 Response commitment
We will acknowledge receipt of your inquiry within 5 business days and respond substantively within 30 days. Your participating dealer can also route a privacy request to Backyard Brands on your behalf.
15.2 Filing a complaint
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may file a complaint with:
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: www.priv.gc.ca
- Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec: www.cai.gouv.qc.ca (Quebec residents)
- Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta: www.oipc.ab.ca
- Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC: www.oipc.bc.ca