Account and privacy · CarePilot User Guide

Let’s start with the most important thing, because everything else flows from it: CarePilot encrypts all your information end-to-end. That means that what you all write in the care (the medication, the notes, the expenses…) travels and is stored in cipher, so that not even we, the people who make the app, can read it. It’s the greatest privacy guarantee there is.

But that very protection has one consequence worth understanding well: since nobody else can open your data, you are the keeper of the keys. It’s not like email or social networks, where if you forget your password they send you a new one. Here, if you lose the key, there’s nobody to ask for it. Don’t be alarmed: in this guide we explain step by step how to create those keys, where to keep them and how to recover your account if you change phones. Taken calmly, it’s very simple.

Verify your email

If you signed up with your email and a password, the first thing CarePilot did was send you an email to check that the address really is yours. It’s a normal security step, the same one almost every app asks for.

Confirm when you can

If you haven’t confirmed your email yet, inside Settings (the last tab in the bottom bar) you’ll see a notice that says «Verify your email». All you have to do is open your inbox, look for the message from CarePilot and tap the link inside. If you can’t find it, don’t worry: take a look in the spam or junk folder (sometimes they land there), and if it still doesn’t show up, tap «Resend email» to have it sent again. Once you’ve tapped the link, come back to the app and tap «I’ve verified» so CarePilot takes it as done.

The PIN and the backup code

These are the two keys we talked about at the start. They are your safety net: what keeps you from losing access to your data even if something happens to your phone. It’s worth understanding what each one is for:

The PIN is your main key. It’s a short number, like your bank card’s. With it you recover your care groups if you change phones or lose the one you have. You’ll use it from time to time, so choose one you’ll remember.
The backup code is the emergency key: a long code that lets you get back in if you ever forget the PIN. It’s optional (the app works without it), but generating it is the difference between being able to recover your data or losing it forever. That’s why we recommend creating it right away and not leaving it for later.

Generate your backup code

To create it, go to Settings → Privacy and security → «Backup code» vpn_key and tap «Generate». Pay attention at this moment: CarePilot shows you the code only once, so store it now. You can copy it with «Copy code» content_copy and paste it wherever you keep it, or «Save as PDF» picture_as_pdf to have a document. When it’s safely stored, tick the box «I have saved my recovery code in a safe place» and tap «Finish».

A practical tip: keep it somewhere you’ll remember that doesn’t depend on the phone (for example, written on paper in a drawer, or in your email). If you keep it only inside the phone itself and you lose the phone, it will be no use to you.

Change the PIN whenever you want

If you want to change your PIN (for example, because you think someone has seen it), go to Settings → Privacy and security → «Change PIN» lock_reset. It will first ask for your «Current PIN» and then the new one, twice, to make sure you don’t mistype it. Bear one thing in mind: when you change the PIN, a new backup code is also generated and the previous one stops working, so store the new one just as you did the first.

Recovering your account on a new phone

The day comes when you get a new phone, or you have to reinstall the app. Since your data is encrypted, CarePilot needs you to hand it one of your keys to open your groups on the new device. This is exactly where the PIN and the backup code prove what they were for.

The path starts as always: install CarePilot on the new phone and sign in with your usual email and password. As soon as you’re in, the app realizes the device is new and takes you to the «Recover your data» screen, with this notice: «We detected you’re on a new device. Enter your PIN to unlock your groups.» There you’ll see two tabs, one for each key: «With PIN» and «With code».

Recover with your PIN

If you remember your PIN, this is the fast route. With the «With PIN» tab selected, type your PIN in the box and tap «Recover». Within a few seconds the app will confirm how many groups it has restored, and everything will be back: the routines, the notes, the expenses, the documents… just as you left it.

If you mistype it, nothing happens: the app will warn you with «Wrong PIN» and tell you how many attempts you have left. After ten failures in a row it locks for an hour — it’s not a punishment, it’s a protection so nobody can guess your PIN by trying numbers.

Don't remember the PIN? Use the code

This is why you generated your emergency key. Switch to the «With code» tab and type your backup code into the «Recovery code» box (it’s 8 groups of 4 characters separated by dashes; the screen itself reminds you). Since the old PIN no longer serves you, the app asks you on that same screen to choose a «New PIN (4–12 digits)» and repeat it to confirm. When you have it, tap «Recover and change PIN».

If the app tells you «Wrong code», check that you’ve copied it correctly, character by character: it’s long on purpose, and it’s easy for a letter to slip.

Store the new code it gives you

One important detail: when you recover with the code, that code is used up. The app generates a new one on the spot and shows it to you on the «Your recovery code» screen — once only, just like the first time. Store it the way you already know: «Copy code» content_copy or «Save as PDF» picture_as_pdf, tick the box «I have saved my recovery code in a safe place» and tap «Finish». And that’s it: your groups open again with all their information intact.

Your data is yours, and the European data protection law (the GDPR) gives you the right to take a copy whenever you want. CarePilot makes it easy.

Choose what to take with you

Go to Settings → Data and account → «Export my data» download and, before downloading anything, CarePilot lets you choose what to take with you:

PDF — an easy-to-read document with all your information, designed so anyone can understand it.
JSON — the same content in a technical format, suited to moving it into other programs. This is your right to portability (GDPR, article 20).
Images — the scans and photos you’ve attached over time. This option only appears if you organize a group, because those photos may contain health data about the person being cared for, and it’s the organizer who is responsible for them and for who they’re shared with.
Everything — the three things above together.

You can tick a single option or several at once. If you choose several, CarePilot hands it all to you as a single compressed file. For security, you can only export once a day.

Signing out and deleting the account

It’s worth not mixing these two up, because they sound similar but do the opposite. Signing out is just leaving; deleting the account is erasing everything. We explain them separately.

Sign out

In Settings → Data and account → «Sign out» logout you leave the app, and that’s all. It deletes absolutely nothing: your groups, your notes and your data stay there, and you come back in whenever you want with your email. It’s like closing your front door when you go out, not like moving house.

Delete the account

This is the opposite, so it’s placed apart, in the danger zone, so you don’t tap it by accident. In «Delete my account» delete_forever the app will ask you to confirm with your fingerprint or your PIN (another safety net so it doesn’t happen by accident). Fortunately it isn’t instant: it leaves a 30-day window. During that time, if you sign back in and have changed your mind, you can tap «Cancel deletion» and nothing is removed. Only when the 30 days pass without you cancelling is everything erased for good, and it cannot be recovered.