iHelp

Last updated 16 October 2026

Privacy policy

This explains what iHelp collects when you use this website, ask iHelp AI a question, create an account, book a session or buy something through us, why we need it, who else handles it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it. We have tried to keep it short and in plain English.

Who we are

iHelp is an Apple support and advice business run by Alex as a sole trader in Dorset, England. For anything to do with your data, email hello@ihelpuk.co.uk. We are the data controller for the information described here.

What we collect, and why

  • Questions you ask iHelp AI, the answers, which model answered, roughly which country you are in (to show the right shop and prices), and a random ID stored in a cookie so the free question limit works and your conversation stays together. We use this to answer you, to keep your chat history, to stop the service being abused, and to see which topics people need help with most so we can write better guides.
  • Your account: your name, email address and password (stored securely by our authentication provider, never readable by us), your plan, and your saved chats. We need this to run your account.
  • Booking requests: your name, email, phone number, devices, what you need help with, your town or postcode and preferred times. We use this to arrange your session.
  • Customer records, if you are a support customer: your contact details, address for visits, devices, notes about the help we gave, retainer hours and payments. We keep these to provide the service, to honour retainers, and because tax law requires us to keep business records.
  • Payments: handled by Stripe or SumUp. We see what was paid and when, but never your full card details.
  • Feedback: when you rate an answer or report an issue, what you wrote and the answer it was about, so we can fix problems.
  • Newsletter: your email address, only if you sign up. You can unsubscribe from any email.
  • Website usage: anonymous, aggregated statistics such as which pages are visited and how fast they load, collected without cookies, plus which shop buttons are clicked on the buying guide, linked only to the random session ID. None of it identifies you.

Under UK data protection law, we rely on contract for your account, bookings, sessions and payments, legal obligation for business and tax records, legitimate interests for answering guest questions, preventing abuse, improving iHelp and website statistics, and your consent for the newsletter.

Who else handles your data

We use a small number of trusted services to run iHelp. Each only gets what it needs to do its job:

  • Vercel: hosts the website and provides the cookie-free visit statistics.
  • Supabase: stores accounts, chats, bookings and customer records.
  • Anthropic: writes the answers to questions you ask iHelp AI. Under its commercial terms it does not use these questions to train its models.
  • Stripe and SumUp: take card payments and run iHelp+ subscriptions.
  • Resend: sends our emails, such as booking confirmations and password resets.
  • MailerLite: sends the newsletter, if you have signed up.
  • Apple: only if you choose to sign in with Apple.

Some of these companies are based in the United States. Where data leaves the UK, it is protected by the UK's approved safeguards, such as the UK-US data bridge or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum. We never sell your data, and we do not use advertising trackers.

Some product links on iHelp go to Amazon. If you click one, Amazon may set its own cookies on its site so it knows the visit came from us; that is covered by Amazon's privacy notice, not this one.

Cookies and similar storage

We only use what the site needs to work:

  • Sign-in cookies, so you stay signed in.
  • A random session ID, so the free question limit applies fairly and your conversation stays together.
  • Storage in your browser that briefly holds your chat while you sign in or sign up, so it is still there when you come back. It clears itself after six hours.

Because these are all essential, there is no cookie banner. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.

How long we keep it

  • Your account and its saved chats: until you delete your account. Free accounts can see their last 7 days of chats; iHelp+ members can see everything.
  • Questions asked without an account: deleted automatically after 12 months.
  • Feedback, shop-button clicks and records of when the free limit was reached: deleted automatically after 24 months.
  • Customer records, bookings and payment records: for as long as you are a customer, then up to six years, which is how long tax rules require business records to be kept.
  • Newsletter: until you unsubscribe.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, or to have it sent to you in a portable format. You can delete your account yourself at any time from your account page, which removes your saved chats and cancels any subscription straight away. For anything else, email hello@ihelpuk.co.uk and we will reply within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, though we would appreciate the chance to put it right first.

Children

iHelp accounts are for people aged 13 and over. Please don't share personal details about other people, or anything sensitive like passwords or bank details, in questions to iHelp AI. It doesn't need them to help.

Changes

If we change how we use your data, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell account holders by email.