Version pilot-1.1-2026-07 · July 19, 2026 · Sunny is made by ByteWise Educative Technologies (Chicago, IL)
The short version
Sunny helps a person living with dementia stay close to the people they love, and
gives their family a hand. To do that, Sunny keeps a few things — only to
help.
We never use your family member's information for advertising, and
never use it to train AI models.
Where the law calls for it, information is de-identified — everything
that could show who your family member is gets removed — before any use beyond
running Sunny.
Sensitive features (voice, location, gentle activity signals) are off unless
you turn them on.
Sunny does not keep any voice recording. When the voice feature is on, a
speech service turns their voice into words. We never keep any recording or
"voiceprint" — only the text of what was said is stored, so you can
look back on conversations.
You can turn any feature off, and ask us to delete the data,
at any time.
Sunny is not an emergency service. In an emergency, call 911.
The rest of this page is the detailed version.
1. Who this is for, and who agrees
Sunny is used by two kinds of people:
The person living with dementia (referred to here as "your family
member"). Their dignity comes first. Where they can take part in the decision, we
ask for their assent ("is this okay?").
The family caregiver setting Sunny up. Because dementia can affect a
person's ability to consent for themselves, the caregiver agrees on their behalf
as their authorized representative.
When you set up Sunny you tell us your authority to agree for your family
member — family caregiver, legal guardian, power of attorney, or other — and
whether your family member was able to say it's okay (yes / can't say right
now / said no). We record both. If your family member declines a feature, we don't
turn it on.
2. What Sunny collects, and why
You choose which of these are on. Only the basics are required to use Sunny
at all.
Feature
On by default?
What it is
Why
The basics (core)
Required
Your family member's name and age, family contacts and photos, reminders and
tasks, and the messages they send and receive.
Sunny can't work without these.
Talking with Sunny (voice)
Off — opt-in
The phone turns their speech into text so Sunny can understand and
reply. The audio recording is never kept — only the text.
So Sunny can hold a warm conversation and you can look back on it.
Safety near home (location)
Off — opt-in
Approximate location and a home "safe area."
So you get an alert if they wander too far, and can see them on a map.
Gentle activity signals (ambient)
Off — opt-in
Their daily rhythm from light touches on the screen (not the camera, not
video).
So Sunny finds good moments to reach out.
Sunny also creates, from the above: conversation notes (text), a
gentle daily update, a simple mood note (e.g. calm / anxious) to
help you notice hard days, and things Sunny learns (preferences and things
that comfort or upset them) so Sunny stays kind and personal.
Things they love (caregiver-provided). You can also choose to tell Sunny
about your family member — the music they love, people and places that matter,
things that bring them comfort — so Sunny's conversation feels like it knows them.
This is optional: you type it, you can see it, change it, or delete any of it
in the app at any time, and it is deleted with everything else if you leave the
pilot. It lives only in your family's secure account (the same protected place as
messages — never in usage statistics), and like everything else it is never used
for ads and never used to train AI models.
The camera is used only for video calls the family starts — shown on
the screen. Sunny never films in the background and never does facial tracking.
3. Voice — how it works and how long text is kept
No audio is stored. When voice is on, their voice is converted to text by
a speech recognition service (currently the device's built-in Google
speech service). Sunny does not create or keep a "voiceprint" or any audio
recording — the audio is not retained by Sunny.
What is kept is text. The words (a transcript) are stored so Sunny can
respond, build the daily summary, and let you look back on conversations.
Transcripts are visible to the people in your family's care circle and to
the account admin.
Retention: audio is not retained (discarded at the moment of
transcription). Voice-derived text is kept while the account is active to
power the features above. It is destroyed when the account closes, or
within 30 days of a deletion request — whichever comes first, unless the
law requires a different limit.
When Sunny listens without a button press. If voice is on, Sunny may also
listen for a short moment right after it speaks — so your family member
can answer without having to find a button. A clear listening light shows
on the screen whenever the microphone is on. If voice is off, this never
happens.
You can turn voice off at any time. When it's off, the microphone does not
start, no speech is captured, and no transcript is created.
4. Where your data lives, and who can see it
Stored with our secure cloud provider in a dedicated project. A HIPAA
Business Associate Agreement covering this storage is being put in place
for the pilot. Health-related AI (Sunny's replies, the nightly note) runs
only on the provider's BAA-eligible AI service — never a consumer AI
endpoint — and the provider does not use this data to train its
models.
Who can see it: the people you invite into the care circle, and
the account admin. Every access to the record is written to a tamper-evident
audit log.
Usage statistics use a scrambled code instead of a name, with
numbers and counts only (e.g. "3 conversations today") — never names or
message content.
5. Who we share with — and who we don't
We use a small number of trusted outside services only to run Sunny — things like
secure storage, connecting calls, and sending sign-in emails. We share the least we
can, and only so the app works.
Want to know more about who we work with? Just ask at
care@bytewise.ai and we'll tell you.
We do not:
share your family's information for anyone else's advertising;
put anything in the app that shows ads or quietly tracks your family member;
use your family member's data to train AI models;
share data outside the companies above without your consent, except where
required by law.
Where information is used beyond running Sunny, it is de-identified first —
we remove everything that could show who your family member is — where applicable
by law.
6. Your choices and rights
Turn any feature off at any time, in Settings. Turning a feature off stops
that feature (e.g. turning voice off stops the microphone).
Ask us to delete your family member's data at any time — email
care@bytewise.ai and we will delete it
and confirm within 30 days.
Access a copy of the data we hold.
Withdraw consent entirely and stop using Sunny.
What happens when you ask us to delete: if you decide to leave Sunny and ask
us to delete your family's data, we will wipe your personal information, photos,
text transcripts, and messages within 30 days.
The one exception, for your safety: we do keep a secure, behind-the-scenes
system record called an "audit log." This log does not contain your photos, voice
text, or messages. It records who did what, and when — for example, who signed in,
or who invited a family member — but never the content of anything. Health and
security laws require us to keep these logs so we can always prove that your
family's secure account was never accessed by anyone who shouldn't be there.
7. Safety and limits
Sunny is a companion and coordination tool, not a medical device,
not a licensed mental health professional or therapy service, and
not an emergency service. It does not provide medical or clinical therapy,
does not diagnose, and can miss things. In an emergency, call 911. Safety
alerts (e.g. wandering) are a best-effort help for the family, not a guarantee.
8. If something goes wrong
If data is exposed, we will notify affected families as required by law and take
steps to contain it.
9. Contact
Have a question, or want to make a request (delete, access, withdraw)? Email
care@bytewise.ai — it reaches the founder,
who runs this pilot. Requests are honored within 30 days.
10. What you're agreeing to
By continuing, the caregiver confirms:
I am setting up Sunny for my family member as their authorized representative
(family caregiver, legal guardian, power of attorney, or other).
I have shared whether my family member was able to say it's okay.
I have read and I agree to this notice (version above), and I understand which
features I've turned on.
We record the version of this notice you agreed to, which features were on, your
authority, and your family member's assent — never used for anything but
this consent record.