RicBot — Privacy Policy

Who we are

RicBot is an AI assistant that answers questions about electric vehicles, built on content from Ric Boullemier ("Sustainable Dad"). The service is provided by Generate Media Limited (England & Wales, company no. 13372796; registered office c/o Aspreys Accountants Ltd, No. 5 The Heights, Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 0NY) ("we"), the data controller for your personal data — meaning we decide how and why it's used.

The platform is built and operated on our behalf by BeLucent Limited (England & Wales, company no. 09010160), acting as our data processor under a data-processing agreement.

For anything to do with your data, or to exercise any of the rights below, contact privacy@belucent.co — this inbox is operated by BeLucent on our behalf and reaches the people who run the service directly.

The short version

• You give us your email address to log in, and we store your conversations so you can come back to them.
• The service runs on trusted third-party providers (AI model, database, hosting, email). Some are US-based; data-protection contracts and UK-approved safeguards are in place with all of them.
• Your conversations are never used by our AI providers (Anthropic, OpenAI) to train their models. RicBot itself learns only from anonymous, unidentifiable insights — never from your actual chats — and you can turn even that off.
• We never profile you or target you with advertising. We may share anonymous patterns across many users (like "lots of people ask about 7-seater range") — these identify no one.
• You can see, correct, or delete your data at any time. Deleting a chat really deletes it.

1. What we collect

• Your email address — to create your account and log in via a "magic link" email.
• Confirmation that you're 18 or over — RicBot is for adults (see §10). We may later ask for your date of birth instead of a simple confirmation; if we do, we'll say so here first.
• Your conversations with RicBot — questions and answers, saved to your account so you can revisit them.
• A personalisation profile ("RicBot's memory of you") — if/when you use the memory feature: a short profile of your stated preferences and use-cases so answers get more relevant. Yours to view, edit, or clear at any time.
• Basic technical data — IP address and browser information, recorded automatically by hosting and security systems.

We do not ask for payment details and don't want sensitive information. Please don't type sensitive personal details (yours or anyone else's) into the chat — see §9.

2. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

3. Who we share it with

We don't sell your data and don't share it for advertising. The service uses a small number of providers, each bound by a data-protection contract and acting only on instructions:

Your conversations are not used by our AI providers to train their models. We use Anthropic's and OpenAI's business APIs, which by their terms do not train on the data we send. RicBot itself is improved using only anonymous, unidentifiable insights (see §6) — never your actual chats.

We may share anonymous, aggregated insights — patterns across many users, such as which cars people ask about most or what matters to family buyers — with partners. These insights identify no one and can never be traced back to you. We do not profile individuals or target anyone with advertising.

4. Sending data outside the UK

Where providers process data in the US, transfers are protected by UK-recognised safeguards: Vercel and Resend under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework; Anthropic and OpenAI under the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Your conversations at rest stay in the UK (London). Copies of the safeguards: privacy@belucent.co.

5. How we keep it safe

Access is protected by authentication; only server-side systems can read the database; encryption in transit; credentials in a secure vault, never in code. No system is perfectly secure — if a breach ever put your rights at risk, it would be reported to the ICO within 72 hours where required, and we'd tell you if you were likely affected.

6. Deleting things — and what "delete" means here

• Deleting a chat deletes the conversation itself from our systems — not just from your sidebar. It is not recoverable.
• Deleting your account (in the app, or by emailing privacy@belucent.co) erases your account, email, and all your conversations within 30 days.
• The training toggle: your account has a setting — "Use my anonymous data for training", on by default. If it's on when a chat or account is deleted, we first extract an anonymous summary of insights (for example "users ask a lot about home-charging costs") with all identifying details stripped out and no link to you at all, then delete the conversation. If the toggle is off, nothing is kept. Anonymous data is no longer personal data and cannot be traced back to you.

6a. RicBot's memory of you (personalisation)

If you use the memory feature, RicBot keeps a short profile of what you've told it — preferences, use-cases, opinions — so each chat is more useful than the last. You are in control: view it, edit it, clear it, or turn it off entirely in your account. It's never used for automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.

7. How long we keep it

• Account and email: while your account is active. After account deletion: removed within 30 days.
• Conversations: while your account is active. Deleted chats: gone immediately (see §6); residual backup copies cycle out within 30 days.
• Inactive accounts: if you haven't logged in for 18 months, we email you a warning; if you don't respond within 30 days, your account and conversations are deleted.
• Technical/log data: up to 90 days.
• Quality-monitoring traces (masked copies used to check answer quality): up to 90 days.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can: access your data; correct it; erase it; restrict or object to its use — including objecting to quality review of your conversations; and receive it in a portable format. Email privacy@belucent.co; we respond within one month, free of charge.

If you're unhappy, tell us first — we'll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the ICO (ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113).

9. Please don't enter sensitive information

RicBot is a general EV-information assistant. Please don't type sensitive personal information — health, financial account details, other people's data — into the chat.

10. Age

RicBot is for adults and not aimed at children. You must be 18+.

11. Cookies

Only strictly necessary cookies (login and session security). No advertising or cross-site tracking, so no cookie banner. If that changes we'll ask for consent first.

12. RicBot is AI — and can be wrong

Answers are AI-generated, for general information only — not professional, financial, legal, or purchasing advice, and possibly inaccurate or out of date. Check important details (prices, specs, availability) with the manufacturer or dealer. You're never talking to Ric himself. (Also covered in the Terms of Use.)

13. Changes

Significant changes will update the date above and be flagged in the app.