Participant Information & Privacy Notice

Dr. McKenzie Goodine takes part in these interviews as a Sweetpea co-founder and product researcher. Although she is a psychologist, this interview is not psychological assessment, diagnosis, therapy, crisis care, personalized parenting advice, or consultation. Taking part does not create a psychologist-client relationship.

She cannot give you clinical advice through this interview. If you ask for care, she will tell you that the interview cannot provide it and point you toward appropriate local support. If you are in crisis, please contact your local emergency services.

Sweetpea interviews adult parents, aged 18 or older, to understand common parenting challenges and improve its product. The interview is booked for 30 minutes and usually takes 20 to 30 minutes, over Zoom.

We use what we learn for research, product design, quality improvement, and necessary follow-up. You do not need to be using Sweetpea to take part.

You may decline recording, skip any question, pause, or stop the interview at any time. This will not affect your access to Sweetpea.

If you agreed to recording when you booked, you may still change your mind. Dr. Goodine will confirm your permission out loud before any recording begins.

Please join without your child present, visible, or able to hear the discussion. Dr. Goodine will not observe, assess, record, or interact with children. If a child joins, the interview and any recording will pause and may be rescheduled.

Many participants find us through a short screener on drmckenzie.com. It asks for your name and email, your child’s age, how often your child has tantrums, what you are finding hardest right now, and what you have already tried. The form is provided by Tally, which stores your responses on our behalf.

We use screener responses to understand who we are hearing from and to decide who to invite to an interview. The screener is not the only way to reach an interview: we also invite some people directly by email, including people already using Sweetpea. If you did not fill out a screener, this section does not apply to you.

Your answer about your child’s age decides what you see as soon as you submit. If your child is under 1, we thank you and do not offer an interview, because these interviews are about tantrums in older children. Everyone else is offered a time to book. That routing happens automatically, and it is the only automated decision we make about you.

If you filled one out and never booked an interview, we still hold your response. You can email us at any time to have it deleted.

When you book through Cal.com we collect your name and email, the country and province or state you will join from, your answers to the consent questions, your recording choice, and the interview date.

During the interview we collect your responses and Dr. Goodine’s research notes.

If you agreed to recording, we also collect the Zoom recording, an automated written transcript of it, and a short AI-generated summary of the conversation. If you chose notes only, none of those three exist: there is no recording, no transcript, and no summary.

Please do not share a child’s full name, school, image, voice, medical records, or other identifying details.

Some information about parenting, behaviour, or wellbeing may be considered sensitive or consumer health information under privacy laws, so we take extra care to protect it.

If you agree, Sweetpea records the interview through Zoom for research purposes. The recording includes audio and video, meaning your image and voice.

Zoom’s AI features then create two things from that recording automatically: a written transcript of what was said, and a short AI-generated summary of the conversation. Both are produced by software, without a person reviewing them first.

Recording is optional. Sweetpea will not record without both your consent given through Cal.com when you book and your verbal confirmation at the start of the interview. If you decline, Dr. Goodine takes written notes instead, and no recording, transcript, or summary is created.

Automated transcripts and summaries can get things wrong. They can mishear a word, miss context, or describe something differently from how you meant it. We do not treat them as a word-for-word record of what you said.

Access is limited to Dr. McKenzie Goodine and Chris Goodine, Sweetpea’s co-founder.

Service providers process information only as needed to provide their services. These include Tally, Cal.com and Zoom, along with secure-storage and other technical providers.

If your interview is recorded, Zoom processes its audio and video to produce the transcript and the summary. It does that as our service provider, under contract, and only to provide that service to us.

Zoom states that it does not use customer content, including the audio and video of your interview, to train its own or third-party AI models. Where Zoom uses third-party AI providers, it says those providers do not keep your content, apart from limited exceptions for safety reasons.

We may also share information if you direct us to, as part of a protected business transaction, or when required or permitted by law.

Sweetpea does not sell your information, use it for targeted advertising, or publish an identifiable quote without asking your separate permission first. The only automated decision we make about you is the screener routing described above.

Information is stored in restricted-access, password-protected and encrypted Sweetpea systems managed from Canada. A recording may remain temporarily on a device or service until it is transferred and deleted.

Service providers may process information in Canada, the United States, or the European Union, wherever you join from. Tally, which provides the screener, is based in Belgium and stores responses on servers in the European Union. Information processed in another country may be subject to that country’s laws, including lawful access by courts, law enforcement, or regulators.

We use device security, limited access, and deletion routines, and will provide any breach notices required by law.

Sweetpea keeps your screener response for up to 24 months after you submit it, whether or not you go on to book an interview.

If you book an interview, Sweetpea keeps your Cal.com consent record and your scheduling and contact details for up to 24 months after you book, whether or not the interview goes ahead. That covers bookings that are cancelled, rescheduled, or missed.

If the interview does go ahead, Sweetpea keeps Dr. Goodine’s research notes for up to 24 months after the interview.

If you agreed to recording, the Zoom recording, its automated transcript, and the AI-generated summary are kept for up to 24 months after the interview as well. A transcript and a summary are produced for every recorded interview, so they are part of the ordinary record rather than something made only on request.

We keep them that long for a specific reason. Sweetpea is early and interviews are spread out over time, so a large part of what these interviews are for is being able to return to an earlier conversation months later: to see what has changed for a family, or to draw out something we missed the first time. We are not keeping this material indefinitely.

We may delete or anonymize information sooner when we no longer need it. Anonymous combined findings may be kept longer, because they are no longer reasonably connected to you.

While we can still connect the information to you, you may email us to ask for access, a copy, a correction, or deletion, or to ask us to stop using it in future. We may need to keep or disclose certain information when required by law.

Depending on where you live, local privacy law may give you further rights. Email us and we will explain what applies to you.

Once your feedback has been anonymized and combined with feedback from other participants, we may no longer be able to identify or remove it.

If we cannot fulfill a request, we will explain why, and you may ask us to reconsider.

Sweetpea will treat your interview information as private, but it is not absolutely confidential.

If what you share gives Dr. Goodine reasonable grounds to suspect that a child may need protection, or indicates a serious risk to the life, health, or safety of any person, she may be required or permitted by applicable law to take reasonable steps. She may pause the interview and ask for the minimum location or identifying information needed, and may share relevant information with an appropriate authority or service.

Sweetpea may also preserve or disclose information when required by valid legal process, or to establish or defend legal rights.

Only information reasonably necessary for the situation would be shared.

For questions, access, correction or deletion requests, withdrawal, or complaints, contact Dr. McKenzie Goodine, Sweetpea Privacy Lead, Ontario, Canada, at mckenzie@sweetpea.app.