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Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 16, 2026
Operated by: Shire Vets · Contact: legal@shirevets.com

The short version

  • the platform helps you prepare a VA disability claim, working with an accredited representative. We use your information to run and improve the platform and to get you help.
  • Your representative and the organization behind them can work with your case — including, where useful, your conversations — to represent you and run the program. Trained the platform staff review conversations to keep the service working well.
  • The AI assistant runs on Amazon Bedrock, inside our own secured environment, under agreements that bar training AI models on your data.
  • Extra-sensitive topics — like mental health or military sexual trauma — are never used without your specific permission first, and saying no never blocks your claim.
  • We may connect you with — and work with — accredited services, non-profits, and partners we think could help you or help us serve veterans. Where the law requires your consent before sharing, we will ask you first.
  • Your data is encrypted, stored only in the United States, and access is logged.

1. Who we are

This is a web application operated by the pilot team. It helps veterans prepare an original VA disability claim through a guided conversation with an AI assistant, backed by real, accredited human representatives.

the platform is not the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and it is not a government agency.

2. The pilot

the platform is currently available through a closed pilot, beginning in partnership with the Georgia Department of Veterans Service (GDVS). The pilot may grow to include veterans in other states and partners beyond GDVS. What the pilot means for your data:

  • You were invited. You can only create an account with an invite, and the partner who invited you vouches for who you are.
  • Your representative represents you. When you sign a power of attorney (POA) in the app, an accredited Veterans Service Officer (VSO) becomes your official representative for your claim. That is a real legal relationship — not something we create through this policy.
  • A human is always in the loop. The AI assistant hands your case to your VSO whenever it is unsure, and your VSO reviews your claim before anything is filed.

3. What we collect

Information you give us:

  • Account information — your name, email, phone number, mailing address, and (if you’re still serving) your separation date.
  • Claim and intake information — what you tell the assistant in conversation: your conditions, service history, treatment history, and other facts needed for your claim.
  • Documents you upload — such as your DD-214, service treatment records, medical records, and statements from people who know you.
  • Signatures — the electronic signature you adopt in the app for claim forms.

Information the system creates:

  • Extracted facts — structured details our system pulls out of your documents (for example, your service dates from your DD-214) so you don’t have to retype them.
  • Conversation transcripts — the full record of your chat, kept as part of your case record.
  • Technical and usage data — things like when you signed in, which steps you completed, which device type you used, and error logs.
  • AI-usage records — for each AI request we record which model was used, how many tokens it processed, and what it cost. These billing records contain no conversation text.

4. How we use your information

We use your information to:

  1. Prepare your claim — filling in forms, organizing your evidence, and tracking what’s still needed.
  2. Work with your representative — sharing your case with your assigned representative and their organization so they can help you.
  3. Spot other benefits and services — noticing when facts you’ve shared suggest you may qualify for another benefit or could be helped by another service, and telling you.
  4. Operate, analyze, and improve the platform — fixing bugs, reviewing conversations, understanding how veterans use the service, doing research and analytics, and building new features and services.
  5. Work with partners — with accredited organizations, non-profits, and other partners that can help you or help us serve veterans (see Section 6).
  6. Keep the service safe and secure — detecting misuse, protecting accounts, and investigating security events.
  7. Meet legal obligations — such as record-keeping rules that apply to claims work.

De-identified and aggregated information — data that no longer identifies you — is ours to use and share for any purpose, such as research, program reporting, and improving services for veterans.

5. How the AI works with your data

The assistant you chat with is an AI model. Here is exactly what that means for your data:

  • All AI processing runs on Amazon Bedrock, a cloud AI service from Amazon Web Services.
  • We chose Bedrock because it is the most protective option available: the AI runs inside our own secured AWS environment — the same protected environment where your data already lives — so your information never leaves our security boundary to be processed. It stays in the United States.
  • Our AI processing is covered by a signed HIPAA Business Associate Agreement with AWS, and Amazon and the model provider are contractually barred from training AI models on your data or keeping it. Your information is used to answer you — it does not teach anyone’s AI.
  • We do not send your data to consumer AI chatbots or public AI tools.

Extra-sensitive topics get an extra gate. Some topics — listed in Section 7 — are never shared into the AI’s working context without your specific, in-conversation permission first. The assistant will ask you plainly, in the moment. Saying no never blocks your claim.

People may review your AI conversations. Our team may review your conversations with the assistant — to help you directly, to make sure the assistant served you well, and to improve the service. These reviews are limited to authorized staff and are recorded in our access log. Content in the extra-protected categories described in Section 7 is never included in these reviews without your specific consent.

6. What we share, and with whom

Your representative and their organization. Your assigned VSO and the organization behind them (during the pilot, GDVS) may access your case — your claim information, documents, case status, and, where useful for representing you or running the program, your conversations — to represent you, supervise and improve the quality of that representation, and operate the pilot.

The the platform team. Trained the platform staff may review conversations and case records to operate, analyze, and improve the service. Access is role-limited and logged.

Program leadership. Leaders overseeing the pilot (such as GDVS leadership) see only de-identified, aggregate statistics — counts and trends, like “how many veterans finished intake this month.” These numbers cannot identify you. When a count is small enough that someone might be picked out of it, we don’t report it at all.

Accredited partners — only with your okay. When we spot an accredited organization or non-profit we think could help you, we’ll tell you about them. We share your information with a partner only after you say yes, and any partner who receives it takes it under written commitments about what they can do with it. Your mobile phone number and text-message consent are never included in this sharing.

Service providers. Companies that help us run the platform, each under contractual safeguards limiting what they can do with your data: Amazon Web Services (hosting, storage, and AI processing) and email and text-message delivery providers. Text-message delivery vendors receive your mobile number only to transmit the messages you opted into, and may never use it for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

Text messaging. Your mobile number and text-message opt-in are used only to send you the messages described in our SMS Terms. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. This applies to every category of information sharing described in this policy, including sharing with your representative’s organization, accredited partners, and any business transfer. The above excludes text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties. The only exception is the vendors that deliver our text messages on our behalf, which may process your number solely to transmit the messages you asked for. We do not share, sell, or provide your mobile phone number or your messaging consent data to third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Message frequency varies with activity on your account, and message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to stop receiving texts, or HELP for help.

Business transfers. If the platform is ever part of a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, your information may transfer as part of that transaction; the new operator takes it subject to this policy.

Legal requirements. We may disclose information when the law requires it — for example, a valid court order — disclosing only what is required.

Anything beyond this list happens only with your permission.

7. Extra protections for sensitive categories

Some information gets extra protection under federal and state law and our own policy, and nothing else in this policy overrides this section. The six categories are:

  1. Military sexual trauma (MST) and related sexual-trauma content
  2. Mental-health content
  3. Substance use, alcohol, or drug-related content
  4. HIV-related content
  5. Sickle-cell-related content
  6. Reproductive or sexual-health content

For these categories:

  • The assistant asks for your specific permission, in the conversation, at the moment it matters — never buried in fine print, never pre-checked, and never assumed from your use of the app.
  • Without that permission, the content is not shared into the AI’s working context, not used in broader workflows, and not disclosed to anyone beyond what the law itself requires.
  • Every access to this content is logged, and visibility is limited by role — including for the platform staff.
  • This Privacy Policy is notice, not permission. Only a separate, specific consent from you authorizes use of sensitive-category information, and you can withdraw it. Saying no never affects your claim.

8. Security

  • Encryption everywhere. Your data is encrypted at rest (AES-256, with keys we manage) and in transit (TLS 1.2 or higher).
  • U.S.-only storage. Your data, backups, and logs stay in the United States.
  • Tamper-evident audit logging. Access to veteran data is recorded in an audit trail designed so entries can’t be quietly altered.
  • Restricted access. Staff access is role-gated and limited to what each role needs. Cross-veteran access attempts are treated as security events.
  • Isolated storage. Each veteran’s documents live in their own isolated storage space.

Your data is protected to HIPAA security standards, and our cloud and AI processing run under a signed HIPAA Business Associate Agreement with Amazon Web Services. (HIPAA formally regulates health-care providers and insurers; the platform is neither — what matters is that we build to those standards and put the agreements in place.)

No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach ever affects your data, we will follow our documented incident-response process and notify you as the law requires.

9. How long we keep your information

Claim records are serious legal records, so we keep them the way claims professionals do: case records — including your transcripts, documents, forms, consents, and audit logs — are retained for 7 years, consistent with claims-record practice. We may retain information longer where the law requires or permits it.

You can request deletion of your account and data at any time (see Section 10). When you do, we delete what we can right away. Some records we must keep for the retention period anyway — for example, signed forms, consent records, and audit logs. We will tell you what was deleted and what must be kept.

10. Your rights and choices

You can, at any time:

  • See your information — ask for a copy of the information we hold about you.
  • Correct it — fix anything that’s wrong.
  • Request deletion — as described in Section 9.
  • Revoke permissions — withdraw any sensitive-category consent or sharing permission you gave earlier.
  • Opt out of text messages — reply STOP to any SMS, or ask us. Everything we would have texted you stays available inside the app.
  • Close your account — contact us or your VSO.

To exercise any of these, email legal@shirevets.com.

11. State-specific protections

Some states provide additional confidentiality protections for certain health information — for example, Georgia law adds protections for HIV-related information. Our sensitive-category protections in Section 7 are designed to meet or exceed the protections of the states where the platform operates.

12. Children

the platform is for adults. You must be 18 or older to use it, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn we have, we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the platform grows. When we make a material change, we will notify you in the app or by email before it takes effect; your continued use of the platform after that notice means the updated policy applies. The current version is always available in the app.

14. Contact us

Questions, requests, or concerns about your privacy: legal@shirevets.com. You can also always talk to your representative. Our Terms of Use are here too.