Compliance
Built for Healthcare Privacy
Auto-Response Voicemail is designed from the ground up for offices that handle patient information. No health data in text messages. No cloud AI. No data sharing. Here's how we keep it that way.
PIPEDA compliant
CASL compliant
PHIPA-aware
Canadian-owned
HOW YOUR DATA FLOWS
How It Works — From Call to Inbox
Every step is designed to keep patient information where it belongs: inside your practice's secure inbox.
Patient calls your office
The call forwards to your dedicated Auto-Response Voicemail number. The caller hears your custom greeting and leaves a voicemail.
Voicemail transcribed locally
Audio is transcribed using locally-hosted speech recognition. No audio or transcript is sent to any third-party AI service. The transcript never leaves our infrastructure.
Intent classified locally
A locally-hosted AI model reads the transcript and assigns a category — Booking, Urgent, Referral, etc. It returns a label only. No patient data is sent to OpenAI, Google, or any external AI provider.
Caller gets a pre-approved text
Within 10 seconds, the caller receives your office's pre-written SMS — office hours, emergency instructions, and acknowledgment. You wrote the words. We send them. No AI-generated content ever reaches your callers.
Step 5
Call appears in your secure inbox
Your team sees the voicemail in a shared inbox — transcribed, tagged, timestamped. Full audit trail. Only your office and authorized Rivet Systems personnel can access this data.
Privacy by Design
No health information in any text message
Auto-response SMS is generic and pre-approved by your office. It never references voicemail content, symptoms, diagnoses, or any health details. The text says things like "Thanks for calling — we'll get back to you shortly." Never "We received your message about your knee pain."
AI runs locally — not in the cloud
Voicemail transcription (Whisper) and intent classification (Ollama) both run on locally-hosted models. No patient data is sent to third-party AI services. This is a deliberate architecture choice, not a cost optimization.
SMS content is static, not AI-generated
Every text message your callers receive is pre-written and approved by your office before the system goes live. The AI classifies voicemails on the business side — but nothing AI-generated ever reaches a patient.
Automatic data deletion
Voicemail recordings are automatically deleted after 30 days. Caller personal information is purged after 90 days of inactivity. Upon cancellation, all data is deleted within 30 days.
Per-practice data isolation
Each office's data is isolated at the database level. No cross-practice visibility. Your call records, transcripts, and inbox are accessible only to your team.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
How We Comply
PIPEDA — Federal Privacy Law
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act governs how private-sector organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information.
Consent: Your voicemail greeting establishes implied consent for recording. The caller chooses to leave a message. SMS consent is established by the caller initiating contact.
Purpose limitation: Caller data is used solely to deliver the voicemail service to your practice.
Data minimization: We collect only what the caller provides (phone number, voicemail content) and what is needed for service delivery.
Retention: Recordings deleted at 30 days. Personal information purged at 90 days.
Safeguards: Encrypted storage, access controls, locally-hosted AI, no third-party data sharing.
CASL — Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation regulates commercial electronic messages, including SMS.
Auto-response SMS is a transactional message in direct response to the caller's initiated contact — not a commercial solicitation.
Messages include your business name and contact information as required under CASL Section 6(2).
No marketing content in any automated response. Callers are never added to a marketing list.
Recipients can reply STOP at any time to opt out.
PHIPA — Ontario Health Information
The Personal Health Information Protection Act governs personal health information held by health information custodians in Ontario.
Rivet Systems acts as an agent of the health information custodian (your office).
No protected health information (PHI) is included in any outbound SMS. Auto-response text is generic and pre-approved.
If a caller voluntarily discloses health information in a voicemail, it is processed only to relay the message to your office.
Local AI processing ensures health-adjacent content is never sent to third-party cloud services.
Data retention and destruction schedules comply with PHIPA requirements.
WHAT WE DON'T DO
What We'll Never Do With Your Data
Send health information in a text message
Use third-party cloud AI to process voicemails or transcripts
Generate AI-written messages that reach your callers
Share caller data with third parties for marketing
Retain voicemail recordings beyond 30 days
Access your data without authorization
THIRD-PARTY SERVICES
Who Touches the Data
We use two third-party services to deliver Auto-Response Voicemail:
Twilio — Telephony and SMS delivery. Twilio processes caller phone numbers, routes calls, records voicemail audio, and sends text messages. Twilio is SOC 2 Type II certified. Twilio Security
Supabase — Encrypted database hosting. Call records, transcripts, and inbox data are stored in Supabase with row-level security and encryption at rest. Supabase Security
No other third parties receive caller information.
FAQ
Is this HIPAA compliant?
Auto-Response Voicemail is built for Canadian healthcare offices under PIPEDA and PHIPA. HIPAA is the U.S. equivalent. Our architecture — no PHI in SMS, local AI, encrypted storage, automatic deletion — meets or exceeds the core requirements of both frameworks. If your office requires a formal Business Associate Agreement (BAA), contact us.
Do I need patient consent to use this?
Under CASL, when a patient calls your office, they are initiating contact. The auto-response SMS is a direct reply to that initiated contact — no prior registration or written consent is required. Your voicemail greeting establishes implied consent for recording. For PHIPA, most offices already have electronic communication consent language in their intake paperwork.
Can patients opt out of text messages?
Yes. Any caller can reply STOP to opt out of future messages at any time. This is handled automatically.
Where is data stored?
All data is stored in encrypted databases hosted in North America. Voicemail audio is automatically deleted after 30 days. Caller personal information is purged after 90 days.
Does this work with my regulatory college?
Auto-Response Voicemail is used by offices regulated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario, and allied health colleges including chiropractic, massage therapy, and physiotherapy. Our compliance posture is designed to align with the professional obligations these colleges set for electronic communication.
Questions About Compliance?
We're happy to walk through our data handling with you or your privacy officer. Every office gets a compliance posture document as part of onboarding.
Rivet Systems Inc.
Belle River, Ontario
Email: adam@autoresponsevoicemail.com