Privacy in the Most Private Room
Your bathroom is a sanctuary. Few places feel more private than sitting on the toilet – it’s a space where you expect solitude, not surveillance. So when people hear that Throne uses a camera to help transform waste into wisdom, one question rises to the top: “Wait… does this thing point at me?”
It’s a fair concern. At Throne, privacy is one of our core values. Our guiding principle is simple: your bathroom data belongs to you, and protecting it is our highest priority. We obsess over this.
This blog will walk through the biggest privacy questions we hear, explain exactly how Throne protects you, and share the commitments we’ve built into our product from day one.
What the Camera Actually Sees
The Concern: “Does the camera see my privates?”
The Reality: No. Never. Throne’s camera only faces downward into the bowl. It is physically incapable of recording the person using the toilet.
Here’s an example of what Throne sees:
And to make privacy even more airtight, every single frame from Throne is passed through a series of filters as the first step of our secure cloud pipeline. If we detect the device recording outside of a toilet, that data is automatically deleted. Additionally, if the system even suspects the presence of human anatomy, that frame is automatically and permanently deleted.
Think of it as a “belt-and-suspenders” approach: the camera can’t capture you, and the filter confirms it. Your privacy is always protected.
When Throne Records (and When It Doesn’t)
Another common question is: “Is this thing watching 24/7?” The answer is simple: no. Throne only records in very specific circumstances.
The device activates only for known users, either when it recognizes a paired phone via Bluetooth or when a registered user presses their personal button. If a guest uses your bathroom, the device stays completely inactive. No recording, no data logged.
Sessions also end cleanly. The proximity sensor ends your session automatically when you leave the toilet, so there’s no continuous capture, and no background listening.
In other words, Throne knows the difference between you and your guests, and it respects your bathroom boundaries.
How We Protect Your Data
Recording is just the first step. The next big concern is: “Okay, but once the data exists, how do you keep it safe?”
The answer starts with industry-standard encryption. Throne uses TLS 1.2 to secure data in transit and AES-256 encryption at rest. These are the same best practices trusted across banking, healthcare, and other highly sensitive industries. In plain terms, your data is locked while it’s moving and locked again once it’s stored.
Who Owns Your Data? You Do.
You are the sole owner of your health data. Full stop.
There may be times when you choose to share your data, and we want to empower that.
You might want to share a score on social media to celebrate progress.
You might want to export a report to your doctor, nutritionist, or health coach so that you can review changes in your health.
You might even choose to share anonymized data with researchers so that, together, we can push science forward and deepen our understanding of the human body.
In all of these cases, sharing is your choice, never ours. Throne will never share your health data without your explicit consent. And Throne will never, ever sell your data.
Who Can Access Your Data
Another common question we hear is, “Who at Throne can actually see my data?” The answer is: very few people, and only for specific reasons.
Your Health Data
Select members of our Customer Experience team may have access when you reach out for support. This allows them to troubleshoot issues directly and make sure your Throne is working the way it should. In rare cases when problems are escalated, certain members of our Engineering and Product teams may also access relevant data to diagnose and resolve those issues. In these cases, there is always an audit trail so that we can see who accessed what, and when.
Raw Image Data
We use raw images of waste to train our AI so Throne gets smarter and more accurate with every flush. A small team of doctors reviews and labels these images to help the system learn. The images are stripped of any identifying information, fully anonymized, and can never be linked back to you. They are not part of your personal health record – they exist solely to make Throne better for you.
In short, access to your health data is tightly limited to support and engineering teams when you need help. And access to raw image data is restricted to our research group using anonymized images to train our AI.
This system is designed to serve one goal – making Throne work better for you.
The Bathroom Bill of Rights
To make it crystal clear, here’s our Privacy Promise – your Bathroom Bill of Rights:
- The camera faces down, not at you.
- The device only records known users who have opted in.
- Your health data is yours – it never leaves the app without your consent.
- We will help you delete your data at any time.
Your privacy is sacred. If a company is going to be in your bathroom, these are the standards it should live by.
