Legal
How we de-identify your data
This explainer covers optional research processing, what gets removed before analysis, and why benchmark exports stay off until legal review clears them.
Why this page exists
If you opt into optional research uses, DecideNorth only uses de-identified data. This page explains what that means in practice.
The paid product works the same way whether you opt in or not. Optional research never changes your access, your report, or the Marriage Blueprint you receive.
What we strip before analysis
Names, email addresses, IP addresses, and invite tokens are removed before a research snapshot is eligible for analysis.
Stable account identifiers, payment identifiers, and direct partner-linkage keys are removed from any research-ready extract.
How we reduce re-identification risk
Exact dates are generalized into broader time bands, and any future demographic fields intended for benchmarking are bucketed instead of stored as highly specific raw values.
We do not publish raw individual answers. Published benchmark outputs only use aggregated cells built from groups of 50 or more couples.
What the research can and cannot say
DecideNorth results are a snapshot of the relationship climate today, not a forecast of marital success. The product is designed to surface conversation patterns, not to forecast whether a couple will stay together, diagnose a condition, or issue a verdict.
The methodology draws on published relationship-science constructs, including Gottman-era interaction research, Joel et al. 2020 in PNAS, PREPARE/ENRICH literature, and premarital communication research. We write original questions and we do not claim affiliation with or endorsement by those proprietary instruments.
What stays blocked today
Research-snapshot and benchmark-publication jobs remain disabled until separate counsel sign-off explicitly clears that downstream processing.
Consent capture may ship before research export activation, but research export does not turn on automatically when a user checks an optional box.
Methodology
DecideNorth groups questions into eight dimensions drawn from the relationship research tradition cited throughout the product: communication, conflict, finances, intimacy, commitment, emotional closeness, shared values, and roles. We use that structure to organize the conversation, not to hand couples a clinical label.
The methodology prioritizes relationship-specific self-report and perceived-partner signals over personality typing. That choice follows the current research base: these measures are useful for describing today's pattern, but they are not a reliable crystal ball for how a marriage will unfold.
Citations & references
Core references include Joel et al. 2020 in PNAS, which pooled 43 longitudinal couple datasets; published Gottman-era research on interaction patterns such as turning toward, conflict, and repair; PREPARE/ENRICH literature on premarital assessment domains; and Markman/Stanley premarital communication research.
We also follow the Heyman and Slep cross-validation critique by avoiding divorce-prediction percentages. DecideNorth uses research constructs as conversation scaffolding, not as a calibrated prediction engine.