Coaching confidentiality: what HR can see, what AI can hear, what gets recorded.
The trust line that decides whether people book. Policy from /security and /terms, then labeled advice. Not coaching vs. therapy.
Coaching confidentiality is the line between what a person says in a session and what an employer, a platform, or an AI system can see. HR should see program signal, not the conversation. If that sentence is fuzzy, people will not book, and any later dashboard is theater.
This page separates Boon policy from editorial recommendation. Policy restates what Boon already publishes on security and terms. It does not invent a DPA, a HIPAA claim, or a new recording policy. For the clinical-care boundary, use coaching vs. therapy.
Visibility without surveillance is a design choice, not a slogan.
Policy vs recommendation.
Boon policy (only these sentences): Boon does not access, record, or store the substantive content of coaching sessions unless explicitly agreed upon by all parties. Employers receive only aggregated, de-identified data such as participation rates and program-level outcomes. The employer will not receive session content or individually identifiable session details. Individual survey responses are not shared with employers unless the participant opts in. Coaches are bound by professional ethics codes and Boon's confidentiality agreements. Those lines are on /security and /terms.
Editorial recommendation is how a program should behave so people book: managers should not ask for notes, HR should not imply they can see Jane's Tuesday hold, and launch copy should stay inside the published sentences. Recommendation is labeled below. It is not a new legal promise.
CHROs already buy this framing on leadership development for CHROs: protect the person, read the org. SCALE uses the same split. 1:1 coaching stays confidential. The dashboard stays aggregate.
What HR can see.
Granularity matters. Program-level means a cohort is participating and outcomes are moving. Individual session-occurrence means "Jane booked Tuesday at 3." Terms forbid individually identifiable session details. Do not write launch copy that implies HR has a person-level calendar of holds.
| Signal | Does HR get it? | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Session transcript or coach notes | No (policy) | Employer does not receive session content. /security and /terms. |
| Individually identifiable session details (who booked Tuesday at 3) | No (policy) | Terms: no individually identifiable session details. Participation is program-level. |
| That coaching is happening, as a program | Yes, aggregated (policy) | Participation rates and program-level outcomes. Not a person-level calendar dump. |
| Themes across a cohort | Yes, de-identified (policy) | Useful for a calibration or a hiring pattern |
| Competency movement | Yes, in aggregate (policy) | Program-level outcomes |
| Individual survey answers | Only if the person opts in (policy) | /security: not shared unless the participant opts in |
| Manager reading an employee's coaching notes | Should not (recommendation) | Advice for a working program. Not a /security sentence. |
The useful HR question is not "what did she say about her director?" It is "are first-time managers booking, and is feedback quality moving in that cohort?" If you need the conversation itself, you do not have a coaching program. You have a reporting channel.
What this page will not do: quote a DPA, invent retention days, or promise a certification that is not on /security. SOC 2 Type II at Boon covers the Security criteria for a stated period. Confidentiality as a SOC category is not in that scope. Say that plainly in a security review.
What gets recorded.
Published policy: Boon does not access, record, or store the substantive content of individual coaching conversations unless explicitly agreed upon by all parties. "Unless agreed" is doing real work. If a customer wants session recording, that is an explicit opt-in, not a default.
Scheduling data and de-identified program outcomes are ops data. They are not the conversation. Participation is reported at program level. Do not blur those in a launch email.
Practice Space is a different room.
Boon's Practice Space is a rehearsal surface. The human-session sentence on /security does not automatically apply to it. /learn/practice does not publish a privacy or retention sentence. Scoring a roleplay requires storing what was said in that tool. Do not tell employees "nothing is recorded" about Practice Space.
How rehearsal sits between two human sessions is how to use AI roleplay between human coaching sessions. Keep the human 1:1 under the /security and /terms sentences. Keep Practice Space in its own sentence: we have not published a Practice Space privacy policy on this site, so do not invent one in a launch email.
Other AI tools.
A generic AI chatbot, a note-taker, or another vendor's roleplay product is a third room. Review that vendor's data rules. Do not borrow Boon's human-session sentence for a tool Boon does not operate.
Platform AI that lives in Slack or Teams should be described the same way: what it can read, what it cannot. Boon's Teams app copy says it does not read chats or calendars beyond what is needed to deliver coaching nudges. Repeat the specific sentence. Do not upgrade it into a legal theory.
How to say this at launch.
HR (policy language)
"We see whether people are using the program and whether skills are moving across the group. We do not get the conversation or identifiable session details." That restates /security and /terms.
The manager (recommendation)
"I will not ask your coach what you said. I will notice whether feedback and 1:1s are changing on the team." That is how a manager should behave. It is not a published Boon legal clause.
The sponsor (recommendation)
"This is how we grow leaders here. It is not a file on you." Pair it with the policy sentence. Do not add "and we will be watching who uses it."
Put those sentences in the first-week script on how to launch a coaching program people actually book. Then measure change the way the behavior worksheet describes: outside the room. The finance-shaped version of measurement lives on measuring coaching ROI. Do not use ROI slides to justify reading sessions.
Get the trust line straight before launch.
A short call on what your managers can say in week one, using only the confidentiality language you can actually stand behind.
Book a strategy callFrequently asked questions
What can HR see in a coaching program?
Boon policy, from /security and /terms: employers receive aggregated, de-identified data such as participation rates and program-level outcomes. They do not receive session content or individually identifiable session details. That is program-level signal, not a play-by-play of who booked Tuesday at 3.
Does Boon record coaching sessions?
Boon policy, from /security and /terms: Boon does not access, record, or store the substantive content of individual coaching conversations unless explicitly agreed upon by all parties. If your company wants a different recording rule, that is a contract conversation.
Can my manager read my coaching notes?
Editorial recommendation, not a sentence on /security or /terms: they should not. A program that works lets managers see that coaching is happening at the program level and, in aggregate, whether competencies are moving. Session content stays between the person and the coach. Boon policy is that the employer will not receive session content or individually identifiable session details.
Are coaches bound by confidentiality?
Boon policy, from /security: coaches are bound by professional ethics codes and Boon's confidentiality agreements. That is the published sentence. This page does not add a named ethics body beyond that.
Does Practice Space follow the same rule as a human coaching session?
No. The human-session rule (Boon does not store substantive session content unless all parties agree) is published for coaching conversations. Practice Space is a different product. /learn/practice does not publish a privacy sentence. Do not tell employees the human-session rule covers a practice transcript.
How do you measure coaching if sessions stay private?
Measure behavior outside the room: what direct reports observe, whether a named conversation happened, competency movement in aggregate. Do not measure by reading the session. Use the behavior worksheet on coaching program metrics.