Terms of Service

1. About the App

The Observing Ego is a personal mood tracking and mental health self-reflection tool. It is designed for individual use and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The App does not provide therapy, counseling, or clinical recommendations.

2. Eligibility and Age Requirements

You must be at least 7 years old to use the App. Users under 13 require verifiable parental or guardian consent in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). By using the App, you represent that you meet the applicable age requirements or have received parental consent.

Certain features are age-restricted:

• Ages 7–12: Simplified mood logging, basic journaling, safety plan, and crisis resources. No substance tracking, no BDI-II/BAI, no HealthKit or CoreMotion, no digital phenotyping.
• Ages 13–17: Full assessments, medication management (with guidance), defense tracking, and dream journal. No substance tracking and no adult-only vocabulary.
• Ages 18+: Full feature access, including substance tracking and adult vocabulary.

3. Your Data

You retain full ownership of all content you create in the App, including mood logs, journal entries, assessment responses, medication information, and any other personal data. We do not claim any license to your content.

• You are responsible for maintaining the security of your device and any authentication (Face ID, Touch ID, PIN) you configure within the App.
• All data you enter is stored locally on your device.
• If you enable iCloud sync, your data is encrypted and synced via Apple's CloudKit infrastructure using end-to-end encryption. We do not operate servers that process or store your data.
• We cannot access, read, or use your content.
• You may delete all your data at any time from Settings → Data Management → Delete All Data.
• You may export your data at any time from Settings → Data Management → Export Data.

4. Subscriptions and Payments

Free Tier (Essential)

Core features are always free, including:

• Mood logging and emotion tracking
• Safety plan and crisis resources
• Basic journaling and quick journal entries
• All clinical assessments (PHQ-9, GAD-7, WHO-5, C-SSRS, ASQ, STIPO-R)
• DBT diary cards
• Limited defense mechanism tracking (up to 5 entries per month)
• Limited dream journaling (up to 3 entries per month)
• Apple Watch logging

Premium Subscription

Premium is available via auto-renewing subscription at $4.99/month or $39.99/year (a 33% saving). New Premium subscribers receive a 7-day free trial.

Premium unlocks unlimited access to features including:

• Advanced insights dashboard and longitudinal correlations beyond 7 days
• Clinical formulation reports and extended "Show Your Doc" exports
• Recovery score trends and psychodynamic profile history beyond the last 7 days
• Body sensation mapping, dream journal, and defense tracking without monthly limits
• Medication vital-effect analysis
• macOS companion dashboard

Billing

• Payment is charged to your Apple ID account upon confirmation of purchase. Apple processes all payments; we never see your payment card information.
• Subscriptions renew automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current billing period.
• You can manage or cancel subscriptions in iPhone Settings → [Your Name] → Subscriptions.
• No refunds are provided for partial billing periods. Refund requests are handled by Apple per their refund policy.

Price Changes

We may change subscription prices with at least 30 days' advance notice. Price changes do not affect your current billing period.

5. Health Data

The App integrates with Apple HealthKit to read health metrics and, on iOS 18+, to write State of Mind entries and scored assessment results back to Health.

• Read: sleep, heart rate, steps, exercise, HRV, blood pressure, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, VO2 max, and related metrics.
• Write (iOS 18+): State of Mind entries, PHQ-9 scored assessments, and GAD-7 scored assessments — only when you complete a log or assessment in the App.
• HealthKit data stays on your device. It is never transmitted to external servers, included in CloudKit sync, or used for advertising.
• You control which health data the App can access via iOS system permissions. You may revoke access at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Health.
• Health-related insights (correlations, trends, recovery scores) are computed entirely on-device.
• The App does not share health data with insurance companies, employers, or any third party.

6. Clinical Content and Assessments

• Assessment scoring algorithms follow published clinical manuals exactly. Severity bands use published cutoff scores — no approximations.
• The STIPO-R instrument is used under guidelines from the International Society of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (ISTFP). PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams, and Kurt Kroenke, with support from Pfizer Inc.
• Correlation insights use language like "associated with" — never causal language like "causes" or "leads to."
• Insights require a minimum of 7 data points before display and only surface correlations with moderate or stronger effect sizes (|r| ≥ 0.3). Sample sizes are always shown.
• The clinical formulation report is a deterministic, rule-based structured summary of your own data — it is not a clinical assessment, professional opinion, or AI-generated interpretation.
• No algorithms in the App use machine learning or AI for clinical decisions. All scoring and safety logic is deterministic and rule-based.

You should not make medical decisions based solely on information from the App. Always consult a licensed healthcare provider for diagnosis, treatment, or medication changes. Correlations shown in the App describe statistical associations, not causal relationships.

7. Safety and Crisis Features

When you log emotions or assessment responses that indicate possible risk, the App presents crisis resources and safety information using a non-dismissible full-screen overlay. Safety features cannot be disabled by the user. This is intentional and by design.

• Safety event records store only structured metadata (type, source, outcome) — never specific emotion labels, assessment responses, or verbatim content you entered.
• The App provides access to crisis hotlines including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988), the Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741), and age-appropriate resources for children. These are third-party services not operated by us.
• Safety features are informational and do not constitute a crisis intervention service.
• The App does not monitor you in real time and cannot dispatch emergency services.

8. Intellectual Property

The App, including its design, code, icons, text, graphics, daily statements, psychodynamic prompts, and the name "The Observing Ego," is the intellectual property of The Observing Ego team and is protected by copyright and trademark laws.

Clinical assessment instruments included in the App (PHQ-9, GAD-7, WHO-5, C-SSRS, ASQ, STIPO-R) are used in accordance with their respective licensing terms. These instruments remain the property of their creators.

You retain full ownership of all content you create within the App (journal entries, mood logs, notes, dream entries). We do not access, read, or use your content.

9. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the App in any way that violates applicable laws or regulations
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the App
• Redistribute, sublicense, or make the App available to third parties
• Attempt to circumvent age restrictions or parental controls
• Misrepresent the App's outputs as professional medical advice or diagnoses
• Use the App to provide clinical services to others
• Use automated tools to access or interact with the App
• Use the App to harm, harass, or endanger any person

10. Privacy

Your privacy is foundational to the App. Please review our Privacy Policy for complete details on data collection, storage, security, children's privacy (COPPA), Texas TDPSA rights, algorithm disclosure, and your privacy rights.

The short version: your data stays on your device. We do not sell it, share it with advertisers, or process it on our servers. We use no analytics, crash-reporting, or tracking SDKs.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE APP IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE APP WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY CONTENT IS ACCURATE OR COMPLETE.

THE APP DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A QUALIFIED HEALTH PROVIDER WITH ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING A MEDICAL CONDITION. NEVER DISREGARD PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY SEEKING IT BECAUSE OF INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THE APP.

12. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE APP, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

• Reliance on assessment results, insights, or clinical formulation reports generated by the App
• Loss of data due to device failure, iCloud issues, or user error (the App stores data on your device; we cannot recover it)
• Actions taken or not taken based on information presented in the App
• Interruption or unavailability of crisis hotline services linked from the App
• Emotional distress arising from use of the App

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE APP SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR THE APP IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Observing Ego, its developers, and affiliates from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your use of the App, violation of these Terms, or misrepresentation of App content as professional clinical advice.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the most recent revision. Material changes will be communicated through an in-app notification. Continued use of the App after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

Changes affecting users under 13 will require renewed parental consent where applicable. If you disagree with a change, you may delete the App and your data at any time.

15. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of the App shall first be attempted to be resolved through good-faith negotiation. If unresolved within 30 days, disputes shall be resolved through binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.

Class action waiver: You agree to resolve disputes individually and waive any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

16. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms:

See yourself clearly.