Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

1. Agreement to These Terms

Halo is provided by The Mental Wellness Project ("The Mental Wellness Project", "we", "us", or "our"). By downloading, installing, or using Halo (the "App"), you agree to these Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy (together, the "Terms"). If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you should review these Terms together with a parent or guardian. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the App.

2. Not Medical Care, Therapy, or a Crisis Service

Halo is a self-guided journaling, breathing, and mood-tracking tool. It is intended to support general emotional wellness and is not medical care, mental health treatment, therapy, counseling, diagnosis, or professional advice of any kind. Using the App does not create a doctor-patient, therapist-client, or any other professional relationship between you and The Mental Wellness Project.

The App is not monitored in real time by The Mental Wellness Project, by any clinician, or by any other person. No one reviews what you write. No one is notified if you use the App, if you stop using it, or if what you write suggests you may be in distress.

Halo is not a crisis service and must never be used as one. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, is considering suicide, or is having a mental health emergency, do not use this App to seek help. Instead, immediately call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), call 911, text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line), or go to the nearest emergency room. These services are staffed by trained people who can actually help in an emergency; this App is not.

These crisis numbers are specific to the United States. If you are located outside the United States, call your local emergency number or search for a crisis line in your own country instead.

3. Assumption of Risk

You use Halo entirely at your own risk. You understand and agree that self-guided wellness tools like journaling, breathing exercises, and mood tracking are not a substitute for professional care, may not be effective or appropriate for everyone, and are not guaranteed to improve your mental health or prevent any particular outcome, including self-harm.

4. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, The Mental Wellness Project and its directors, officers, employees, volunteers, and agents are not liable for any claim, loss, injury, or damage of any kind, including without limitation any physical, emotional, or psychological harm, self-harm, or death (including suicide), arising out of or in any way related to your use of, or inability to use, the App, whether or not the harm is alleged to be caused by the App, by its content, or by any other person or circumstance, and whether the claim is based on contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability, or any other legal theory, even if The Mental Wellness Project has been advised of the possibility of such harm.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for certain kinds of harm (including, in many places, liability arising from gross negligence or intentional misconduct, and liability owed to minors), so some or all of the limitations in this section may not apply to you, and you may have additional rights under your local law.

The App and its content (including journal prompts, breathing exercises, and resource listings) are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement, or any warranty that the App will be accurate, reliable, uninterrupted, or error-free.

5. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Mental Wellness Project and its directors, officers, employees, volunteers, and agents from any claim, demand, loss, or damage, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of your use of the App or your violation of these Terms.

6. Crisis Resources & Third-Party Links

The Resources section of the App lists third-party crisis lines, hotlines, and organizations that The Mental Wellness Project does not operate or control. We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or conduct of any third-party service. Your use of any third-party service is governed by that organization's own terms and privacy policy, not this one.

7. Who This App Is For

Halo does not verify a user's age or identity and does not require an account of any kind, so we have no way to confirm who is using the App. If you are a parent or guardian of a minor using the App, we encourage you to be aware of and involved in their use of mental health resources, including this App.

8. Your Privacy: What We Collect

The Mental Wellness Project collects no personal information whatsoever, from anyone, including children. The App makes no network calls of any kind. There is no server, no account, no sign-in, no analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising, and no tracking of any kind, in the App or across other apps or websites.

Because we never receive any data from your device, we have no way to access, view, recover, sell, share, or disclose anything you write in the App, to anyone, including The Mental Wellness Project itself, law enforcement (absent a court order compelling us to produce something we do not have and cannot obtain), or any third party.

9. What's Stored, and Where

Journal entries, mood logs, gratitude jar entries, drafts, and app settings are stored only in a local database on your device. Journal and jar text is encrypted (AES-256) before it is saved, using an encryption key generated on your device and stored in your device's secure keychain. That key is configured never to be included in device or cloud backups, so it, and the data it protects, never leaves your device under any circumstance we control.

Because nothing is backed up by us, if you delete the App or lose your device, your data cannot be recovered by you or by us. This is a deliberate privacy tradeoff: no one but you can ever access what you write, but that also means there is no way to get it back if the device is lost, damaged, or reset.

10. Your Choices & Rights

You can export a copy of your data at any time from Settings → Export My Data, and you can permanently delete everything from this device at any time from Settings → Delete All My Data. Because your data already lives only on your device, exporting and deleting locally is the only meaningful form of access, correction, or deletion request: there is no separate copy anywhere else to request from us.

11. Children's Privacy

The App does not knowingly or otherwise collect personal information from children under 13 or anyone else, consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar laws. Because no information is ever collected, there is nothing for us to store, use, or disclose about any user of any age.

12. Permissions

The App may request device permissions (such as Face ID/biometrics for App Lock) solely to provide the feature you enable. These permissions are used only on-device and never transmit data anywhere.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, including the effective date above. Continued use of the App after an update means you accept the revised Terms. Because the App has no way to contact you, we recommend checking this screen periodically.

14. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles, except to the extent your local consumer-protection or other mandatory law provides otherwise.

15. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full effect, and the unenforceable provision will be interpreted to reflect the parties' original intent as closely as possible while remaining enforceable.

16. Contact Us

Questions about these Terms or this Privacy Policy can be sent to team@thementalwellnessproject.org.