Ethics & Privacy Statement

At Myndgard, your trust and the ethical handling of your personal information are paramount. We are committed to transparency and safeguarding your privacy as you embark on your mental wellness journey with us. This statement outlines our principles and practices regarding the data you share with Myndgard.

Our Core Commitments

• Transparency: We will always be clear about what data we collect and how it is used.
• User Control: You are in control of your data. We provide tools to manage your information and privacy settings.
• Security: We employ robust security measures to protect your data from unauthorized access or disclosure.
• Purpose Limitation: Your data is used to provide and improve Myndgard services, and for research purposes only with your explicit, informed consent and after robust anonymization.
• Ethical AI: Our AI is developed and utilized responsibly, with a commitment to fairness, accuracy, and the avoidance of bias.
• Confidentiality: Your personal journey is private. We uphold strict confidentiality standards.

What Information We Collect

To provide you with personalized wellness tracking and insights, Myndgard collects information in the following ways, always with your explicit consent:

• Account Information: When you register, we collect basic information like your name (or pseudonym), email address, and password to create and manage your account.
• Passive Data (with permission): Through the Myndgard app, and only with your explicit permission for each category, we may collect data related to:
  • Movement & Activity: Physical activity levels (e.g., step count, exercise duration).
  • Location Patterns: General location data to understand routines and environmental context (e.g., time spent at home vs. outside). We do not track precise, real-time GPS trails without specific feature consent.
  • Sleep Patterns: Duration and quality of sleep, if you use compatible tracking features or manually input this data.
  • App Usage: How you interact with the Myndgard app features.
• Active Data (User-Provided):
  • Daily Check-ins & Mood Logs: Your responses to questions about your mood, feelings, and daily experiences.
  • Journal Entries: Any text you choose to write in your private journal within the app.
  • Clinical Questionnaires: Your responses to standardized mental health questionnaires (e.g., PHQ-9, GAD-7) offered periodically to assess wellbeing.
• Therapist-Linked Data (Myndgard Pro): If you use Myndgard Pro and choose to connect with a therapist, your therapist may view certain data and insights with your explicit consent to support your therapeutic process.

You can manage permissions for passive data collection at any time within the app settings.

How We Use Your Information

Your information is used to:

• Provide Personalized Insights: Our AI analyzes your data patterns to offer personalized feedback, identify potential triggers, and suggest positive behavioral changes.
• Track Wellness Trends: Help you and, if you choose, your therapist understand your mental wellness journey over time.
• Improve Our Services: Anonymized and aggregated data helps us understand how our app is used, identify areas for improvement, and enhance the effectiveness of our AI models.
• Support Therapeutic Care (Myndgard Pro): Enable therapists to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their clients' wellbeing between sessions, with client consent.
• Research (with Consent & Anonymization): With your explicit and separate consent, fully anonymized and aggregated data may be used for ethically approved research to advance the understanding of mental health. Your personal identity will never be linked to published research.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

Data Security & Confidentiality

We take the security of your data very seriously and implement a range of measures to protect it:

• Encryption: Data is encrypted both in transit (when it travels between your device and our servers) and at rest (when stored on our servers).
• Access Controls: Strict access controls limit who can access your data within Myndgard. Our staff can only access data on a need-to-know basis for support or system maintenance, and always under strict confidentiality agreements.
• Secure Infrastructure: We use reputable cloud service providers with robust security certifications.
• Regular Audits: We conduct regular security assessments and audits to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.
• Anonymization & Pseudonymization: Where possible, we use anonymized or pseudonymized data for analytics and AI model training to protect your identity.

While we strive to protect your personal information, no security system is impenetrable. We encourage you to use a strong, unique password and keep your account details confidential.

Data Sharing & Third Parties

Myndgard limits data sharing to the following circumstances:

• With Your Therapist (Myndgard Pro): If you explicitly consent to share your data with your therapist through Myndgard Pro, they will be able to access relevant information via their secure dashboard. You control this sharing and can revoke it at any time.
• Service Providers: We may use third-party service providers for functions such as cloud hosting, analytics (for app performance, not personal data analysis), and customer support. These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data and can only use it for the services they provide to us.
• Anonymized Research: As mentioned, with your specific consent, anonymized and aggregated data may be shared with research institutions for ethically approved studies.
• Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required by law, such as in response to a subpoena, court order, or other legal process, or to protect our rights, property, or safety, or that of others. We will strive to notify you of such requests unless legally prohibited.

Your Rights & Control

You have rights concerning your personal data:

• Access: You can request access to the personal information we hold about you.
• Correction: You can update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information through your account settings or by contacting us.
• Deletion: You can request the deletion of your account and associated personal data, subject to certain legal or operational retention needs (e.g., for security logs).
• Data Portability: You may have the right to receive your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw Consent: You can withdraw consent for specific data processing activities (like passive data collection or research participation) at any time through app settings or by contacting us. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
• Manage Permissions: You can control app permissions for passive data collection (location, activity, etc.) through your device settings and within the Myndgard app.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the details provided below.

Children's Privacy

Myndgard is not intended for individuals under the age of 16 (or a higher age if stipulated by local law). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that a child has provided us with personal information without parental consent, we will take steps to delete such information.

Updates to This Statement

We may update this Ethics & Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new statement on this page and, where appropriate, through other channels (e.g., in-app notification or email). We encourage you to review this statement periodically.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding your privacy or this Ethics & Privacy Statement, please contact us at:

Myndgard Privacy Office
Email: privacy@myndgard.com

This statement was last updated on May 9, 2025.