Grounded Technologies LLC ("Grounded," "we," "our," or "us") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the information you share when using the Grounded mobile application and related services (the "Service"). Grounded is an AI-powered mental wellness companion designed to support reflective conversation, emotional support, stress management, anxiety reduction, mindfulness, and general emotional wellbeing. Grounded is a general wellness product and is not a medical device, healthcare provider, or crisis service. By accessing or using Grounded, you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
We collect only the limited information reasonably necessary to provide and improve the Service.
Information You Provide:
Information Automatically Collected:
We strive to minimize the collection of personally identifiable information wherever reasonably possible.
Grounded is designed with privacy and confidentiality as core principles.
Local Conversation Storage: Grounded does not permanently store your chat conversations on Grounded-controlled servers, except as described below under Conversation Memory. Limited conversation history or memory features may be stored locally on your device to improve continuity and user experience. Information stored locally remains under your control and may be removed by deleting the app or clearing app data where applicable.
Conversation Memory: If you create an account and sign in, a limited amount of your most recent conversation history is saved to your account on Grounded-controlled servers so that your conversations may continue across sessions and devices. This memory feature exists solely to provide continuity and a more helpful, personalized conversational experience. If you use Grounded without an account, your recent conversation history is stored only locally on your device and is not saved to Grounded-controlled servers. Stored conversation history is not sold, rented, licensed, used for advertising, or used to train or develop artificial intelligence models. You may remove your stored conversation history at any time by deleting your account, which permanently deletes your account record and its associated stored conversation history.
Display Name: You may optionally provide a display name within your account. If you provide one, it is saved to your account on Grounded-controlled servers and is included with your conversation so that the Service may address you by name and provide a more personal conversational experience. Providing a display name is entirely optional, may be changed or removed by you at any time, and is deleted when you delete your account.
AI Processing: When you use Grounded's conversational features, the text you submit is securely transmitted to our third-party artificial intelligence service provider, including OpenAI, solely to generate responses and operate the Service.
Grounded does not use your conversations for advertising purposes, share or sell your conversation data.
We take reasonable measures to minimize the transmission of personally identifiable information. However, because user-entered messages are processed to generate responses, users should avoid sharing highly sensitive personal, medical, financial, or identifying information within conversations.
This section is provided to clearly disclose Grounded's use of a third-party artificial intelligence service, in accordance with the privacy disclosure requirements applicable to mobile applications.
What data is shared: Only the text of the chat messages you send within the application, and any optional display name you choose to provide, are transmitted to a third-party AI service for the purpose of generating responses. Your email address, account credentials, payment information, and any other personally identifying account data are not transmitted to the AI service. Providing a display name is entirely optional; if you do not provide one, no name is transmitted.
Who the data is shared with: The third-party AI service used by Grounded is OpenAI, accessed through OpenAI's commercial Application Programming Interface (API).
Why the data is shared: Your chat message text is transmitted to OpenAI solely to generate the AI-generated response that is returned to you in the application. The data is not transmitted for any other purpose.
How the data is collected: Chat message text is collected directly from your input within the application's chat interface and is transmitted only at the moment you send a message.
All uses of the data: Your chat message text, and any optional display name you provide, are used exclusively to generate the conversational response returned to you and to address you by name within that response. They are not used to train, fine-tune, or improve any artificial intelligence model, whether operated by Grounded Technologies LLC or by OpenAI. Data submitted through the OpenAI commercial API is not used by OpenAI to train its models. The data is not sold, rented, licensed, or used for advertising or marketing purposes.
Equal protection by third party: OpenAI is contractually obligated, under OpenAI's API Terms of Service and Data Processing Addendum, to handle data submitted through the API under privacy and security protections that are the same as or equal to the protections described in this Privacy Policy, including the prohibitions on training, sale, and unauthorized disclosure.
User consent before data is shared: Grounded obtains your explicit, in-app consent before any chat message data is sent to OpenAI. Users are presented with a dedicated AI Data Sharing consent screen describing what data is sent, who it is sent to, and how it is protected, and must affirmatively agree before any chat functionality is enabled.
We use collected information only for legitimate business and operational purposes, including to:
We do not sell personal information or use mental wellness-related information for targeted advertising to third parties. We do not use your personal information or conversation content to train or develop artificial intelligence models.
Grounded is intended solely as a general wellness and emotional support tool.
Grounded does not provide medical advice, mental health diagnosis, psychiatric treatment, psychotherapy, crisis intervention, or healthcare services. The Service is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or mental health care.
Grounded Pro subscriptions and in-app purchases are processed exclusively through Apple and the Apple App Store. Grounded Technologies LLC does not collect, receive, or store your credit card information or full payment details. Billing, renewals, refunds, and payment processing are governed by Apple's applicable terms and privacy policies.
We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards to protect user information. While no system can guarantee absolute security, we are committed to minimizing data collection and protecting what little data is required to operate the Service. Grounded may use trusted third-party service providers to support app functionality, including:
These providers are permitted to access information only as reasonably necessary to perform services on our behalf and are not authorized to use such information for unrelated commercial purposes.
We may also disclose information to comply with applicable law or legal process, to enforce our Terms of Service, to protect the rights, safety, and security of users or the public, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of business assets.
We implement commercially reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures may include encryption in transit, secure authentication controls, access limitations, and security monitoring and maintenance practices.
Despite these efforts, no method of electronic transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Users acknowledge and accept these inherent risks.
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to maintain your account, provide the Service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements.
Because Grounded minimizes centralized storage of conversation content, most conversational information may remain only on your device or may be transiently processed through third-party AI systems, except for the limited recent conversation history and optional display name saved to your account as described in Section 2.
Account information, such as your email address and authentication credentials, is retained for as long as your account remains active. When you delete your account, your account record and associated authentication data are removed from our systems promptly upon processing, and we make reasonable efforts to complete deletion within thirty (30) days. Apart from the limited recent conversation history and optional display name saved to your account to provide the conversation memory and personalization features described in Section 2, which are retained for as long as your account remains active and are deleted when you delete your account, conversation content is not retained on Grounded-controlled servers and is not stored beyond the brief period required to generate a response. Certain residual technical logs or backup records may persist temporarily, generally no longer than ninety (90) days, as part of standard security and disaster-recovery processes.
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have certain rights regarding your information, including the right to:
To exercise these rights, contact us using the information below. We may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before processing requests.
You may delete your account directly within the application, or request deletion of your account and associated account information by contacting us at the email address below. Deleting your account permanently removes your account record, along with any stored conversation history and any optional display name associated with it. Upon verified request, we will make reasonable efforts to delete or de-identify eligible information, subject to legal, security, operational, or compliance obligations.
Certain residual technical logs or backup records may persist temporarily as part of standard security and disaster recovery processes.
Grounded is not directed to children under the age of 13 and is not intended for use by children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that such information has been collected, we will take reasonable steps to delete it promptly.
Users between ages 13 and 17 should use the Service only with parental or guardian awareness and permission.
If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand that your information may be processed and stored in the United States or other jurisdictions where our service providers operate. By using the Service, you consent to such transfers consistent with applicable law.
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect operational, legal, regulatory, or technological changes. When updates are made, we will revise the "Last Updated" date above. Continued use of the Service after any revised Privacy Policy becomes effective constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.
If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or Grounded's privacy practices, please contact:
Grounded Technologies LLC
Support@groundedtechapp.com
These policies have been reviewed by:
Jehan "J" Carter, Esq. — Principal Attorney
Carter Law Group PLLC
420 7th Street NW, Suite 712, Washington, DC 20004
www.askcarterlaw.com · 202-599-0839
Grounded Technologies LLC. All rights reserved.