Tether Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 24, 2026

Tether is built by Golden Sunset Studios LLC. This policy explains what information Tether collects, how it's used, and the choices you have — written in plain language because this app deals with sensitive, personal information and you deserve a clear answer, not legal boilerplate.

Who this applies to

Tether is intended for users age 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

Information we collect

When you use Tether, we collect:

• Account information: your email address, display name, password (stored as a secure hash, never in plain text), and role (teen, parent, or therapist).
• Skills practice data: which DBT skills you use, when, and self-reported distress levels before and after — this is what makes the app's personalization work.
• Diary Card entries: emotions, urges, and notes you choose to log.
• Cope Ahead plans: situations you're preparing for, skills you've planned, and how they went afterward.
• Sharing preferences: if you're a teen, which specific skills you've chosen to share with a linked parent. If you're a parent, which teen accounts you're linked to.
• Therapist information: if you choose to add it, a name and optional email used only to personalize your own export — we never contact your therapist on your behalf.
• Subscription information: handled by Apple, Google, and our payment processor RevenueCat. We receive your subscription status, not your payment details — we never see or store your card number.

How we use this information

We use your information to:

• Provide the core features of the app — the skill library, Diary Card, Cope Ahead, and In-the-Moment tools.
• Personalize which skills are suggested to you, based on what's actually helped you in the past.
• Show a linked parent only the specific skills you've chosen to share — never your diary entries, notes, or check-ins, unless you separately choose to share those.
• Generate the PDF summary you can choose to share with a therapist.
• Send you account-related emails, like parent-invite notifications or password reset codes.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use your data to train AI models or for advertising.

Who we share information with

We work with a small number of service providers to run Tether:

• Neon and Vercel — our database and server hosting.
• RevenueCat — manages subscriptions across Apple and Google's payment systems.
• Resend — delivers transactional emails (invites, password resets).
• Apple and Google — process your subscription payment directly; we never see your card details.

We don't share your information with advertisers, data brokers, or any other third party for marketing purposes.

Parent sharing is teen-controlled

If you're a teen using Tether, connecting a parent is entirely optional and always under your control. A linked parent sees only the specific skills you actively choose to share — never your private notes, diary entries, or check-ins, unless you separately turn that on. You can revoke a parent's access at any time from Settings.

Your data, your control

You can, at any time:

• Edit or delete individual entries within the app.
• Revoke a parent connection.
• Permanently delete your account and all associated data from Settings — this immediately and irreversibly removes your diary entries, skill history, Cope Ahead plans, and account information from our systems.

Data retention

We keep your information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, your data is removed immediately — we don't keep backups of deleted accounts beyond what's necessary for security and fraud prevention for a short period.

Security

Passwords are stored using industry-standard hashing (bcrypt) and are never stored or transmitted in plain text. All communication between the app and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS). Authentication uses signed tokens that expire and are stored securely on your device.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page. Continued use of Tether after changes means you accept the updated policy.