Tether Health app privacy policy

About this policy

This policy covers the Tether Health app (Android package com.TetherHealthLLC.tetherhealth), developed by Tether Health LLC. Tether Health is one app with 11 programs, one for each area of health. BreatheFree is one of them.

It does not cover www.tetherhealthgroup.com, which has its own privacy notice.

To be confirmed: the date this policy takes effect.

To be confirmed: whether this policy also covers a version of the app for Apple devices.

The short version

• No ads. We never sell your health data.
• Each program keeps its own data, and optional choices start off.
• Nothing is shared with a supporter, caregiver or care team unless you choose to share it.
• You can export your data and delete your account and data in the app.

Using the app on this phone only

You can use the app without an account by choosing "Continue on this phone only". Your plans then stay on your phone, and the app's design keeps them encrypted there. If you create an account later, the app asks before it uploads them.

Your account and sign-in

You can create an account with your email address and a password, or sign in with Apple or Google.

• With email, we keep your email address and use it to confirm your account, sign you in and send password-reset links.
• With Apple or Google, we receive the email address and account identifier that Apple or Google shares with us. Sign in with Apple can hide your email: we then use Apple's private relay address.
• We never see your Apple or Google password. You can link more than one sign-in method; removing a method never deletes your data.

You must be 18 or older to use the app. The app asks you to confirm this before you create an account or use it on this phone only.

Information shared by all your programs

If you create an account, the app keeps:

• your display name, and a profile photo if you add one
• your age range, sleep and stress answers, which your programs share so you are never asked twice; your age range sets which lessons and screenings apply
• which programs you have joined, paused or left, and the consent choices you made for each, with the wording you agreed to
• daily check-ins (how you feel and your stress), when you use Rescue and whether it helped, and the lessons you complete
• your reminder times and notification settings

Information each program keeps

A program keeps information only if you join it. Anything you type into a note is saved with that entry.

• BreatheFree (Tobacco & nicotine): your smoking or vaping answers, triggers, quit path and quit date, your reasons, the supporters you name, slips you record and the medication status you choose to record.
• ScrollFree (Social media use): how much you use social media (a range you choose), the kinds of apps that pull you in (categories, not app names), your triggers, your minute goal and app-free windows, Pause 60 use, long scrolls you record and your buddy's name.
• ClearAir (Respiratory health): the action plan your clinician gave you (zones, daily medicines and a photo of the plan if you add one), zone checks, peak flow readings and symptoms.
• Heartwise (Cardiovascular health): the targets your clinician set, blood pressure and pulse readings, and cholesterol panels.
• Steady (Diabetes & metabolic health): the range and low plan your clinician gave you, glucose readings with their timing, how you felt and any note, and A1C results.
• Renew (Kidney & liver health): your answers to the risk questions and kidney and liver lab results (eGFR, urine ACR and ALT).
• Nourish (Obesity & nutrition): the habits you choose; weight tracking is off unless you turn it on.
• Stride (Healthy aging): your answers to the falls questions, movement sessions, falls you log, home-safety checks, and a caregiver's name and phone number if you invite one.
• Ease (Mental & behavioral health): your answers to two short optional questionnaires (PHQ-2 and GAD-2), which you can skip, mood check-ins and the topics you choose, and check-backs.
• Checkup (Preventive health): your age, sex assigned at birth and conditions (including pregnancy), used to work out which screenings are due, and the screenings you mark done.
• Beacon (Cancer): which part of the journey you are in, family history of cancer, a fatigue diary and survivorship entries.

Two things stay on your phone and are never sent to us: the Ease safety plan, which the app's design keeps encrypted on your phone, and the apps and limits you choose in ScrollFree's optional Unplug feature.

ScrollFree with Screen Time on an Apple device: Apple shares no app names or minutes with us. On Android, ScrollFree measures use on your phone with usage access, and only daily totals by category are saved to your account.

To be confirmed: which of the programs above can save information to an account on the date this policy takes effect.

Health records

You can choose to connect your health records. Sources are Epic MyChart, Oracle Health (Cerner), Medicare Blue Button 2.0, any other SMART on FHIR server, Apple Health Records on Apple devices and Health Connect on Android. You can also enter values by hand; those are labelled "Entered by you".

• Access is read-only. Tether never writes to your health record. You sign in with your provider, and Tether never sees that password.
• Before you connect, the app shows exactly what it will read: conditions, vital signs (blood pressure, weight), lab results (A1C, lipids, eGFR), medications, immunizations and smoking status. Clinical notes are not requested. From Apple Health Records or Health Connect it asks for blood pressure, blood glucose and clinical records; steps and sleep are not requested.
• Nothing reaches your programs until you review and confirm it.
• Only the programs you joined get data: Heartwise gets blood pressure and lipids, Steady gets A1C and glucose, Renew gets eGFR, Checkup gets immunizations and BreatheFree gets smoking status. Ease and ScrollFree get nothing. Medications and conditions are shown for reference only.
• While connected, records refresh daily. You can disconnect at any time and choose to keep or delete the data imported from that source.
• The app's design keeps the access tokens from your provider encrypted on our servers, never on your phone.

To be confirmed: the date health-record import is offered in the app, and that token encryption on our servers is in place on that date.

Sharing, only when you choose

• Supporters. You can add a supporter for BreatheFree or ScrollFree. Messages to them are sent from your phone's own Messages app after you preview them; Tether never sends on its own and never contacts them.
• ScrollFree buddy. Your buddy only sees what you choose to send.
• Stride caregiver. If you invite a caregiver, they can see only what you allow: when you finish a session and if you log a fall. Your other programs are never available to caregivers.
• Care team. You can connect a clinic with an invite code. Connecting shares nothing until you approve a summary, and you preview every share. A Heartwise visit summary contains only Heartwise data. Copies you send stay with the care team.
• Quitline call-back. If you ask a quitline to call you, the app sends your first name, phone number and preferred time to that quitline, and nothing about your plan, check-ins or health. That consent expires after 30 days.
• Cross-program insights. A setting under Privacy & consent controls whether the app shows connections between your programs.

To be confirmed: when care-team connections, caregiver invites and quitline call-backs are offered, and how a caregiver invite is delivered.

To be confirmed: what the optional "De-identified research" and "Anonymous app diagnostics" choices collect, who receives it and how it is de-identified. Both are off unless you turn them on.

Reminders and notifications

Reminders are off until you turn them on. The app sends at most two a day, only for your focus programs, and the lock screen shows "You have a Tether reminder." Program names and health details stay hidden unless you turn on "Show sensitive details". Quiet hours are on by default; safety alerts still come through.

To be confirmed: which service, if any, delivers notifications to your phone.

Permissions the app asks for

The app asks for these permissions, each for the feature that needs it: notifications for reminders; Screen Time on Apple devices, or usage access and display over other apps on Android, for ScrollFree's optional Unplug; health-record access for Apple Health Records or Health Connect; and your photos or camera if you add a profile photo or a photo of your ClearAir plan. The app does not ask for your location, contacts or microphone.

How we use your information

We use your information to run the app for you: to create your account and sign you in, to save your plans and entries in each program you join, to show you your own progress, to send the reminders you turned on, and to share what you choose to share.

No ads. We never sell your health data.

We do not share your information with third parties for their own use.

Who handles your information for us

• Supabase, for sign-in accounts, the database and photo storage.
• Render, which hosts our application server: the service that handles your profile, programs, plans, entries, export and deletion.
• Apple and Google, if you sign in with them.
• The health-record providers you choose to connect.

To be confirmed: that our production application server is hosted by Render, and the regions where it and our Supabase project run.

To be confirmed: which service sends the sign-up confirmation and password-reset emails.

To be confirmed: the contract terms we have with our service providers, and what they record when the app connects to them, such as your IP address, and for how long.

Protection

The app's consent screen describes essential app data (your account, plans and progress) as encrypted.

To be confirmed: how your data is protected on your phone, in transit and at our service providers.

Exporting your data

In the app, go to Account, then Your data, then Export. You can export your data, or export a care summary for the dates you choose and preview every detail first.

To be confirmed: the format of the full export and which data it includes.

A copy you export is outside the app and is not deleted when you delete your account.

Keeping and deleting your information

You can delete your account and all data in the app, or leave a single program and delete only that program's data. The steps, and what to do if you cannot sign in, are on the account deletion page.

If you leave a program and keep its data, it is kept until you delete it or delete your account.

To be confirmed: how long we keep your account data if you stop using the app without deleting your account.

To be confirmed: how long copies remain in backups and logs after you delete your account.

Your rights

In the app you can view and export your data, change your name and photo, change your consent choices, leave a program, and delete your account.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to ask for access to, correction of or deletion of your personal data, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to complain to a data protection authority.

To be confirmed: which privacy and health-data laws apply to the app and which rights they give you.

To use these rights, write to privacy@tetherhealthgroup.com.

To be confirmed: who answers these emails, how we check who you are, and how quickly we reply.

Contact us

For questions about this policy, email privacy@tetherhealthgroup.com.

For help with the app, email support@tetherhealthgroup.com or see the support page.

Children

The app is for adults 18 and over, and it asks you to confirm your age before you start.

To be confirmed: what we do if we learn that a child has an account.

If you believe a child has created an account, email privacy@tetherhealthgroup.com.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, we will update the effective date on this page.

To be confirmed: how people who already have an account will be told about a material change, for example inside the app.