Privacy Policy

Last modified July 14, 2025

We’re glad you’re here!

The How We Feel Project, Inc. (“How We Feel” or “HWF”) is a non-profit company. Our products include our iOS and Android apps, and our website (“Products”).

When we collect personal information in our Products, we collect it to help you track your emotions, spot patterns as they appear over time, learn new ways to keep yourself in the moment, and help you better understand your emotions. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it to sell ads or make money.

We built HWF with privacy in mind. You can use our Products without opening an account with us. If you do not open an account, HWF does not collect or store any personal information about you. The data you record in our Products information will be stored locally on your iOS or Android device and HWF will not have access to that data.

If you do open an account and use our Products, you provide personal information to us. We wrote this privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) to help you understand what personal information we collect, how we use it and disclose it, how long we retain it, and what choices you have about it. Some of the concepts below are a little technical, but we’ve tried our best to explain things in a simple and clear way.

You may have specific privacy rights in your state or region. In the United States, residents of California and other states have specific privacy rights noted in the disclosures below. Individuals in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), and the UK, and other jurisdictions also have specific rights, which are also noted in the disclosures below. These additional disclosures supplement, and should be read together with, this Privacy Policy.

1.      Information We Collect

     A.      Information You Provide Upon Opening An Account

When you open an account with HWF, we collect personal information that you provide to us (“Account Information”). If you open an account using a third-party login tool (e.g. Apple or Google), we will receive certain profile information about you from the third-party login tool provider. The profile information we receive may vary, but will often include your name, email address, as well as other information you choose to make public via that third-party account, such as a profile picture. If you add a profile picture manually, or edit your display name, we collect this information as part of your Account Information.

If you sign up via iOS, you have the option to hide your email address from us to enhance your privacy.

     B.      Information We get When You Use Our Products

When you use our Products after opening an account, we collect additional personal information based on your activity and other personal information you choose to provide. This includes:

Check-In Data

We collect information each time you check-in on HWF (“Check-In Data”). Check-In Data may include the emotion you record, tags, journal entries, and other information you may choose to attach, such as photos or voice memos, or additional observations or reflections you add. It may also include location data if you choose to automatically record the weather at your location when you complete a check-in, as well as any health data you decide to attach, either by entering it manually or by connecting HWF to the Apple Health app. (“Health Data”).

AI Features

We collect information you provide when you use our AI-powered features, like Reflect or Weekly review (“AI Features”) to help you think more about how you are feeling and why. AI Features are optional. For more information about AI Features and how we use your data in connection with them, please see the supplementary notice below.

Friends

You can add friends to your HWF account using an invite link or an invite code. Once you add friends, you can decide whether to share Check-In Data with your friends, and how much to share.

Surveys

We collect information you provide to us when you complete surveys about our Products.

Other Communications

We collect information about the messages you send us when you contact us with questions or feedback, including the contents of those messages.

Usage And Activity Information

We collect information about when and how you use our Products. This includes which features you use and when.

Log Data And Device Information

We may collect information from and about the devices you use. In particular, we may collect information about log-ins, as well as information about your hardware and software, such as the hardware model and operating system version, and other information about your system settings.

Cookie Information

We use cookies (small text files sent by your computer each time you visit our website) to get log data. These cookies are used to help us understand how many people use our website and how they use it. For more detailed information about cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

2.      How We Use The Information We Collect

We use the personal information we collect to provide our Products to you and to improve them. Specifically, we use the data we collect to:

• Register your account, verify your identity, and verify the accuracy of your information.


• Develop, operate, improve, maintain, and protect our Products.


• Send you communications. For example, we may use email, text messages, or app-based notifications to respond to support inquiries, share information about our Products, and tell you what's happening on HWF.


• Verify and enhance the safety and security of our Products.


• Verify and analyze user engagement, trends, and usage.


• Handle and record user rights requests, including opt-ins and opt-outs.


• Prevent fraud or other unauthorized or illegal activity.


• Enforce, investigate, and report conduct violating our Terms of Service, or other policies.


• Respond to requests from law enforcement agencies or other government agencies, and comply with legal or regulatory requirements.

3.      How We Disclose The Information We Collect

We do not sell personal information about our users. We may, however, disclose that information to:

Other Users

We may share your information with other users when you direct us to do so. The information we share will be limited to the information you instruct us to share.

Researchers

HWF partners with academic and other non-profit researchers who study mental health. If you authorize us to share your Check-In Data with researchers, we anonymize your Check-In Data to remove any information that would identify you in the research data, or permit the researchers with whom we share data to tie it to any specific individual. For more details please see the supplementary notice below.

Service providers and other third parties

We employ third parties to process information on our behalf based on our instructions and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including providers of services relating to product integrations, cloud computing, analytics, security, and user support. You can find a list of our service providers here.

Law enforcement, tax authorities, or governmental or non-governmental organizations

If we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request; to protect the safety, rights or property of the public, any person; or to detect, prevent or otherwise address illegal conduct, fraud, security or technical issues, we may disclose information to law enforcement agencies, other governmental agencies, or private parties as needed.

Subsidiaries and affiliates

If we were to engage in a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, or similar transaction or proceeding that involves the transfer of the information described in this Policy, we would disclose your information to parties involved in such a process (for example, a purchaser).

4.      How Long We Keep Information

We keep your information only so long as we need it to provide our Products to you and fulfill the purposes described in this policy. When we no longer need to use your information and there is no need for us to keep it to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations, we’ll either remove it from our systems or depersonalize it so that we can't use it to identify you.

If you live in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, here is some further information on our retention practices: We keep your information only so long as necessary for the purposes identified in this Privacy Policy, which include providing our service, or for other legitimate purposes, such as complying with legal obligations, enforcing and preventing violations of our Terms, to fight spam, or protecting or defending our rights, property and users. The storage periods are determined on a case-by-case basis. We keep account information, like your name, email address, and password, for as long as your account is in existence because we need it to operate your account.

If content is deleted by the user who uploaded it, we may retain a copy of it temporarily in storage, but will delete it from our backups within a reasonable amount of time.

5.      Managing Your Information

There are a variety of ways you can manage the personal information we have about you.

Request Access

You can request access to the personal information we collect and hold about you. To request access, please email us at support@howwefeel.org. We will aim to respond within 30 days.

Correct Your Data

If any of the personal information we collect and hold about you is incorrect, you can update it in your profile or in your dashboard.

Delete Your Data

You can close your account and delete your data by deleting your account in your account settings, or by making a written request to our team. To submit a deletion request, please email us at support@howwefeel.org. We will aim to respond within 30 days.

Revoke Consent Or Object To Processing

You can revoke any consent you have given us by adjusting your account settings. You can also object to processing information in certain circumstances by submitting your objection via email to support@howwefeel.org.

Opt Out Of Push Notifications

If you opt in to receive push notifications within the Products, we may send push notifications or alerts to your mobile device from time to time. You can deactivate push notifications and alerts at any time by changing your device settings, changing the push notification settings within the Products, or deleting the HWF app from your iOS or Android device.

Non-Discrimination

It goes without saying, but HWF will not discriminate against you if you do any of the things above.

Verification

HWF may ask you to provide certain information to verify your identity. The information that we ask you to provide to verify your identity will depend on your prior interactions with us and the sensitivity of the personal information at issue. HWF will respond to your request in accordance with the CCPA. If we deny your request, we will explain why.

Exceptions

HWF will not provide the following information in response to access requests for the following reasons:

• Account data such as account passwords and identity verification codes, unmasked phone numbers, or email addresses, because of the sensitive nature of the information.


• Other users' and employees' personal information, including the names and account information of individuals you may have interacted with in our Products, other users' feedback, and employees' comments because the information belongs to other individuals and disclosing it may impact their rights.


• Internal proprietary attributes that enable us to provide various aspects of our app, because the information is protected by federal and state trade secret law.


• Server logs that are older than 30 days because we use these to ensure the security and integrity of our app.

6.      Transferring Information

If you use our Products outside of the United States, your personal information will be stored outside your home country, including in the United States, for the purposes described in this Policy. The privacy protections and the rights of authorities to access your personal information in such countries may not be equivalent to those of your home country.

7.      Revisions

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we do, we’ll post any changes on this page. We will provide a more prominent notice or get your consent where required by law.

8.      Contact Us

The best way to manage personal information about you as described above or get in touch with us is through your account settings or via email at support@howwefeel.org.

HWF is responsible for your information. You can contact HWF at:

The How We Feel Project, Inc.
548 Market St.
PMB 645283
San Francisco, CA 94104-5401.

Notice To European Data Subjects

Last updated July 14, 2025

This privacy notice (“Notice”) supplements the Privacy Policy with additional information for EU, and UK data subjects pursuant to EU and UK data protection laws (“GDPR”). For a full description of how we use your Personal Data, you should read this notice together with the Privacy Policy.

Controller and Representative

HWF is responsible for how your personal data is handled. This means we are the controller of your personal data under the GDPR. You can find our contact information in the “Contact Us” section listed in our Privacy Policy.

We have also appointed representatives in the European Union, and the UK. If you are located in the European Union or the UK, you can contact the relevant representative about our processing of your personal data.

European Union

VeraSafe has been appointed as How We Feel’s representative in the European Union for data protection matters, pursuant to Article 27 of the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union. You may contact VeraSafe using this contact form:
https://verasafe.com/public-resources/contact-data-protection-representative or via telephone at: +420 228 881 031.
Alternatively, VeraSafe can be contacted at:
VeraSafe Ireland Ltd.
Unit 3D North Point House
North Point Business Park
New Mallow Road
Cork T23AT2P
Ireland

United Kingdom

VeraSafe has been appointed as How We Feel’s representative in the United Kingdom for data protection matters, pursuant to Article 27 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation. You may contact VeraSafe using this contact form:
https://verasafe.com/public-resources/contact-data-protection-representative or via telephone at: +44 (20) 4532 2003.
Alternatively, VeraSafe can be contacted at:
VeraSafe United Kingdom Ltd.
37 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TL
United Kingdom

Personal Data We Collect From You and How We Use It

You can read about the personal data we collect from you if you open an account in the “Information We Collect” section in our Privacy Policy above, and how we use it in the “How We Use The Information We Collect” section above.

We do not use automated decision-making without human intervention, including profiling, in a way that produces legal effects concerning you or otherwise significantly affects you.

We do not collect personal data of minors under 18. You must be at least 18 years of age to use HWF.

Justification for Data Processing

EU and UK data protection law sets out a list of justifications on which companies may rely to process personal data, and requires companies to explain to data subjects the specific justifications for the company’s data processing activities. HWF relies on one or more of the following justifications to process personal data when you open an account:

• Contractual Necessity, to provide you with the Products in accordance with our Terms of Service or otherwise perform a contract we have entered into with you or are about to enter into with you.
• Legitimate Interests, where it is necessary for our legitimate business purposes, your interest or the interests of a third party, and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those legitimate interests.
• Consent. Where we rely on your consent to process personal data about you, you have the right to later withdraw your consent in the manner indicated when you consent or by contacting us as described in this Privacy Policy.
• Legal obligation, where we need to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject.

The table below sets out a description of all the ways we use your personal data when you open an account, and which of the justifications we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where we rely on that justification for processing.

Recipients of Data

We may disclose your personal data to the recipients described in the “How We Disclose The Information We Collect” section in our Privacy Policy above. You can find an up-to-date list of the third party service providers that process personal data on our behalf there.

Retention of Data

To determine the appropriate retention period for your personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements. For further information, please see the "How Long We Keep Information" section in the Privacy Policy and “Data retention period” in the section “Justification for Data Processing” above.

Storage and Transfer

We are based in the United States and rely on third-party cloud storage providers that store user data on our behalf in the United States. The United States may have data protection laws less stringent than or otherwise different from the laws in effect in the EU and/or UK. We may also use third-party service providers located outside of the EU or the UK. If we transfer your personal data out of the EU or the UK, we take measures to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal data, and your rights as a data subject.

We may transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data. For further information, you can review EU adequacy decisions here, and you can review UK adequacy decisions here.

If we transfer your personal data to a country that is not deemed to provide an adequate level of data protection, in order to protect your personal data we may use contractual clauses approved for use in the EU and/or UK in accordance with the EU and/or UK data protection regime(s).

Your Rights

The GDPR grants EU and UK data subjects the following rights:

• Access
  You can request a copy of the personal data that we maintain about you. If you require additional copies, we may need to charge a reasonable fee.
• Deletion and Correction
  You can ask us to delete or correct the personal data that we hold about you. You also have the right to ask us to delete your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your personal data unlawfully or where we are required to delete your personal data to comply with local law. We may not always be able to comply with your request for deletion for specific legal reasons which we will tell you about at the time of your request.
• Objection to Processing
  You may have the right to object to how we use your personal data. For example, this may apply where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your personal data which override your rights.
• Restrict Processing
  You may ask us to suspend our processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (i) if you want us to establish its accuracy, (ii) if our use of the personal data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it, (iii) if you need us to hold the personal data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, or (iv) you have objected to our use of your personal data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Portability
  If required to do so, on your request, we will give you your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
• Withdrawal of Consent
  Insofar as we rely on consent as the lawful basis on which we process your personal data, you can withdraw your consent to process that personal data at any time. This will not, however, affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent, or the processing of any personal data for which we rely on a basis other than consent.

To exercise these rights, please email us at support@howwefeel.org. In addition to contacting HWF as your data controller, you may also contact our representative using the contact information referenced in the “Controller and Representative” section above. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority in your country about our processing of your personal data. The contact details of EU data protection authorities can be found here, the UK data protection authority here and Swiss data protection authority here.

Supplementary Notice For Users Who Use Our AI Features

Our AI Features are designed to make journaling and self-reflection easier, and to provide additional insights about your Check-In Data. For users who choose to use our AI Features, we provide the following notice to supplement our Privacy Policy.

1.      What We Share

Use of AI Features is always optional. We only share data when you choose to activate AI Features by tapping the button to activate the AI Features.

When you choose to use the AI Features, we share certain elements of your Check-In Data with a service provider. Specifically, we share the emotion you record, tags, the date and time of your Check-In, and any journal entry associated with that Check-In. Your responses to the questions generated by AI Features are also shared to generate further questions, as well as insights and affirmations for you to reflect on and refer to later.

We do not share voice memos, pictures, or any other Check-In Data. Nor do we share your name, email, or other identifiers. We only share the information listed above.

2.      Who We Share It With

HWF’s AI Feature is powered by OpenAI. The elements of the Check-In Data specified above and your responses to questions generated by the AI Features will be shared with OpenAI and processed by OpenAI. Open AI does not retain the Check-In data or the responses you provide.

3.      How It's Used

The Check-In Data and responses you provide are only used by OpenAI to provide the AI Features to you. OpenAI does not retain the data, and does not use it for any other purpose.

4.      Your Choices

Use of AI Features is entirely optional – you can continue to use HWF without using the AI Features. You can stop using AI Features at any time.

Supplementary Notice For Users Who Share Data With Researchers

For users who agree to share their information with Researchers, we provide the following notice to supplement our Privacy Policy.

1.      What We Share

We do not share personal information with Researchers.

When you authorize us to share your information with Researchers, we remove direct identifiers like your name or email address that would identify you in the research data we share with Researchers. We also remove the user identification number HWF uses to identify you in its internal systems, and replace that identifier with a randomly generated number to differentiate among users.

The information connected to the numeric identifier and shared with Researchers includes your prior Check-In Data (excluding voice memos, journal entries, and photos) and any demographic information you choose to provide in response to our demographic survey. Your future Check-In Data (excluding voice memos, journal entries, and photos) is provided in the same manner.

2.      Who We Share It With

The Researchers we work with are academic or non-profit research organizations with whom we have agreed to collaborate on research relating to mental health and wellbeing.

3.      How It's Used

Researchers agree to use the information we share with them for bona fide research purposes only.

4.      Your Choices

You can stop sharing information with Researchers any time in your account settings page, or by contacting us at support@howwefeel.org. When you tell us to stop sharing information with Researchers, your instructions will be applied to all information collected after that point.

In order to preserve the scientific validity of any ongoing research, Researchers are not required to delete any information provided to them previously.