How we handle the things you write.

What this policy covers

This policy explains how anxietrees collects, uses, and looks after your personal information when you use the marketing website and the app. It's written to be read, not just filed — if anything here is unclear, please ask.

Who we are

anxietrees is the data controller for the information described here, which means we decide how and why it is used. Placeholder — our registered legal name, address, and ICO registration number will land here at review. You can reach us any time at hello@anxietrees.com.

What we collect, and why

There are three kinds of information:

• Your account. The name, email address, and password you sign up with. Your password is stored only as a salted hash, never as plain text. We use these to create and secure your account and to send you essential emails about the service.
• The things you write. The worries you work through, the reflections you add, and the trees they're saved into. This is the heart of the service — we store it so you can look back over your trees.
• A small set of usage events. A fixed, minimal set of events that tells us the product is working — described under "What we measure" below. These never include the words you write.

Lawful basis (draft, to be confirmed at review). Under UK data protection law we rely on different bases for different information:

• Your account is processed to provide the service you've asked for (Article 6(1)(b), performance of a contract).
• The minimal usage events and security measures below rest on our legitimate interest in keeping anxietrees working and safe (Article 6(1)(f)).
• The things you write can reveal information about your mental health, which the law treats as a special category needing extra protection. We process it only with your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)). We ask for that consent on its own — through a distinct, affirmative step before your first tree, not bundled into anything else. You can withdraw it at any time by deleting your account, which removes your trees; withdrawing doesn't affect anything we lawfully did before you withdrew.

How the worry-tree flow uses AI

To guide you through a worry tree, the words you write are sent to Anthropic — the company behind the Claude AI models — which works out how to respond, helps separate what you've written into distinct worries, suggests possible next steps, and creates a short title for the tree. This means the content of your worries leaves our servers and is processed by Anthropic to provide this feature.

Under Anthropic's terms for commercial use of its API, the data we send is not used to train their models. Anthropic is based in the United States — see "Sending data outside the UK" below. Placeholder — to be confirmed against Anthropic's current data-processing terms at review.

What we measure

We keep a small, fixed set of usage events to understand whether the product works, using PostHog (EU region), entirely on our server. Instead of your account ID we send a one-way hashed identifier, and we never send the words you write, your name, or your email. Location and device details are switched off. The complete list of events is:

• creating an account;
• planting a tree;
• completing a tree;
• saving a reflection — with only a category for how things turned out (for example "better than expected"), never what you wrote;
• the crisis support pathway being shown — with only whether a keyword or the AI triggered it.

Who else processes your information

We rely on a few trusted providers to run the service. Each only handles what it needs to:

• Anthropic (United States) — the Claude AI models that power the worry-tree flow; receives the worries you write, as described above.
• PostHog (EU region) — the small set of usage events above; hashed identifier only, no content.
• Cloudflare — hosts the site and runs the anti-spam check on the contact form.
• Our email provider — sends account and contact-form emails.

Placeholder — each provider's legal name and the safeguard relied on will be confirmed and kept current at review.

Cookies and tracking

The marketing website sets no cookies. There is no analytics, no tracking pixels, no advertising, and no third-party widgets that set their own cookies — which is why you won't see a cookie banner here. The app uses cookies to keep you signed in, and stores your light/dark theme choice in your browser so it can remember it. We don't use cookies or local storage for tracking, we don't build advertising audiences, and we never sell your information.

Sending data outside the UK

Some of our providers are based outside the UK — most importantly Anthropic, in the United States. Where your information is transferred outside the UK, we rely on the safeguards that UK data protection law requires for such transfers (for example the UK's International Data Transfer Agreement, or the Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses). Placeholder — the specific safeguard in place with each provider will be confirmed at review.

How long we keep your information

We keep the things you write and your account details for as long as your account is open. When you delete your account in the app, your trees are removed. We keep information only as long as we genuinely need it. Placeholder — the full retention schedule, including backups and the small set of usage events, will be set out here once confirmed at review.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected or erased, to receive a copy in a portable form, and to object to or restrict certain uses. You can delete your account at any time from within the app, which removes your trees; for anything else, please contact us and we'll help.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk — though we'd appreciate the chance to put things right first.

Children

anxietrees is intended for adults; you should be 18 or older to use it. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us their information, please contact us and we'll remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service or the law changes. If a change is significant, we'll let you know — through the app or by email — before it takes effect, and update the date at the top of this page. If you carry on using anxietrees after a change takes effect, that counts as accepting the updated policy. If you don't agree, you can delete your account.

Contact

For questions about this policy, please write to hello@anxietrees.com.