Terms of Use

1.1 These Terms of Use ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and BetterStep governing your access to and use of the BetterStep mobile application, websites, and related services (together, the "Service"). 1.2 By creating an account, downloading, accessing, or using the Service, or by tapping "I agree," you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy (all incorporated by reference), and in particular to the Acknowledgments, Assumption of Risk, and Release in Section 4A. Your acceptance is recorded with the version accepted and the date. If you do not agree to all of them, you must not use the Service. 1.3 You must affirmatively accept these Terms (e.g., by tapping "I agree") before first use. We record the version you accepted and the date.

"Content" means any text, selections, check-in answers, journal/reflection entries, and other material you submit. (If we later add audio/voice features, this definition and the Privacy Policy will be updated and your consent sought.) "Clinician" means a licensed professional or clinic to whom you are connected through the Service. "Subscription" means a paid plan. "Device Data / Health Data" means biometric or activity data obtained with your permission from your device or connected health platforms.

3.1 BetterStep is software, and only software: (a) a self-help wellness application for individuals in addiction recovery — educational content, self-guided cognitive-behavioural and acceptance-based exercises, mood and habit tracking, journaling, and motivational features; and (b) a tool (a "CRM") that independent clinicians may use to follow individuals who choose to connect with them. Any clinician you connect with is an independent third party, solely responsible for their own services and professional licensing. BetterStep does not employ, supervise, or direct clinicians, does not itself provide healthcare, and is not a party to any care or treatment relationship between you and a clinician. BetterStep provides the software; it does not provide care. 3.2 BetterStep is not a medical service. We do not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, therapy, or a doctor–patient or therapist–client relationship. Self-assessment tools (including any screeners or scores) are educational self-reflection aids only and are not diagnoses, clinical assessments, or measurements of any disease or its severity. 3.3 BetterStep is not an emergency or crisis service. Features such as a panic button, crisis plan, or supportive content are not monitored in real time and must never be relied upon in an emergency. See Section 4. 3.4 We make no guarantee of any particular recovery, health, or other outcome. Results depend on many factors outside our control.

4.1 Always seek the advice of a qualified physician or other healthcare professional with any question about a medical or mental-health condition. Never disregard professional advice, or delay seeking it, because of something in the Service. 4.2 If you are in danger or experiencing a medical or mental-health emergency, contact your local emergency services immediately. • In Georgia: dial 112 (emergency services). • In the United States: dial 911 (emergency); 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline); 1-800-662-4357 (SAMHSA National Helpline). 4.3 The Service does not contact emergency services for you and cannot guarantee that anyone will see information you enter. Do not use the Service to request emergency help.

By using the Service or tapping "I agree," you knowingly acknowledge, represent, and agree that: 4A.1 Software only; no professional relationship. BetterStep is software — a self-help wellness app and a tool that independent clinicians may use. It does not provide medical, psychological, therapeutic, or professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and using it creates no doctor–patient, therapist–client, or other professional relationship with BetterStep. 4A.2 No reliance for health, safety, or emergencies. You will not rely on the Service, or on any content, exercise, AI-generated output, or any score or signal it shows you, for any medical, health, safety, or emergency decision. You will consult qualified professionals and contact emergency services as appropriate (Section 4). Any score or self-assessment is self-reflection only — not a diagnosis or a clinical measurement. 4A.3 Voluntary use; assumption of risk. You use the Service voluntarily and entirely at your own risk. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you assume all risks arising from your use of the Service, including any reliance on its content, exercises, AI output, or scores, any interaction with a clinician, and any emotional, psychological, health, or other consequence. 4A.4 You are responsible for your own decisions. You are solely responsible for your health, your choices, your actions, and the results of using or not using the Service. Outcomes depend on factors outside our control, and we promise no particular result. 4A.5 Independent clinicians. Any clinician you connect with is an independent third party, solely responsible for their own services, advice, and professional licensing. BetterStep does not provide, supervise, endorse, or take responsibility for any clinician or their advice, and is not a party to any relationship between you and a clinician. 4A.6 AI output. Automated and AI features can be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable for you, are provided for general information and self-reflection only, are not professional advice, and must not be relied upon. 4A.7 Release. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you release and forever discharge BetterStep and its owners, directors, employees, and suppliers from any and all claims, demands, liabilities, and damages of any kind arising out of or relating to your use of the Service, its content, AI output, any score, or any clinician interaction. This release does not apply to any liability that cannot lawfully be released — see Section 14.3. 4A.8 No outside reliance. You have not relied on any statement, promise, or representation about the Service other than those expressly set out in these Terms.

5.1 You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. The Service is not directed to anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If we learn we have, we will delete it. 5.2 The Service is currently offered only in jurisdictions where we make it available (initially Georgia, then the United States). You are responsible for complying with local law where you use it. 5.3 You confirm you are not barred from using the Service under any applicable law or sanctions list.

6.1 You agree to provide accurate, current information and to keep it updated. You are responsible for safeguarding your credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately of any unauthorised use. 6.2 You may not share your account, or create an account for anyone else, without our permission.

This Section applies only if and when BetterStep offers paid features. While the Service is offered free of charge, this Section is reserved and does not apply. 7.1 Parts of the Service require a paid Subscription. Pricing, billing period, and features are shown at purchase. 7.2 Auto-renewal. Unless stated otherwise, Subscriptions renew automatically at the then-current price at the end of each period until cancelled. We (or the app store) will charge your selected payment method for each renewal. 7.3 Cancellation. You may cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period. Where you purchase through the Apple App Store or Google Play, you manage and cancel the Subscription through that store, subject to its rules. 7.4 Georgia 14-day withdrawal right. If you are a consumer in Georgia, you have a statutory right to withdraw from a distance contract within 14 days. However, by starting to use paid digital content/services immediately, with your express consent and acknowledgement that you thereby lose the withdrawal right, that right does not apply to services already supplied. The checkout will request this consent. 7.5 Refunds. Except where required by law or by the applicable app-store policy, payments are non-refundable. App-store purchases are refunded only under that store's policy. 7.6 We may change prices prospectively; we will give notice before a changed price applies to a renewal, and you may cancel before it takes effect.

We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for your own personal, non-commercial recovery and wellness purposes, subject to these Terms. We reserve all rights not expressly granted.

The Service, including all software, text, content libraries, designs, and trademarks (excluding your Content), is owned by BetterStep or its licensors and is protected by law. You may not copy, modify, distribute, reverse-engineer, scrape, or create derivative works from any part of the Service except as the law expressly permits.

10.1 You keep ownership of your Content. 10.2 Licence to operate the Service. You grant us a worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, process, analyse, and display your Content solely to operate, secure, personalise, and improve the Service for you and to provide the features you choose — including processing by the service providers and, where you enable it, the Clinician(s) described in our Privacy Policy. This licence ends when your Content is deleted, except for backups and where retention is legally required. 10.3 How your Content is shared is governed by the Privacy Policy and Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy. In plain terms: to provide certain features we use third-party processors (for example, AI-assisted insight on your text) and, if you connect to a Clinician, your selected data is shared with that Clinician. We do not sell your Content. We do not use your Content for third-party advertising. 10.4 You are responsible for your Content and confirm you have the right to submit it. Do not submit anyone else's confidential or identifying information without their consent.

You agree not to: (a) use the Service for any unlawful purpose; (b) harass, threaten, or harm anyone, or submit content that does so; (c) attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service or other accounts; (d) interfere with or disrupt the Service or its security; (e) use bots, scraping, or automated means; (f) misrepresent your identity or impersonate others; (g) use the Service to provide medical advice to others; or (h) resell or commercially exploit the Service. We may remove content or suspend accounts that violate this Section.

12.1 The Service connects to third-party services you choose to enable, such as connected health platforms/wearables (via an aggregator), the app store you purchase through, and automated processing providers. Your use of those services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services. 12.2 The Service may rely on automated processing (including AI) to generate supportive insights from your text. Such output can be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable for your situation, is provided for general information and self-reflection only, is not professional advice, and must not be relied upon. You use it at your own risk (Section 4A).

13.1 To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. 13.2 Without limiting the above, we expressly disclaim any warranty that the Service — or any content, exercise, AI output, score, or signal — is accurate, complete, reliable, current, secure, error-free, uninterrupted, or fit for any medical, clinical, therapeutic, or health purpose. You rely on the Service entirely at your own risk. 13.3 Nothing in these Terms excludes any warranty or right that cannot be excluded under the law applicable to you (including mandatory consumer-protection rights in Georgia).

14.1 To the fullest extent permitted by law, BetterStep and its owners, directors, officers, employees, and suppliers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, nor for any loss of data, profits, or goodwill, nor for any personal injury, emotional distress, psychological, health, or other harm alleged to arise from your use of, reliance on, or inability to use the Service, its content, AI output, scores, or any clinician interaction — even if advised of the possibility, and even if a limited remedy is found to fail of its essential purpose. 14.2 If you are dissatisfied with the Service, your sole and exclusive remedy is to stop using it. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) USD 100 (or the GEL equivalent). 14.3 Nothing in this Section or in Section 4A limits or excludes liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law (for example, liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for gross negligence or wilful misconduct, or any mandatory consumer-protection right). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this Section may not apply to you; in that case our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, any claim or dispute arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms must be commenced within one (1) year after the event giving rise to it; otherwise it is permanently barred.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless BetterStep and its owners, directors, employees, and suppliers from and against any claims, demands, losses, liabilities, damages, and reasonable costs (including legal fees) arising from or relating to: your use of the Service; your Content; your breach of these Terms; or your violation of any law or any third-party right. We may assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, and you will cooperate with us.

16.1 You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. 16.2 We may suspend or terminate your access, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, if required by law, or to protect the Service or other users. Where reasonable and lawful, we will give notice. 16.3 On termination, the licence in Section 8 ends. Sections that by their nature should survive (including 9, 10.1, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18) survive termination.

17.1 We may modify or discontinue features of the Service. 17.2 We may update these Terms. For material changes, we will give reasonable prior notice (for example, in-app or by email) and update the "Effective date." Changes are not retroactive. Your continued use after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms; if you do not agree, stop using the Service and may cancel.

18.1 Users in Georgia. These Terms are governed by the laws of Georgia. The courts of Tbilisi, Georgia have jurisdiction, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection right to bring proceedings in your place of residence. 18.2 Users in the United States. For users who access the Service in the United States, these Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, U.S.A., excluding conflict-of-laws rules. • (a) Informal resolution first. Before filing any claim, you agree to contact us at info@betterstep.io and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days. • (b) Arbitration / class-action waiver. Any dispute not resolved informally will be settled by binding individual arbitration before the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, and you and BetterStep waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action, to the extent permitted by law. You may opt out of arbitration within 30 days of first accepting these Terms by emailing us. • (c) Nothing prevents either party from seeking relief in small-claims court or injunctive relief for intellectual-property misuse. 18.3 Mandatory local consumer-protection law that applies to you is not overridden by this Section.

19.1 Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service. 19.2 Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. 19.3 No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. 19.4 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to an affiliate or successor. 19.5 Force majeure. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control. 19.6 Language. These Terms may be provided in Georgian and English. For consumers in Georgia, the Georgian-language version governs in case of any conflict. 19.7 Notices. We may give notices in-app or to your account email.