Privacy Policy

Effective Date: July 14, 2025 Last Updated: July 15, 2025

1. Introduction

My Wellness Scout (“we,” “our,” or “us”) operates the website www.mywellnessscout.com and the SCOUT wellness platform (collectively, the “Service”). We are deeply committed to protecting your privacy and being unequivocally truthful and transparent about how we handle your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding your personal data.

Important: Our Service is designed to complement, not replace, professional mental health care. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a qualified mental health professional immediately. For full details on the limitations of our AI companion and your responsibilities, please refer to our Terms of Service.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

  • Registration Information: Email address and password (handled by Replit authentication).[1]
  • Chat Communications: Messages you send to SCOUT, our AI wellness companion.[1]
  • Voluntary Information: Any personal information you choose to share during conversations. This information is processed solely for the purpose of providing you with AI-powered wellness support and is not used for other purposes, such as advertising or general AI model training.

2.2 Self Discover Center Data

  • Personalized Assessments: No information pertaining to the personalized assessments you complete in our Self Discover Center is recorded, stored, or kept by My Wellness Scout or any third party. These personal self-assessments are not connected to the Anthropic (Claude.ai) API and are therefore not shared at all. Your engagement with these assessments is entirely private and ephemeral.

2.3 Information Collected Automatically

  • Website Analytics: Through Google Analytics and WordPress plugins, we collect:
    • IP address (anonymized) [1]
    • Browser type and version [1]
    • Device information [1]
    • Pages visited and time spent [1]
    • Referral sources [1]
    • Geographic location (general region, not precise location) [1] This data is used to understand general website usage patterns and improve the overall platform experience, but it is not used to infer sensitive health status where prohibited by applicable state laws.[4]

2.4 Third-Party Information

We work with trusted third-party services that may collect additional information:

  • Replit: Handles user authentication and may collect login data.[1]
  • Anthropic (Claude API): Processes your chat messages to provide AI responses.[1]
  • Hostinger: Our web hosting provider may collect server logs.[1]
  • Google Analytics: Collects website usage data.[1]

3. How We Use Your Information

3.1 Primary Uses

  • Providing the Service: To operate SCOUT and deliver AI-powered wellness support.[1]
  • Account Management: To maintain your user account and provide access.[1]
  • Service Improvement: To enhance our platform and user experience based on aggregated and anonymized usage data (excluding chat communications and Self Discover Center assessment data).[1]
  • Communication: To respond to your questions or concerns (only if you contact us).[1]

3.2 We Do NOT Use Your Information For

  • Marketing or promotional emails (unless you specifically opt-in).[1]
  • Selling or sharing your personal data with advertisers.[1]
  • Creating detailed profiles for commercial purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising.[1, 4]
  • Sharing your mental health conversations with anyone.[1]

4. Information Sharing and Disclosure

4.1 We Do Not Share Your Personal Information Except:

  • Service Providers: With trusted third parties who help operate our platform. We have robust contractual agreements in place with these providers, binding them to our stringent privacy standards, data protection obligations, and explicitly prohibiting them from using My Wellness Scout user data for their own independent purposes or from selling it.[1, 11, 14] We regularly review the privacy and security practices of our third-party providers to ensure ongoing compliance.
    • Replit (authentication services) [1]
    • Anthropic/Claude (AI processing) [1]
    • Hostinger (web hosting) [1]
    • Google (analytics) [1]
  • Legal Requirements: When required by law, court order, or to protect safety.[1]
  • Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.[1]

4.2 Mental Health Conversation Data

Your conversations with SCOUT are processed by Anthropic’s Claude API solely for the purpose of providing AI responses.[1] These conversations are not permanently stored by us in identifiable form.[1] No chat data of any kind is used by My Wellness Scout itself for service improvement, AI model refinement, or feature development. Furthermore, Anthropic does not use My Wellness Scout’s API usage data (including chat content) to train its general models. We do not share your mental health conversations with any other parties for any commercial, advertising, or research purposes without your explicit, informed consent.[1]

5. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your information. We adhere to privacy-by-design principles, integrating robust data protection measures from the outset of our service development.[2, 11]

  • All data transmission is encrypted using SSL/TLS.[1]
  • Access to user data is restricted to necessary personnel only.[1]
  • We regularly review our security practices.[1]
  • Third-party services are chosen based on their security standards.[1]
  • Data is encrypted both in transit and at rest.[2, 12]

However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.[1] We conduct regular independent audits and vulnerability assessments to continuously protect your information.[2]

6. Data Retention

We adhere to data minimization principles, collecting only data that is strictly necessary for a specified purpose and retaining it only as long as needed for that purpose.[2, 4]

  • Website Analytics: Retained according to Google Analytics settings (typically 26 months).[1]
  • Authentication Data: Managed by Replit according to their retention policies.[1]
  • Chat Data: Processed by Claude API but not permanently stored by us.[1]
  • Account Information: Retained until you delete your account.[1] Upon account deletion, all associated personal data will be removed from our active systems and cannot be recovered.

7. Your Rights and Choices

7.1 All Users

  • Access: Request information about what personal data we have about you.[1]
  • Correction: Request correction of inaccurate personal data.[1]
  • Deletion: Request deletion of your personal data (subject to legal limitations).[1] Please note that once data is deleted, it cannot be recovered.[12]
  • Opt-Out: Disable Google Analytics through browser settings or opt-out tools.[1]

7.2 European Union Users (GDPR Rights)

If you are located in the EU, you have additional rights:

  • Portability: Request your data in a machine-readable format.[1]
  • Restriction: Request we limit processing of your data.[1]
  • Objection: Object to processing based on legitimate interests.[1]
  • Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for processing where applicable.[1]

7.3 California Users (CCPA/CPRA Rights)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

  • Know what personal information we collect and how it’s used.[1]
  • Delete personal information we have about you.[1]
  • Opt-out of the sale of personal information (we do not sell personal information).[1]
  • Opt-out of the sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising (please note, My Wellness Scout does not share personal information for this purpose).[4]
  • Non-discrimination when exercising your privacy rights.[1]

8. Third-Party Services

Our Service integrates with several third-party providers. Each has their own privacy practices, which we encourage you to review:

9. Children’s Privacy

Our Service is not intended for children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If we become aware that we have collected such information, we will take steps to delete it promptly.[1]

10. International Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own, including the United States. These countries may have different data protection laws. We ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for such transfers.[1]

11. State-Specific Privacy Laws

The landscape of privacy laws in the United States is rapidly evolving, with several states enacting comprehensive and health-specific privacy legislation.[4, 5] My Wellness Scout is committed to monitoring and complying with all applicable state laws, including but not limited to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the CPRA, Washington’s My Health My Data Act, and New York’s S. 929.[4, 5] These laws often define ‘health data’ broadly and impose strict consent requirements that may apply even where HIPAA does not.[4] Our practices are designed to meet the highest standards across jurisdictions to ensure broad compliance and protection for your data, regardless of your location.

12. Alignment with Terms of Service

This Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Service, which contain important information regarding the limitations of our AI companion, disclaimers of warranties, and limitations of liability. We encourage you to review our Terms of Service for a complete understanding of your rights and responsibilities when using My Wellness Scout.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by:

  • Posting the updated policy on our website [1]
  • Updating the “Last Updated” date [1]
  • For significant changes, providing additional notice through email or platform notifications [1]

14. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to exercise your rights, please contact us: Email: privacy@mywellnessscout.com [1] Address: 946 Balsam Wood Ln. Lebanon, OH 45036 [1] Response Time: We will respond to privacy requests within 30 days.[1] For EU users, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.[1]

Data Processing Legal Basis (EU Users)

For EU users, we process your personal data based on:

  • Contract Performance: To provide the SCOUT service you requested.[1]
  • Legitimate Interest: To improve our service and ensure platform security.[1]
  • Consent: For optional features like enhanced analytics (where applicable).[1]
  • Legal Obligation: To comply with applicable laws and regulations.[1]