Terms of Service

1. Additional Policies and Notices

The Community Rules in Section 6 are part of these Terms. Feature-specific rules or purchase disclosures presented through the Service are also incorporated into these Terms.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect personal information. Our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy supplements the Privacy Policy to the extent information processed through the Service is considered consumer health data under applicable state law. If those two privacy policies conflict concerning consumer health data, the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy controls to the extent required by applicable law.

The privacy policies are notices describing our data practices. They do not expand the Service, create a medical or professional relationship, or create warranties beyond those required by law. Acceptance of these Terms is not a substitute for separate consent to collect or share consumer health data when applicable law requires separate consent.

2. Eligibility

You may use the account features and live circles only if you:

• are at least 18 years old;
• are located in the United States;
• can legally enter a binding contract;
• are not prohibited from using the Service under applicable law; and
• have not previously been suspended or removed from the Service unless Togethium expressly authorizes your return.

You may not create or use an account for another person, allow another person to use your account, or permit anyone under 18 to access a circle through your account. The public informational portions of our website may be viewed without an account.

We may use an age-gating process to determine whether you are eligible. As described in the Privacy Policy, the full date of birth entered for this purpose is not retained by Togethium after the eligibility determination.

3. What Togethium Is and Is Not

Togethium provides private, live, audio-only peer-support circles. The Service may allow you to select a predefined topic, enter a queue, be matched with other participants, take timed turns, hear and speak with participants, and use available session controls.

Togethium is a peer-support service. Togethium is not a healthcare provider, mental-health provider, medical provider, therapist, professional counselor, clinical service, treatment program, crisis line, or emergency service. Togethium does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical, psychiatric, psychological, or mental-health condition and does not provide medical, psychiatric, psychological, legal, financial, or other professional advice.

Information processed through Togethium may be legally defined as consumer health data under certain state privacy laws. That classification does not mean Togethium provides healthcare, creates a provider-patient or therapist-client relationship, or makes the information protected health information under HIPAA.

Circle participants participate in their personal capacities. No participant is acting as an Ascendward clinician, counselor, moderator, monitor, agent, or representative within a circle. If an Ascendward employee or volunteer uses Togethium, that person participates only as an ordinary user and receives no special status within the circle.

Participant statements reflect personal experiences and opinions. They may be inaccurate, incomplete, upsetting, offensive, or harmful. Do not rely on Togethium or another participant as a substitute for qualified professional care. We do not endorse participant statements or guarantee any participant’s identity, background, intentions, conduct, qualifications, or advice.

We do not guarantee that a circle will be available, suitable, confidential, uninterrupted, error-free, beneficial, or composed of particular participants.

4. Emergencies and Professional Care

Togethium does not monitor circles for emergencies. It does not provide an emergency-reporting channel. Togethium cannot reliably identify or locate a participant, dispatch help, or guarantee that an email or other communication will be reviewed in time to address an emergency. Do not delay contacting emergency services or qualified professional care because of anything communicated through Togethium.

If Ascendward independently receives credible information indicating an imminent threat of serious harm, it may preserve or disclose available information to emergency services or law enforcement when permitted or required by law. This does not create a duty to monitor, investigate, intervene, locate anyone, or provide or arrange emergency assistance.

5. Accounts and Account Security

You must provide accurate, current, and complete account information and keep it updated. You may use a display name and are not required to display your legal name to other participants.

You are responsible for protecting your account credentials and device and for activity under your account, except to the extent applicable law provides otherwise. Notify us promptly at hi@togethium.com if you believe your account or credentials have been compromised.

You may not transfer, sell, rent, share, or lend your account. You may not create multiple or replacement accounts to evade a cooldown, restriction, suspension, ban, deletion restriction, payment obligation, or safety control.

We may require reasonable verification before granting access, changing account information, responding to a rights request, or deleting an account.

6. Limited License and Acceptable Use

Subject to these Terms, Ascendward grants you a limited, personal, noncommercial, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, and revocable license to access and use the Service for its intended purpose.

You must follow the Community Rules. You may not, directly or through another person:

• threaten, harass, exploit, discriminate against, impersonate, defraud, stalk, or dox another person;
• promote, encourage, or assist self-harm, violence, abuse, exploitation, or illegal activity;
• submit or communicate unlawful, sexually exploitative, hateful, fraudulent, infringing, or malicious material;
• record, transcribe, reproduce, publish, distribute, or disclose a circle or another participant’s statements without every legally required permission;
• solicit participants, advertise, spam, conduct unauthorized research, or use the Service primarily for a commercial purpose;
• misuse a safety control, interfere with another person’s use, or attempt to manipulate matching, restrictions, or enforcement;
• use a bot, crawler, scraper, automated system, unauthorized script, or data-mining method to access or extract information from the Service;
• probe, scan, test, bypass, disable, or interfere with security, authentication, rate limits, access controls, or technical restrictions;
• introduce malware or other harmful code, overload the Service, or interfere with connected systems or networks;
• reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, modify, copy, sell, sublicense, distribute, or create derivative works from the Service except where applicable law expressly permits it;
• gain or attempt to gain unauthorized access to an account, database, system, or information; or
• use the Service in violation of law, another person’s rights, these Terms, or the Community Rules.

7. Live Audio, Participant Privacy, and User Content

When you join a circle, your display name and live voice are transmitted to the other participants. Ascendward does not record, transcribe, or retain the contents of circle audio and does not claim ownership of your spoken words. You grant Ascendward and its service providers a limited, worldwide, royalty-free license to process and transmit your live audio only as reasonably necessary to provide, secure, and troubleshoot the live session.

Other participants can hear what you say. Although our rules prohibit recording and redistribution, we cannot guarantee that every participant will comply. A participant may remember, write down, or unlawfully record or disclose information. Ascendward cannot delete information independently retained by another person. No participant statement should be treated as confidential, privileged, or protected by a medical, therapeutic, counseling, fiduciary, or other professional duty.

Do not share information you do not want other participants to know. Do not disclose another person’s private information unless you have the right and permission to do so.

“User Content” means information you voluntarily submit through feedback, surveys, support communications, appeals, profile fields, and similar features. Live spoken words are governed by the limited transmission license above. Session, turn, and skip data are operational data, not User Content.

You retain your rights in User Content. You grant Ascendward a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, reproduce, review, adapt, and use User Content as reasonably necessary to operate, secure, support, improve, and enforce the Service; respond to you; comply with law; and protect Ascendward, users, and others. This license ends when the applicable User Content is deleted, except for copies lawfully retained for legal, security, backup, fraud-prevention, or enforcement purposes.

You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions needed to provide User Content and that it does not violate law, these Terms, or another person’s rights.

8. Safety and Enforcement

Togethium does not provide a written or narrative reporting system, a user blocking workflow, or an emergency-reporting channel. If you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, leave the circle and use appropriate emergency, crisis, law enforcement, or professional resources when needed.

Togethium does not record or transcribe live circle audio. Ascendward does not monitor every circle and may be unable to independently verify what was said. The Service cannot guarantee that it will prevent or detect every violation, harmful interaction, or emergency.

We may retain operational information created through available features, including account, session, turn, skip, cooldown, restriction, suspension, ban, and appeal records. We use this information to operate, secure, and enforce the Service.

We may investigate suspected violations and may, to the fullest extent permitted by law, remove User Content, limit features, end a session, apply a cooldown, restrict, suspend, or terminate access, preserve information, or take other reasonable action. We may act with or without notice when we reasonably believe action is needed to enforce these Terms, comply with law, secure the Service, prevent fraud or abuse, or protect Ascendward, users, or others.

A banned user may appeal by emailing hi@togethium.com with the subject “Togethium Ban Appeal.” An appeal is not an emergency channel and does not guarantee that a ban will be delayed or reversed.

9. Privacy and Consumer Health Data

Our Privacy Policy and Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy describe our information practices and your applicable privacy rights. Depending on how you use Togethium, account information, peer-support topic selections, circle participation and session information, transient live audio, communications, transaction information, and technical information may be considered sensitive information or consumer health data under state law.

Togethium does not record, transcribe, or retain circle audio. We do not create voiceprints or use live audio for biometric identification, diagnosis, profiling, advertising, content analysis, or artificial-intelligence training. We do not sell personal information or consumer health data, disclose it to data brokers, or share it for cross-context behavioral or targeted advertising. We do not use personal information or consumer health data to train artificial-intelligence models.

Where applicable law requires consent, and processing is not otherwise permitted as necessary to provide a product or service you requested, we will request affirmative consent before collecting or sharing consumer health data. You may exercise applicable privacy rights using the methods described in the privacy policies.

10. Ascendward Property and Feedback

Except for User Content, the Service and all software, interfaces, designs, text, graphics, images, logos, trademarks, audio or audiovisual materials supplied by Ascendward, and other Ascendward content are owned by Ascendward or its licensors and protected by intellectual-property and other laws. No right, title, or interest is transferred to you except for the limited license expressly granted in these Terms.

If you provide an idea, suggestion, comment, or other feedback about the Service (“Feedback”), you assign to Ascendward all right, title, and interest you may have in that Feedback. To the extent an assignment is not legally effective, you grant Ascendward a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, commercialize, and otherwise exploit the Feedback for any purpose without restriction, attribution, or compensation. This provision does not authorize Ascendward to identify you publicly without permission.

11. Purchases, Subscriptions, and Billing

Togethium may offer free features, one-time purchases, and automatically renewing subscriptions. Before purchase, the applicable checkout screen, paywall, or app store will display the price, billing interval or access period, included features, and material trial or promotional terms. Those disclosures and the resulting receipt form the applicable order and are incorporated into these Terms.

A one-time purchase is charged once at the price displayed at checkout and does not automatically renew. Any applicable access period or limitations will be disclosed before purchase.

If you purchase an automatically renewing subscription, you authorize the applicable app store or payment provider to charge the disclosed subscription price and applicable taxes at the disclosed interval until you cancel. The subscription automatically renews for successive periods unless you cancel before the renewal date. A free or discounted trial converts to a paid subscription at the price and interval disclosed at enrollment unless you cancel before the trial ends.

Purchases through Apple’s App Store or Google Play are billed, renewed, canceled, and refunded through the applicable store and subject to its procedures and rules. You must manage or cancel an app-store subscription through the store account used to purchase it. Deleting the app, deleting your Togethium account, or stopping use of the Service does not cancel an app-store subscription.

If Ascendward or another provider bills you directly through the website, the checkout disclosures govern the payment method, cancellation process, renewal, and any refund rights. You authorize the applicable payment provider to charge amounts due until cancellation takes effect.

Except where applicable law, store rules, or checkout disclosures provide otherwise, purchases are final and nonrefundable, and cancellation does not provide a prorated refund or credit for the current billing period. Subscription access generally continues through the end of the paid period after cancellation.

We may change paid features and prices prospectively. A subscription-price change will take effect no earlier than a future renewal after any notice or consent required by law or the applicable store. We may suspend or limit paid features when a payment is declined, reversed, disputed, or otherwise not completed. You are responsible for applicable taxes and accurate payment information.

12. Service Changes, Suspension, Termination, and Deletion

We may change, add, limit, pause, or discontinue any part of the Service, introduce usage limits, or modify feature availability. We do not guarantee that any feature or circle will remain available.

We may restrict, suspend, or terminate your access for a violation of these Terms or Community Rules; fraud, abuse, or security risk; a safety concern; nonpayment; prolonged inactivity; a legal requirement; or discontinuation of the Service. Where appropriate, we may act without advance notice.

You may stop using Togethium at any time and request account deletion through the in-app Settings flow or our Account Deletion page. Account deletion is handled as described in the Privacy Policy and Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy. We will endeavor to remove the account and information we no longer need from active systems within 14 days after a valid deletion request, subject to permitted retention for legal compliance, transactions, accounting, disputes, claims, fraud, security, enforcement, ban-evasion prevention, and protection of rights and safety. Restricted backups may retain information temporarily as allowed by applicable law.

Deleting your account does not cancel an app-store subscription and does not delete information independently retained by another participant.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination survive, including provisions concerning retained information, licenses for retained User Content, Ascendward property, Feedback, payments already due, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution, and general terms.

13. Disclaimers, Limitation of Liability, and Indemnification

14. Dispute Resolution, Arbitration, and Class-Action Waiver

Informal resolution first. Before filing a claim, you and Ascendward agree to send written notice describing the dispute, the requested relief, and contact information and to attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute for 60 days. Send notice to hi@togethium.com with the subject “Togethium Legal Notice.” Any applicable filing deadline is tolled during that 60-day period to the extent permitted by law.

Individual arbitration. Except for an eligible individual small-claims matter or a request for injunctive or equitable relief involving intellectual property, security, or unauthorized access, an unresolved dispute arising from or relating to the Service or these Terms will be resolved through binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its then-current Consumer Arbitration Rules. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this arbitration agreement. The arbitrator may award the same individual remedies that a court could award, but may not combine claims or award relief for a person who is not a party.

No class proceedings; jury waiver. You and Ascendward waive the right to a jury trial and agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity, not as a plaintiff or class member in a class, collective, consolidated, coordinated, or representative action, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Thirty-day arbitration opt-out. You may opt out of arbitration by emailing hi@togethium.com within 30 days after first accepting these Terms. Use the subject “Togethium Arbitration Opt-Out” and include your account email, full name, and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other provision of these Terms.

If the class-action waiver is finally held unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim must proceed in court and, unless applicable law requires otherwise, will be stayed while any arbitrable claims are completed. If any other part of this arbitration section is unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum lawful extent and the remainder will remain effective.

15. Apple and Google Terms

If you download the app through Apple’s App Store, these Terms are between you and Ascendward, not Apple. Ascendward, not Apple, is responsible for the app and its content, support, maintenance, warranties, and claims, subject to these Terms and applicable law. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support. If the app fails to conform to an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price, if any, as required by its rules. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of this section and may enforce it after you accept these Terms.

Your use of the app must also comply with applicable Apple App Store or Google Play terms and usage rules. Nothing in these Terms reduces rights that applicable law or platform rules require us to provide.

16. Changes, Governing Law, and General Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service or law changes. We will post the revised Terms and update the effective date. If a change is material, we may provide additional notice through the Service or by email and may require acceptance before continued use. Changes apply prospectively from their effective date unless law requires otherwise.

The Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 14. Subject to non-waivable consumer rights, applicable federal law and the laws of the State of Georgia govern these Terms without regard to conflict-of-law principles. For a dispute that is not subject to arbitration, you and Ascendward consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the state courts located in Gwinnett County, Georgia, or the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, as applicable.

These Terms, the incorporated Community Rules, and applicable feature and purchase terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Ascendward concerning the Service and supersede prior discussions or agreements on that subject. The Privacy Policy and Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy remain the applicable notices concerning our information practices.

If any provision is unlawful or unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum lawful extent and the remaining provisions will remain effective. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our written consent. Ascendward may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, financing, reorganization, sale, transfer of assets, or operation of law.

Headings are for convenience only. Electronic communications and acceptances satisfy legal writing and signature requirements to the fullest extent permitted by law.

17. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be sent to:

Ascendward, LLC d/b/a Togethium
Email: hi@togethium.com