Privacy Policy

Version 2.0 (draft of November 5, 2026). Effective date: November 5, 2026.

1. The short version

• You can use Tideline without an account. Lessons, check-ins, tools, goals and your journal all work with no sign-up. They stay on your phone.
• The app checks for updates. When you open Tideline, it asks our server for new lessons, help-line details and notices. It sends only your state code (AZ), not your name, account or anything you wrote. Like any website, our servers see the network (IP) address of the request (section 3.5).
• An account is optional. It is for messages from Tideline, a reminder inbox, and sharing check-in numbers. If you make one, we ask for a username, an email and a password. Your county or ZIP code and your age range are optional.
• Your journal stays on your phone. It never goes to our servers.
• Usage counts are off until you choose. If you turn them on, they are anonymous. They are not linked to your account.
• Most questions in the app can be skipped. The answers stay on your phone.
• We do not sell or share your information. We do not show ads. We do not use advertising or analytics tools from other companies.
• Tideline is free. Nobody pays us for your data, and you pay nothing.
• You can delete your account and your data at any time.
• Tideline is for adults, 18 and older.

2. What stays on your phone

If you never make an account, everything you enter stays on your phone, in a database that is encrypted. The only things that reach us are the update check (section 3.5) and, if you turn them on, anonymous usage counts (section 3.2).

What stays on your phone:

• Your journal and reflections.
• Your daily check-ins: mood, urge level, triggers, whether you gambled, and if so how much money, how many minutes, what kind of gambling, and whether you stayed within your limit. Every one of these can be skipped.
• Your path (stop, cut back, or play more safely) and your answers to the short "where are you now" questions.
• The date you last gambled, what you spend in a typical week, and the date you plan to start. All optional.
• Goals, action plan, bookmarks, lesson progress, limits, your reminder time, and your settings.

Your phone does not tell us any of this. If you erase the app or use "Delete my account and data" in Settings, it is gone.

3. What we collect

3.1 If you make an account (optional)

You can add, change or remove your county or ZIP code and your age range later in Settings. If you give a ZIP code outside Arizona, we do not keep it. You can still use the app.

We do not ask for your real name, birth date, gender, phone number, photos, contacts, or exact location. We do not collect your device's location.

3.2 Anonymous usage counts (off until you choose)

When you first open Tideline, we ask if you want to share anonymous usage counts. You can say yes or no, and both buttons are the same size. If you do nothing, nothing is counted. You can change your mind at any time in Settings ("Share anonymous usage counts").

If you say yes, the app sends simple events: "opened the app", "how long a visit lasted", "opened a feature" (one of ten areas such as lessons or the toolkit), "finished a lesson", and "finished a check-in". Each event is a name, the time, and sometimes a length in seconds. There is no text in them and nothing you typed.

• They are not linked to your account. The app makes a random code on your phone. It is not made from your name, email, account or phone. The code is sent with the events, without your sign-in.
• If you gave your county or ZIP code and your age range, the app adds them to the counts, so reports can show who the app reaches. If you skipped them, they are left out. A ZIP code outside Arizona is never stored.
• The server stores no username, email or account number with these counts. We cannot tell which account they came from.
• Turning counts off stops all sending, deletes any waiting events on your phone and discards the random code.
• Counts already sent are anonymous totals. We cannot find them again to remove one.
• We use them to make combined reports (section 7).

3.3 Check-in numbers (off until you choose, needs an account)

If you have an account, Settings has a switch called "Share check-in numbers". It is off. If you turn it on, new check-ins that have all three answers (mood, urge level, and whether you gambled) are also sent to your account. A check-in where you skipped one of those three stays on your phone. What is sent: the date, mood, urge level, triggers, whether you gambled, and if you did, how much money, how many minutes, what kind of gambling, and whether you stayed within your limit. Your journal is never sent. The server refuses it. We do not offer a way to restore these numbers on a new phone. No report uses them.

3.4 Messages from Tideline (needs an account)

Program staff can send messages about topics you can see in Settings, such as new lessons, new stories, meetings and events, and announcements. You choose, topic by topic, whether you get each one in the app, by email, both or neither.

• In the app is on unless you turn a topic off. Email is off until you turn it on, one topic at a time.
• Email only goes to an address you confirmed. We send you a link to confirm. Until you tap it, you get no program email. Everything else in the app still works.
• We keep your choices (which topics, which channel), the messages that reached your inbox, and whether you opened each one. Your choices are also kept on your phone, so the app works with no connection and sends them to us later.
• Email has no tracking. We do not use tracking pixels, and links in the email are not wrapped in tracking redirects. We cannot tell whether you opened an email or tapped a link. A subject never mentions gambling, so a lock screen does not reveal why you have the app. Every email has a mailing address and a link that opens a page where you can change your choices or turn all email off. It needs no sign-in, shows only your own switches (not your email address or username), and the link is signed so it cannot be guessed. Your email app can also offer its own "unsubscribe" button, which works the same way.
• Password reset and security emails are not optional and are not part of this list. We send them because you cannot use your account safely without them.
• If an email bounces or you mark it as spam, we stop emailing that address. For that we keep a one-way scrambled form of the address (a hash), the reason, and the date. A record kept because of a spam report stays after you delete your account, so we never email you again. A bounce record is removed with your account.
• What staff can see. Two staff members must agree before a message goes out (the person who writes it cannot approve it), and a message cannot go to a group smaller than 20 people, so a filter cannot be used to pick someone out. Staff can choose who gets a message by county, age range and language, but they see only counts. They never see email addresses, who got a message, or who opened it.
• Reports on messages show totals only (for example, how many people opened a message in the app). Any group of fewer than 5 people is hidden.

3.5 Update checks, and technical and security records

Update checks. When you open Tideline, and again when you come back to it (at most about once a day), the app asks our server for approved lessons, help-line details and planned-downtime notices. The request contains only your state code (AZ), and a version tag the server gave the app last time so it can reply "no change". It has no account, no username, no random usage code and nothing you typed. This happens whether or not you have an account and whether or not usage counts are on. It stops only when the phone is offline. Every request reaches our servers with the network (IP) address and the time, as with any website, and is kept as a record described next. We do not link it to an account or to usage counts.

Records. Our servers and network keep standard records, such as the time of a request, the page asked for, error codes and a network (IP) address. We use them to keep the service running and safe and to find problems. Our application records keep only a shortened address (the last part is removed). Our load balancer, firewall and network records can keep the full address. We keep these records for up to about 13 months. They do not contain your journal or check-in answers.

3.6 If you write to support

If you email or call support, we keep what you send us and our reply so we can help you. Please do not send your journal or details about your gambling. We do not need them.

3.7 What we do not collect

We do not collect your contacts, photos, microphone, camera, advertising ID, device location, or browsing history. We do not use cookies or trackers from other companies in the app. We do not use any third-party analytics or advertising tools.

4. How we use your information

1. To run your account and keep you signed in.
2. To help with technical problems and password resets.
3. To show help that fits you (for example, resources in your county, if you gave it).
4. To make combined reports with no names (section 7).
5. To keep the service safe, find and fix problems, and meet legal duties.
6. To send you the program messages you chose to get, in the app or by email (section 3.4).

We do not use your information for advertising, profiling for outside companies, or sales of any kind.

5. We do not sell or share your information

We do not sell your information. We do not share it with anyone for their own use. This is our promise to you.

Service providers. We use a small number of companies that act only on our instructions to run Tideline:

These providers may not use your information for their own purposes.

Legal requests. If a court order or law requires us to give out information, we will give only what is required, and we will tell you first unless the law forbids it. We have no journal data to give, because it is on your phone. If we have information that could prevent serious harm to you or someone else, we will follow the law.

6. Where your information is stored and how we protect it

• Stored in the United States, on Amazon Web Services, in encrypted databases and backups.
• Encrypted in transit.
• On your phone, the database is encrypted, and the key is kept in your phone's secure storage. You can also turn on a Face ID, Touch ID or passcode lock for the app.
• Passwords are hashed. Staff who sign in to the staff portal use multi-factor sign-in.
• Access is limited to the few staff who need it, and it is logged.
• Database backups are encrypted. Most are kept 35 days. Some weekly copies are kept one year and some monthly copies up to seven years, and these are locked so no one can edit or delete them early. If you delete your account, your data can stay in those backups until they expire. We do not restore a deleted account from a backup.
• No system is perfectly safe. If a breach affects your information, we will tell you as the law requires, including Arizona law (A.R.S. 18-552).

7. Reports

We use usage counts and account totals to make combined reports: how many people use the app, how many are new, how many come back, which features are used, how long visits last, and how many people are in each county and age range. We may share these reports with organizations that sponsor or review Tideline.

• Reports contain totals only. They never contain names, usernames, emails, journal text or check-in answers.
• In breakdowns, any group of fewer than 11 people is hidden, so no one can be picked out.
• People who did not give a county, ZIP code or age range are counted as "Not provided".
• Reports on staff messages show totals only, with any group of fewer than 5 hidden.

8. How long we keep it

9. Your choices and rights

• Use the app without an account. You can use lessons, the toolkit, check-ins, goals and your journal on your phone without signing in. Your answers are not sent to us. The app still checks for updates (section 3.5).
• Skip questions. Almost every question in the app has a Skip button. Skipping never blocks the app.
• Usage counts. Turn them on or off in Settings.
• See and export your data. In Settings, "Export my data" saves a copy of what is on your phone as a file. It leaves out your journal unless you choose "With journal". If you choose that, the file stays on your phone or wherever you send it. The "Share with my counselor" PDF never includes your journal. You can also ask us for a copy of your account data.
• Correct your information. Change your details in Settings or ask support.
• Delete your account and your data. In Settings, "Delete my account and data" erases what is on your phone. If you have an online account, it also deletes your account, your shared check-in numbers, your notification choices, your in-app inbox and the record of messages sent to you from our servers. Anonymous usage counts are not linked to your account, so they stay as anonymous totals. You can also email support and we will do it within 30 days (usually much faster). A page on our website explains these steps and does not need a sign-in.
• Notifications and messages. Reminders are set on your phone only and use no outside service. You can turn them off in the app or in your phone settings. Reminders say only things like "Time for your check-in." Program messages are your choice, topic by topic. Tideline does not send push notifications.
• Questions or complaints. Email support. You may also contact the Arizona Attorney General's Office or your own state's attorney general.

10. Adults only

Tideline is only for adults, 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we delete it. If you think a young person is using Tideline, please tell support.

11. Not for emergencies

Tideline is not a crisis service and does not watch your entries. If you are in danger or thinking about hurting yourself, call or text 1-800-NEXT-STEP (1-800-639-8783; text NEXTSTEP to 53342) or call or text 988, any time. In an emergency, call 911. If you type words that suggest you may be in danger, the app only offers you these numbers. It does not save or send what you typed.

12. Links to other organizations

Resource pages link to other organizations. We do not control them, and listing one is not an endorsement. They have their own privacy rules.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you in the app before it starts. If a change would let us collect more information, we will ask you first. The date and version are at the top.

14. Contact

Future Vanguard LLC, Florida, United States. Email carlos.guerrero@futurevanguard.net. Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Arizona time.