This document is non-negotiable. It is the reason Feellow exists.
The digital mental health world is overrun by players who put profit above people. The BetterHelp scandals, sharing personal data with advertisers, unqualified therapists, misleading therapeutic promises, are symptoms of a larger problem. Feellow will never be that. This document is the guarantee.
If one day a decision contradicts what is written here, it is the decision that is wrong, not this document.
The seven inviolable principles of Feellow.
1Science, not toxic positivity.
Feellow is founded on scientific psychology, full stop. Not on personal development, not on life coaching, not on feel-good methods without empirical grounding. Every feature of the application must be justifiable by evidence-based data from psychology research.
- Never "think positive and everything will be fine".
- Never pseudoscience disguised as innovation.
- Never therapeutic promises the app cannot keep.
- Always grounded in studies, validated models, peer-reviewed scientific literature.
- Always transparent about what the app can and cannot do.
2The generative engine is a tool, not a therapist.
User surveys confirm it: generative engines in a mental health context are rightly feared. Here is Feellow's position, clear and non-negotiable.
What the generative engine does in Feellow: help the user write notes their therapist can understand, generate structured reports from entered data, format information so nothing is forgotten during sessions.
What the generative engine will never do in Feellow: diagnose, advise, psychologically interpret, substitute for a professional's clinical judgment, or claim to understand the user's emotions.
The generative engine is a smart pen, not a psychologist. It helps you write, not think.
3Built by psychology, for psychology.
Feellow is not a tech app that added a "psych" layer for appearances. It's an application designed from the start to integrate into psychological care pathways. The tool is built to facilitate the patient-therapist relationship, not to replace it.
This means every feature is validated by mental health professionals. That the vocabulary used in the app respects clinical terminology. That therapists are partners in the design, not secondary users.
4Never psychological manipulation.
Feellow uses engagement and retention techniques, that's necessary for an app to survive. But there is an absolute red line: these mechanisms must be caring, never guilt-inducing.
- Never "you failed" or shame linked to non-use.
- Never mood rankings between users.
- Never dark patterns to force purchases or engagement.
- Never a wheel of fortune, artificial countdown, or false urgency to push subscriptions.
- Always "you can come back whenever you want, we're here".
- The tone is that of a caring friend, not an aggressive coach.
- One notification per day, never more. If the user doesn't respond, no follow-up.
User well-being is not a metric to optimize for engagement. It is the reason the app exists.
Mental health data is among the most intimate that exists. Feellow commits to protecting it with the highest level of rigor, technically, legally, and ethically.
5.1 What Feellow will never do.
The following prohibitions are absolute, without exception and without time limit:
- Sell personal or health data to any third party, in any form (raw, aggregated, derived).
- Share data with advertisers, ad networks, data brokers, or any entity for marketing or commercial targeting.
- Use data for advertising profiling, commercial recommendations, or any direct or indirect monetization of user data.
- Transfer identifiable or re-identifiable data to third parties, including in a research context.
5.2 Contributing to scientific research, a strict framework.
Feellow was born from scientific psychology and wishes to contribute back. But this contribution will never come at the expense of user trust. Any transfer of data to a public research laboratory requires five cumulative conditions: explicit and informed consent via a separate, revocable opt-in, genuine anonymization meeting the three CNIL criteria (non-individualization, non-correlation, non-inference), validation by an independent ethics committee (CPP), a data processing agreement signed with a prohibition on any re-identification attempt, and exclusively scientific purposes with no financial consideration for Feellow.
5.3 Voice data, immediate deletion.
Voice is biometric data under GDPR article 9. Feellow offers a voice input feature, the processing of which follows a strict protocol: the audio recording is sent to the HDS server, an open-source transcription model (Whisper) converts audio to text, the audio file is immediately and irreversibly deleted after transcription. No voice file is ever stored, archived, or used to train a model.
5.4 Hosting and regulatory compliance.
All mental health data collected by Feellow is hosted exclusively on HDS-certified infrastructure (Health Data Host) compliant with v2.0 reference framework, physically located in the European Economic Area. This obligation applies from day one of operation. No data is processed by servers located outside the EEA.
5.5 User rights.
In accordance with the GDPR, each user has at all times the following rights, exercisable simply from the app: right of access, right of rectification, right to erasure, right to portability, right to object. The right to object applies even after having given consent for research.
Fundamental distinction.
Selling data = transferring personal or identifiable data to a third party in exchange for financial or commercial consideration. That's what BetterHelp did. Feellow will never do it. Contributing to research = sharing truly anonymized data, with the explicit consent of users, in a validated scientific framework, with no financial consideration for Feellow. It's an act of contribution to science, not a commercial transaction.
Accessibility before profitability.
Mental health should not be a luxury. Feellow always maintains an accessible offer, even free for essential tracking features. The business model serves the mission, not the other way around. If a monetization choice conflicts with accessibility, monetization yields.
Users must always know exactly what Feellow does with their data, how the generative engine intervenes, what the limits of the application are, and what the app doesn't replace (a real therapist). No fine print, no grey areas, no ambiguity.
What Feellow is not, and will never be.
Feellow is not
- · A replacement for a therapist.
- · A personal development app.
- · A chatbot playing therapist.
- · A platform that sells data.
- · A toxic positivity tool.
- · An app that stores your voice.
- · A business first and foremost.
Feellow is
- · A tool in service of the therapeutic relationship.
- · An app founded on scientific psychology.
- · A writing assistant for better communication with your therapist.
- · A vault for personal data.
- · An honest self-observation tool.
- · An app that transcribes then immediately deletes audio.
- · A meaningful project, economically viable.
The founder's commitment.
I, Benjamin Lafitte, commit to every person who will use Feellow, to every therapist who will trust it, and to myself:
- I will never compromise users' mental health for growth metrics.
- I will never let the generative engine substitute for a professional's clinical judgment.
- I will never sell my users' data, under any pretext.
- I will never retain my users' voice beyond transcription.
- I will always prefer slow and ethical growth over fast and questionable growth.
- I will re-read this document every time doubt or pressure pushes me toward a compromise.
- If Feellow cannot exist while honoring these principles, then Feellow should not exist.
Benjamin Lafitte, founder of Feellow, February 28, 2026.
Why this document will never change.
This document is not a version 1.0 to be updated. It's a foundation. Feellow's features will evolve, the design will change, the business model will adapt. But these principles are the why behind every how.
The day an investor asks to monetize data, the answer is in this document. The day a partner proposes adding a therapist chatbot, the answer is in this document. The day the temptation to take an ethical shortcut is strong, the answer is in this document.
Feellow exists to improve people's lives. Through science. With humility. Without compromise.