Terms of Service

1. What Hierocles is, and what it is not

Hierocles is a private journaling and life-organisation tool. It uses AI to reflect patterns in your writing and daily signals back to you. It helps you plan your week, track commitments, and notice what you might otherwise miss.

Hierocles is not medical advice. It is not a healthcare service, not therapy, not counselling, not a crisis service, and not a substitute for professional care. No output from Hierocles constitutes a diagnosis, treatment recommendation, or clinical opinion. If you need professional support, seek it from a qualified practitioner.

2. Eligibility

Hierocles is available to users aged 18 and over. You must provide your date of birth during signup. If the date you provide indicates you are under 18, your account cannot be created. Providing a false date of birth to circumvent this requirement is a breach of these terms and grounds for immediate account termination. This is a hard requirement under the UK Children’s Code (Age Appropriate Design Code), the Online Safety Act 2023, and US COPPA.

3. AI and how it works

Responses in Hierocles are generated by large language models (currently Anthropic’s Claude). These models can be wrong. They can produce outputs that miss context, misinterpret what you wrote, or generate observations that do not apply to your situation. The AI does not know you — it reads what you have written and responds within the limits of its design.

You are responsible for your own decisions. Nothing generated by Hierocles should be treated as authoritative guidance on health, finance, legal matters, or any domain requiring professional expertise.

4. Safeguarding

Hierocles scans the content you write for signals of crisis, including language associated with suicidal ideation, self-harm, eating disorders, abuse, and acute psychological disturbance. When such a signal is detected:

• The AI advisor stops responding as a journal and shows you crisis resources (phone numbers, text lines, NHS services) appropriate to your region.
• The entry is flagged internally and the flag persists on that entry.
• Your account may enter a monitored state with adjusted responses from advisors.
• You can dismiss the crisis resources overlay. You can reopen it at any time.

This scanning is a condition of using the product. You consent to it during signup. Without it, the product cannot operate safely. Full details are in our Safeguarding Policy and Privacy Policy.

5. What happens in a real crisis

Hierocles is not a crisis service. If you are in immediate danger, call 999 (UK), 112 (EU), or 911 (US). If you need to talk to someone, call Samaritans on 116 123 (UK & Ireland, free, 24/7).

Do not rely on Hierocles to help in a crisis. Its job is to point you to services that can. The system may fail to detect crisis content. It may misclassify ordinary writing as a crisis. Neither outcome should be relied upon as a substitute for human judgement or professional crisis support.

6. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Hierocles and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the service. This includes, without limitation, damages arising from reliance on AI-generated content, missed or incorrect safeguarding detection, or interruption of service.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under the laws of England and Wales. This clause is subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

7. Account termination

We may terminate or suspend your account if you abuse the service, attempt to circumvent safeguarding protections, use the service for illegal purposes, or violate these terms. We will tell you why unless doing so would compromise the safety of another person.

You may voluntarily delete your account from your Settings page. Deletion enters a 30-day grace period during which you can cancel. After the grace period, all data is permanently and irreversibly removed from our systems. Certain audit and safeguarding logs may be retained for the periods described in our Privacy Policy.

8. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we will notify you by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Continued use of the service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. If you do not agree with the changes, you may delete your account before the effective date.

9. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes arising under these terms that cannot be resolved informally shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, except where consumer protection laws grant you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts. Your statutory rights as a consumer under UK law are not affected by these terms.

10. Contact

For questions about these terms, contact legal@hierocles.app.

For safeguarding concerns, contact safeguarding@hierocles.app.

For privacy and data requests, contact privacy@hierocles.app.