Terms of Service
Last updated: 01 August 2023
WELCOME TO ALENA
What these terms cover. This document and any documents referred to within it (collectively, the “Terms of Service”) set out the terms of your relationship with us when you access and use our website (www.alena.com) (our “Website”) and our social anxiety therapy app (our “Platform” and, together with our Website, the “Alena Service”).
Why you should read them. It is important that you read and understand the Terms of Service before using the Alena Service. You must accept these Terms of Service before you sign up for, use or access the Alena Service. If you do not agree to these Terms of Service, you cannot use the Alena Service. If there is anything within the Terms of Service that you do not understand, please contact us to discuss what this means for you.
Who we are. The Alena Service is operated by AYA Technologies Limited (trading as Alena), a company registered in England and Wales (company number: 12333066) with its registered address at 25 Wilton Road, London, England, SW1V 1LW (“Alena”, “we”, “our” or “us”).
Updates to these terms. The current version of the Terms of Service contains the only terms and conditions that apply to our relationship with you. Older versions of the Terms of Service will no longer apply to our relationship and will be completely replaced by the current version.
PRIVACY
Your privacy is important to us. Please read our Privacy Policy to understand how we collect, use and share information about you.
YOUR RIGHTS TO USE THE ALENA SERVICE
Medical Disclaimer.
Alena is a provider of online and mobile social anxiety management content. Alena is not a health care provider and the Alena Service, together with any information or content provided through the Alena Service should not be considered medical advice. Only your doctor or other qualified mental healthcare professionals should provide this.
Any advice, information, links or materials provided as part of the Alena Service, whether by Alena or from outside third party providers, is intended for general information purposes only and your convenience. The content on the Alena Service is not intended to be solely relied upon and is not a substitute for any professional medical advice or diagnosis based on your individual circumstances or health status.
Eligibility.
You must be at least 18 years old and be capable in your country of residence of entering into a legally binding agreement in order to use the Alena Service. Our Platform is designed to help people aged 18+ in Great Britain (England, Scotland or Wales, excluding Northern Ireland) with social anxiety symptoms.
You must have registered for and created a user account with us to be able to access our Platform. You agree not to create an account to use the Platform or otherwise use our Website if you have been previously removed by us, or if you have been previously banned by us.
The Alena Service may only be used by individual consumers for their personal and private use. You are not permitted to use the Alena Service for any commercial, business or for-profit purpose.
You are responsible for ensuring that any information that you provide to us is accurate and up to date.
Your right to use the Alena Service is personal to you and you are not allowed to give this right to another person.
Your right to use the Alena Service does not stop us from giving other people the right to use the Alena Service.
You agree that you have no rights in or to any portion of the Alena Service other than the right to use the Alena Service in accordance with these Terms of Service.
Guidelines for use and when to consult a mental healthcare professional.
The Alena Service is not a diagnostic tool and is intended to provide Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for the improvement of social anxiety and disorder (SAD). The Alena Service is a Class I medical device in Great Britain.
The Alena Service is appropriate for individuals with mild to severe SAD symptoms (defined as a ‘SPIN level’ of between 20 and 50). Always seek the advice of your doctor or a qualified mental healthcare professional in relation to any questions you may have regarding a mental health medical condition, or if you are unsure of whether you are suffering from SAD. Please do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have seen or heard whilst using the Alena Service.
For urgent mental health support or medical emergencies please refer to the crisis support services listed on our app, or Website. If you are considering harming yourself or others, please contact the emergency services immediately, or go to any hospital accident and emergency department. Alena has no obligation to contact emergency services or otherwise to contact any third party regarding the content of any message or other content submitted by you regarding your or a third party’s mental health condition.
For adults who experience difficulty with social anxiety but have not been diagnosed with SAD, the Alena Service may be utilized as non-prescription self-help service designed to help improve your overall mental health and wellbeing, however the Alena Service does not work for everyone and may not work for you.
For those adults that have been diagnosed with SAD or social phobia, please contact a doctor or other qualified mental healthcare professional before using the Alena Service. The Alena Service should only be used after consultation from or under the supervision of a suitably qualified mental healthcare professional.
The Alena Service should not be used to address or process fears related to traumatic experiences or memories. Please consult a doctor or qualified mental health professional if you need help with anxiety related to trauma.
If you have any other mental health condition including (but not limited to) depression, bipolar disorder, autism or schizophrenia, you should consult your doctor or qualified mental healthcare professional before using the Alena Service.
The Alena Service is not a substitute for other medical advice. Do not make any changes to your medications or medical treatment plan without consulting a doctor or qualified mental healthcare professional. If you receive advice from a doctor or other qualified mental healthcare professional which conflicts with anything contained in the Alena Service, then the former should always take precedence. You acknowledge and agree that if you choose to access the Alena Service you are solely responsible for deciding which of the suggested techniques you put into practice to improve your mental health and how to apply those techniques.
The Alena Service includes a number of exercises and techniques, referred to as “exposure”, “exposure experiments”, or “experiments”, that are designed to induce a safe level of anxiety, as part of the Alena Service’s therapeutic programme. If any of these exercises or techniques induce excessive anxiety, panic, or any other adverse symptoms, please cease that activity and consult your doctor or a qualified mental healthcare professional before continuing.
If you notice a worsening of your anxiety-related symptoms, please consult a doctor or qualified mental healthcare professional immediately and do not continue to use the Alena Service before receiving medical advice.
Alena does not endorse any specific doctors or mental healthcare professionals, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Alena Service. Alena is not a healthcare provider and cannot recommend or refer you to any healthcare provider. Reliance on any information provided by the Alena Service or Alena’s employees is solely at your own risk.
Alena is not responsible for any loss or damage caused by us during any Trial Period. Subject to section 8.2, Alena is not liable for any consequences of your use of the Alena Service or any information, advice or other materials provided through the Alena Service and you assume full responsibility for your decisions and actions. In particular, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Alena makes no representation or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Alena Service, or other materials and information published as part of the Alena Service. Alena makes no guarantees as to the time it will take to see an improvement in any social anxiety symptoms or whether such improvement will be seen in an individual using the Alena Service.
Use of sensitive information.
Alena contains sensitive medical information. Please protect your privacy by password protecting your computer, tablet, or phone and ensure that nobody else can access the device. Please do not leave your computer, tablet, or phone unattended when unlocked to ensure that nobody else can accidentally see your medical information. If you choose to receive notifications on your device from Alena, consider setting your notifications to private when your phone is locked to ensure that nobody else can accidentally see the notifications you receive from Alena.
Aya Technologies Ltd’s clinical team is responsible for health information provided on the System and contained within Alena. Care has been taken to confirm that the information presented within the System is accurate and describes generally accepted practices. If we find, or are alerted to, a mistake, we will correct it as quickly as possible. However, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable laws, the authors, editors and publishers are not responsible for errors or omissions, or for any consequences arising from application of the information on the System, and make no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the contents, completeness or accuracy of the material published.
Restrictions and User Content.
The materials and content comprising the Alena Service belong to us or our third party licensors and, subject to your payment of any Subscription Fees in accordance with section 4.1 below, we give you permission to use these materials and content for the sole purpose of accessing and using the Alena Service in accordance with the Terms of Service.
Any material you upload, submit or contribute to the Platform in order to personalize your treatment plan or use any other features we offer from time to time (including text, audio and images) (“User Content”) must comply with the Rules of Acceptable Use in section 5 below and any other content standards that we notify you of from time to time.
By submitting User Content to the Platform, you confirm and agree that:
the User Content complies with the Rules of Acceptable Use;
you are responsible for backing up and securing your User Content; and
you have the right to use and submit your User Content to the Platform.
Rights you grant us to your User Content. As between Alena and you, you are the owner or licensee of your User Content. By submitting User Content to the Platform, you give us permission to use and store such User Content (anywhere in the world and on a royalty-free basis) to maintain, provide, develop and improve the Alena Service and other products and features we may offer from time to time [(including by sharing the User Content with our third party partners for data analysis)]. This is carried out with strict access controls and policies in place to protect your privacy – please read our Privacy Policy for further information on how we process and protect your personal data.
FEES AND PAYMENT
Pricing. In order to gain full, unrestricted access and use of the Platform, you must sign up for a subscription (“Subscription”) for the relevant fee(s) (“Subscription Fee”) and pay the Subscription Fee in accordance with the Terms of Service. The Subscription Fee and availability of Subscriptions will be displayed within the Alena app and are subject to change at any time prior to purchase.
Billing. When you sign up for a Subscription, you will receive access to the Platform on a continuing basis unless you cancel. Subscription Fees are automatically charged at the start of each billing period, and you may be charged no more than 24 hours before the beginning of each billing period.
Cancellation. You may cancel a Subscription at any time before the end of the applicable billing period by completing the cancellation process on the Platform, and the cancellation will apply to and from the next period. For example, if you purchase a monthly Subscription, you may cancel that subscription at any time during any month of the Subscription, and the Subscription will be canceled as of the following month. You will not receive a refund for the current billing period.
Beta Services. At our discretion, we may offer certain users access to certain new Platform features on a preview, early access or beta basis at no additional cost (“Beta Services”). Notwithstanding any other terms of the Terms of Service, Beta Services are provided “as is” to allow testing and evaluation of the relevant feature. We make no representations or warranties as to the performance, quality or functionality of Beta Services and we do not guarantee that Beta Services will be generally available, uninterrupted or error-free. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Terms of Service and to the extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties for Beta Services, including any implied warranties of merchantability, satisfactory quality or fitness for a particular purpose.
Trial Periods. When you subscribe to the Platform, you may receive access to the Subscription at no charge for a specified trial period, after which you will be charged a Subscription Fee until you cancel your Subscription. To avoid being charged, you must cancel before the end of the trial period. Once you cancel your trial, you may immediately lose access to the Platform and any Subscription features unless otherwise specified. Access to such trial periods may be limited to a certain number of trials for each user during a given period, or other restrictions.
Withdrawal Rights for Digital Content. As a consumer, you have an automatic statutory right to withdraw from a contract for the purchase of a digital content and services for any reason within 14 days of entering into the contract. However, when you purchase a Subscription, you agree that the Platform and Alena’s digital content will be available to you immediately, and you acknowledge that as a result you waive your automatic statutory right of withdrawal.
All Subscription Fees stated or referred to in these Terms of Service are:
listed in the currency stated at the point of payment on our Website and/or the Platform; and
inclusive of value added tax and any other applicable sales or goods tax.
If you opt to pay your Subscription Fee(s) in a currency other than GBP, the actual amount you pay may vary due to changing foreign exchange rates from time to time.
Payment providers. We may use a third party payment processing provider (e.g. Stripe) to process payments and your use of such third party’s services is subject to their terms and conditions. We do not process or store any of your financial information.
Changes to Subscription Fees. When you purchase a Subscription, you will initially be charged the Subscription Fees applicable at the time of your agreement to subscribe (or if you subscribe for a trial period, at the end of the trial period). We may change the price of your Subscription at a later date, but we will always give you at least 30 days’ prior written notice. Any change will apply to the next payment due from you after the notice, provided that you have been given at least 30 days’ prior notice before the charge is made. If you do not wish to pay the amended Subscription Fees, you may cancel the Subscription as described in section 4.3 above, and you will not be charged further Subscription Fees, provided you have notified us before the end of the current billing period.
RULES OF ACCEPTABLE USE
In addition to the other requirements within the Terms of Service, this section describes specific rules that apply to any use of the Alena Service (the “Rules of Acceptable Use”).
When using the Alena Service you shall not:
circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with any security related features of the Alena Service or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of the content or materials accessible via the Alena Service;
give any false or misleading information or permit another person to use the Alena Service under your name or on your behalf;
impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or give the impression they are linked to us, if this is not the case;
use the Alena Service other than for its intended purpose as set out in the Terms of Service;
use the Alena Service if we have suspended your access to it, or have otherwise banned you from using it;
modify, interfere, intercept, disrupt or hack the Alena Service or collect any data from the Alena Service other than in accordance with the Terms of Service;
misuse the Alena Service by knowingly introducing viruses, Trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which would harm the Alena Service or the equipment of any user of the Alena Service, or using any automated system, including without limitation “robots”, “spiders” or “offline readers” to access the Alena Service in a manner that send more request messages to the Alena Service than a human can reasonably produce in the same period of time;
submit or upload any User Content:
containing personal information (including images or voice clips) of people without their consent. If you upload any User Content containing personal information of anyone under the age of 18, you confirm that you are their parent or guardian and consent, or that you have the permission of their parent or guardian to do so; or
in respect of which you do not hold appropriate usage rights; or
submit or upload any User Content which in our reasonable opinion is:
defamatory to any person, deceptive, obscene, offensive, harmful or inflammatory;
bullying, insulting, threatening, intimidating or humiliating;
promoting or depicting sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age, or is otherwise prejudicial to human dignity;
material depicting child sexual abuse; and/or
unlawful in any way or in breach of another party’s rights (including intellectual property rights), or advocating, promoting or inciting any party to commit or assist any unlawful or criminal act.
Failure to comply with the Rules of Acceptable Use constitutes a serious breach of the Terms of Service, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions (with or without notice):
immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use the Alena Service;
issuing of a warning to you;
legal action against you including proceedings for reimbursement of all costs (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach; and/or
disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.
The responses described in section 5.3 above are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem to be appropriate.
ENDING OUR RELATIONSHIP
Your right to end our relationship.
The Terms of Service take effect from when you first use the Alena Service and will remain in effect until terminated.
If at any time you do not feel that you can agree to the Terms of Service or any changes made to the Terms of Service or the Alena Service, you must immediately stop using the Alena Service.
You can cancel your subscription at any time. Please read section 4.3 above for more information.
Our right to end our relationship.
If we determine that you have clearly, seriously or repeatedly breached the Terms of Service, including, in particular, the Rules of Acceptable Use, we may suspend or permanently disable your access to the Alena Service and/or terminate your Subscription. We may also disable or delete your account or terminate your Subscription if you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights or where we are required to do so for legal reasons.
We may also withdraw the Alena Service or terminate your Subscription for any reason as long as we give you at least 30 days’ written notice that we plan to do this. If we terminate your Subscription in accordance with this section, we will provide a refund or partial refund of any pre-paid Subscription Fees in respect of any period falling after the date of termination.
What happens if you or we end our relationship.
If we suspend, disable or terminate your use of the Alena Service or we withdraw the Alena Service as described in this section 6, we may delete or modify any information we hold about you. You may also lose any rights you have to use the Alena Service.
If you cancel your Subscription, we reserve the right to delete your account after 90 days from the date your cancellation takes effect. Please see our Privacy Policy for further details on how long we keep your personal information for.
We will not offer you any other compensation for any losses incurred by you on our ending of your right to use the Alena Service.
OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO YOU
Security. We care about the integrity and security of your personal information and User Content. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorised third parties will never be able to defeat our security measures or use your personal information or User Content for improper purposes.
Links to other websites. The Alena Service may contain links to web sites that we do not own or control. We bear no responsibility for the content or practices of any such web sites or services.
LIABILITY
Services Disclaimer. We will exercise reasonable care and skill in providing the Alena Service to you but, due to the nature of the internet and technology, the Alena Service is provided on an “as available” and “as is” basis. This means that we are unable to guarantee that your use of the Alena Service will be uninterrupted, without delay, error-free, or meet your expectations and we do not give any commitment relating to the performance, effectiveness or availability of the Alena Service in these Terms of Service and, to the extent we are able to do so, we exclude any commitments that may be implied by law.
Limits of liability.
We do not exclude or restrict our liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Service for any:
death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation by us; or
other liability which cannot be excluded by applicable law,
the exclusions and limitations below are all subject to this statement.
We shall not be liable to you for any loss or damage where:
it is not a reasonably forseeable result of any breach (loss or damage is ‘foreseeable’ if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time you agree to these Terms of Service, both you and we are aware that it might occur);
due to any abnormal or unforeseeable event outside our reasonable control (e.g., an act of terrorism, a significant weather-related event such as a major flood, a general strike, a general internet outage, or an epidemic or pandemic) and despite us having taken reasonable precautions against such events;
performing our responsibilities would put us in breach of applicable law (e.g., where we have reasonable grounds to suspect that our services are being used for fraud);
it arises from your misuse of the Alena Service, whether such misuse is deliberate or inadvertent;
any increase in loss or damage results from breach by you of any term in this Terms of Service; or
it arises from your use of the Alena Service contrary to these Terms of Service.
RESOLVING DISPUTES
Disputes between you and us. If you have a dispute with us relating to the Alena Service, in the first instance please contact us at contact@alena.com and attempt to resolve the dispute with us informally. In the unlikely event that we are not able to resolve a dispute informally, we will discuss and agree with you the most effective way of resolving the dispute.
Governing law. English law will apply to the Terms of Service, their subject matter and their formation. Subject to section 9.1 above, you and we agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from or related to your use of the Alena Service.
CHANGES TO THE ALENA SERVICE
We are constantly updating and improving the Alena Service to try and find ways to provide you with new and innovative features and services. Improvements and updates are also made to reflect changing technologies, tastes, behaviors and the way people use the Internet and the Alena Service.
In order to do this, we may need to update, reset, stop offering and/or supporting a particular part of the Alena Service, or feature relating to the Alena Service (“changes to the Alena Service”). These changes to the Alena Service may affect your past activities on the Alena Service and features that you use (“service elements”). Any changes to the Alena Service could involve your service elements being deleted or reset.
You agree that a key characteristic of our Alena Service is that changes to the Alena Service will take place over time and this is an important basis on which we grant you access to the Alena Service. Once we have made changes to the Alena Service, your continued use of the Alena Service will show that you have accepted any changes to the Alena Service. You are always free to stop using the Alena Service.
We will try, where possible and reasonable, to contact you to let you know about any significant changes to the Alena Service.
CHANGES TO THE DOCUMENTS
We may revise these Terms of Service from time to time but the most current version will always be at www.alena.com.
Changes will usually occur because of new features being added to the Alena Service, changes in the law or where we need to clarify our position on something.
We will try, where possible and reasonable, to notify you about any significant changes to any of the documents referred to in the Terms of Service. We may contact you through the Alena Service (for example by asking you to accept the changes before you continue to use the Alena Service) or via a separate email. However, sometimes changes will need to be made immediately and if this happens, we will not give you any notice.
OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS
Third party rights and transfer. A person who is not a party to the Terms of Service may not enforce any of its terms. All of our rights and obligations under the Terms of Service are freely assignable or otherwise transferable by us in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, or by operation of law or otherwise.
Entire agreement. The Terms of Service make up the entire agreement between you and Alena regarding your use of the Alena Service. They supersede any prior agreements.
Invalidity of terms. If a court or other authority decides that some of the Terms of Service are unlawful, the rest will continue to apply.
Delays. If you do not comply with the Terms of Service and we do not take action immediately, this does not mean we have given up any right we have and we may still take action in the future.
CONTACT AND FEEDBACK
If you need to contact us in relation to the Terms of Service or any other document mentioned in them, please email us at contact@alena.com.
If we have to contact you, we will do so by writing to you at the email address associated with your account or by other legally permitted means. Please ensure your details are kept up to date. When we use the words “writing” or “written” in these terms, this includes emails.
We value hearing from our users, and are always interested in learning about ways we can improve the Alena Service. By providing your feedback you agree that you are giving up any rights you have in your feedback so that we may use and allow others to use it without any restriction and without any payment to you.