Legal

Consent Form – Safespace Research – Research Usage

This is a project on AI and mental wellbeing. It is your choice whether or not to participate. If you choose to participate, you may change your mind and leave at any time. Refusal to participate or stopping your participation will involve no penalty. The data collected will be used for two purposes: an ongoing research led by ETH Zürich (EK 2023-N-184), and for the purposes of an SNF and Innosuisse Bridge Project (40B1-0_231016), hosted by ETH Zürich, to create a platform dedicated for mental wellbeing.

What can I expect if I take part?

The initial survey will take a few minutes to complete, and a follow-up survey will be sent to you after a month at most, and will take a few minutes to complete. At the end of the initial survey, if eligible, you will receive detailed instructions on how to access the mobile application "Safespace", that includes mood tracking and AI chatbot features, available in English and German. You may use the app as frequently as you like, and by doing the follow-up survey you will have continued access to it.

Once you begin a survey, you will not be able to leave it and return to it at another time, so please complete it in one sitting. There is also no "Back" button, so you cannot change responses once you proceed to the next page. Data from respondents will only be studied in an aggregated way. At the end of the survey you will receive a link with which you will be able to login in the application. At the end of the study period you will be prompted to fill in the concluding survey, that will allow you to keep using the app if you wish, and help us improve it.

What are the risks and possible discomforts?

If you choose to participate, answering survey questions that require reflection on issues related to your mental wellbeing and potentially distressing past experiences has some psychological risk. The information collected will not be used by the researchers to make a medical diagnosis. If you become upset or feel any distress when you are responding to these questions, please check your country's mental wellbeing services or contact medical support.

If I take part, how will my privacy be protected? What happens to the information you collect?

The data we collect will be stored on a secure server and analyzed in an anonymous way. No raw, individual response-level background data will ever be made public. Such data will also not be handled or accessed by anyone other than research assistants hired by the researchers and the researchers or the Bridge team. No attempt will ever be made to identify whether or how specific individuals answered the questions in this study. The ID provided to you for access to each survey cannot be connected to you and is intended to ensure that you only complete each survey once and to allow us to connect the survey responses to the application usage. Data from the application are stored on a separate secure server from the dataset with your survey responses.

What information will be collected?

We collect a limited amount of data to understand how the app is used and improve its features. This includes:

Events:

• App Start: Time, Anonymous ID (Uid)
• Open View: Screen name, Time, Uid
• Mood Tracking: Mood rating, Time, Uid
• Modal Opened: Name of popup/modal, Time, Uid
• Conversation: Length of user input/output, time (no actual content of the conversation is stored)
• Internal classification results from the app's conversation state logic (yes/no flags used to guide the chatbot)
• Help: Resource accessed, Time, Uid

User Metadata:

• Uid (anonymous participant ID)
• Total number of app uses
• Total usage cost (for research metrics)
• App access expiration date

Data from iOS (App Store) and Android testing platforms are discarded, they are not linked to the survey results or to usage inside the app. The content of your conversations with the chatbot is private, the content is stored locally on your phone and cannot be accessed in any way. It will be automatically deleted from your device when you delete the app.

If I have any questions, concerns, or complaints, who can I talk to?

The project lead is Matteo Pinna, who can be reached at IFW D33.3 and help@safespaceresearch.com. Please contact him if you have questions, concerns, complaints, or if you wish to notify explicitly your withdrawal.

Consent Form – Safespace Research – Research Usage with University Partners

This app supports a research project led by ETH Zurich on AI and mental wellbeing (EK 2023-N-184); it additionally supports an SNF and Innosuisse Bridge Project (40B1-0_231016), hosted by ETH Zürich, to create an app platform dedicated to mental wellbeing. It is your choice whether or not to participate. If you choose to participate, you may change your mind and leave the study at any time. Refusal to participate or stopping your participation will involve no penalty.

What can I expect if I take part in this research?

The study will last one month at most. The initial survey will take around 5 minutes to complete. A follow-up survey will be sent to you at the end of the study, and will take around 5 minutes to complete. At the end of the initial survey, if eligible, you will receive access to the mobile application "Safespace", that includes, among others, mood tracking and AI chatbot features, available in English and German. You may use the app as frequently as you like.

Once you begin a survey, you will not be able to leave it and return to it at another time, so please complete it in one sitting. There is also no "Back" button, so you cannot change responses once you proceed to the next page. Data from respondents will only be studied in an aggregated way. At the end of the study period you will be prompted to fill in the concluding survey, that will allow you to keep using the app if you wish, and help us improve it.

What are the risks and possible discomforts?

If you choose to participate, answering survey questions that require reflection on issues related to your mental wellbeing and potentially distressing past experiences has some psychological risk. The information collected will not be used by the researchers to make a medical diagnosis. If you become upset or feel any distress when you are responding to these questions, please check your country's mental wellbeing services or contact medical support.

If I take part in this research, how will my privacy be protected? What happens to the information you collect?

The data we collect will be stored on a secure server and analyzed in an anonymous way. No raw, individual response-level background data will ever be made public. Such data will also not be handled or accessed by anyone other than research assistants hired by the researchers and the researchers. No attempt will ever be made to identify whether or how specific individuals answered the questions in this study. The ID provided to you for access to each survey cannot be connected to you and is intended to ensure that you only complete each survey once and to allow the researchers to connect the survey responses to the application usage. Data from the application are stored on a separate secure server from the dataset with your survey responses.

The data collected by the app are minimal and include mood tracking, number of accesses, number and time of inputs. Data from iOS and Android testing platforms are discarded at the end of the study, they are not linked to the survey results or to usage inside the app. The content of your conversations with the chatbot is private, the content is stored locally on your phone and cannot be accessed by the researchers in any way. It will be automatically deleted from your device when you delete the app.

If I have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this research study, who can I talk to?

The lead researcher for this study is Matteo Pinna, who can be reached at IFW D33.3 and help@safespaceresearch.com. Please contact him if you have questions, concerns, complaints, or if you wish to notify explicitly your withdrawal from the study.