MAX Safety Protocol

1. If you need help now

Free, confidential crisis lines, any time:

• US and Canada: call or text 988
• UK and Ireland: Samaritans, 116 123
• Israel: ERAN, 1201
• Anywhere else: findahelpline.com

If someone is in danger right now, call the local emergency number.

2. What MAX does

• When your messages suggest you may be thinking about suicide or hurting yourself, MAX stops coaching and shows a fixed message with the crisis lines above. That message is written by people, not by the AI.
• When someone you talk about, such as a match, may be at risk, MAX helps you respond with care, encourages them to contact a crisis line or emergency services, and shows you the same lines.
• MAX never describes methods or means of self-harm and never encourages it, including in role-play, stories or questions framed as hypothetical.
• A message that only shows the crisis lines doesn't count toward your MAX messages.
• ProfileMax is for adults (18+).

3. How it works

• Three checks work together: MAX's own instructions, which consider the whole conversation; a fixed list of explicit phrases in English and Hebrew; and our AI provider's filter for dangerous content.
• Every reply is checked before you see it, including while MAX is still writing it. A reply that fails a check is replaced by the crisis message.
• We test the protocol with sample conversations, including attempts to get around it, and review it when MAX's instructions change.

4. What we record

We count how often MAX shows the crisis lines, with no name, account or message text attached. We use these counts to review the protocol and for the yearly report California law asks for. Your chats with MAX are stored like any other chat and deleted with your account; see the Privacy Policy.