Ruth is an AI-powered chat tool designed to combat tech-facilitated abuse and ensure online safety by providing trauma-informed support, safety planning, practical guidance, and contacts for further assistance. She helps parents discuss online safety with their children, supports survivors, and helps all users in navigating technology confidently and safely.

Click the Start Chatting button on top of this page.

Ruth is free for everyone to use, because knowledge is the one thing no one can take away from you. That said, to keep Ruth available and online we need donations, so please donate to help us keep Ruth Free.

Ruth uses a large language model (LLM) and is able to support over 80 languages. However, there may be occasional challenges with fonts and formatting. If you notice these, please let us know by Submitting your Feedback.

Many chatbots like Chat GPT are wonderful and provide a lot of value to end, but are not trained to be trauma informed. When we trained Ruth, we worked with advocates and survivors to address as many scenarios as possible. This means when Ruth detects a situation which requires a trauma informed response, it can handle it like a boss. Ruth is trauma-informed, which means Ruth is designed to be sensitive, respectful, and supportive of individuals who have experienced trauma, ensuring safe and empathetic interactions. Having been trained on tech safety, security, and data privacy, Ruth specializes specifically in tech safety and security to provide expert advice in these areas. Ruth is like your digital friend, with whom you can converse like you would over a chat message with any other friend. The conversational flow of Ruth is what helps her to understand your needs better and address your concerns effectively. Like most humans, she may not know everything and since she is still being trained there is a chance she may get things wrong, so we ask users to be mindful as they converse with her. If you run into any issues, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us through our feedback form.

You can submit your feedback, feature request, or training request for Ruth here: Submit Feedback

Ruth uses a large language model (LLM), but it does not send or store any data for training purposes. We manually train Ruth based on text, questions/answers, and partner program links to ensure the responses are appropriate for the end user and their conversations remain private. This approach also allows us to control what Ruth can and cannot answer, ensuring advice is targeted towards specific issues like tech-enabled abuse, technology use, and online and device safety and security topics. If you have further questions, please reach out to our team via the Feedback form on Ruth or our Contact Us page.

No, your chat will not be transitioned to a representative on the Hotline. We are looking for ways to reduce your stress of sharing your story and questions multiple times, so in the future we are considering adding a transition to a live rep. More on this in the future.

No, you don’t need to disclose your identity or any personal information to use Ruth. It is important that you do not provide any personally identifiable information, meaning your full name, email, phone number, birthdate, address etc. Our chat bot will NEVER ask you for this information, it will ask for a general location if it needs to look up services near you. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for additional clarifications.

No, your chats are not saved or used in any of our training. We use a large language model (LLM) that currently only supports text, with voice functionality coming later. It does not provide your responses or our training data to the general model, ensuring that your conversation stays between you and Ruth. For more information on data we capture, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

It is important that you do not provide any personally identifiable information, meaning your full name, email, phone number, birthdate, address etc. Our chat bot will NEVER ask you for this information, it will ask for a general location if it needs to look up services near you. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for additional clarifications.

The Quick Exit button, a feature of many websites that deal with issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, can help you quickly switch to another, more neutral website if you feel uncomfortable when someone enters the room or looks over your shoulder. On Ruth's chat window, the Quick Exit feature, accessible by clicking anywhere on the orange quick exit bar, which will reload the page to weather.com and disable the back button. Please note that this feature will not prevent anyone from seeing your browser history or from knowing you were on that website if they are monitoring your device or internet activity remotely.

On Ruth's chat page, click on Reset Chat and it will reset your conversation with Ruth to start from the beginning.

For safety reasons, we do not retain the chat history.

Yes, Ruth is hosted on a website and can be used on mobile, desktop or tablet.

You can manually select the response and save it into a text document or note on your device. Our current feature doesn’t allow saving specific responses.

The underlying technology, or large language model, sometimes has an issue recalling the language that was requested by the user it is chatting with. If you encounter this, please ask Ruth to only respond in your choice of language, be sure to provide the language. Here is an example: "Please respond to me only in English".

Ruth helps anyone and everyone navigate the digital world safely and confidently. Below are examples of how Ruth can be leveraged for various needs. Parents: Ruth helps parents by providing effective ways to approach the topic of online safety with their kids, helping educate them on digital security. Additionally, Ruth offers step-by-step device security setups, guidance on avoiding scams, and recommendations for privacy tools and resources for the whole family. Teens: Teens can rely on Ruth for concise, relevant information tailored to their tech use, along with quick tips for enhancing online security and privacy. Ruth also identifies and explains types of phishing scams, offers resources for further learning, and provides support for dealing with abuse or stalking situations. Survivors: Ruth helps survivors by building personalized safety plans to avoid being tracked by abusers, providing resources for local support services, connecting them to online support groups, and sharing educational materials on digital safety. Ruth's trauma-informed approach ensures sensitive responses, helping survivors avoid triggers. Elderly: Ruth helps the elderly by providing simple instructions on setting up security and privacy, teaching them to identify and avoid scams, and offering friendly, patient guidance tailored to their tech knowledge, enabling them to be more independent online. Organizations: Organizations can utilize Ruth to create personalized tech safety plans for clients and organize virtual tech safety workshops for both staff and clients. Ruth also serves as a centralized resource hub, offers tips on safe browsing practices, and helps clients navigate privacy settings to protect their personal information. Tech Novices: Tech novices can benefit from Ruth's beginner's guide to online safety, social media privacy guidance, and simplified explanations of complex tech terms. Additionally, Ruth notifies users about important software updates and assists in setting up new devices.

Yes, Ruth can provide answers and advice to people of all levels of tech proficiency.

Currently, Ruth can answer general questions to help your organization. It is continuously being trained and we love getting input from actual users incorporated, so if you have specific questions that you hoped Ruth could answer, please fill out our Feature or Training Request Form.

Ruth provides trauma-informed responses to give advice as well as resources to help survivors get the catered support they need. However, keep in mind, Ruth is only trained for certain scenarios and is also NOT a human. So, we always suggest that you speak with a human at an organization, and Ruth can provide that based on your location.

Ruth is like your friend that you have over for coffee. Ruth offers parents clear information and practical advice on tech safety topics, such as setting up parental controls and recognizing online predators. It also provides tips for having open, sensitive conversations with children about responsible technology use. You know your kids the best, Ruth is that added support to help you structure your conversations for all the rebuttals you would get from your kids.