Terms of use
Plain language, and short enough to actually read.
the deal
You may use this service for free. It is run as it is, with no promise that it will keep working, keep your data, or still exist next month. Do not make it the only place something important lives.
your account
Your username and password are the whole of your identity here. Keep the password: there is no reset, because nobody on this side has anything capable of resetting it. Lose it and the account and its messages are gone for good. That is a consequence of the encryption rather than a policy, and it cannot be waived for you.
You are responsible for what happens under your account.
what you send
What you write here is yours, and we cannot read it. Both halves of that sentence matter: it means we are not moderating your conversations, and it means we cannot help you with what somebody else sent you.
Do not use this service to break the law, to harass or threaten people, to distribute malware, or to send material that is illegal to possess or share where you are. We cannot see your messages, so this is not a promise of enforcement — it is the line, and an account that is reported for crossing it can be removed without notice.
what you may not do to the service
- attack it, or try to reach data that is not yours
- automate registration, or hold accounts you do not use
- use it as bulk storage or as a content delivery network
There are rate limits and storage quotas. They exist so one account cannot spoil the service for everyone else, and they may change.
groups you can walk into
A group listed with /open can be found and joined by anybody with an
account. If you list one, its name becomes public — the notice in the app says so at the
moment you do it. Joining lets you read what is sent from then on and nothing from before,
which is a property of the encryption and not a setting.
no warranty, no liability
The service is provided as is, with no warranty of any kind. To the extent the law allows, whoever runs this instance is not liable for lost messages, lost access, downtime, or anything that follows from using it. If some of that cannot be excluded where you live, then it is not excluded there.
ending it
You can stop at any time: /logout ends the session on a device, and
deleting your conversations removes them. We can suspend or remove an account that breaks
these terms or endangers the service.
changes
These terms can change. Changes appear in /changelog with everything else,
and continuing to use the service after one means you accept it.
the honest caveat
This is a plain-language document written to be read, not a contract drafted by lawyers. Where it is vague, read it as meaning what a reasonable person would take it to mean.