Kith

Terms of Use & End User License Agreement · Effective __EFFECTIVE_DATE__

These Terms are a binding agreement between you and __OPERATOR__ (“we”, “us”) covering the Kith mobile application and the service behind it at __APP_HOST__ (the “Service”). Creating an account, or using the Service, means you accept them. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.

1. What Kith is

Kith is a private messaging and file-sharing application for closed groups. It offers one-to-one chat protected by end-to-end encryption, group chat, and a personal file area with expiring share links. It is not a public social network, and it has no discovery, no search for other people, and no public feed.

2. Eligibility and age

You must be at least 17 years old to use Kith. By creating an account you confirm that you are. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 17, we will close it.

You must also have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement, and you must not be barred from using the Service under any law that applies to you.

3. Accounts

• Registration requires a username and a password. An administrator must approve your account before it does anything. Until then, nothing works. Approval is at our discretion and we owe no reason for a refusal.
• Your username is permanent. It cannot be changed, and once an account is destroyed the username is retired forever.
• You are responsible for your password and for everything done through your account. There is no password recovery for your encrypted message history — see §7.
• One account, one person. Do not share, sell, or transfer it.
• An account left unused for 90 days is destroyed automatically, after warnings at 14 days and 3 days.

4. Your content

What you send stays yours. We claim no ownership of your messages, files, or pictures, and we grant ourselves no licence to them beyond the bare technical permission needed to store, encrypt, and deliver them to the people you send them to.

You are responsible for what you send. You confirm that you have the right to send it and that doing so breaks no law and no one else's rights.

5. Zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users

5.1 What is prohibited

You must not use Kith to create, send, upload, store, or share anything that:

• sexually exploits or endangers a child, in any form. This is reported to the authorities as well as removed;
• is sexually explicit or pornographic;
• harasses, bullies, stalks, threatens, defames, or intimidates any person;
• promotes hatred or violence against people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender, age, or sexual orientation;
• depicts or incites violence, self-harm, suicide, or terrorism;
• is fraudulent, deceptive, or an impersonation of another person or organisation;
• infringes anyone's copyright, trademark, privacy, or other rights;
• contains malware, or attempts to breach, overload, probe, or reverse-engineer the Service;
• violates any law that applies to you; or
• sends unsolicited bulk messages of any kind.

5.2 How to report it

Every message and every user in Kith can be reported from inside the app: open the message or the profile, choose Report, and tell us what is wrong. You can also write to __ABUSE_EMAIL__ at any time.

We review every report and act on it within 24 hours. Acting means removing content we can reach, and suspending or destroying the account behind it.

5.3 How to block someone

You can block any user from their profile or from a chat. Blocking severs the contact immediately: they can no longer message you, they are removed from groups you own, and your one-to-one conversation with them is destroyed on both sides. You do not need our permission and you do not need to explain yourself.

5.4 What we can and cannot reach

An honest limit, stated rather than hidden. One-to-one chat is end-to-end encrypted and the server does not keep a readable copy, so we cannot proactively scan or filter one-to-one content. What we can do — and do — is act on the account when someone reports it, using the report you send us. Group and file content is reachable by the Service and we remove it directly. Blocking works everywhere, encrypted or not, because it operates on the relationship rather than the content.

6. Enforcement

If you break these Terms we may, without notice and at our discretion: remove content, suspend the account, or destroy it permanently. We will take the mildest action that resolves the problem, except for child sexual abuse material, where the account is destroyed and reported immediately.

To appeal, write to __CONTACT_EMAIL__.

7. Encryption, and what it costs you

One-to-one chat is end-to-end encrypted. We cannot read it, and that has a price you are accepting here:

• We cannot recover your one-to-one history if you lose your device, reinstall the app, or forget your password. It is not backed up anywhere we can reach.
• Signing in on a new device abandons the old history. One account holds one active device.
• Group chats, files, and avatars are not end-to-end encrypted. They are encrypted at rest, but the Service can read them. Do not put something in a group that you would only put in a one-to-one chat.
• Screenshots cannot be prevented on iOS. Anyone you talk to can capture what you send. Encryption protects the message in transit and at rest — it does not control the person at the other end.

8. Availability

We provide the Service as it is and do not promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of it. If we discontinue it entirely we will give you reasonable notice so you can retrieve your files, subject to §7 — one-to-one history cannot be exported by us because we do not hold it.

9. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect and what we cannot see. It forms part of these Terms.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

To the fullest extent the law allows, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will meet your requirements or that any defect will be corrected. Nothing here excludes a liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, nor for lost profits, lost data, or lost message history, arising from your use of or inability to use the Service. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the claim, or, where you paid nothing, to a nominal sum.

12. Termination

You may delete your account at any time from Settings, without asking anyone. We may terminate your access under §6, or on reasonable notice if we discontinue the Service. Deletion is cryptographic erasure and is irreversible.

13. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the People's Republic of China, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes are subject to the courts having jurisdiction at __OPERATOR__'s place of business. Nothing here removes a mandatory consumer protection you have under the law of your own country of residence.

14. Apple App Store terms

The following applies where you obtained Kith from the Apple App Store. It is required by Apple and it overrides anything inconsistent above.

1. This agreement is with us, not Apple. Apple is not a party to it and is not responsible for Kith or its content.
2. Licence. We grant you a non-transferable licence to use Kith on any Apple-branded product you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions.
3. Support. We are solely responsible for support and maintenance. Apple has no obligation to provide any.
4. Warranty. We are solely responsible for any warranty, express or implied. If Kith fails to conform to a warranty that applies, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any. To the maximum extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation whatsoever.
5. Claims. We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claim that Kith fails to conform to a legal or regulatory requirement, including product liability claims and claims under consumer protection or privacy law.
6. Intellectual property. We, not Apple, are solely responsible for investigating and resolving any claim that Kith infringes a third party's intellectual property rights.
7. Legal compliance. You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
8. Contact. Questions, complaints, and claims go to __OPERATOR__ at __CONTACT_EMAIL__.
9. Third party terms. You must comply with any applicable third-party terms when using Kith.
10. Third party beneficiary. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and, on your acceptance, have the right to enforce them against you.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. We will change the date at the top and, for material changes, tell you in the app before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the new version.

16. Contact

__OPERATOR__ · __CONTACT_EMAIL__ (general and legal) · __ABUSE_EMAIL__ (abuse and objectionable content, answered within 24 hours)