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Terms of Service

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These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of AshNote’s websites, applications, APIs, browser extensions, and related services (collectively, the “Service”). By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

1. Who we are

AshNote (“AshNote,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provides encrypted sharing, temporary access, workspace, pool, and related secure-content functionality.

2. Eligibility

You may use the Service only if:

  • you are legally able to enter into a binding agreement,
  • you are not prohibited from using the Service under applicable law,
  • you are at least 16 years old, or the applicable minimum age in your jurisdiction,
  • you use the Service only in compliance with these Terms and applicable law.

If you use the Service on behalf of a company, organization, or other entity, you represent and warrant that you have authority to bind that entity to these Terms.

3. Your account

Some features may require an account. You are responsible for:

  • providing accurate account information,
  • maintaining the security of your account,
  • maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials,
  • all activity that occurs under your account, whether or not authorized by you.

You must promptly notify us if you believe your account has been compromised or used without authorization.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, create risk for the Service or others, or are required to be restricted by law.

4. Nature of the Service

AshNote is a tool for sharing encrypted content through temporary or controlled access workflows. Depending on the feature used, the Service may support:

  • one-time “burn” style sharing,
  • time-limited “window” access,
  • workspace or organization features,
  • encrypted pools, folders, or file-sharing features,
  • optional retention, grace-period, or access-control settings.

The Service is designed to reduce server-side access to secret content in standard encrypted workflows. However, the Service is not a guarantee against all risks, and you remain responsible for safe use, recipient selection, endpoint security, and compliance with your own legal, regulatory, and contractual obligations.

5. Privacy

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy. By using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the Privacy Policy.

6. Your content

6.1 Ownership

As between you and AshNote, you retain ownership of any content you submit, upload, create, store, or share through the Service (“User Content”), subject to the rights you grant in these Terms.

6.2 Limited license to AshNote

You grant AshNote a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide license to host, store, process, transmit, copy, and otherwise use User Content solely as necessary to:

  • provide and operate the Service,
  • maintain security and reliability,
  • enforce retention, deletion, sharing, and access-control rules,
  • investigate abuse or violations of these Terms,
  • comply with applicable law.

We do not claim ownership of your User Content.

6.3 Responsibility for content

You are solely responsible for your User Content and for ensuring that you have all rights, permissions, and lawful authority necessary to create, upload, share, or distribute it through the Service.

You are also solely responsible for:

  • the recipients you choose,
  • the passwords or keys you use,
  • the retention settings you configure,
  • any sharing links, access grants, or invitations you distribute,
  • compliance with your own confidentiality, privacy, regulatory, employment, contractual, or professional obligations.

7. Acceptable use

You may not use the Service to:

  • violate any law or regulation,
  • infringe or misappropriate the rights of others,
  • upload, store, transmit, or distribute malware, spyware, ransomware, or other harmful code,
  • store or transmit illegal content,
  • facilitate fraud, phishing, extortion, harassment, stalking, or identity theft,
  • distribute unauthorized personal data or confidential data you do not have the right to use,
  • interfere with or disrupt the Service,
  • probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service without authorization,
  • circumvent rate limits, abuse protections, account limits, retention controls, or access controls,
  • scrape, crawl, or harvest data from the Service except as explicitly permitted,
  • reverse engineer or attempt to derive source code from non-open components of the Service except where prohibited by law,
  • use the Service in a manner that creates unreasonable load, abuse risk, legal risk, or operational harm.

We may investigate suspected violations and may suspend, restrict, or terminate access where appropriate.

8. Sensitive and regulated data

The Service may be used to handle sensitive information, but AshNote does not represent or warrant that the Service by itself satisfies all legal, regulatory, contractual, or industry-specific requirements applicable to your use case.

You are responsible for determining whether the Service is appropriate for your specific use, including where your use involves:

  • health information,
  • financial information,
  • legal privilege,
  • export-controlled data,
  • trade secrets,
  • employment records,
  • government information,
  • regulated personal data.

Unless expressly agreed in writing, AshNote does not undertake to act as your legal, compliance, records-management, or regulatory advisor.

9. Security and limitations

AshNote may support client-side encryption, temporary access, expiration-based deletion, and related privacy-preserving features. However:

  • no system is completely secure,
  • no service can eliminate endpoint risk,
  • recipients may copy, screenshot, export, or otherwise retain content they are permitted to access,
  • compromised browsers, devices, accounts, extensions, or passwords may expose content,
  • deletion and retention processes may be subject to limited backup, recovery, replication, or cleanup delays.

You acknowledge that your use of the Service involves these and other inherent risks.

10. Availability and changes to the Service

We may add, remove, change, suspend, or discontinue any feature, functionality, integration, or part of the Service at any time, with or without notice, subject to applicable law.

We do not guarantee that any specific feature will remain available indefinitely, including:

  • burn mode,
  • window mode,
  • pool or workspace functionality,
  • APIs,
  • browser extensions,
  • file-size limits,
  • storage allocations,
  • retention controls,
  • integrations.

We may impose or change limits on usage, storage, invitations, access windows, or other functionality.

If you purchase a paid plan:

  • you agree to pay all fees and applicable taxes,
  • fees are billed in advance unless otherwise stated,
  • subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled before the renewal date,
  • pricing, plan features, and included limits may change prospectively.

You authorize us and our payment processors to charge the payment method you provide for recurring or one-time fees, as applicable.

Unless otherwise required by law or expressly stated in writing:

  • fees are non-refundable,
  • partial billing periods are not prorated,
  • downgrades or cancellations take effect at the end of the current paid period.

If payment fails, we may suspend or downgrade your access.

12. Free plans, trials, and beta features

We may offer free plans, promotional credits, trials, or beta/preview features.

These may be limited, modified, or terminated at any time. Beta or preview features may be unavailable, incomplete, or unstable and are provided “as is.”

We may place additional restrictions or disclaimers on such features.

13. Data retention, deletion, and recovery

The Service may provide retention settings, expiry settings, grace periods, deletion workflows, and other lifecycle controls. You acknowledge that:

  • expired or deleted content may become inaccessible,
  • deleted content may not be recoverable,
  • recovery may not be available even during grace periods,
  • we are not responsible for loss caused by retention choices, expiry settings, deletions, account termination, or recipient actions,
  • limited residual copies may persist temporarily in backups, recovery systems, or technical infrastructure before being removed in the ordinary course.

It is your responsibility to determine whether to maintain separate backups or records outside the Service where appropriate for your use case.

14. Feedback

If you provide suggestions, ideas, comments, or feedback about the Service, you grant AshNote a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use, modify, and incorporate that feedback without restriction or compensation to you.

15. Intellectual property

The Service, including its software, design, branding, trademarks, logos, interfaces, and non-user-generated content, is owned by AshNote or its licensors and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws.

Except as expressly permitted by these Terms, you may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, sublicense, or create derivative works from the Service.

16. Third-party services

The Service may depend on or interoperate with third-party services, including hosting providers, storage providers, email providers, payment processors, browser vendors, extension platforms, or integrations.

We are not responsible for third-party services, and your use of them may be governed by separate terms and policies.

17. Suspension and termination

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the Service, with or without notice, if:

  • you violate these Terms,
  • your use creates security, legal, or operational risk,
  • your payment is overdue,
  • we suspect fraud, abuse, or unauthorized access,
  • we are required to do so by law,
  • we discontinue the relevant Service or feature.

You may stop using the Service at any time.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive termination, including ownership, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnity, dispute provisions, and payment obligations.

18. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.”

ASHNOTE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, QUIET ENJOYMENT, ACCURACY, OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE ERROR-FREE, SECURE, UNINTERRUPTED, OR MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, ASHNOTE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT:

  • CONTENT WILL NEVER BE LOST, DELAYED, OR CORRUPTED,
  • EXPIRATION OR DELETION WILL OCCUR WITHOUT ANY TECHNICAL DELAY,
  • RECIPIENTS WILL NOT COPY OR RETAIN CONTENT,
  • THE SERVICE WILL PREVENT ALL UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS,
  • ANY PARTICULAR SECURITY, COMPLIANCE, OR REGULATORY OUTCOME WILL BE ACHIEVED.

19. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ASHNOTE AND ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS, GOODWILL, DATA, CONTENT, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF ASHNOTE FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED:

  • THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO ASHNOTE FOR THE SERVICE IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR
  • IF YOU PAID NOTHING, USD $100.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some of the above may not apply to you.

20. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless AshNote and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, and service providers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or related to:

  • your User Content,
  • your use of the Service,
  • your violation of these Terms,
  • your violation of applicable law,
  • your infringement or violation of the rights of any third party,
  • disputes between you and your recipients, collaborators, organization members, or end users.

21. Export controls and sanctions

You may not use the Service in violation of applicable export control, sanctions, or trade laws. You represent and warrant that you are not located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in a country or territory subject to comprehensive sanctions that would prohibit the provision of the Service, and that you are not on any applicable restricted-party list.

22. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of law rules, except to the extent superseded by applicable federal law.

23. Dispute resolution

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will first be attempted to be resolved informally by contacting us.

If informal resolution does not succeed, then, to the extent permitted by law:

  • disputes will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California,
  • you consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.

If you want arbitration instead of court litigation, this section can be revised before publication.

24. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

25. No waiver

AshNote’s failure to enforce any provision of these Terms will not constitute a waiver of that provision or any other provision.

26. Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any additional written terms expressly incorporated by reference, form the entire agreement between you and AshNote regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements or understandings relating to the same subject matter.

27. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice as required by applicable law, which may include email notice, in-product notice, or publication of updated Terms on the Service.

Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

28. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, contact:

legal@ashnote.com