# Terms of Use
Effective date: April 16, 2026
Welcome to SurfVault. These Terms of Use ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and SurfVault, Inc. ("SurfVault", "we", "us", or "our") and govern your access to and use of the SurfVault website at surf-vault.com and the SurfVault mobile application (collectively, the "Service").
By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
---
## 1. Eligibility
You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you may use the Service only with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian. By using the Service, you represent that you meet these requirements and that you are not barred from using the Service under applicable law.
---
## 2. Your Account
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to:
- Provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration
- Promptly update your account information when it changes
- Notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account
- Use only one account per person unless we expressly permit otherwise
We use Auth0 (Okta, Inc.) for authentication. Sign-in with Apple and Google is also supported. You are bound by those providers' terms when you use them.
We may suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without notice, for any violation of these Terms.
---
## 3. License to Use the Service
Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use, or for the commercial promotion of your own surf photography services if you are a SurfVault photographer.
You may not:
- Copy, modify, or distribute any part of the Service
- Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code
- Use any automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers) to access the Service
- Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service except as expressly permitted
- Remove any copyright, trademark, or proprietary notices
---
## 4. Your Content
### 4.1 Ownership
You retain all ownership rights to the photos, sessions, messages, profile information, and other content you submit to the Service ("Your Content"). We do not claim ownership of Your Content.
### 4.2 License to SurfVault
By submitting Your Content to the Service, you grant SurfVault a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, modify (for technical purposes such as generating thumbnails and watermarks), display, and transmit Your Content solely for the purpose of operating and providing the Service to you and other users in accordance with your privacy settings.
This license ends when you delete Your Content or your account, except to the extent we have already shared it with users you granted access to, and except for backup copies that may be retained for a reasonable period as part of standard operations.
### 4.3 Your Representations
You represent and warrant that:
- You own Your Content or have all necessary rights to submit it
- Your Content does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights
- You have obtained all consents required from any identifiable individuals depicted in Your Content
- Your Content complies with these Terms and all applicable laws
### 4.4 Responsibility
You are solely responsible for Your Content and for the consequences of submitting it. SurfVault does not endorse Your Content and is not responsible for it.
---
## 5. Acceptable Use
SurfVault has zero tolerance for objectionable content or abusive behavior. You agree that you will not, and will not allow others to, use the Service to:
- Upload, post, transmit, or share any content that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, violent, hateful, harassing, threatening, abusive, discriminatory, or otherwise objectionable
- Harass, bully, stalk, threaten, impersonate, or intimidate any person
- Upload photos of any person without their consent, or in a context that would violate their privacy
- Upload nudity, sexual content, or content depicting minors in any sexualized manner
- Promote violence, terrorism, self-harm, or illegal activity
- Infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other intellectual property right
- Transmit viruses, malware, or any code designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any software, hardware, or network
- Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service, other accounts, or any connected systems
- Use the Service to send spam, chain letters, or unsolicited commercial communications
- Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service
- Collect or harvest information about other users without their consent
- Use the Service for any purpose that is fraudulent or illegal under any applicable law
Violations may result in immediate removal of content, account suspension or termination, and, where appropriate, referral to law enforcement.
---
## 6. Content Moderation, Reporting, and Blocking
### 6.1 Reporting Objectionable Content or Abuse
If you encounter content or behavior on the Service that violates these Terms, you can report it from within the app:
- Reporting a session, photo, board, or message: tap the menu on the relevant item and select "Report".
- Reporting a user: tap the menu on the user's profile and select "Report user".
Reports are reviewed by SurfVault staff. We aim to act on reports of objectionable content within 24 hours. We may remove content, suspend or terminate accounts, and take other action we deem appropriate.
### 6.2 Blocking Other Users
You can block any other user from your interactions on the Service. To block a user, open their profile and tap "Block user". When you block a user:
- Their content is immediately removed from your feeds, search results, and notifications
- They cannot message you, follow you, or interact with your content
- You can manage and unblock users from your account settings
### 6.3 Our Right to Moderate
We have the right (but not the obligation) to monitor, review, screen, edit, remove, refuse, or restrict access to any content on the Service at any time, for any reason, without notice. We are not obligated to host or display any particular content.
---
## 7. Subscriptions and Billing
### 7.1 Plans (Web Only)
Paid plans on surf-vault.com are processed by Chargebee, Inc. Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period unless you cancel before the renewal date. You authorize us and Chargebee to charge your payment method for the applicable fees.
The mobile app does not currently accept payments.
### 7.2 Cancellation and Refunds
You may cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period. Except as required by law, fees are non-refundable.
### 7.3 Price Changes
We may change the price of any subscription. We will give you at least 30 days' notice of any price increase before it takes effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the new price.
### 7.4 Storage Limits
Each subscription tier has a storage limit. If you exceed your limit, you may be required to upgrade or remove content to continue uploading.
---
## 8. Intellectual Property
The Service, including the SurfVault name, logo, software, design, and all related intellectual property, is owned by SurfVault, Inc. and its licensors. Except for the limited license granted in Section 3, nothing in these Terms grants you any rights in the Service or our intellectual property.
If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, please send a notice to logan@surf-vault.com that includes (a) identification of the copyrighted work, (b) identification of the allegedly infringing material and its location on the Service, (c) your contact information, (d) a statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized, (e) a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and you are authorized to act, and (f) your signature.
---
## 9. Third-Party Services
The Service integrates with third-party services including Auth0, AWS, Chargebee, Pusher, Expo, Geoapify, Google, and Apple. Your use of those services is subject to their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services.
---
## 10. Termination
You may stop using the Service or delete your account at any time. Account deletion is described in our Privacy Policy.
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, with or without notice, if we believe you have violated these Terms, if required by law, or if continuing your access would harm SurfVault, our users, or third parties. On termination, your right to use the Service ends. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive (including ownership, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and dispute resolution).
---
## 11. Service Availability
We do not guarantee that the Service will be available, uninterrupted, error-free, or secure. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time without notice.
---
## 12. Disclaimers
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SURFVAULT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.
WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE SERVICE OR THE SERVERS THAT MAKE IT AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR HARMFUL COMPONENTS.
---
## 13. Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SURFVAULT, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE.
OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100), OR (B) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
---
## 14. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless SurfVault and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to (a) your use of the Service, (b) Your Content, (c) your violation of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any rights of a third party.
---
## 15. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [STATE], United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. You and SurfVault agree that any dispute arising under these Terms will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in [COUNTY], [STATE], and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.
---
## 16. Apple-Specific Terms
If you access the Service through an Apple-branded application:
- These Terms are between you and SurfVault, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the Service or its content.
- Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the application.
- Apple is not responsible for addressing any claims by you or any third party relating to the application, including product liability claims, claims that the application fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement, and claims arising under consumer protection or similar legislation.
- In the event of any third-party claim that the application or your use of it infringes that third party's intellectual property rights, Apple will not be responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement, or discharge of the claim.
- Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and, upon your acceptance, will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary.
---
## 17. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you through the Service and update the effective date above. Your continued use of the Service after a change means you accept the updated Terms.
---
## 18. Miscellaneous
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and SurfVault regarding the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in effect. Our failure to enforce any right is not a waiver of that right. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them freely.
---
## 19. Contact Us
Questions about these Terms? Contact us at:
Email: logan@surf-vault.com
Website: https://www.surf-vault.com