Terms of Service

1. Eligibility and Accounts

1.1 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 only use the Service with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian. By using the Service, you represent that you meet these requirements and that you have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.

1.2 Account Registration

To access most features, you must create an account using a User ID and, optionally, an email address — or by signing in with Google through the Chrome extension. You agree to provide accurate information and to keep your account credentials confidential. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

1.3 Account Security

Notify us immediately at support@dessence.ai if you suspect unauthorized access to your account. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to safeguard your credentials.

2. The Service

dEssence is a personal knowledge tool that lets you save content from the web to a pinboard, organize it, and interact with it through AI-powered chat, search, and voice features. The Service is provided through:

• The dEssence browser extension — installed in supported browsers (currently Google Chrome) to capture and save content.
• The dEssence web application — accessible at dessence.ai for managing your pinboard and chats.

We may add, modify, or remove features at any time. We may also offer beta or experimental features that are clearly marked as such; those features are provided "as is" and may be changed or discontinued without notice.

3. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Violate any applicable law, regulation, or third-party right (including intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights)
• Save, upload, or generate content that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, harassing, hateful, sexually explicit involving minors, or that promotes violence or self-harm
• Attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or extract the source code of the Service, except where such restriction is prohibited by applicable law
• Interfere with, disrupt, or place undue load on the Service, our infrastructure, or any third-party systems integrated with the Service
• Bypass or circumvent rate limits, access controls, or security measures, or use automated means (bots, scrapers) to access the Service except as expressly permitted
• Use the Service to develop a competing product, or to train machine-learning models using outputs from the Service
• Resell, sublicense, or otherwise commercially exploit the Service without our prior written consent

We reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action — including suspending or terminating accounts — against anyone who violates this Section.

4. Your Content

4.1 Ownership

You retain all ownership rights to the content you save to your pinboard, the messages you send to the AI chat, and any voice input you provide (collectively, "Your Content"). We do not claim ownership of Your Content.

4.2 License to Operate the Service

You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, transmit, display, reproduce, and process Your Content solely as necessary to provide, maintain, and improve the Service for you — for example, to render your pinboard, run AI queries on your behalf, generate transcriptions, and back up your data. This license ends when you delete Your Content or your account, except where retention is required by law or to enforce these Terms.

4.3 Responsibility for Your Content

You are solely responsible for Your Content and for ensuring that you have the rights necessary to save, upload, or process it through the Service. You represent that Your Content does not violate any third-party rights or applicable law.

4.4 Third-Party Content

When you save content from the web (text, images, links), that content remains the property of its original owner and is subject to its own terms and licenses. You are responsible for using such content in compliance with applicable law, including copyright and fair-use principles.

5. AI Features and Output

The Service uses third-party AI providers — including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google AI — to generate responses, summaries, transcriptions, and other outputs ("AI Output").

• No guarantees of accuracy. AI Output may be incorrect, incomplete, biased, or outdated. You should not rely on AI Output for medical, legal, financial, or other consequential decisions without independent verification.
• You own AI Output generated for you. Subject to these Terms and the policies of the underlying AI providers, you may use AI Output for any lawful purpose. We make no warranty of non-infringement: AI Output may resemble content produced for other users or may incorporate ideas that are not protectable.
• Provider terms apply. Your use of AI features is also subject to the usage policies of the relevant AI providers. Do not submit prompts that violate those policies (for example, content that attempts to generate harmful, illegal, or abusive material).

6. Subscriptions, Billing, and Free Tier

6.1 Plans

The Service may be offered under a free tier and one or more paid subscription plans. The features, usage limits, and pricing of each plan are described on the Service. We may change pricing or plan features at any time; changes will not apply retroactively to a paid billing period that has already started.

6.2 Billing

Paid subscriptions are billed in advance on a recurring basis (for example, monthly or annually) through our payment processor. By subscribing, you authorize us and our payment processor to charge your selected payment method on each renewal date until you cancel.

6.3 Cancellation and Refunds

You may cancel a paid subscription at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you will retain access to paid features until then. Except where required by law, fees already paid are non-refundable, and we do not provide credits or refunds for partial billing periods or unused features.

6.4 Taxes

Prices do not include taxes unless stated otherwise. You are responsible for any sales, use, value-added, or similar taxes associated with your subscription, except for taxes on our net income.

6.5 Failed Payments

If a payment fails, we may suspend access to paid features until the outstanding balance is paid. We may downgrade your account to the free tier (or terminate it) if payment remains unpaid after a reasonable grace period.

7. Intellectual Property

The Service — including its software, design, branding, and all related materials — is owned by dEssence and its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your own personal or internal business purposes.

All rights not expressly granted in these Terms are reserved. You may not use our name, logo, or trademarks without our prior written permission.

If you provide us with feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Service, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use them without restriction or attribution.

8. Third-Party Services

The Service relies on third-party services — including AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI), cloud hosting (Vultr), analytics (PostHog), and authentication providers (Google OAuth). Your use of those features may be subject to the third party's own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for the acts, omissions, or content of any third party, and we do not endorse any third-party services that may be linked from the Service.

9. Privacy

Our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the Privacy Policy.

10. Suspension and Termination

10.1 Termination by You

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time by following the in-product instructions or by emailing support@dessence.ai.

10.2 Suspension or Termination by Us

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe that:

• You have violated these Terms or any applicable law
• Your use of the Service poses a security or legal risk to us or to other users
• Continuing to provide the Service to you is no longer commercially viable for us

10.3 Effect of Termination

On termination, your right to use the Service ends immediately. We may delete Your Content and account data after a reasonable period in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination — including ownership, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and governing law — will survive.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of harmful components, or that any AI Output, search result, or transcription will be accurate or reliable. Your use of the Service is at your own risk.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event will dEssence, its affiliates, directors, employees, or agents be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages — including lost profits, lost data, or business interruption — arising out of or in connection with your use of (or inability to use) the Service, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for the Service in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) US $50.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions, our liability will be limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

13. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless dEssence and its affiliates, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with: (a) Your Content; (b) your use of the Service; (c) your violation of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any third-party right, including any intellectual property or privacy right.

14. Changes to the Service or These Terms

We may modify the Service or these Terms at any time. If we make material changes to these Terms, we will update the "Last Updated" date and, where appropriate, provide additional notice (for example, by email or an in-product notice). Changes become effective when posted. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service.

15. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States and the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you and we consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. Nothing in this Section prevents either party from seeking injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect its intellectual property rights.

16. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any plan-specific terms, constitute the entire agreement between you and us with respect to the Service.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
• Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for any failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, network outages, or third-party service failures.
• Notices. We may provide notices to you by email, through the Service, or by posting on our website. You may send notices to us at support@dessence.ai.

17. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us at: support@dessence.ai