This summary is here to help you read the Terms. It is not a substitute for them, and if it differs from the full Terms below, the full Terms control.
Who we are. theSHFT is provided by theSHFT LLC, an Alabama limited liability company in Dothan, Alabama. You can reach us at support@theshft.app.
Who can use it. You must be at least 18, or older where local law or our regional minimum requires (19 in South Korea, 21 in Indonesia and Singapore).
What is private and what is not. Direct messages, group chats and calls are end-to-end encrypted: we cannot read them. Community posts, Stories, profile photos and some other things are not end-to-end encrypted, and other people and theSHFT can see them. We do keep some information about you, such as your username, your contacts list and delivery records. The Privacy Policy lists all of it.
theSHFT is designed to erase things. Messages disappear on a timer. When a contact removes you or deletes their account, your chat with them is erased from your phone too. A Duress PIN, a panic wipe, signing out and deleting your account all erase data, and none of it can be brought back. If you lose your PIN and your 12 word Recovery Phrase, your account is gone. Do not use theSHFT for anything you need to keep.
theSHFT is not an emergency service. It cannot call 911 or any other emergency number.
theSHFT Pro renews automatically until you cancel it in your Apple account settings at least 24 hours before the period ends. Apple handles payment and refunds.
Your conduct. You are responsible for what you send and post. Do not use theSHFT to harm anyone, to break the law, or to destroy information you are legally required to keep.
Disputes. Most disputes must go to individual arbitration, not court, and you give up class actions and jury trials, unless you opt out within 30 days (Section 31). Our liability to you is limited (Section 29).
THESE TERMS CONTAIN A BINDING AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE DISPUTES ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, A CLASS ACTION WAIVER AND A JURY TRIAL WAIVER IN SECTION 31. YOU MAY OPT OUT OF THE AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AS SECTION 31.11 EXPLAINS.
THESE TERMS CONTAIN AUTOMATIC RENEWAL TERMS FOR theSHFT PRO IN SECTION 17, DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES IN SECTION 27, AN ASSUMPTION OF RISK IN SECTION 28 AND A LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IN SECTION 29.
theSHFT ERASES CONTENT BY DESIGN. SECTIONS 8 AND 9 DESCRIBE EVERY WAY YOUR MESSAGES AND DATA CAN BE PERMANENTLY LOST, INCLUDING THROUGH THE ACTIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE. PLEASE READ THEM BEFORE YOU RELY ON theSHFT FOR ANYTHING.
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legally binding agreement between you and theSHFT LLC. They govern your use of the theSHFT mobile application, any web version of it we offer, our website at https://theshft.app, and every related service, feature and update (together, the "Services"). By tapping to agree in the Application, or by using the Services after these Terms are shown to you, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services. If you agreed to an earlier version of these Terms in the Application, that version keeps applying to you until the Application asks you to accept this version and you do (Section 39.2).
1.1. The Services are provided by theSHFT LLC, an Alabama limited liability company ("theSHFT," "we," "us" or "our"), whose mailing address is 212 W. Troy St., Ste B, Dothan, AL 36303, United States.
1.2. You can reach us by email at support@theshft.app. Legal notices, arbitration notices, opt outs, copyright notices, intimate image removal requests and privacy requests all go to that address, and where a physical address is required, to the mailing address above, marked "Attn: Legal."
1.3. Because theSHFT does not ask for your email address or phone number, we will usually communicate with you inside the Application, as Section 40 explains.
In these Terms, the following words have these meanings:
3.1. How You Agree. You agree to these Terms when you create your Account and tap the button that confirms your age (for example "I'm 18 or older") on the screen that says continuing means you agree to the Terms, the Privacy Policy and the EULA; when you tap I agree on a notice of updated terms; or when you use the Services after these Terms are shown to you. These Terms include the agreement to arbitrate in Section 31. We record the versions you accepted, when, and on which screen, on your Device and in your Account, and our servers keep a separate acceptance record (Section 40.4), so that we and you can show what was agreed.
3.2. Documents That Form the Agreement. Your agreement with us consists of these Terms and the following documents, each of which is part of these Terms: (a) the End User License Agreement ("EULA"); (b) the Community Guidelines; (c) the Community Rules; and (d) the DMCA Policy. The Privacy Policy explains how we handle information. It is not part of this agreement, but you agree that we may handle information as it describes. The Law Enforcement Guidelines describe how we respond to legal process and are provided for information. Each document is available in the Application and on our website. Section 41.1 explains which document controls if two of them conflict.
3.3. If You Use theSHFT for an Organization. theSHFT is designed for individuals. If you use it on behalf of an organization anyway, you confirm that you are authorized to accept these Terms for that organization, and both you and the organization are bound by them. Section 6.3 explains why theSHFT may not meet an organization's record keeping duties.
3.4. Additional Terms. Some features may come with additional terms shown to you in the Application when you use them. Those terms are part of these Terms for that feature.
4.1. Minimum Age. You must be at least eighteen (18) years old to use the Services. In some countries our minimum is higher: nineteen (19) in South Korea and twenty one (21) in Indonesia and Singapore. The Application uses your Device's region setting to decide which minimum to show you, and applies the highest minimum if the region cannot be determined; when our servers record your confirmation, they check it against the minimum for the country associated with your network connection. The Application asks you to confirm that you meet the minimum; it does not verify your age with a document. You must not use the Services if you do not meet the minimum, even if the Application did not stop you.
4.2. Capacity to Contract. You must also be old enough, and otherwise legally able, to enter into a binding contract where you live. In some places the age of majority is higher than eighteen (18) (for example nineteen (19) in Alabama and Nebraska and twenty one (21) in Mississippi). If you are over eighteen (18) but under the age of majority where you live, you may use the Services only if your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms for you, and your parent or guardian is responsible for your use.
4.3. Minors. The Services are not directed to children or to anyone under eighteen (18). If we learn that an Account belongs to someone under the applicable minimum age, we will close it. A parent or guardian who believes a child is using theSHFT can tell us at support@theshft.app, as the Privacy Policy explains.
4.4. Age Signals From App Stores. Where the law requires it, we will use an age range or age category that an app store or your Device provides, and we may limit or refuse access based on it.
4.5. Sanctions and Restricted Parties. You may not use the Services if you are located in, or ordinarily resident in, a country or region subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions, or if you are a person with whom U.S. persons are prohibited from dealing, as Section 37 explains.
4.6. Local Law on Encryption. The Application uses strong encryption. Some countries restrict the import, export or use of encryption software. You are responsible for making sure your use of the Services is lawful where you are. We do not represent that the Services are lawful or available in any particular country, and we may restrict access in any place.
4.7. Previous Bans. If we have banned you or terminated your Account, you may not create a new Account without our written permission. Section 26.5 describes device restrictions after a ban.
5.1. Creating an Account. To create an Account you choose a unique username and a PIN, and your Device generates your Recovery Phrase and your encryption keys. theSHFT does not ask for your name, email address or phone number. You may choose to add a bio and a profile picture, which can be your own photo or a SHFT look; if you save a look, the look, its pose and the color you pick are shown to other users. Other signed in users can find you by your username.
5.2. Account Creation Limits. To limit abuse, one Device may create up to two (2) Accounts, and one network up to ten (10) (or more through invitations), in any twenty four (24) hour period. We may change these limits.
5.3. Your Recovery Phrase. Your Recovery Phrase is generated on your Device and is the only way to restore your Account on a new Device or after the Application is deleted. WE DO NOT HAVE YOUR RECOVERY PHRASE AND CANNOT SHOW IT TO YOU, RESET IT OR CREATE A NEW ONE FOR YOUR ACCOUNT. So that a restore can find your Account and confirm it is you, we store a public key computed from your Recovery Phrase; it cannot be turned back into the words, and a restore must also prove it holds the phrase by signing a one-time challenge. Until a Device running version 9.5 or later replaces it, an Account may instead have a one-way hash of the phrase stored, which works like a password for restoring the Account. We keep both in a part of your Account that only our servers can read; the Privacy Policy explains this. If you lose your Recovery Phrase and your Device, or your Device's copy of theSHFT is erased, your Account and everything in it are permanently lost. Write your Recovery Phrase down and keep it somewhere safe and private. Anyone who has your Recovery Phrase can restore your Account on their own Device, and may be able to open photos, videos, voice notes and files from your one-to-one conversations that are still stored.
5.4. Your PIN. Your PIN unlocks the Application on your Device. It is checked on your Device and is never sent to our servers. We cannot tell you your PIN or reset it. If you forget it, the only way back into your Account is to restore it with your Recovery Phrase. After five (5) wrong PIN entries the Application locks for a period of time. You may also unlock with Face ID or Touch ID where your Device supports it; that check happens inside your Device's operating system and theSHFT receives only whether it succeeded.
5.5. One Phone at a Time. Your Account is active on one phone at a time. When you restore your Account on a new phone, the Application on the old phone is signed out and erases theSHFT's data the next time it connects to our servers. Your messages do not move to the new phone. Every restore creates new encryption keys, so your Contacts may see a notice that your security keys changed, and a restore removes any Duress PIN (a theSHFT Pro feature) you had set.
5.6. Your Username. Your username is visible to other users. You may not choose a username that impersonates another person or organization, infringes someone's rights, or includes the name theSHFT or a confusingly similar name. Usernames and Community names that claim theSHFT's brand, including with look alike letters, are refused as reserved. When an Account is deleted its username is released and another person may later choose it. A username is not proof of identity; verify who you are talking to before you share anything sensitive.
5.7. Account Security. You are responsible for keeping your PIN, your Recovery Phrase and your Device secure, and for all activity in your Account that results from your failure to do so. Tell us at support@theshft.app if you believe someone else has access to your Account. Because we cannot see your messages or your keys, there is very little we can do to recover an Account someone else has taken over; you can protect yourself by restoring your Account with your Recovery Phrase, which signs out the other phone.
5.8. Linked Devices and Other Versions. We may offer ways to use your Account on a tablet, a computer or a web browser. Where we do, those versions may have fewer features and weaker protections than the phone application (for example, a web browser cannot blank screen captures), and additional terms may be shown to you when you link a device. As of the Last Updated date, linking another device is not generally available.
5.9. Death or Incapacity. Your Account is personal to you and cannot be transferred, including at death. Because we do not hold your encryption keys or your Recovery Phrase, we cannot give anyone, including your family, executor or legal representative, access to your messages. We may close the Account of a person who has died when we receive reasonable proof, and we will respond to requests about Server-Readable Content only as the law requires, including any law on fiduciary access to digital assets.
5.10. No Transfer or Sale. You may not sell, rent, lend, transfer or share your Account or username.
6.1. NOT AN EMERGENCY SERVICE. theSHFT IS NOT A TELEPHONE SERVICE AND CANNOT BE USED TO CONTACT 911 OR ANY OTHER EMERGENCY SERVICE. DO NOT RELY ON theSHFT FOR ANY COMMUNICATION WHERE A DELAY OR FAILURE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, INJURY OR DAMAGE. IF YOU ARE IN DANGER, CALL YOUR LOCAL EMERGENCY NUMBER. The help lines listed in the Application are operated by independent organizations, not by theSHFT.
6.2. Not for High Risk Uses. The Services are not designed for any use where failure, delay or loss of data could lead to death, personal injury or severe physical, financial or environmental damage.
6.3. NOT A RECORD KEEPING TOOL. theSHFT IS DESIGNED TO ERASE MESSAGES AND DATA AND IS NOT A BACKUP, ARCHIVE OR RECORD KEEPING SERVICE. If you are subject to a legal duty to keep communications or records (for example a litigation hold or court order, a preservation request, financial industry record keeping rules, public records laws, health privacy laws, professional conduct rules, employment obligations or tax rules), you must not use theSHFT for those communications, or you must keep the required records by other lawful means. You are solely responsible for complying with any duty to preserve that applies to you.
6.4. Not a Guarantee of Anonymity. theSHFT does not ask for your name, email address or phone number, but it is not anonymous. Your username, your Contacts, your Community activity, delivery records and the other information described in the Privacy Policy exist and can identify you, alone or combined with other information.
6.5. Not Advice. Nothing in the Services, including safety tips, help lines, security explanations or safety numbers, is legal, security, medical or mental health advice.
6.6. Accessibility. We try to make the Application usable with assistive technologies such as VoiceOver and larger text sizes. If something is hard to use, please tell us at support@theshft.app. This is a goal, not a promise that every feature is fully accessible.
7.1. End-to-End Encrypted. Direct Messages, Groups and voice and video calls are End-to-End Encrypted. For Direct Messages and Groups the Application uses the NaCl library (Curve25519, XSalsa20 and Poly1305) with the Double Ratchet and X3DH key agreement for Direct Messages and Sender Keys for Groups. Photos, videos, voice notes and files sent in those conversations are encrypted on the sender's Device before upload with a key for the conversation. We cannot read End-to-End Encrypted Content, and we cannot give it to anyone, because we do not have the keys.
7.2. Not End-to-End Encrypted. The following are not End-to-End Encrypted. They are stored on our servers in a form we can read (some of them with at-rest encryption whose keys our servers hold), and other users, theSHFT and, under valid legal process, the authorities may be able to see them: Community Content and Community names, descriptions, rules and member lists; votes on Community posts; Stories and their captions, reactions and viewer lists; profile photos, bios and usernames, and the SHFT look, pose and color you save for your profile; group names and group photos (the key to a group photo is stored on the group's record); Voice Room listings; who reacted to a message in a Direct Message or Group (from version 9.5 the emoji itself is sealed so we cannot read it, but a reaction added from an older version is stored readable, with the emoji and who added it); reports you send us; your Contacts list; the text of a Community notification your Device fetches; and the records described in the Privacy Policy. Metadata about End-to-End Encrypted conversations, such as who is in a conversation, when messages were sent and read, and message types and sizes, is also not End-to-End Encrypted.
7.3. Post-Quantum Protection. The text of Direct Messages adds an ML-KEM-768 post-quantum key exchange, in combination with Curve25519, whenever the recipient's Device has published a post-quantum key; photos, videos, voice notes and files are not protected by it. If the recipient's Device has not published one, the conversation uses classical encryption only, and the Application does not refuse a classical conversation with a contact whose Device has never published one. The post-quantum secret is mixed in when a session starts; later steps of the Double Ratchet add only classical key exchanges, so the post-quantum layer does not restore protection after a Device is compromised. For Groups, ML-KEM-768 protects a message key only when every member of the Group can receive it, and a key issued after a member leaves or is removed is not protected by it; Group message keys without it rely on Curve25519 alone. Calls do not use post-quantum encryption.
7.4. Calls. Voice and video calls are encrypted with AES-256-GCM. For most calls between current versions of the Application the key is random for each call and is exchanged sealed under X25519; for calls with older versions, and with devices that have not advertised the newer method, the key is derived from an X25519 exchange of the two users' identity keys and is the same for every call between the same two accounts. No call key ever reaches our servers or our call provider in readable form. Calls do not yet have forward secrecy. Voice Rooms are encrypted with a room key that the host's Device shares with each listener's Device; Section 14 describes Voice Rooms.
7.5. Safety Numbers and Key Changes. Each Contact has encryption keys that change when that person restores their Account. When the Application notices that a Contact's key changed, it shows a notice that the change can mean they restored their Account or that someone is intercepting your messages, and it lets you compare safety numbers in person. The Application cannot tell those two causes apart. Content sealed to an old identity key, such as photos, files and Group messages, can be opened by whoever holds the old private key.
7.6. What Encryption Cannot Do. No encryption protects Content: (a) on a Device that is lost, stolen, unlocked or compromised by malware or spyware; (b) that the recipient copies, forwards, photographs, records or discloses; (c) typed through a keyboard or read by an accessibility service or other software that records it; (d) in a backup of your Device made outside theSHFT's control; or (e) against future advances in cryptanalysis. Metadata can reveal information even when content is encrypted. The Application's encryption module is published at github.com/wma1101/theshft-crypto; the rest of the Application and our servers are not open source, and no independent external audit of theSHFT's code has been commissioned. NO ENCRYPTION SYSTEM IS PERFECT, AND WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT OURS CANNOT BE BROKEN OR BYPASSED.
theSHFT ERASES CONTENT BY DESIGN. CONTENT ERASED IN ANY OF THE WAYS BELOW IS GONE, AND NEITHER YOU NOR WE CAN RECOVER IT. OTHER PEOPLE'S ACTIONS CAN ERASE YOUR COPY OF A CONVERSATION. DO NOT RELY ON theSHFT TO KEEP ANYTHING.
8.1. We Do Not Back Up Your Messages. We do not keep a backup or archive of your conversations. End-to-End Encrypted messages are stored on our servers only as encrypted data we cannot read: a message with a timer until it is read and its timer has run, or until the deadline in Section 8.4, and a message sent with the timer Off until it or its conversation is deleted, or for at most one (1) year. Your conversations live on your Device.
8.2. Timers. Each conversation has one timer that applies to everyone in it. The choices are Off, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days, and every choice is available on the Free tier. A conversation that never chose a timer uses 10 seconds. Anyone in the conversation can change the timer, and the others see the change.
8.3. When the Countdown Starts. A message's countdown starts on a reader's Device when that reader has seen it: when its content is shown on the screen, in front of the reader, for a moment. It does not start when the message is sent. A voice note with a timer starts its countdown when it is first played on that Device, or when its transcript is shown; one never played is deleted at the deadline in Section 8.4. When the countdown ends the message is deleted from that Device. For a Direct Message, the sender's copy and our server copy follow the reader's read: if the reader has read receipts on, our servers start the countdown when they learn of the read; if the reader has read receipts off (they are off unless the reader turns them on), the reader's Device deletes our server copy when its own copy disappears, and the sender's copy then disappears too. If the reader's Device cannot do that, the deadline in Section 8.4 applies. In a Group, each member's copy counts down from that member's own read, and our server removes the message after every member has read it and the timer has run.
8.4. Messages Nobody Opens. A message sent with a timer that is not opened is deleted three (3) days after it was sent, or three (3) days plus the timer for a seven (7) or thirty (30) day timer, from our servers and from the Devices in the conversation. In a Group, a timed message is deleted at that time even if some members have read it. If you have read receipts turned off, our servers are not told when you open a message (although we and the other person can infer roughly when from when your copy is deleted), so a message you open shortly before that deadline may still be deleted at the deadline, before its own timer has run out. A message sent with the timer Off stays until someone deletes it or the conversation is deleted, except that our servers delete their encrypted copy of any conversation message that has had no expiry for one (1) year. A view once photo or video is deleted after it is opened once.
8.5. Delete for Everyone. You can delete a message you sent for everyone in the conversation within one (1) hour after sending it, unless the message is kept under Keep (Section 16). Our servers erase its content and any attached media, and the other Devices remove it and show that a message was deleted. A person may already have seen, copied or captured it before you deleted it.
8.6. WHEN A CONTACT REMOVES YOU OR DELETES THEIR ACCOUNT. IF A CONTACT REMOVES YOU AS A CONTACT, OR YOU REMOVE THEM, OR EITHER OF YOU DELETES YOUR ACCOUNT, YOUR ONE-TO-ONE CONVERSATION IS DELETED FROM OUR SERVERS AND FROM BOTH DEVICES, INCLUDING EVERY MESSAGE EITHER OF YOU SENT IN IT. THE OTHER PERSON'S DEVICE DELETES ITS COPY THE NEXT TIME theSHFT RUNS ON IT AND CONNECTS TO OUR SERVERS. THIS MEANS THE OTHER PERSON CAN ERASE YOUR COPY OF YOUR CONVERSATION WITH THEM, INCLUDING MESSAGES YOU MAY HAVE WANTED AS A RECORD. ADDING EACH OTHER AGAIN DOES NOT BRING IT BACK. If you need a record of a conversation, for example because someone is harassing or threatening you, report them in the Application and keep your own record by lawful means outside theSHFT before it can be removed. Screenshots of theSHFT come out blank (Section 11.4); you can copy the text of a message into another app (if theSHFT stays open for a minute and nothing else is copied, it then clears the clipboard, so paste it right away), or photograph the screen with another device. The only exception is a conversation kept under Keep with both people's consent (Section 16), when Keep is available. A legal hold does not stop this deletion. Group conversations are not deleted this way: when a person leaves a Group or deletes their Account, the messages they sent stay with the other members until their timers end.
8.7. Deleting Your Account. When you delete your Account, your Account, your one-to-one conversations, your Contacts, your Stories, your encryption keys and your other private data are deleted from our servers, some of it over the following hours, and theSHFT's data on your Device is erased. The text of your Community posts and replies stays, with your name replaced by a deleted user marker (media you attached is deleted), your votes on Community posts and your reactions in Groups are deleted, and your votes on replies and your reactions to Community posts stay with the same marker. Messages you sent in Groups stay with the other members as they received them until their timers end or the members delete them; we remove your name from our servers' copies, but members whose phones already hold those messages keep seeing your username on them. Some records stay for the reasons the Privacy Policy lists, such as a legal hold, a moderation record, a device restriction after a ban, or purchase records. Deletion cannot be undone, and your username is released.
8.8. Other Ways Data Is Lost. Your data on your Device is also erased, and cannot be recovered, when: you use the Duress PIN (a theSHFT Pro feature), the Panic Wipe or sign out (Section 9); you restore your Account on another phone (Section 5.5); you delete the Application; your Device is lost, broken, reset or replaced; or you lose both your PIN and your Recovery Phrase. Deleting the Application removes its messages and files, but on iPhone the items it keeps in the Keychain, which can include your Recovery Phrase and keys, stay on the phone; sign out or use the Panic Wipe first to remove them. Messages can also be lost or fail to arrive because of network problems, outages, bugs, a Device that is offline for a long time, a message that could not be decrypted, or our removal of content that violates these Terms.
8.9. Backups of Your Device. On iPhone, the Application leaves its messages and files out of iCloud and computer backups made after a version of the Application that does so (version 9.5 or later) has been opened on that iPhone, so such a backup will not preserve your messages. A backup made before then may keep a copy of theSHFT's local data until that backup is replaced or deleted. Some items the Application keeps in the iPhone Keychain, which can include your Recovery Phrase and keys, can be carried in a backup of the same iPhone, and for installations older than May 19, 2026 a few of them, which can include your Recovery Phrase, can be restored to another iPhone. On Android, backups of the Application's data are turned off. The encrypted backup feature offered in earlier versions has been retired, and the first time version 9.5 or later is opened on a Device it deletes any backup an earlier version made there.
8.10. Copies You Cannot Control. We cannot delete copies that anyone makes outside theSHFT, such as a photo of a screen taken with another device, a screen recording's sound, text someone copied or forwarded, a photo someone saved to their photo library before a timer was set, a notification already shown on a screen, or an old backup. Screen capture protection (Section 11.4) makes screenshots and screen recordings of the Application come out blank, but it cannot stop a second camera.
8.11. Your Responsibility. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KEEPING, BY LAWFUL MEANS OUTSIDE theSHFT, ANY COPY OF ANY CONTENT YOU WANT OR NEED TO KEEP. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LOSS OF ANY CONTENT OR DATA IN ANY OF THE WAYS THIS SECTION DESCRIBES.
9.1. The Duress PIN (theSHFT Pro). With theSHFT Pro you may set a Duress PIN. When the Duress PIN is entered on the lock screen, or at any other PIN prompt in the Application (for example when changing your PIN or deleting your Account), the Application gives the same unlock feedback as your real PIN, then opens the welcome screen of a new installation while it silently erases theSHFT's data on your Device (your messages, keys, local files, caches and settings) and asks our servers to delete your Account. There is no decoy or substitute view. If your Device cannot reach our servers at that moment, theSHFT's data on your Device is still erased but your Account is not deleted, and it can be restored later by anyone with your Recovery Phrase; in that case you can delete it later from a restored Device, and notifications and incoming calls for your Account can still reach the Device until the Account is deleted. The Duress PIN leaves your phone's own records in place (for example photos you saved to your photo library, the phone's call history entries written by older versions of theSHFT, or your App Store purchase history), and it cannot reach copies on other people's Devices or older backups. A Duress PIN you set while you had theSHFT Pro keeps working after your subscription ends. The Duress PIN works even while the Application is locked out after wrong PIN entries. Never choose a Duress PIN that begins with the same digits as your unlock PIN, or an unlock PIN that begins with the same digits as your Duress PIN, because the shorter one may be accepted first. The Application refuses such a pair when you set it up, and if it finds such a pair from an earlier version, it removes the Duress PIN once and says so on the Duress PIN screen. Restoring your Account removes the Duress PIN. THE ERASURE CANNOT BE UNDONE.
9.2. The Panic Wipe. Where the Application offers it, the Panic Wipe asks for your PIN and then erases theSHFT's data on your Device and asks our servers to delete your Account. If your Device cannot reach our servers, your Account may remain, and you can ask us at support@theshft.app to finish deleting it. The Panic Wipe, which is free, cannot reach the items Section 9.1 says the Duress PIN (a theSHFT Pro feature) leaves in place.
9.3. Signing Out and Starting Fresh. Signing out erases theSHFT's messages, keys and files on your Device; you can return only with your Recovery Phrase. Starting fresh on a Device erases theSHFT's data there without deleting your old Account on our servers.
9.4. Do Not Use Erase Features to Destroy Evidence. YOU MUST NOT USE A TIMER, DELETE FOR EVERYONE, THE DURESS PIN (A theSHFT PRO FEATURE), THE PANIC WIPE, REMOVING A CONTACT, DELETING YOUR ACCOUNT OR ANY OTHER FEATURE TO DESTROY, CONCEAL OR ALTER INFORMATION THAT YOU HAVE A LEGAL DUTY TO PRESERVE, OR TO OBSTRUCT A LAWFUL INVESTIGATION, SEARCH OR COURT PROCESS. Doing so may be a crime. theSHFT does not encourage or permit that use, and we may cooperate with lawful investigations of it as Section 23 describes.
9.5. Erase Features Are Not Guaranteed. An erase feature may fail to run, may run only in part, or may run when you did not mean it to. Do not test an erase feature on an Account or Device holding anything you cannot afford to lose.
10.1. Lawful Use. You may use the Services only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms, the Community Guidelines and the Community Rules. End-to-end encryption means we cannot see most of what you send; it does not change what you are allowed to do.
10.2. What You Must Not Do. You must not use the Services, or help or encourage anyone else to use them, to:
10.3. Evidence and Obstruction. You must not use a disappearing message timer, Delete for Everyone, the Duress PIN (a theSHFT Pro feature), the Panic Wipe, contact removal, Account deletion or any other feature to destroy, conceal or alter information that you know you have a legal duty to preserve, or to obstruct any lawful investigation, search, subpoena, court order or proceeding. theSHFT is not a tool for evading the law.
10.4. Adult Content. Adult content is permitted only in Communities marked NSFW (18+), which stay hidden unless you are 18 or older and turn on Show NSFW Communities in Settings; it is not permitted in any other Community or in a Story, whatever a Community's own rules say, and sexual content involving a minor or a person who did not consent is never permitted anywhere.
10.5. Consequences. If you break these rules, we may remove Content, restrict features, suspend or terminate your Account, ban your Device as Section 26.5 describes, and report you to the authorities, and you may be liable to others and to us.
11.1. Blocking. You can block another user. A blocked user cannot message you one-to-one, call you, send you a contact request, see your online status or your Stories, and their notifications to you are stopped. Blocking does not remove a person from Groups you share. We do not notify the person you block, but the block is stored in a record that person's Application can read, so they may be able to tell that they were blocked. The block record does not keep a report reason; our servers remove one written by an older version of the Application within seconds.
11.2. Safety Prompts. If Safety prompts is on (it is on unless you turn it off), the Application looks for words that suggest you may be in crisis or may be about to send something hurtful, on your Device only, and may offer help lines or ask you to reconsider. Nothing about this check is sent to us. It is an optional aid, not monitoring and not a crisis service; it will miss many situations and may appear when it is not needed.
11.3. Content Filtering. The Application checks the text of new messages, captions, Community posts and replies, and the names and descriptions you give a new Community or Group and your bio, on your Device, against a short list of patterns. Text that matches patterns associated with child sexual abuse material is not sent. In Direct Messages and Groups, text that matches patterns associated with threats of violence or self harm shows a warning that you can dismiss. The check does not examine images, video, calls, Voice Rooms or Stories. For Community posts and replies, which are not end-to-end encrypted, our servers run an additional automated check of the text for patterns associated with child sexual abuse material, as Section 11.6 describes. These filters are simple and will make mistakes in both directions. They are not a guarantee that prohibited content will not appear.
11.4. Screen Capture Protection and Screenshot Notices. Screen capture protection is always on and has no setting. On iPhone and Android it makes screenshots, screen recordings and screen mirroring of the Application come out blank, as the Privacy Policy describes. It does not cover the keyboard or some system alerts, and a web browser cannot blank a screen. An account we exempt for theSHFT's own promotional recordings can capture some of its own screens, but other people's messages and content still come out blank on it. When you take a screenshot in a private conversation on iOS, the other participants are told. iOS does not tell apps when a screen recording starts, so recordings are blanked but not reported, and a recording can still capture sound. Nothing can stop someone from photographing a screen with another device.
11.5. Reporting. You can report users from a conversation, their profile, a Story or a contact request, and report Community posts, replies and Communities. You can also email support@theshft.app. A report tells us the reason you choose, anything you write, the account and the item reported; for Community Content we keep a copy of the reported item with the report. A report about an end-to-end encrypted conversation does not send us the messages, because we cannot read them; we act on what you tell us and on what we can see. Reporting a user from a conversation, a profile, a Story or a contact request currently also blocks that user. We do not tell the reported person who reported them or why. The block that comes with a report is visible to them like any other block. We review reports as quickly as we can, but we do not promise a time, and we do not respond to every report individually.
11.6. Child Sexual Abuse Material. We have zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material. When our automated check of Community text matches, or we otherwise become aware of apparent child sexual abuse material on content we can read, we remove it, suspend the Account, keep the evidence the law requires us to keep, and report it to the CyberTipline of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as 18 U.S.C. 2258A requires. A report to that center can include the content and information about the Account. We cannot scan end-to-end encrypted conversations.
11.7. Moderation Actions. theSHFT may, at its discretion, remove or hide Content, restrict features, issue warnings, suspend Accounts for a period or indefinitely, terminate Accounts, and ban Devices, when we believe it is appropriate to enforce these Terms, protect people or comply with law. Some of these actions happen automatically: a Community post can be hidden automatically after an urgent report or after several reports, a Community's AutoMod rules (which its administrators set, based on a post's text, length, links or the age of the posting Account) and the crowd removal rule in Section 12.3 can hide or remove posts, and the automated check in Section 11.6 suspends an Account at once. We are not obligated to monitor the Services, and we do not review Content before it is posted. Our decisions not to act on a report, or to act, are not an endorsement of anyone's Content.
11.8. Appeals. You can appeal an account suspension or warning in the Application, from the screen that tells you about it, including a suspension applied automatically by our child safety check. theSHFT's administrator decides the appeal within fourteen (14) days of receiving it. The administrator cannot decide an appeal of an action they took personally: that appeal waits for another administrator to review it, which can take longer than fourteen (14) days. If the appeal is approved, we reverse the action; if it is denied, the administrator may give a reason. You can appeal the removal of your Community post or a Community ban in the Application; that Community's moderators decide, and we do not promise a time. We may, but are not required to, review a Community's decision ourselves. An appeal decision is final unless new information becomes available.
11.9. Good Faith and Section 230. We moderate in good faith. Nothing in these Terms makes theSHFT the publisher or speaker of Content provided by users, and we keep all protections available to us under 47 U.S.C. 230 and similar laws.
11.10. Emergencies. If you believe someone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services first. We are not able to monitor the Services for emergencies or to dispatch help.
12.1. Community Content. Communities within the Application are NOT end-to-end encrypted. Messages posted in Communities are persistent (they do not disappear) and are visible to every signed in user of the Application, including users who have not joined that Community. You acknowledge that Community Content may be subject to moderation by Community administrators and by theSHFT. Community member lists can also be seen by signed in users.
12.2. Voting: Communities support an upvote and downvote system. Any signed in user may vote on any Community post, whether or not that user has joined the Community. Voting on replies, voting in polls, reacting, posting and replying require membership. Every vote counts toward a post's score: a post whose downvotes exceed its upvotes by ten (10) or more is folded (shown collapsed), and one whose downvotes exceed its upvotes by twenty (20) or more is removed automatically as described in Section 12.3. Vote manipulation, including using multiple accounts to inflate or deflate vote counts, coordinated voting campaigns from inside or outside a Community, or any form of artificial vote amplification, is strictly prohibited and constitutes a material violation of these Terms. The number of upvotes (shown as likes) on a post or reply is visible to anyone who can see it. Each vote on a post is stored in its own record that only the voter's Account and our servers can read; if you upvote a post, its author is told that you did, nobody else is, and nobody is ever told who downvoted a post, including that post's own author. Votes on replies are different: each one is stored on the reply with the voter's account identifier, which other signed in users can connect to a username, so a modified application could read who voted on a reply and how.
12.3. Moderation Rights: Community administrators have the authority to moderate Content within their Communities, including the right to remove messages, mute members, ban members, and establish additional Community-specific rules. A post is also removed automatically when its downvotes exceed its upvotes by twenty or more. Each removal of a member's post, whether by an administrator, by theSHFT or by that automatic rule, counts as a strike against that member in the Community, and three strikes result in an automatic ban from that Community. In the official theSHFT Community only theSHFT may post; members may reply and any signed in user may vote. theSHFT also reserves the right to moderate Community Content, remove any Content that violates these Terms, and take action against offending accounts. Automatic removals and bans can be appealed in the Application.
12.4. Content Responsibility. You are solely responsible for all Content you post in Communities. You acknowledge that Community Content is not private, may be viewed by every signed in user of the Application, and may be reviewed by theSHFT for compliance with these Terms. When the automatic removal rule applies, a post may stay visible until the rule next runs.
12.5. Hiding Your Name. You may choose in Settings to hide your name on your Community posts (the setting is called Hide in Communities). Your name is then hidden in the Application, but our servers still record which Account posted and a modified application could read it. Hiding your name does not exempt you from these Terms, and we may act against the Account.
12.6. No Expectation of Privacy in Communities. You acknowledge and agree that you have no expectation of privacy with respect to Content you post in Communities. Community Content may be stored, copied, or shared by any user who can view it, and theSHFT bears no responsibility for how other users use Community Content.
12.7. Community Administrators. Community administrators are independent users and are not agents, employees, or representatives of theSHFT. theSHFT is not responsible for the actions, omissions, moderation decisions, or rules of Community administrators, and their moderation logs can be read by their Community's members.
12.8. New Member Wait. For five minutes after you join a Community you may not post, reply or create a poll in it. The Application shows the time remaining. Community administrators are not subject to this wait. Voting is not affected. New members also cannot post a link for one (1) hour, or an image for twenty four (24) hours, after joining.
12.9. Official Community and Announcements. Every new Account is added to the official theSHFT Community. theSHFT is responsible for its own posts and announcements there. Announcement notifications are sent only if you turn on Tips and updates.
12.10. Join Limits and Rankings. We may limit how many people can join a Community in a short time during unusual activity. The Communities feed sorts posts (for example Popular and Newest) using votes and time, and the Communities page can suggest Communities, chosen on your Device from the Communities you joined, the topics you picked and public member counts; we do not sell placement in the feed or the suggestions.
12.11. Community Removal. We may remove a Community that repeatedly violates these Terms, and its posts may be deleted with it.
13.1. Ephemeral Content. A Story is visible to your Contacts and expires twenty four (24) hours after you post it. Our servers delete expired Stories by a job that runs every thirty (30) minutes, so a Story may remain on our servers for a short time after it expires.
13.2. Encryption Posture for Stories. Stories are encrypted at rest on our servers with a random per-asset key, but are NOT end-to-end encrypted. The per-asset key is server-readable, meaning that under valid legal process (such as a search warrant or court order) we may be technically capable of producing Story plaintext by combining the encrypted blob with the key.
13.3. Viewers and Reactions. When a Contact views your Story, you can see that they viewed it. Reactions and poll votes on a Story are stored with it and are not end-to-end encrypted. Replies to a Story are sent as end-to-end encrypted Direct Messages.
13.4. Content Responsibility. You are solely responsible for all content you share in Stories. All prohibited conduct described in Section 10 applies equally to Story content.
13.5. No Guarantee of Deletion. While Stories are designed to auto-delete, recipients may capture, photograph, or otherwise preserve Story content before it expires. theSHFT bears no responsibility for Story content that has been captured or preserved by other users.
14.1. Calls. Voice calls are available to everyone. On the Free tier each participant's call ends for that participant after five (5) minutes; a call runs longer only for the participants who have theSHFT Pro. Video calls require theSHFT Pro on both sides. For one to one calls, our servers ring you only when the caller is one of your Contacts; a group call rings every member of the Group unless the member blocked the caller or muted the Group.
14.2. Call Quality. Calls depend on your network, your Device and our call provider, and may drop, lag or fail to connect. We do not guarantee call quality or availability.
14.3. Call History. theSHFT keeps your call history only on your Device and does not add theSHFT calls to your phone's own call history (Recents on iPhone or the call log on Android). Calls that earlier versions added to Recents stay there until you delete them.
14.4. Recording. theSHFT does not record calls or Voice Rooms. Many places require the consent of everyone on a call before it is recorded. If you record a call, a Voice Room or a voice note by any means, you are solely responsible for obtaining every consent the law requires. Screen recordings of the Application come out blank but can capture sound.
14.5. Voice Rooms. A Community administrator with theSHFT Pro may host a Voice Room in a Community (not in the official theSHFT Community). Any member of the Community who is not banned may join and listen. The host can invite listeners to speak, move speakers back to the audience and remove people from the room. Hosts are responsible for their rooms, and what anyone says in a Voice Room must follow these Terms. Voice Rooms are limited in size, and people in a room may be able to record it with another device.
15.1. Optional. Notifications are optional and you can turn them off in your Device settings or choose kinds of notifications in the Application.
15.2. What They Show. Notifications for direct and group messages never show message content. Some notifications show more: an incoming call shows who is calling; an official theSHFT announcement shows its headline; and, when we make it available and your settings allow it, a notification about a Community post, reply or mention can show the post's text, which your Device fetches from our servers after the notification arrives. The Privacy Policy describes exactly what each notification carries and what our notification providers can read.
15.3. Messages From theSHFT. Tips, announcements and live Voice Room notices from theSHFT are sent only if you turn on Tips and updates, which is off unless you turn it on, and we send tips at most about once a week. You can turn them off at any time.
15.4. Notifications Are Not Guaranteed. A notification may be delayed or not delivered, may show on a lock screen where others can see it, and stays on your Device until you clear it even if the message or post it refers to is later deleted. If you add theSHFT widget to your Home Screen or Lock Screen, it shows your unread count and the usernames of people who recently messaged you (never message text), where others may see them.
16.1. Availability. Keep and Report and keep are built into the Application but are not available to users on the Last Updated date. This Section applies only when we make them available to you.
16.2. Keep. With theSHFT Pro, you may ask the other person in a one-to-one conversation to keep it. Nothing is kept unless the other person accepts on their own Device. While Keep is on, both Devices show a banner, the conversation's timer is Off, kept messages cannot be deleted for everyone, and some ways of sharing are turned off. Kept messages are copied into an encrypted vault on the keeper's Device and are not end-to-end encrypted to anyone else. If the other person removes the keeper or deletes their Account, our servers hold the kept messages, still encrypted, for the closing period (thirty (30) days unless we set a shorter or longer period, and never more than ninety (90) days) so the keeper's Device can finish, and then delete them. Either person can stop Keep at any time, which stops new messages being kept but does not delete what was already kept.
16.3. Report and Keep. When you report a person, you may choose to keep what that person sent you that has not yet disappeared, in the encrypted vault on your Device, without the other person being told. Kept media can be viewed only inside the vault.
16.4. Your Responsibility. You must use Keep and Report and keep only lawfully, for example to keep a record you are entitled to keep, and never to collect another person's messages to harass, threaten or expose them. Laws on recording and keeping communications differ between places, and you are responsible for following them.
The Free tier includes unlimited messages, photos, media and contacts, every disappearing message timer, voice calls of up to five (5) minutes per call for each Free participant, Communities, Stories, joining and listening to Voice Rooms, search, and up to ten (10) Groups you create with up to fifty (50) members each.
theSHFT Pro adds: calls longer than five (5) minutes for you (a call runs past five minutes only for the participants who have theSHFT Pro, so it is unlimited for everyone only when every participant has it); encrypted video calls, which require theSHFT Pro on both sides; hosting Voice Rooms as a Community administrator; unlimited Groups you create with up to one hundred (100) members each; the Duress PIN; the SHFT looks marked Pro, and wearing seasonal looks all year; and, when available, Keep. theSHFT Pro applies to the subscriber's own account. Video calls require theSHFT Pro on both sides, and a participant without theSHFT Pro remains subject to the free call length limit. Pro features are tied to your theSHFT Account, as our subscription provider records the purchase; if you have two Accounts on one Device, theSHFT Pro bought on one does not cover the other.
theSHFT PRO SUBSCRIPTIONS RENEW AUTOMATICALLY. IF YOU BUY A MONTHLY OR YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, YOUR APPLE ACCOUNT WILL BE CHARGED THE THEN CURRENT PRICE FOR THE SAME PERIOD AT THE END OF EACH PERIOD, WITHIN TWENTY FOUR (24) HOURS BEFORE THE PERIOD ENDS, UNTIL YOU CANCEL. TO AVOID BEING CHARGED FOR THE NEXT PERIOD, YOU MUST CANCEL AT LEAST TWENTY FOUR (24) HOURS BEFORE THE END OF THE CURRENT PERIOD.
How to cancel: on your iPhone or iPad, open Settings, tap your name, tap Subscriptions, choose theSHFT, and tap Cancel Subscription; or open the App Store, tap your account, then Subscriptions; or visit https://apps.apple.com/account/subscriptions. The Application's upgrade screen also offers a Manage Subscription button that takes you there. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period, and you keep theSHFT Pro until then. Deleting the Application or your Account does not cancel your subscription.
If we offer a free trial or an introductory price, the App Store purchase screen will show its length, the price that applies after it and the renewal period before you confirm. A free trial converts to a paid subscription at the regular price at the end of the trial unless you cancel at least twenty four (24) hours before it ends, and any unused part of a free trial ends when you buy a subscription. Not every user is offered a trial.
The price of each plan is the price the App Store shows you before you confirm the purchase, in your local currency, including or plus taxes as the App Store shows. The Application does not set or state its own price. We may change prices. Apple will notify you of a price increase for your subscription as its rules require and, where they require it, ask for your consent before the higher price applies; if you do not agree, you can cancel before the new price takes effect. A price change never applies to a period you have already paid for.
Apple processes every App Store purchase and charges your Apple Account payment method; we do not receive your payment details. Except as required by law or granted by Apple, payments are non-refundable and there are no refunds or credits for partial periods. To ask for a refund, use Apple's Report a Problem page at https://reportaproblem.apple.com or contact Apple Support. We cannot issue App Store refunds ourselves. Nothing in these Terms limits any refund right you have under Apple's policies or applicable law.
We may offer promotion codes that give theSHFT Pro for a stated number of days. A promotion code has no cash value, cannot be sold or transferred, may be limited in the number of uses, may expire, and may be withdrawn if it was obtained or used improperly. When the promotional period ends, theSHFT Pro ends unless you buy a subscription; a promotion code does not start a paid subscription. If we offer App Store offer codes, Apple's offer code terms also apply, and an offer code subscription renews at the regular price unless you cancel.
If you enter a sales representative's referral code, we record that you were referred by that representative so we can pay the representative a commission, and the Application shows you the representative's name. Entering a code does not change the price you pay or the renewal terms, and it does not by itself give you a free trial; any trial is the one the App Store purchase screen shows. Referral codes are for new subscribers only.
Lifetime access, no longer offered: purchases made before June 2026 keep theSHFT Pro on the Account that bought it, as our subscription provider records the purchase, for as long as the Application is offered, with no renewal. Lifetime access is a license, not a guarantee that the Application or any feature will be offered indefinitely, and it ends if we terminate your Account for violating these Terms or if we stop offering the Services.
If theSHFT Pro does not appear after you buy it, or after you restore your Account, use Restore Purchases on the upgrade screen or contact us at support@theshft.app.
If Apple cannot charge your payment method, theSHFT Pro may end at the end of the paid period, and Apple may retry the charge under its rules.
Section 18.1 applies to changes to theSHFT Pro. We will not remove a Pro feature you have paid for during a paid period without the remedy Section 18.1 describes.
18.1. The Services Change. We may add, change, limit or remove features, including features of the Free tier and of theSHFT Pro, at any time. We will tell you in the Application before we remove a feature that is part of theSHFT Pro you have paid for, where we reasonably can. If a change materially reduces what theSHFT Pro includes during a period you have already paid for, you may cancel and ask Apple for a refund, and where the law requires us to refund you, we will.
18.2. Features Turned On Gradually. Some features are built into the Application but switched off, or turned on for some users before others, and some can be turned on or off from our servers without a new version of the Application. Where these Terms or the Privacy Policy describe such a feature with the words "when we make it available" or similar, the description applies only while the feature is on for you.
18.3. Updates. We may release updates that fix problems, change features or are needed for security or legal reasons. Some updates may be required to keep using the Services, and an older version may stop working. These Terms apply to every update unless an update comes with different terms.
18.4. Test Versions. If you use a test or preview version of the Application (for example through Apple's TestFlight), it may contain errors, may lose data and may be changed or withdrawn at any time, and you agree not to disclose non-public features you see in it.
18.5. Discontinuing the Services. We may stop offering the Services, in whole or in part. If we decide to shut down the Services entirely, we will try to give you at least thirty (30) days' notice in the Application, unless that is not possible for legal, security or financial reasons. After the Services end, the Application may stop working, and Content on our servers will be deleted as the Privacy Policy describes.
19.1. Ownership. The Services, including the Application's software, design, text, graphics, logos and the names theSHFT and SHFT, the SHFT character and its looks, and the bubble head, caret and arrow marks, are owned by theSHFT LLC or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. Except for the license below, these Terms give you no rights in them.
19.2. Your License. Subject to these Terms, we give you a personal, limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to install and use the Application on Devices you own or control, and to use the Services, for your personal, non-commercial use. The EULA sets out the license terms in more detail.
19.3. Restrictions. You may not, and may not help anyone else to: (a) copy, modify, translate or create derivative works of the Application, except as the law allows; (b) reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the Application, except to the extent the law allows despite this restriction, and except for the published encryption module under its own license; (c) sell, rent, lease, sublicense or distribute the Application; (d) remove any proprietary notice; (e) use our names, logos or marks without our written permission, other than to refer truthfully to theSHFT; (f) build a competing product by copying our features or content; or (g) use the Services to build or train any model or dataset from other users' Content.
19.4. Feedback. If you send us suggestions, ideas or bug reports ("Feedback"), you give us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, copy, change and build on them for any purpose, without any obligation to you. You are not required to send Feedback, and you should not send anything you consider confidential.
19.5. Open Source and the Published Encryption Module. The Application includes open source software, each part of which is governed by its own license, and nothing in these Terms limits your rights under those licenses. The Application's encryption module is published at github.com/wma1101/theshft-crypto under its own license, which governs that code.
20.1. You Own Your Content. You keep all rights you have in your User Content. We do not claim ownership of it.
20.2. License for End-to-End Encrypted Content. For End-to-End Encrypted Content, you give us a worldwide, royalty-free license to store and transmit it, in the encrypted form we receive it, as needed to deliver it to its recipients and to operate the Services. We cannot read it.
20.3. License for Server-Readable Content. For Server-Readable Content (such as Community Content, Stories, your profile information and reports), you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, process, adapt the format of, display and distribute it to the audience you chose and as the Services work (for example showing Community posts to every signed in user and in the Communities feed, and fetching a post's text for a notification), to moderate it, to preserve it where the law requires, and to operate, secure and improve the Services. This license does not let us sell your Content or use it in advertising.
20.4. How Long the License Lasts. The license ends when your Content is deleted from our servers, except: (a) Community posts, replies, votes and reactions that stay after you delete your Account, with your name removed, as Section 8.7 describes; (b) copies other users have made; (c) content we must keep for a legal hold, a report under review, an appeal, a moderation record or a legal obligation, for as long as the Privacy Policy describes; and (d) copies in our systems' routine operation that are deleted in the normal course.
20.5. Your Promises About Your Content. You promise that you have all the rights needed to post and send your User Content and to give us the licenses above, that your User Content and our use of it as these Terms allow will not infringe or violate anyone's rights or any law, and that it follows the Community Guidelines.
20.6. Other People's Content. Content from other users is their responsibility. We do not endorse it and we do not check it before it is sent or posted. You may find some of it offensive or false, and you use it at your own risk.
20.7. No Obligation to Keep Content. We are not required to store or keep any Content, and we may remove Server-Readable Content as these Terms allow.
21.1. Copyright (DMCA). We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 512. Our designated agent is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office (registration DMCA-1079621). Our DMCA Policy explains how to send a notice and a counter notice and what information they must include.
21.2. What We Can Remove. We can remove or disable access to Server-Readable Content, such as Community Content, Stories, usernames, profile photos and bios. We cannot read or remove End-to-End Encrypted Content, but we may act on the Account of a person who repeatedly infringes.
21.3. Repeat Infringers. We terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the Accounts of users who are repeat infringers, as the DMCA Policy describes.
21.4. Misuse. A person who knowingly makes a material misrepresentation in a notice or counter notice may be liable for damages under 17 U.S.C. 512(f).
21.5. Trademarks and Impersonation. If you believe a username, Community name or other Server-Readable Content infringes your trademark or impersonates you, email support@theshft.app with the subject line "Trademark" or "Impersonation," identify the mark or the person, the Content and why it infringes or impersonates, and give your contact information and a statement that the information is accurate. We will review it and may remove or reassign the name or take other action.
21.6. Other Legal Complaints. For other complaints about Server-Readable Content (for example defamation or a privacy violation), email support@theshft.app with the details. We may, but are not required to, remove content in response, and we may ask for a court order.
22.1. Prohibited. You must not share, or threaten to share, an intimate image or video of a person without that person's consent, including an image created or altered by software ("deepfake") that depicts a real, identifiable person.
22.2. How to Ask Us to Remove One. If an intimate image or video of you (or of a person you are authorized to act for) was shared on theSHFT without consent, send a removal request to support@theshft.app with the subject line "Intimate Image Removal." Include: (a) your physical or electronic signature (a typed name is enough); (b) enough information for us to find the image, such as the username of the person who posted it and the Community, post or Story; (c) a brief statement that you believe in good faith that the image is an intimate visual depiction of you (or the person you act for) shared without consent; and (d) how we can contact you. You may also report the post or Story in the Application.
22.3. What We Do. For a valid request about Server-Readable Content (for example a Community post, a Story or a profile photo), we will remove the image, and make reasonable efforts to find and remove known identical copies on theSHFT, as soon as possible and no later than forty eight (48) hours after we receive the request. For images sent in End-to-End Encrypted conversations, we cannot see the image or remove it from anyone's Device, but if you give us enough information to identify the message (for example the sender's username and when it was sent), we will delete any encrypted copy of it our servers still hold, where we can identify it; we may also suspend or terminate the Account that sent it and may report it to the authorities, and you can block and report the sender in the Application.
22.4. Minors. If the image depicts a person under eighteen (18), it is child sexual abuse material. We handle it as Section 11.6 describes, including reporting to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Do not send us a copy of such an image; describe where it is instead.
22.5. False Requests. Do not send a removal request you know to be false. We may disregard requests that are incomplete or abusive.
23.1. How We Respond. We respond to valid legal process, such as a subpoena, court order or search warrant, as required by applicable law. Our Law Enforcement Guidelines describe what we can and cannot provide. Because we cannot decrypt End-to-End Encrypted Content, we cannot provide it to anyone.
23.2. What We Can Provide. We can provide Server-Readable Content and the records described in the Privacy Policy, such as your username, account creation time, Contacts list, Community Content and votes, Stories that have not yet been deleted, moderation records, reports and delivery metadata, to the extent we still have them.
23.3. Preservation and Legal Holds. When we receive a valid preservation request or order, we may preserve specific records and Content we hold, including encrypted message data we are still storing for delivery, beyond the time they would otherwise be deleted, and disappearing message timers may not remove the preserved server copies while the hold lasts. A hold on another participant in your conversation can affect the server copies of messages you exchanged with that person. Preservation does not give us the ability to decrypt End-to-End Encrypted Content, and it does not stop the erasure of content on your own Device.
23.4. Notice to You. Where we are permitted to by law and are able to reach you in the Application, we will try to tell you about legal process that seeks your information before we disclose it, unless a court order or the law prohibits notice, or notice would create a risk of harm or be counterproductive in an emergency.
23.5. Emergencies and Safety. We may disclose information without legal process, where the law allows, if we believe in good faith that it is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious physical injury, to protect a child, to respond to fraud or a security threat, or to protect the rights, property or safety of theSHFT, our users or the public.
23.6. Child Safety Reports. We report apparent child sexual abuse material and other matters as 18 U.S.C. 2258A requires, as Section 11.6 describes.
24.1. Our Security. We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect the Services and your information, including the encryption described in Section 7. No system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, loss or disclosure will never happen.
24.2. Your Security. Keep your Device's operating system and the Application up to date, protect your Device with a passcode, do not install software from untrusted sources, and keep your Recovery Phrase and PIN private.
24.3. Reporting a Vulnerability. If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in theSHFT, please email support@theshft.app with the subject line "Security" and give us a reasonable time to fix it before you disclose it. Do not access other users' data, degrade the Services, or keep data you obtain; test only against your own Accounts. We do not currently run a paid bug bounty, and this Section is not a promise not to take legal action, although we have no wish to act against good faith research that follows these rules.
24.4. Security Incidents. If the law requires us to notify you of a security incident, we will do so by a notice in the Application, a notice on our website, notice through major media where the law calls for it, and email to anyone who gave us an email address, and by any other method the law requires, and we will notify regulators as the law requires.
25.1. Services We Rely On. The Services depend on third-party providers, including Apple (App Store distribution, payments, push notifications and device services), Google (Firebase and Google Cloud hosting, databases, storage, server functions and our real time message relay), our voice and video call provider, Expo (push notification delivery), RevenueCat (subscription records) and Sentry (crash and stability reports). The Privacy Policy explains what each of them receives. Their availability is outside our control.
25.2. Links and Previews. The Services may show links to websites and services we do not control, and the Application may show a preview of a link that the sender's Device created. We are not responsible for third-party websites, content, products or services, and your use of them is governed by their own terms.
25.3. App Stores and Devices. Your use of the Application is also subject to the terms of the app store you downloaded it from and of your Device and network providers, which are between you and them.
26.1. Deleting Your Account. You may delete your account at any time in the Application under Settings, Account Actions, Delete Account. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. What deletion removes, what it relabels and what it cannot reach are described in Section 8.7 and in the Privacy Policy. Your username is released when your account is deleted, and another person may later choose it.
26.2. Deleting Your Account Does Not Cancel a Subscription. A theSHFT Pro subscription is billed by Apple. DELETING YOUR ACCOUNT OR DELETING THE APPLICATION DOES NOT CANCEL AN APP STORE SUBSCRIPTION. To stop future charges you must cancel the subscription in your Apple account settings as described in Section 17.
26.3. Suspension and Termination by Us. We may suspend, restrict or terminate your account or your access to all or part of the Services, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe that: (a) you have violated these Terms, the Community Guidelines or the law; (b) your use creates a risk of harm to another person, to the Services or to us; (c) we are required to do so by law, by a court or by a government authority acting under law; (d) your account has been used for fraud, spam, abuse of our systems or an attempt to get around a previous suspension or ban; or (e) we stop offering the Services or the part of them you use. Suspension may limit what you can do (for example posting in Communities or sending messages) rather than remove the account. Where the law or our own policy calls for it, we will tell you the reason in the Application, unless telling you would create a risk of harm, would breach the law or a court order, or would help someone get around our safety measures.
26.4. Refunds When We End an Account. If we terminate your account because you violated these Terms or the law, you are not entitled to a refund of any fee, except where applicable law requires one. If we terminate your account for any other reason while you have paid for a subscription period that has not ended, we will, on your request, support a refund request you make to Apple for the unused part of that period. If Apple does not refund you, we will refund the unused part of that period directly on request. Because Apple processes every App Store purchase, we cannot ourselves reverse an App Store charge.
26.5. Device Restrictions After a Ban. If an account is banned and then deleted, we keep a record tied to the device's random installation identifier for up to three hundred sixty five (365) days, after which it expires automatically; while it lasts, a new Account created on that device is suspended at once, and you can appeal that in the Application. We may also ask Apple to mark the device; while such a mark is set, no new Account can start on it, including for a later owner of the device. The mark lapses about a year after it was last set, and an approved appeal clears it the next time that Account opens the Application on the device within thirty (30) days. This is described in the Privacy Policy.
26.6. Appeals. If we suspend or terminate your account, remove your content or ban you from a Community, you may appeal in the Application where the Application offers an appeal for that decision. Section 11.8 describes appeals.
26.7. Effect of Termination. When your account is terminated or deleted: (a) your license to use the Application ends; (b) you must stop using the Services with that account; (c) we delete or relabel your data as described in Section 8.7 and the Privacy Policy, except for data we keep as the Privacy Policy describes (for example under a legal hold, a device restriction record, or records the law requires us to keep); and (d) any provision of these Terms that by its nature should continue will continue, including Sections 2, 7.6, 8, 9, 10, 19, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 40 and 41.
26.8. Inactive Accounts. We do not currently delete accounts for inactivity. If we decide to do so in the future, we will change these Terms with notice as described in Section 39 before we delete any inactive account.
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT LIMITS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO YOU.
27.1. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE APPLICATION AND THE SERVICES, INCLUDING ALL FEATURES, CONTENT, ENCRYPTION, ERASE FEATURES, SAFETY TOOLS AND UPDATES, ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITH ALL FAULTS, AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY.
27.2. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, theSHFT LLC AND ITS MEMBERS, MANAGERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, LICENSORS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS (TOGETHER, THE "theSHFT PARTIES") DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, ACCURACY AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, COURSE OF PERFORMANCE OR USAGE OF TRADE.
27.3. WITHOUT LIMITING THE ABOVE, THE theSHFT PARTIES DO NOT WARRANT THAT:
27.4. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, THAT YOU OBTAIN FROM US OR THROUGH THE SERVICES CREATES ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THESE TERMS. THE FACTUAL DESCRIPTIONS IN THESE TERMS AND IN THE PRIVACY POLICY OF HOW THE SERVICES WORK ARE PROVIDED SO THAT YOU CAN DECIDE WHETHER TO USE THEM; THEY ARE ACCURATE TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE ON THE LAST UPDATED DATE AND WE WILL UPDATE THEM WHEN THE SERVICES CHANGE, BUT THEY ARE NOT A GUARANTEE THAT THE SERVICES WILL PERFORM WITHOUT FAILURE.
27.5. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES. IN THOSE JURISDICTIONS THE EXCLUSIONS ABOVE APPLY ONLY TO THE EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED IS LIMITED TO THE SHORTEST PERIOD THE LAW ALLOWS. Section 35 lists additional notices for residents of certain states.
28.1. You understand and accept that using any communication service involves risk, and that the features that make theSHFT private also create risks of their own. In particular you accept the risks that: (a) content you or others send may be erased on purpose by a timer, by the other person or by an erase feature, and cannot be recovered; (b) a person you communicate with may copy, photograph, record, forward or disclose what you send; (c) your device, your keyboard, other apps or your network may be compromised in ways no encryption can prevent; (d) metadata about your communications may reveal information even when the content is encrypted; (e) other users may lie about who they are; and (f) laws about encryption, recording, privacy and record keeping differ between places and may apply to you.
28.2. You are responsible for deciding whether theSHFT is appropriate for your purposes and for any precautions you need, such as keeping your own records of anything you must keep, verifying the identity of the people you talk to, keeping your device and its operating system up to date and protected with a passcode, and storing your Recovery Phrase safely.
28.3. This Section does not relieve us of any liability that the law does not allow us to exclude, including liability for our gross negligence, willful misconduct or fraud.
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT LIMITS THE AMOUNT YOU CAN RECOVER FROM US.
29.1. EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE theSHFT PARTIES BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS, GOODWILL OR ANTICIPATED SAVINGS, LOSS OR CORRUPTION OF DATA OR CONTENT, LOSS OF PRIVACY, COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, OR DAMAGES FOR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, THE APPLICATION OR THE SERVICES, INCLUDING DAMAGES CAUSED BY: (A) THE ERASURE OF ANY CONTENT BY A TIMER, BY ANOTHER USER, BY A DURESS PIN (A theSHFT PRO FEATURE), A PANIC WIPE, A SIGN OUT, AN ACCOUNT DELETION OR ANY OTHER ERASE FEATURE; (B) A LOST OR FORGOTTEN PIN OR RECOVERY PHRASE; (C) THE CONDUCT OR CONTENT OF ANY OTHER USER OR THIRD PARTY; (D) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO YOUR DEVICE, ACCOUNT OR CONTENT THAT WE DID NOT CAUSE; (E) ANY INTERRUPTION, DELAY OR FAILURE OF THE SERVICES OR OF ANY THIRD-PARTY SERVICE; OR (F) ANY ACTION WE TAKE IN GOOD FAITH TO COMPLY WITH THE LAW OR TO PROTECT THE SAFETY OF ANY PERSON, IN EACH CASE WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, STATUTE OR ANY OTHER THEORY, AND EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN TOLD SUCH DAMAGES WERE POSSIBLE.
29.2. CAP ON LIABILITY. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF ALL THE theSHFT PARTIES TOGETHER FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, THE APPLICATION OR THE SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR theSHFT PRO IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT THAT GAVE RISE TO THE CLAIM; AND (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (100 USD).
29.3. WHAT THIS SECTION DOES NOT LIMIT. NOTHING IN THESE TERMS EXCLUDES OR LIMITS ANY LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, INCLUDING, WHERE THE LAW SO PROVIDES, LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE, FOR FRAUD OR FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION, FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, FOR A VIOLATION OF LAW THAT THE LAW DOES NOT ALLOW US TO LIMIT (INCLUDING UNDER A PRIVACY OR DATA SECURITY STATUTE), OR FOR ANY RIGHT A CONSUMER HAS UNDER A STATUTE THAT CANNOT BE WAIVED BY CONTRACT.
29.4. BASIS OF THE BARGAIN. The Free tier of theSHFT is provided without charge and theSHFT Pro is priced on the basis of this allocation of risk. You agree that the disclaimers in Section 27 and the limits in this Section are a reasonable allocation of risk between you and us and are an essential part of the agreement, and that they apply even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose.
29.5. JURISDICTIONAL LIMITS. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions the exclusions and limits above apply to the fullest extent that law allows and no further.
30.1. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the theSHFT Parties from and against any third-party claim, demand, action, investigation or proceeding, and the resulting losses, damages, fines, penalties, judgments, settlements, costs and reasonable attorneys' fees, to the extent it arises out of: (a) content you create, send, post or share through the Services; (b) your violation of these Terms, the Community Guidelines or any law; (c) your violation of the rights of any other person, including intellectual property, privacy and publicity rights; or (d) the use of your account by another person with your permission or because of your failure to protect your PIN, device or Recovery Phrase.
30.2. You do not have to indemnify us for claims to the extent they arise from our own negligence, willful misconduct, fraud or breach of these Terms.
30.3. We will tell you promptly about any claim for which we seek indemnity, as far as we are able to reach you. We may choose to control the defense of the claim at our own expense, and you agree to cooperate reasonably. You may not settle a claim that imposes any obligation or admission on us without our written consent.
30.4. This Section does not apply to consumers in any jurisdiction where such an indemnity is not permitted, and it applies only to the extent the law allows.
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES YOU AND US TO RESOLVE MOST DISPUTES BY BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION INSTEAD OF IN COURT, WAIVES THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL, AND WAIVES THE RIGHT TO BRING OR TAKE PART IN A CLASS ACTION. YOU CAN OPT OUT WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS, AS SECTION 31.11 EXPLAINS.
Before either of us starts an arbitration or a small claims case, the party with the claim must send the other a written notice of the dispute and try in good faith to resolve it informally for sixty (60) days. A notice to us goes to support@theshft.app with the subject line "Notice of Dispute" and, if you want, by mail to theSHFT LLC, Attn: Legal, 212 W. Troy St., Ste B, Dothan, AL 36303, United States. Your notice must include your username, how we can reach you (an email address you choose to give us, or your username in the Application), a description of the dispute and the relief you want, and must be signed by you personally (a typed name is enough), not only by a lawyer. Because we do not have your email address or phone number unless you give them to us, a notice from us to you will be sent through the Application and, if you have given us an email address in connection with the dispute, to that address. If you ask, we will hold a call or video meeting with you (and your lawyer, if you have one) during the sixty (60) days. All statute of limitations periods and filing fee deadlines are paused (tolled) while the informal process is under way. A court may enforce this Section 31.1, and an arbitration provider may refuse or defer a demand filed without compliance with it.
You and theSHFT LLC agree that any dispute, claim or controversy between you and us that arises out of or relates in any way to these Terms, the Application, the Services, your account, any purchase, any communication from us or our relationship with you, whether based on contract, statute, regulation, ordinance, tort (including fraud, misrepresentation, negligence and product liability), or any other legal or equitable theory, and whether it arose before or after you agreed to these Terms (each, a "Dispute"), will be resolved by final and binding arbitration on an individual basis, except as Section 31.4 provides. The Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. 1 and following, governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Section 31, which is a transaction involving interstate commerce.
The arbitrator decides all issues about the Dispute and about this Section 31, including its scope, interpretation, applicability, enforceability, revocability and validity, except that a court of competent jurisdiction decides: (a) whether the class action waiver in Section 31.10 is valid or enforceable; (b) whether a claim qualifies for small claims court or for one of the other exceptions in Section 31.4; (c) disputes about compliance with Sections 31.1 and 31.8; and (d) whether a party has opted out under Section 31.11.
The following do not have to be arbitrated: (a) an individual claim that qualifies for and stays in small claims court, in the small claims court of the county where you live or, if you choose, in Houston County, Alabama; (b) a claim by either party to protect or enforce its copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets or patents; (c) a request for a public injunction, meaning injunctive relief whose primary purpose and effect is to prevent unlawful acts that threaten future injury to the general public, where applicable law does not allow that request to be waived or arbitrated, which will be heard by a court after the arbitration of all other claims and remedies (the court proceeding is stayed until then); and (d) a matter that a government agency brings on its own behalf, and any complaint you make to a government agency.
The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules and, where Section 31.8 applies, its Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules, each as in effect when the arbitration is filed and as modified by this Section 31 (the "AAA Rules"). The AAA Rules are available at www.adr.org or by calling the AAA at 1-800-778-7879. If the AAA is not available or refuses to administer the arbitration, the parties will agree on another established arbitration provider, or a court will appoint one. A party starts an arbitration by filing a demand with the AAA and sending a copy to the other party at the address in Section 31.1.
The arbitration will be heard by one neutral arbitrator. The arbitrator has the same power to award individual relief as a court would have and must follow these Terms and applicable law, including applicable statutes of limitations. The arbitrator may award declaratory or injunctive relief only in favor of the individual party seeking it and only as needed to provide relief on that party's individual claim. Unless you and we agree otherwise, any in person hearing will take place in the county where you live, or at another place we agree on; the arbitration may instead be decided on documents alone or by telephone or video conference, and for claims of ten thousand U.S. dollars (10,000 USD) or less you may choose which of those forms is used. The arbitrator will issue a written decision that states the essential findings and conclusions. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. An award has no effect on any other case or claim, except that an award between you and us may be relied on in a later dispute between you and us.
Payment of all filing, administration and arbitrator fees is governed by the AAA Rules, which limit the fees a consumer pays. We will pay any filing, administration and arbitrator fees above the amount the AAA Rules require you to pay. If the arbitrator finds that your claim or the relief you sought was frivolous or brought for an improper purpose under the standard in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b), the payment of fees will instead be governed by the AAA Rules and the arbitrator may reallocate them. Each party bears its own attorneys' fees and costs unless the claim is brought under a law that gives the prevailing party a right to recover them, in which case the arbitrator may award them as that law provides. We will not seek our attorneys' fees from you in an arbitration unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous under the standard above.
If twenty five (25) or more demands for arbitration that raise similar claims are filed against us or by us by the same or coordinated counsel or organizations, or are otherwise coordinated, within one hundred eighty (180) days (each, a "Mass Filing"), the following applies in addition to the AAA Rules, including the AAA Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules: (a) Staged proceedings. The parties' counsel will select, in good faith, up to ten (10) demands each to proceed first (up to twenty (20) in all) as a first stage, with one arbitrator for each demand unless the parties agree otherwise; the remaining demands are not filed or are held by the AAA, and no fees are due on them, until the first stage is complete. (b) Mediation. After the first stage, the parties will mediate all remaining demands in good faith for at least sixty (60) days with a mediator we pay for. (c) Later stages. If the remaining demands are not resolved, they will proceed in stages of up to one hundred (100) demands at a time, or a larger number if the parties agree, with the order chosen at random unless the parties agree otherwise, and fees will be charged only as each stage is filed. Each later stage will be filed within thirty (30) days after the previous stage is filed, not decided. If a demand has not been filed within three hundred sixty five (365) days after it was first submitted, the claimant may bring that claim in court. (d) No binding effect. The result of one arbitration does not bind any other claimant, and nothing in this Section 31.8 limits any claimant's right to individual discovery and an individual hearing under the AAA Rules. (e) Tolling. The statute of limitations for each demand held under this Section 31.8 is paused from the date the demand was first submitted until it is called for filing. (f) Opting out of stages. If a court decides that this Section 31.8 is unenforceable as to any demand, that demand will proceed under the AAA Rules alone, and this Section 31.8 still applies to the others. A court of competent jurisdiction may enforce this Section 31.8, including by an order requiring the parties to follow it.
Neither party may shift to the other its attorneys' fees, costs or arbitration fees except as Section 31.7 provides or a statute allows.
YOU AND WE EACH AGREE THAT A DISPUTE WILL BE RESOLVED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL PROCEEDING, IN ARBITRATION OR IN COURT. THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE MORE THAN ONE PERSON'S CLAIMS OR PRESIDE OVER ANY CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING, EXCEPT AS SECTION 31.8 PROVIDES FOR ADMINISTRATION ONLY. TO THE EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, YOU AND WE EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY FOR ANY DISPUTE, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR IN COURT, INCLUDING ANY CLAIM THAT PROCEEDS IN COURT UNDER THIS SECTION 31.
If a court decides that the class action waiver in this Section 31.10 cannot be enforced as to a particular claim or request for relief, then that claim or request (and only that one) will be severed and heard in court, after the arbitration of every other claim and request, and the court proceeding will be stayed until the arbitration is complete. The rest of this Section 31 still applies. If applicable law does not allow a waiver of representative claims under a statute (for example the California Private Attorneys General Act, to the extent it could apply), those claims will be stayed in court until your individual claims are arbitrated.
YOU MAY OPT OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE AND THE CLASS ACTION WAIVER BY SENDING US A WRITTEN NOTICE WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER YOU FIRST AGREE TO THESE TERMS (OR TO A VERSION OF THESE TERMS THAT FIRST CONTAINED AN AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE).
Send the notice to support@theshft.app with the subject line "Arbitration Opt Out", or by mail to the address in Section 31.1. The notice must include your username and a clear statement that you want to opt out of the agreement to arbitrate. You do not have to give your legal name or address to opt out; if we need to confirm that the request comes from the account holder, we will ask you to confirm it from inside the Application. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms, and it does not affect any agreement to arbitrate you have with us under an earlier opt out decision or a separate agreement. If you opt out, Section 32 decides where disputes are heard.
If we make a material change to this Section 31, the change will not apply to any Dispute that one of us has already notified the other about under Section 31.1 or that is already pending in arbitration or court, and you may reject the change by sending a notice under Section 31.11 within thirty (30) days after you accept the version of these Terms that contains the change; if you do, the version of this Section 31 you last agreed to continues to apply to you. If you opted out of an earlier version, you do not need to opt out again.
Except as Sections 31.8 and 31.10 provide, if any part of this Section 31 is found unenforceable, that part will be severed and the rest will remain in force. If the whole of this Section 31 is found unenforceable, or if you opted out, any Dispute will be heard in court under Section 32, and the jury trial waiver in Section 31.10 will still apply to the extent the law allows. This Section 31 survives the end of these Terms, the deletion of your account and the end of any subscription.
32.1. Governing Law. These Terms and any Dispute are governed by the laws of the State of Alabama, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 31. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. If you live outside the United States, or in a state whose consumer protection laws cannot be displaced by a choice of law, this choice of law does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory provisions of the law of the place where you live.
32.2. Courts. Any Dispute that is not arbitrated (because an exception in Section 31.4 applies, because you opted out, or because Section 31 is found not to apply) will be heard only in the state courts located in Houston County, Alabama, or the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, and you and we consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts, except that: (a) you may bring an individual claim in the small claims court of the county where you live; (b) if you are a consumer and applicable law gives you the right to sue in the courts of the place where you live, you keep that right; and (c) either party may seek emergency injunctive relief to protect its intellectual property or the security of the Services in any court of competent jurisdiction.
A claim must be brought within the time the applicable statute of limitations allows. These Terms do not shorten any limitation period, and the informal resolution period in Section 31.1 and any period in which a demand is held under Section 31.8 pause it as those Sections describe.
34.1. We are based in the United States and the Services are operated from the United States. We do not represent that the Services are appropriate, lawful or available in every country, and we may limit availability in any place.
34.2. If you use the Services from outside the United States, you are responsible for complying with local law, including laws on encryption, communications, recording, privacy and data export.
34.3. If you are a consumer who lives in a country whose law gives you rights that cannot be waived or limited by contract, nothing in these Terms takes away those rights. Where such a law does not allow the agreement to arbitrate, the class action waiver, the choice of law, the choice of courts or any disclaimer or limitation in Sections 27 to 30, that provision applies to you only to the extent that law allows.
34.4. theSHFT is not offered in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, and the Application is not available in the App Store there. If we offer it there in the future, we will update these Terms and the Privacy Policy first.
35.1. California. Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California users are entitled to the following consumer rights notice: the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (916) 445-1254 or (800) 952-5210. You may contact us about the Services at support@theshft.app. California residents may cancel a theSHFT Pro subscription online at any time through their Apple account, as Section 17.3 explains.
35.2. Automatic Renewal Laws. If you live in a state with an automatic renewal or continuous service law, the disclosures in Section 17 are made for the purposes of that law, and if that law gives you a right that Section 17 does not describe (for example a particular way to cancel or a notice before a price change or renewal), you have that right.
35.3. New Jersey. If you are a New Jersey resident, the following do not apply to you to the extent New Jersey law does not permit them: the limitation or exclusion of damages in Section 29 for losses caused by our negligence, gross negligence or willful misconduct; the exclusion of punitive damages; and the indemnity in Section 30 to the extent it would cover our own negligence. Nothing in these Terms limits any right you have under the New Jersey Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act.
35.4. Other States. Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, the limitation of incidental or consequential damages, or other limits in these Terms. If you live in such a state, those limits apply to you only as far as your state's law allows, and you may have other rights that vary from state to state.
If you downloaded the Application from the Apple App Store, the following terms apply in addition to the rest of these Terms and the EULA, and they control if there is a conflict:
37.1. The Application contains encryption. It is subject to U.S. export control laws, including the Export Administration Regulations (15 C.F.R. Parts 730 to 774), and to U.S. economic sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and it may be subject to the import and use laws of other countries. Our position is that the Application is a mass market encryption item under the Export Administration Regulations; the Application is not a defense article.
37.2. You represent and warrant that: (a) you are not located in, ordinarily resident in, or organized under the laws of, any country or region subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions or embargo (as of the Last Updated date these include Cuba, Iran, North Korea and the Crimea, so-called Donetsk People's Republic and so-called Luhansk People's Republic regions of Ukraine, and they may change); (b) you are not a person listed on, or owned or controlled by a person listed on, any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties, including the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, the Entity List and the Denied Persons List; and (c) you will not use, export, re-export or transfer the Application in violation of these laws, or for any purpose they prohibit, including the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or missiles.
37.3. You agree to tell us promptly if any of these representations stops being true, and we may suspend or end your access if we believe your use would violate these laws.
The Application and its documentation are "commercial products" and "commercial computer software" and "commercial computer software documentation" as those terms are used in 48 C.F.R. 2.101, 12.212 and 227.7202. Any U.S. Government end user acquires the Application only with the rights set out in these Terms and the EULA, as provided in 48 C.F.R. 12.212 and 48 C.F.R. 227.7202-1 to 227.7202-4.
39.1. We may change these Terms from time to time, for example when we add or change features, when the law changes, or to make them clearer. The "Last Updated" date and the version number at the top show when they last changed.
39.2. If a change is material, we will tell you in the Application before it takes effect and ask you to accept the new version; if you accepted an earlier version, the new version applies to you from when you accept it. Until you accept it, the Application shows the notice, and you can read the new version, answer a call or sign out, but cannot use the rest of the Application. If you do not want to accept it, you may stop using the Services and email support@theshft.app to delete your Account; if you pay for theSHFT Pro, cancel it in your Apple account settings, and we will support a refund request for the unused period. A change that is required by law, or that is needed to address a security or safety risk, may take effect sooner, and we will tell you as soon as we reasonably can.
39.3. Changes are not retroactive. A change does not apply to a Dispute that arose, or that one of us notified the other about, before the change took effect. This Section 39.3 does not limit Section 31.2; Section 31 applies to Disputes as Sections 31.2 and 31.12 state, and Section 31.12 describes how changes to the agreement to arbitrate work.
39.4. If you do not agree to a change, you must stop using the Services and may delete your account; if you have a theSHFT Pro subscription, you should also cancel it in your Apple account settings.
40.1. Consent to Electronic Communications. You agree that we may give you these Terms, the Privacy Policy, notices, disclosures and other communications electronically, in the Application, on our website or, if you have given us an email address for a particular purpose, by email to that address, and that these electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that a communication be in writing. You may keep a copy of these Terms by printing or saving the version on our website at https://theshft.app/terms (screenshots of the Application come out blank). You may ask us for a paper copy at support@theshft.app at no charge. To receive electronic communications you need a Device that runs the Application, or a web browser for our website. You may withdraw this consent by deleting your Account; because the Services are provided only electronically, withdrawing consent ends your use of them.
40.2. How We Reach You. We do not ask for your email address or phone number. Our notices to you will usually be shown in the Application (for example as a notice or a sheet you must acknowledge) or posted on our website. A notice shown in the Application is given when it is first available to you in the Application.
40.3. How You Reach Us. Legal notices to us must be sent to support@theshft.app and, where a physical address is required, by mail to theSHFT LLC, Attn: Legal, 212 W. Troy St., Ste B, Dothan, AL 36303, United States. A notice to us is given when we receive it.
40.4. Electronic Signatures. Your acceptance of these Terms in the Application is an electronic signature and has the same effect as a signature on paper. We keep a record of the versions you accepted, the time and the screen you accepted on, on your device and in your account, and our servers keep a separate acceptance record, as the Privacy Policy describes, including for seven (7) years after your account is deleted.
41.1. Entire Agreement and Order of Precedence. These Terms, together with the documents listed in Section 3.2, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Services and replace any earlier agreement about them. If these Terms conflict with the EULA or a policy listed in Section 3.2, these Terms control, except that Section 36 controls with respect to Apple. These Terms control over the Privacy Policy on any question of rights or remedies.
41.2. Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted and the rest of these Terms will remain in force, except as Sections 31.8, 31.10 and 31.13 provide for the agreement to arbitrate.
41.3. No Waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later. A waiver is effective only if it is in writing and signed by us.
41.4. Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account. We may assign or transfer these Terms, in whole or in part, to an affiliate or to a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets or by operation of law, provided the successor agrees to be bound by them; we will tell you in the Application if that happens, and the Privacy Policy describes what happens to your information.
41.5. Force Majeure. We are not responsible for a failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, fire, flood, war, terrorism, civil unrest, epidemics, government action, labor disputes, failures of power, the internet or telecommunications, failures or outages of our service providers (such as Apple, Google Cloud, our call provider or our push notification providers), and cyberattacks we could not reasonably prevent. This Section does not excuse your obligation to pay for anything you purchased.
41.6. Relationship. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, agency or fiduciary relationship between you and us.
41.7. Third-Party Beneficiaries. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries as Section 36 states, and the theSHFT Parties may rely on Sections 27 to 30. There are no other third-party beneficiaries.
41.8. Interpretation. Headings are for convenience only. "Including" means "including without limitation." "Days" means calendar days. The words "we," "us" and "our" refer to theSHFT LLC.
41.9. Language. These Terms are written in English. A translation is for convenience only, and the English version controls if they differ, unless the law where you live requires otherwise.
41.10. Survival. Sections that by their nature should survive the end of these Terms survive, including those listed in Section 26.7.
41.11. Cumulative Remedies. Our rights and remedies under these Terms are in addition to any other rights and remedies we have under law.
For questions about these Terms, legal notices, arbitration notices and opt outs, copyright and trademark notices, intimate image removal requests, safety reports and anything else about the Services:
theSHFT LLC, Attn: Legal, 212 W. Troy St., Ste B, Dothan, AL 36303, United States
Email: support@theshft.app
Copyright agent: see our DMCA Policy (U.S. Copyright Office registration DMCA-1079621)
Website: https://theshft.app
We aim to acknowledge legal notices within ten (10) business days. This is a goal, not a promise of any particular response time, except where the law sets a deadline.
BY TAPPING TO AGREE IN THE APPLICATION, OR BY USING THE SERVICES AFTER THESE TERMS ARE SHOWN TO YOU, YOU CONFIRM THAT YOU HAVE READ AND AGREE TO THESE TERMS, INCLUDING THE AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE AND THE CLASS ACTION AND JURY TRIAL WAIVERS IN SECTION 31, WHICH YOU MAY OPT OUT OF WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS.