Terms of Service

01Agreement to these terms

By creating a Cipher account or using the service, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use Cipher. These terms exist to be clear about what Cipher does, what you are responsible for, and the limits of what we can do.

02Your account and your recovery phrase

A Cipher account is created from a recovery phrase generated on your device. There is no password and no phone number. The recovery phrase is the only way to restore your account on a new device.

You are solely responsible for safeguarding your recovery phrase. We never receive a copy, cannot show it to you again, and cannot reset it. If you lose your recovery phrase and your device, your account and its data are permanently lost. We cannot recover them. This is a deliberate property of the design, not a malfunction.

03What we can and cannot do

Privacy is not promised. It is structured. Promises are not the same as technical reality, so here is the reality:

• We cannot read your messages or calls — they are end-to-end encrypted with keys we never hold.
• We cannot recover your account, your messages, or your keys if you lose your recovery phrase and device.
• We cannot proactively monitor content. We rely on user reports to act on abuse.
• We can suspend or terminate accounts that violate the Acceptable Use Policy, based on credible reports.

04Acceptable use

Your use of Cipher is governed by our Acceptable Use Policy, incorporated into these terms by reference. In short: do not use Cipher to harm others. Prohibited activity includes child sexual abuse material, credible threats of violence, harassment, and illegal activity. Violations can result in immediate termination.

05Subscriptions and payment

Paid tiers are billed through the App Store or Play Store under their terms. Cipher receives only a signed receipt confirming a valid subscription, with no billing identity attached. Prices, inclusions, and metered rates are described on our pricing page and may change with notice.

06Service availability

We work to keep Cipher reliable but provide the service on an 'as available' basis. We may modify or discontinue features, and we will give reasonable notice of material changes where we can.

07Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Cipher is provided without warranties of any kind, and our liability is limited as set out here. In particular, because of the non-custodial design, we are not liable for data loss resulting from a lost recovery phrase — this is an inherent and disclosed characteristic of the service.

08Changes and contact

We may update these terms; material changes will be communicated in advance, not silently. This is a pre-launch draft and will be finalized with legal counsel before general availability. Questions can be directed to the contact channels published at launch.