Terms of Service

Welcome

These terms are the agreement between you and the maker of Dots. By installing or using the app, you accept them. They are written to be read once, not negotiated, but if anything is unclear, the email address at the bottom is real.

Who you are agreeing with

Dots is operated by Daniel Catinella, an individual developer in New York, United States. References to "Dots", "we", "us", and "our" mean that developer. References to "you" mean the person using the app.

Eligibility

You must be at least sixteen years old to use Dots. If you are between sixteen and the age of majority where you live, you confirm that a parent or legal guardian has reviewed and accepted these terms on your behalf.

What we are giving you

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use Dots on devices you own or control, for your own non-commercial use of remembering and nurturing real-life relationships. You do not need to pay us for this license today. If we add paid features, we will tell you in advance, and the price will be clear before you tap to subscribe.

You may not:

• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the app
• Resell the app, white-label it, or pass it off as your own
• Use Dots to build a competing product
• Use Dots in ways that violate the law

If you got Dots from the App Store

If you downloaded Dots from the Apple App Store, your use of the app is also governed by Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement. These Terms add to that agreement. Where the two conflict, Apple's EULA controls only as needed to satisfy Apple's requirements.

You and we acknowledge that:

• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for Dots
• Any product warranty claim must be directed to us, not Apple
• Apple is not responsible for any third-party claim that Dots infringes intellectual property
• Apple is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms with the right to enforce them against you

Your content stays yours

Everything you put into Dots — the people, the dots, the dates, the notes, and the photos you import — belongs to you. We do not claim ownership of any of it. We do not have a copy of it on our servers, because we do not run servers that hold your data.

When you sync through iCloud, you are using Apple's CloudKit service to store and sync that content for you. That arrangement is between you and Apple under their iCloud terms.

How to use Dots well

Dots is built to help you be thoughtful about people in your life. It is not built for surveillance, harassment, or data collection on others. By using the app you agree:

• You will only enter information about people you actually know in some real capacity
• You will not use Dots to track, stalk, harass, or harm anyone
• You will not share another person's information from Dots without their consent in contexts where they would expect privacy
• You will respect the laws of your country regarding personal data, even when the data is sitting on your own phone

Our brand and our work

The name "Dots", the logo, the look and feel of the interface, and the underlying code are ours and protected by copyright and trademark law. The license above does not transfer any of that to you. You are welcome to take screenshots, write about the app, and recommend it to friends. You may not copy the brand or the design for your own product.

Updates to the app

We will improve Dots over time. New versions may add features, change behavior, or remove things that did not work. Where a change would meaningfully affect how the app handles your data, we will say so. iOS may also update the app automatically based on your settings.

Disclaimers

Dots is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not promise the app will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will preserve your data forever. We strongly recommend using the in-app export feature to keep your own backup of anything important to you.

To the maximum extent allowed by law, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including lost data or lost relationships, arising out of your use of the app. Our total liability to you for any claim arising out of these terms or your use of Dots will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for the app in the twelve months before the claim, or (b) twenty US dollars.

Some jurisdictions do not allow these limits. In those places, our liability will be limited to the smallest amount permitted by law.

Termination

You can stop using Dots at any time by deleting the app. We can terminate or suspend access to the app, or to specific features, at our discretion, for example if continued use would harm you or someone else, or if a service we depend on goes away. The sections of these terms that should reasonably survive termination will survive.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The exclusive courts for any dispute that is not resolved informally are the state and federal courts located in New York County, New York, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

If you live in a jurisdiction that gives you mandatory consumer rights that override this clause, those rights still apply.

Changes to these terms

We may revise these terms over time. If a change is material, we will surface it inside the app or update the effective date at the top of this page. Continuing to use Dots after a change means you accept the revised terms.