01Agreement and who provides the Services
These Terms form an agreement between you and City of Hats Inc., an Ontario, Canada corporation. They apply to the City of Hats website, web and installed apps, APIs, secure communication features, CHECK Intelligence, Agent, paid plans, venue products and integrations (the Services). Our Privacy Policy explains personal-information practices and is incorporated by reference.
By accessing or using a Service, creating an account, creating or accepting a Hat, or purchasing a plan, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services. An order form, data-processing addendum, service-level agreement or other signed business agreement may add or replace terms for that customer; the signed document controls where it expressly conflicts.
Back to top ↑02Eligibility and organizational authority
You must be at least 18 and able to form a binding contract. The general-audience Services are not directed to children. A managed school or similar deployment involving minors requires a separate written arrangement, lawful authority and age-appropriate safeguards.
If you use the Services for a company, school, clinic, hotel, law firm, public body or other organization, you represent that you are authorized to accept these Terms for it. The organization is responsible for its authorized users and for lawful instructions, notices, consents, recordkeeping and access controls.
Back to top ↑03Accounts, Hats and credentials
Some features can be used with a pseudonymous Hat and no phone number. Other features require an account. Available sign-in methods may include a City of Hats username and passphrase, email code, Apple or Google. You must provide accurate information where requested and must not create a misleading official or organizational identity.
Keep passphrases, recovery keys, device links, session tokens, API keys and Hat identifiers secure. You are responsible for activity reasonably attributable to your account or device until you notify us of suspected compromise. Recovery may be impossible if you lose required cryptographic or recovery material; City of Hats may not possess a copy.
Back to top ↑04Your right to use the Services
Subject to these Terms, City of Hats grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right to use the Services for their intended purpose during the applicable term. You may not copy, rent, sell, sublicense, scrape, circumvent access controls, reverse engineer except where law expressly permits, or use non-public interfaces without written authorization.
Documentation, designs, software, trademarks and other Service materials are owned by City of Hats or its licensors. No rights are granted by implication. Open-source components remain governed by their stated licences.
Back to top ↑05Acceptable use
You may use the Services only lawfully and in a way that respects the rights and safety of others. You must not use, encourage or help others to use the Services to:
- Threaten, harass, stalk, exploit, defraud, coerce, defame or impersonate a person or organization, or promote violence or abuse.
- Create, possess, request, distribute or facilitate content or conduct that is unlawful, sexually exploits a minor, violates privacy or intellectual-property rights, or breaches a duty of confidence.
- Distribute malware, credentials obtained without authority, exploit code intended for abuse, spam or deceptive bulk communications.
- Gain unauthorized access, probe or disrupt systems, evade rate limits or safety controls, interfere with other users, or overload infrastructure.
- Use bots, scraping, automated account or Hat creation, resale, credential sharing or undocumented APIs unless City of Hats authorizes it in writing.
- Use CHECK, Agent or intelligence data to discriminate, stalk, dox, make unauthorized employment or credit decisions, or search information without a lawful purpose.
- Misrepresent a Hat as verified, official, affiliated or endorsed, or use an integration in violation of the third party's rules.
- Circumvent a lawful order or legal recordkeeping duty that applies to you. Ephemeral features do not excuse you from preserving records you are legally required to keep.
Back to top ↑06Your content and permissions
You retain ownership of content you submit. You give City of Hats a limited, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, transmit, transform and display that content only as needed to provide, secure, support and improve the selected Service, comply with your settings and instructions, and meet legal obligations. This licence ends when the content is deleted from active systems, subject to backups, legal retention and rights already exercised.
You represent that you have the rights, authority and lawful basis needed for the content and personal information you submit, including information about another person. You control who receives a Hat, code or public link. A recipient may preserve content outside the Services despite expiration, burn, view-once, anti-screenshot or similar controls.
Back to top ↑07Secure communications and cryptographic limits
Ordinary Hat-to-Hat content is designed for client-side encryption. Our current technical claims, evidence, audit status and limitations are published in the Security Evidence Center and Technical Transparency page. Those materials describe what our servers can and cannot see and are more specific than marketing summaries.
Encryption does not guarantee that a contact is who you think, that a device is uncompromised, that metadata is hidden, that delivery succeeds, or that a recipient will not copy or disclose content. Public pages, bots, translation, CHECK, Agent, system messages, venue workflows and third-party integrations may operate outside the ordinary encrypted path. Use the threat model and feature disclosure appropriate to the communication.
Dead Drops, disposable Hats, burn, expiry, sealed and view-limited modes are not archival storage. Do not use them as the only copy of information you must keep. Destruction and recovery behavior depends on the feature, device, recipient actions and backup lifecycle.
Back to top ↑08Calls, notifications and device permissions
Voice and video features use call signaling, LiveKit or network relay infrastructure, device permissions and push services. Connection data can reveal participant Hat identifiers, timing, network information and call state even when media transport is encrypted. Calls can fail or be relayed depending on network conditions.
You must obtain any consent required before recording a call, sharing a screen, enabling a microphone or camera around another person, or transmitting regulated or confidential information. City of Hats does not provide emergency calling, telephone-number service or guaranteed call availability.
Back to top ↑09CHECK, Agent, translation and automated output
CHECK and Agent may process a query through City of Hats and third-party data or AI providers. Optional translation currently sends requested text to OpenAI through our translation endpoint. Do not submit secrets, personal information or third-party data unless needed and lawful for that feature.
Intelligence, risk scores, breach matches, translations and AI output can be incomplete, inaccurate, outdated, offensive or falsely associated with a person. They are informational, not professional advice, a guarantee, or proof of wrongdoing. Verify important findings with authoritative sources and qualified professionals. You must not use automated output as the sole basis for decisions that significantly affect a person.
Back to top ↑10Venues, business workflows and integrations
A customer configuring a venue, clinic, school, hospitality, legal, intake or unified-inbox workflow controls its notices, users, records, retention, permissions and legal basis. City of Hats is not the customer's licensed professional and does not determine the substance of medical, educational, legal, employment or hospitality decisions.
LINE, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple, Google and other integrations are separate services with their own terms, privacy practices, availability and technical limits. You authorize the information exchange needed when you connect one. City of Hats is not responsible for an external service's acts, content, security, suspension, rule changes or outage.
Back to top ↑11Paid plans, renewals and taxes
Prices, currency, included features, billing interval and renewal terms are shown at checkout or in an order form. Subscriptions renew automatically for the disclosed period until cancelled. You authorize the applicable payment provider to charge the selected method, including taxes where required.
Cancel through the account, Stripe portal or app store used to purchase. Cancellation normally takes effect at the end of the paid period unless law or the checkout terms say otherwise. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription. We may change pricing or plan features with advance notice reasonably required by law and the payment platform.
Back to top ↑12Refunds and consumer rights
Except where the checkout terms, an order form or mandatory law provides otherwise, charges are non-refundable and unused time or credits have no cash value. Purchases made through Apple, Google or Microsoft are subject to that store's billing and refund process; City of Hats may be unable to issue the refund directly.
Nothing in these Terms limits a non-waivable consumer guarantee, cancellation right, statutory warranty or remedy. If a mandatory rule conflicts with these Terms, the mandatory rule controls for that user.
Back to top ↑13Availability, changes and beta features
We work to keep the Services available but do not promise uninterrupted, error-free, loss-free or secure operation. Maintenance, capacity, abuse response, provider outages, legal requirements and product changes can affect availability. Free Services have no service-level agreement. A signed SLA applies only to the customer and Services it identifies.
We may add, modify, limit or discontinue a feature. For a material reduction to an active paid plan, we will provide reasonable notice where practicable and any remedy required by law or the applicable agreement. Beta, preview and experimental features may change or end without notice and are provided for evaluation.
Back to top ↑14Suspension, termination and account deletion
You may stop using the Services and may request account deletion. Subscription cancellation is separate from deletion. We may restrict, suspend or terminate access when reasonably necessary to address a breach, legal requirement, security risk, non-payment, abuse, harm to others or material risk to the Services. Where appropriate, we will give notice and a chance to cure.
On termination, your licence ends and access may stop immediately. Content and account records are handled under the Privacy Policy and feature lifecycle. Sections that by nature should survive—including ownership, payment obligations, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, disputes and general terms—continue after termination.
Back to top ↑15Feedback and public references
If you voluntarily provide suggestions or feedback, you grant City of Hats a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free right to use it without restriction or compensation, without identifying you unless you agree. We will not publicly use a business customer's name, logo or case study as an endorsement without permission, except for a factual customer list where a signed agreement allows it.
Back to top ↑16Third-party content and links
The Services may display third-party data, links, integrations, app-store materials or user content. City of Hats does not endorse or control it and is not responsible for its accuracy, legality, availability or practices. Access it at your own risk and under the third party's terms.
Back to top ↑17Disclaimers
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available.” City of Hats disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement and any warranty arising from course of dealing. We do not warrant that a security control prevents every incident, that intelligence is accurate, that encryption or deletion is absolute, or that the Services satisfy a particular regulatory duty.
You remain responsible for your threat model, backups, legal and regulatory obligations, device security, recipient selection and professional review. Some jurisdictions do not allow particular exclusions, so they apply only to the extent lawful.
Back to top ↑18Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, City of Hats and its affiliates, officers, employees, contractors and licensors will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, goodwill or business interruption, arising from the Services even if advised of the possibility.
Our aggregate liability arising from or relating to the Services will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid City of Hats for the affected Service during the 12 months before the event or CAD $100. This limit does not apply where prohibited, including liability that cannot lawfully be limited. A signed business agreement may state a different cap for that customer.
Back to top ↑19Indemnity
If you use the Services for a business or organization, that entity will defend and indemnify City of Hats and its affiliates, officers, employees and contractors against third-party claims, losses and reasonable costs arising from its unlawful content, violation of these Terms, infringement of another's rights or misuse of the Services. This does not apply to the extent caused by City of Hats. Consumer users are responsible only to the extent permitted by applicable law. We will provide reasonable notice and control of the defence, subject to our right to participate.
Back to top ↑20Export, sanctions and local law
You must comply with laws that apply to your use, including export controls, sanctions, privacy, communications, records, encryption and content laws. You represent that you are not prohibited from receiving the Services and will not export, re-export or provide them in violation of applicable restrictions.
Back to top ↑21Governing law and disputes
Before filing a claim, please contact legal@cityofhats.com and allow 30 days for an informal resolution, unless urgent relief or a limitation period requires faster action. These Terms are governed by the laws of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable there, without regard to conflict rules or the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.
Subject to mandatory consumer law, the courts located in Ottawa, Ontario have exclusive jurisdiction. You and City of Hats consent to those courts. This section does not prevent either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief in a court with jurisdiction or from using an applicable small-claims or consumer process.
Back to top ↑22Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms to reflect changes to law, providers, security, pricing or the Services. We will post the revised version and effective date and provide additional notice for material changes. If required, we will ask for acceptance. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms; if you do not agree, stop using the Services and cancel any affected subscription.
Back to top ↑23General terms
These Terms and incorporated agreements are the entire agreement for their subject. If a provision is unenforceable, it will be limited or removed only as necessary and the remainder continues. A failure to enforce is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; City of Hats may assign them in a merger, financing, reorganization or sale of relevant assets. Neither party is liable for delay caused by events beyond reasonable control, except payment obligations.
The parties are independent contractors. These Terms do not create a partnership, agency, employment or third-party beneficiary relationship. Headings are for convenience. Electronic notices and signatures may be used.
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