Terms of Service

1. The Service

Etch is a legacy-building application that prompts you with daily questions, transcribes voice recordings of your answers, and stores the resulting text in your private vault. Audio recordings are held temporarily for transcription, converted to text, and then discarded — we do not retain audio files. We do retain your transcripts and related entry metadata so the Service can operate.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction) to use the Service. By using Etch you represent that you meet this requirement.

3. Accounts

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorized use. Accounts are for individual personal use — you may not share your account with others.

4. Your Content

You retain full ownership of the transcripts, questions, and any other content you create through the Service (“Your Content”).

You grant us a limited, revocable license to store, process, and display Your Content solely for the purpose of operating and improving the Service on your behalf (including generating personalized follow-up questions and, for Pro accounts, AI-polished transcripts). We will not sell or publicly distribute Your Content.

You are responsible for Your Content and represent that you have the right to share it with the Service.

5. Subscriptions, Billing, and Cancellation

Etch offers a free tier and paid “Pro” plans, currently:

• Pro Monthly — $12.99 USD per month
• Pro Annual — $99 USD per year
• Lifetime — $249 USD one-time (see Section 6)

Paid plans are billed in advance through our payment processor, Stripe. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until canceled. You may cancel at any time from the billing portal; cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period, and you will retain Pro access until that date. We do not provide refunds for partial billing periods except where required by applicable law.

We may change prices for new subscribers at any time. Existing subscribers will continue at their original price until they cancel or materially change their plan. We will give at least 30 days' notice before applying a price change to an existing recurring subscription.

6. Lifetime Access

“Lifetime” means access to the then-current Etch Pro feature set for as long as the Service remains in operation, subject to these Terms (including the Fair Use Policy in Section 7). Lifetime access is not a guarantee that the Service will operate indefinitely. If we discontinue the Service in its entirety, we will provide reasonable advance notice and, where practical, the ability to export Your Content before shutdown. Lifetime access is non-transferable and tied to your individual account.

7. Fair Use Policy

Etch Pro plans are offered for personal, non-commercial use by a single individual. We reserve the right to throttle, suspend, or terminate accounts whose usage substantially exceeds typical patterns, including (without limitation) automated or scripted recording, account sharing, commercial or business use, or sustained audio recording volumes materially above the average active user.

As a safeguard, the Service enforces a daily audio transcription cap per account. We will endeavor to notify you before taking any enforcement action, except in cases of severe or malicious abuse. This policy applies equally to monthly, annual, and lifetime plans.

8. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to:

• use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law or regulation;
• upload content that infringes the rights of others, is defamatory, or is otherwise unlawful;
• attempt to reverse-engineer, probe, or disrupt the Service or its underlying infrastructure;
• use automated means (bots, scrapers) to interact with the Service except as expressly permitted;
• resell, sublicense, or otherwise commercialize access to the Service.

9. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time by deleting your account. We may suspend or terminate your access at any time for violation of these Terms, suspected fraud, or to comply with legal obligations. Upon termination, your license to use the Service ends; we will make reasonable efforts to allow you to export Your Content before permanently deleting it from our systems, typically within 30 days.

10. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, that transcriptions will be perfectly accurate, or that AI-generated content will be correct or suitable for any particular purpose.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Etch, its officers, directors, employees, or affiliates be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenues, data, or goodwill, arising out of or in connection with your use of the Service. Our aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the Service shall not exceed the greater of (a) $100 USD, or (b) the amounts you paid us in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Etch from any claims, losses, liabilities, damages, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (i) your use of the Service, (ii) Your Content, or (iii) your violation of these Terms.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email or through the Service at least 14 days before the change takes effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of the updated Terms constitutes your acceptance of the changes.

14. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws provisions. Any dispute arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in those courts.

15. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us at hello@myetch.app.