Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) govern your use of the Footnote browser extension, the website at myfootnote.app, and every related service, feature and communication (together, the “Service”). By installing the extension, creating an account, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which is part of them. If you don’t agree, don’t install or use the Service.

“Footnote,” “we,” “us” and “our” mean the operator of the Service (currently its founder, doing business as Footnote) and any company to which the Service or these Terms are later transferred. These Terms replace any earlier terms, including the version shown inside older releases of the extension.

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. You may not use the Service if you are barred from doing so under United States law or the law of your country, or if we have previously suspended or banned you.
• You sign in with a Google account. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account, and for keeping your Google account secure. Tell us right away at legal@myfootnote.app if you believe someone else has used your account.
• Each account is for one person. Don’t share, sell, rent or transfer your account, and don’t create accounts to get around limits, suspensions or bans.
• Your display name must follow Section 8. We may change or reset a display name that breaks these Terms, for example one that impersonates someone.

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and revocable license to install and use the extension on devices you own or control, solely to use the Service.

• Updates. The extension may update automatically through the Chrome Web Store. Some features may need the latest version, and older versions may stop working.
• Permissions. The extension needs access to the pages you visit so it can show the Footnote panel beside them. Our Privacy Policy explains what it sends to us.
• Google. You get the extension through the Chrome Web Store, and you sign in with Google. Google is not a party to these Terms and has no obligation to support the Service. Your use of Google’s products is governed by Google’s own terms, and you must also follow the Chrome Web Store’s terms.
• You can stop using the Service at any time by uninstalling the extension.

Footnote shows notes and discussions in your browser alongside pages from other websites (“third-party sites”). Footnote is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any third-party site unless we say so expressly. Comments about a site are written by Footnote users, not by the site or its owner, and don’t represent their views. Names, logos and trademarks of third-party sites belong to their owners; their appearance in Footnote doesn’t imply any endorsement.

We don’t control third-party sites and aren’t responsible for their content, accuracy, availability, privacy practices or security, or for how they work with the extension. Some sites may not display correctly while Footnote is running.

If you own a website and have concerns about discussions on your pages, contact us at legal@myfootnote.app. See also Section 10.

Your private notes are encrypted on your device before they are sent to us, with a key kept in your browser’s extension storage and, if you turn on notes sync, in a hidden Footnote folder in your own Google Drive, so that signing in on another browser unlocks your notes there (our Privacy Policy and Questions & answers explain how). Your key never passes through our servers, and we store only the encrypted note, so we cannot access or read your notes.

• We can’t recover notes. Because we never have your key, we cannot reset, recover or decrypt your notes. If every copy of your key is lost (for example, if you delete Footnote’s data from your Google Drive and clear the extension’s data in every browser), your notes may be permanently unreadable. You are responsible for keeping your own backups; notes export is available on some tiers.
• Notes sync depends on Google. It uses Google Drive under your agreement with Google. If Google changes, limits or ends that access, or your account’s administrator blocks it, notes sync may stop working, and notes saved in other browsers may not open until it works again.
• What isn’t encrypted. To show each note on the right page, we store the address (URL) of every page you keep a note on, and when each note was saved, in readable form, along with your account information.
• Not a vault. Do not store passwords, financial account details, government identification, health information, confidential business information, or any other sensitive or regulated information in Footnote. We make no guarantee about the confidentiality, integrity or availability of your notes.
• Your notes must still follow the law and these Terms, and you are responsible for them.

Comments, replies and votes are public. Your comments and replies, your display name, your profile picture and the time you post are visible to everyone who uses Footnote on that page, and they are available through our public interfaces. Your votes, and the account that cast them, can also be seen by others. Anyone may view, copy, quote or share what you post publicly, and search engines or other services may index or archive it.

You can delete your own comments. Deleted and hidden content may remain in backups, in archives we keep for moderation, safety and legal purposes, and in copies others have made. Please think before you post.

You keep ownership of the content you create with the Service (“Your Content”).

Public content. For comments, replies, votes, display names and other content you make public, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable and sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, display, publish, distribute, adapt, format, translate, excerpt, create derivative works from, and otherwise use that content, in any media now known or later developed, to operate, provide, improve and promote the Service. This license continues after you delete content or stop using the Service, except where the law requires otherwise.

Private notes. For your encrypted notes, you grant us only the rights we need to store, transmit, sync, back up and delete the encrypted data in order to provide the Service to you.

• You confirm that you own or have all rights needed to post Your Content, and that it doesn’t violate these Terms, the law, or anyone’s rights.
• To the extent the law allows, you waive any moral rights you may have in Your Content as it is used under this license.
• We have no obligation to store, keep or display any content, and we may remove or refuse content at any time.
• Feedback. If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them freely, without obligation or payment to you.

You agree not to use the Service to, or to help anyone else to:

• break the law, or promote or facilitate illegal activity;
• harass, bully, threaten, stalk or intimidate anyone, incite violence, or encourage self-harm;
• attack or demean people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age or other protected characteristics;
• post sexually explicit material, graphic violence or gore, or any content that sexualizes minors (we report child sexual abuse material to the authorities);
• post someone else’s private or personal information, or intimate images of anyone without their consent;
• impersonate any person, organization, website owner or domain manager, or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone;
• post spam, advertising, promotions, affiliate links, chain letters or pyramid schemes, or post the same content repeatedly;
• post content you don’t have the right to share, including material that infringes copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets or other rights, or information you’re obliged to keep confidential;
• post false or misleading content meant to deceive, defraud or manipulate, including false statements of fact about people or businesses;
• manipulate discussions or votes, including with multiple accounts, coordinated or automated voting, or buying, selling or trading votes, accounts or moderation;
• get around daily limits, access tiers, suspensions, bans or moderation decisions, including by creating new accounts;
• upload or link to malware, phishing pages or other harmful code;
• scrape, crawl or harvest data from the Service, access it other than through the extension and website as intended (including by calling our servers or database directly), or use data from the Service to build a competing product;
• probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Service, bypass its security, authentication or rate limits, or access data that isn’t meant for you (if you find a security problem, report it to legal@myfootnote.app and don’t access anyone else’s data);
• reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or modify the Service or extension, except where the law allows it despite this restriction;
• interfere with or disrupt the Service, or put an unreasonable load on it;
• sell, resell, sublicense or otherwise commercially exploit the Service without our written permission; or
• use the Service in violation of the Chrome Web Store’s policies or the terms of any third-party site.

We may, at our sole discretion, at any time and without notice or liability: review, hide, remove or refuse any content; limit or disable features; change or revoke access tiers and domain-manager roles; suspend or terminate accounts; and report activity to law enforcement or other authorities.

• We have no obligation to monitor or pre-screen content, and we don’t endorse any user content. Content on the Service is the responsibility of the person who posted it.
• A hidden comment remains visible to its author and to moderators and can be restored. A deleted comment is removed from public view permanently.
• We are not required to explain our decisions. You may ask us to review a decision by writing to legal@myfootnote.app, but we have no obligation to change it.
• To report content that breaks these Terms, write to legal@myfootnote.app with the page address and the content concerned.

We may appoint people or organizations, typically a website’s owner, as “domain managers” for a domain. A domain manager can hide, unhide and delete comments posted on pages of that domain and its subdomains. Appointments are at our sole discretion, may be temporary, and may later be offered as a paid feature.

• Comments you post on a managed domain may be hidden or deleted by its domain manager without notice to you. Domain managers may apply standards stricter than ours, as long as they follow these Terms and the law.
• Domain managers are not our employees, agents or representatives, and their decisions are their own. We are not responsible for what domain managers do, and we may review or reverse their decisions or revoke their role at any time.

If you are a domain manager, you also agree that:

• you have the authority to act for the domain, or its owner has authorized you, and you will tell us promptly if that changes;
• you will moderate in good faith and in line with these Terms and the law, and won’t use moderation to harass, retaliate, discriminate unlawfully, or suggest that Footnote endorses your views;
• you will use information visible to you as a moderator, including hidden comments, only to moderate;
• you are solely responsible for your moderation decisions and will indemnify us for claims arising from them (Section 18); and
• any fees for domain management will be governed by Section 12 and any additional terms we agree with you.

• Every account is on an access tier (currently Free, Pro or Elite). Each tier has daily limits on notes and comments and may include other features. Daily limits reset at midnight UTC.
• We may create, change or discontinue tiers, limits and features at any time.
• A tier we grant you (other than through a paid plan) is at our discretion. It may end on a stated date or be revoked at any time, has no cash value, and can’t be transferred.
• Getting around limits is prohibited (Section 8).

Paid plans aren’t currently offered. When they are, these terms will apply to them:

• Billing. Payments are processed by our payment processor (currently Stripe). You authorize us and our processor to charge your chosen payment method for the plan you select, plus any applicable taxes, and you agree to keep your billing information current.
• Automatic renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period, at the then-current price, until you cancel. We will show the price, billing frequency and renewal terms before you subscribe, and send renewal reminders where the law requires.
• Cancellation. You can cancel online at any time from your account. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you keep paid features until then, and then move to the default tier.
• Refunds. Except where required by law, payments are non-refundable, and we don’t give refunds or credits for partial periods or unused features.
• Price changes. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice before a price change applies to your subscription, and you can cancel before it takes effect.
• Trials and promotions follow the terms shown when you sign up for them, and convert to paid subscriptions unless you cancel before they end.
• We may suspend paid features if a payment fails.

The Service, including its software, extension, website, design, text and graphics, and the Footnote name and logo, is owned by us or our licensors and protected by intellectual property laws. Apart from the limited license in Section 3, these Terms grant you no rights in it, and we reserve all rights not expressly granted. You may not use our name, logo or other trademarks without our written permission.

We respect intellectual property rights and respond to notices under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent at legal@myfootnote.app with the subject line “DMCA Notice,” including:

• your physical or electronic signature;
• identification of the copyrighted work you claim is infringed;
• identification of the material you claim is infringing, with enough information for us to find it (such as the page address and the text of the comment);
• your name, address, telephone number and email address;
• a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
• a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on its behalf.

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you may send a counter-notice to the same address as the DMCA allows. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. Anyone who knowingly misrepresents that material is infringing, or was removed by mistake, may be liable for damages under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f). Send trademark and other legal complaints to legal@myfootnote.app as well.

• You may stop using the Service at any time. To delete your account and its data, email privacy@myfootnote.app from your account’s email address (your Account page has a link).
• We may suspend or terminate your access, and delete your account and content, at any time, for any reason, with or without notice, including if you break these Terms, if we must for legal reasons, after long inactivity, or if we discontinue the Service.
• Sections 5 through 7, 9, 10, 13, 14 and 16 through 22, and any other terms that by their nature should survive, survive the end of these Terms or of your use of the Service.

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy and quiet enjoyment. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that it will work with any website, that defects will be corrected, or that it is free of viruses or other harmful components. We make no warranty about the accuracy or reliability of any content posted by users or domain managers. We do not guarantee that encryption, backups or storage will prevent the loss of, or unauthorized access to, your data. You use the Service at your own risk.

Some jurisdictions don’t allow certain warranties to be excluded, so some of these exclusions may not apply to you.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Footnote and its owners, operators, affiliates, contractors and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, use, goodwill or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to the Service, Your Content, the conduct or content of other users or domain managers, third-party sites, any unauthorized access to or alteration of your data, or these Terms, whether based on contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability or any other theory, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US $100).

These limits are an essential part of the bargain between you and us and apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, such as liability for fraud or willful injury.

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless Footnote and its owners, operators, affiliates, officers, employees, contractors and agents from and against all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to Your Content, your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, the law or anyone’s rights, and, if you are a domain manager, your moderation decisions and the statements you made to obtain the role. We may take over the defense of any claim, in which case you will cooperate with us, and you may not settle any claim that affects us without our written consent.

Informal resolution first. Before starting an arbitration or court case, you and we agree to try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 60 days. To start, send a written description of the dispute and the relief you want to legal@myfootnote.app (we will write to the email address on your account).

Binding individual arbitration. If the dispute isn’t resolved informally, you and we agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, before a single arbitrator. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. Hearings will take place in San Diego County, California, or by video or on written submissions where the AAA’s rules allow. Payment of arbitration fees is governed by the AAA’s rules.

Exceptions. Either of us may instead:

• bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies;
• seek an injunction in court to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property; or
• bring a claim of sexual harassment or sexual assault in court, where federal law allows the claimant to choose.

A request for public injunctive relief will be decided by a court, after any individual claims are arbitrated, and the court case will be paused until the arbitration ends.

Class-action and jury waiver: you and we may bring claims against each other only individually, not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding, and the arbitrator may not consolidate claims or award relief to anyone other than the individual parties. To the extent permitted by law, you and we waive any right to a jury trial.

Mass arbitration. If 25 or more similar demands are filed by or with the help of the same law firm or organization, they will be administered in batches of up to 25 under the AAA’s mass-arbitration procedures, and you agree to cooperate in that process.

Opting out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing legal@myfootnote.app within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, with your name, your account’s email address and a statement that you opt out. Opting out doesn’t affect any other part of these Terms.

If part of this section is unenforceable. If the class-action waiver is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim will be decided by a court (not in class arbitration) under Section 20. Any other unenforceable part of this section will be severed and the rest will remain in effect.

Time limit. To the extent permitted by law, any claim must be brought within one year after it arises, or it is permanently barred.

These Terms and any dispute relating to them or the Service are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and by applicable U.S. federal law. For any claim that isn’t arbitrated, you and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in San Diego County, California.

• We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, without liability to you.
• We may change these Terms. We will post the updated Terms here with a new effective date. For material changes, we will also give notice through the website, the extension or by email at least 14 days before they take effect, except for changes required by law or relating to new features, which may take effect immediately.
• If you keep using the Service after changes take effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you don’t agree, stop using the Service and uninstall the extension.
• Changes to Section 19 won’t apply to a dispute we already knew about before the change.

• Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy and any additional terms for specific features are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service.
• Assignment. We may assign or transfer these Terms, in whole or in part, without your consent, including to a company we form or in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. You may not assign them without our written consent.
• Severability and waiver. If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent possible and the rest will remain in effect. Our not enforcing a provision is not a waiver.
• Force majeure. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including outages of hosting, network or other providers.
• Relationship. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship. There are no third-party beneficiaries, except the indemnified parties in Section 18.
• Notices. We may send you notices by email, on the website or in the extension, and you agree to receive communications electronically. Send notices to us at legal@myfootnote.app.
• Where we operate. The Service is operated from the United States. If you use it elsewhere, you are responsible for complying with local law. You may not use the Service in violation of U.S. export-control or sanctions laws.
• Interpretation. Headings are for convenience only, and “including” means “including without limitation.”

Contact. Questions about these Terms: legal@myfootnote.app. Privacy questions and account deletion requests: privacy@myfootnote.app.