NewsSnap – Terms of Service

Welcome to NewsSnap (NewsSnap,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). By accessing or using our app and services (the “Service”), you agree to these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1) Acceptance of Terms
By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you confirm you are able to form a binding contract and accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

2) Eligibility & Accounts
You must provide accurate registration information and maintain the confidentiality of your login credentials. You are responsible for all activity under your account.

3) Email Verification
Certain features require email verification. We may limit access until verification is completed.

4) Subscriptions, Free Trials & Billing
a. Plans. We may offer plans such as Trial, Plus, and Pro with daily usage limits. Features and limits are described in-app.
b. Billing & Auto-Renewal. Paid subscriptions auto-renew until cancelled. You authorize us (or our payment providers or app stores) to charge your chosen payment method for each term.
c. Cancellation. You may cancel at any time; access continues through the current paid term and then ends.
d. Refunds. Except where required by law or explicitly stated otherwise, payments are non-refundable.
e. Price Changes. We may change pricing or features with notice; changes take effect on the next billing cycle.

5) Usage Limits & Fair Use
We may enforce daily or monthly limits (e.g., number of AI requests, minutes of audio, or storage). Excess usage may be blocked until your limits reset. We may also use rate limiting or other technical controls to protect the Service and other users.

6) Nature of the Service: AI-Generated Analysis (No Republished Articles)
a. Transformative Outputs Only. NewsSnap provides AI-generated analysis, summaries, translations, and audio commentary (“AI Outputs”) derived from topics, metadata, and signals about current events. We do not display or republish full-text news articles from third-party publishers.
b. No Original Articles. The Service is designed to avoid reproducing original publisher text. Any references to third-party content (e.g., headlines, source names, short snippets, or links) are for context only.
c. Real-Time Discovery. When enabled, the Service may use third-party tools (such as Google Search via Gemini, Perplexity Search, or similar providers) to identify recent news from publicly available sources. We do not intentionally bypass paywalls, CAPTCHAs, robots.txt, or other access controls.
d. Accuracy & Completeness. AI Outputs may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or outdated. Do not rely on AI Outputs as authoritative news reporting. Always consult the original sources and independent news outlets.

7) Third-Party Content & Intellectual Property
a. Ownership. Third-party articles, trademarks, logos, and content remain the property of their respective owners. We do not claim ownership over third-party articles or publisher content.
b. Sources & Attribution. When we show metadata (e.g., headline, source name, logo, short snippet, or link), you agree not to remove or alter any attribution, copyright notice, or link that we provide.
c. No Infringing Use. You agree not to use the Service to infringe any third-party rights, including by attempting to reconstruct, scrape, or republish original articles or paywalled content from AI Outputs or from any data returned through the Service.

8) Your License to AI Outputs (Personal Use)
Subject to these Terms and your compliance with applicable law, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to view, listen to, and personally use AI Outputs within the app. You may not resell, redistribute, or publicly perform AI Outputs outside the Service without our prior written permission.

9) Translations & Text-to-Speech (TTS)
The Service may translate AI Outputs and generate audio using TTS providers. Translations and audio are part of the AI Outputs license above and remain subject to these Terms and any third-party rights. You may not extract, rehost, or redistribute such audio or translated content without authorization.

10) Acceptable Use
You agree not to:
• violate any law or third-party right;
• attempt to bypass usage limits, security, or access controls;
• reverse engineer or misuse APIs, models, or data flows;
• upload harmful code, attempt to disrupt the Service, or interfere with other users;
• use the Service to create or distribute defamatory, fraudulent, hateful, harassing, or otherwise unlawful content.

11) Caching, Storage & Data Retention
We may cache AI Outputs and related metadata to improve performance, safety, and cost efficiency. We may purge cached items at any time. You are responsible for exporting or saving any information you need outside the Service (where permitted by law and these Terms).

12) No Professional Advice
AI Outputs are for informational purposes only and do not constitute professional, legal, medical, financial, or investment advice. You are solely responsible for how you use the content and for any decisions you make based on it.

13) Disclaimers
THE SERVICE AND ALL AI OUTPUTS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR ACCURATE, OR THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED.

14) Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL NEWSSNAP OR ITS AFFILIATES, PARTNERS, OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR USE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

15) Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless NewsSnap and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to your use of the Service or your violation of these Terms.

16) Third-Party Providers
We may use third-party AI, search, translation, and TTS providers (including OpenAI, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and others). These providers:
• are not parties to these Terms;
• may process your inputs and metadata to generate outputs; and
• may use their own web search or browsing capabilities to retrieve publicly available information.

Your use of the Service must comply with their acceptable-use policies and terms (for example, OpenAI’s usage policies, Google’s Generative AI policies, and any similar rules), as updated from time to time.

17) Changes to the Service & Terms
We may modify, suspend, or discontinue parts of the Service at any time. We may update these Terms; continued use after updates constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. The “Effective Date” above will reflect the latest version.

18) Termination & Account Deletion
a. Termination by NewsSnap.
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time for violations of these Terms or to protect the Service, users, or third parties. Upon termination, your license to use the Service and AI Outputs ends. Certain provisions (including ownership, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and indemnification) survive termination.

b. Account Deletion by You.
You may delete your account at any time using the in-app “Delete Account” option. When you request deletion:
- Your account is deleted from Firebase Authentication
- Your user data stored in Firestore is deleted
- Your per-user files stored in Firebase Storage (such as personal manifests or audio generated for you) are deleted
- Any subscription billing remains governed by the applicable app store or Stripe, and you remain responsible for cancelling active subscriptions

c. Data Retention After Deletion.
We may retain certain limited data only as required by law, fraud prevention, tax compliance, or security needs. Deleted data may persist temporarily in encrypted backups until those backups cycle out.

19) Governing Law & Dispute Resolution
These Terms are governed by the laws of your principal place of residence or, if you are a business, by the laws of the jurisdiction where your principal place of business is located, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any disputes shall be resolved exclusively in courts with jurisdiction over that location, unless otherwise required by applicable law. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you and NewsSnap waive any right to a jury trial.

20) Contact
Questions about these Terms? Contact: support@NewsSnap.ai