Terms of Service

1. The agreement

1.1 These terms are an agreement between you and algn technologies, Whitchurch, RG28 7FA (“algn”, “we”, “us”). Contact: hi@algn.io.

1.2 They cover your use of the algn website, the algn app, Sera, your memory vault, Us, membership, credits, governance features and any related services (together, “algn” or “the service”).

1.3 The following also form part of these terms: the Community Standards and the AI & Safety Notice. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your data.

1.4 By creating an account or using the service, you accept these terms. If you don’t accept them, please don’t use algn.

2. Who can use algn

2.1 You must be at least 18 years old. You must give your true date of birth when you join. We block anyone who is under 18, and we will close any account we find belongs to someone under 18.

2.2 You may have only one account, and it is personal to you. You may not sell, transfer or share it.

2.3 During the founding phase, places are offered by invitation. We decide who is invited, and we may limit numbers so the community grows at a deliberate pace.

2.4 You may not use algn if we have previously closed your account for breaking these terms, or if the law forbids you from using it.

3. Your account, your device and your memory

3.1 Sign-in. algn is protected by a passkey or your device’s biometrics. Keep your devices secure and tell us at once if you think someone else has accessed your account.

3.2 Your memory vault is stored and encrypted on your device with a key we never hold. Your backup file is encrypted with a passphrase only you know.

3.3 No recovery by us. Because we never have your vault, key or passphrase, we cannot recover your memory for you. You are responsible for keeping your backup file and your passphrase safe. If you lose both your device and your passphrase, your memory cannot be restored.

3.4 You are responsible for activity on your account, unless it happens because we failed to keep the service secure.

4. The service

4.1 What algn is. algn provides Sera, a voice AI counterpart that learns how you think and keeps what it learns in your vault on your device; and Us, a social platform where members meet through what they’re exploring, matched privately and masked until both choose otherwise.

4.2 An experiment. algn is run openly as an experiment in building technology for depth rather than reach. We will add, change and remove features as we learn. Where a change significantly reduces what you get from algn, we will tell you in advance (section 16).

4.3 Availability. We work to keep algn available and secure, but we don’t promise it will always be uninterrupted or error-free. We may pause it for maintenance, security or reasons outside our control.

4.4 Your equipment. You need a compatible device, browser and internet connection. Data charges from your provider are yours.

5. Not therapy, not medical care, not an emergency service

5.1 Sera is not a therapist, counsellor, doctor or other professional, and algn does not provide therapy, diagnosis, treatment or crisis support. Using algn does not create a professional relationship of any kind.

5.2 Sera cannot contact emergency services and does not know where you are. If you or someone else is in danger, contact your local emergency services immediately. In the UK, call 999 or Samaritans on 116 123. Other countries are listed in the AI & Safety Notice.

5.3 Sera is designed to respond with care when a conversation turns hard and to point you towards human help, but it may not always recognise distress.

6. AI output

6.1 Sera’s replies, pattern observations and matches are generated by AI. They can be incomplete, inaccurate or unsuitable for you. Sera is designed to challenge you honestly, which means it will sometimes say things you disagree with.

6.2 Nothing Sera says is medical, legal, financial or other professional advice. Use your own judgement, and get professional advice before making important decisions.

7. Your content

7.1 You own your content: what you say to Sera, your memories, your posts, messages, voice notes, images, proposals and comments.

7.2 The permission you give us. You give algn technologies a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, process, transmit and display your content only as needed to run algn for you and the members you choose to share with. For conversations with Sera, this means processing your words only while each reply is generated. For posts and images in Us, it means showing them to members in the spaces where you post them. The licence ends when you delete the content or close your account, except where others already hold a copy you sent them, or where we must keep something by law.

7.3 Your responsibility. You confirm that you have the right to share the content you post, and that it follows the Community Standards.

7.4 Feedback. If you send us ideas or suggestions, including governance proposals, we may use them to improve algn without owing you anything. This doesn’t give us ownership of your content.

7.5 No training. We do not use your content to train AI models, and we don’t let our providers do so.

8. Community Standards and other members

8.1 You must follow the Community Standards. In short: nothing illegal, harmful or abusive; respect other members’ masking, consent and privacy, and don’t share what they tell you outside algn; don’t try to break, reverse-engineer, scrape or overload algn; and don’t game participation, credits or votes.

8.2 We don’t vet members. We check that members are 18 or over when they join, but we don’t carry out identity or background checks, and we can’t confirm what members say about themselves. Unmasking shows you what a member chose to share. It doesn’t verify who they are.

8.3 Your dealings with other members are your own. You decide who to talk to, what to share, whether to unmask and whether to meet. Please follow the safety guidance in the Community Standards, section 5. We are not responsible for what other members say or do, on algn or off it, except where our own failure to meet these terms or to act on a report with reasonable care has contributed to the harm. Nothing in this section limits the liability we can’t limit under section 18.1.

8.4 Disputes between members. If you have a problem with another member, report it to us and we’ll act under the Community Standards. We don’t take part in, or decide, legal disputes between members.

9. Membership, credits and points

9.1 Free use. algn is free to use in low-power mode, which offers text conversation with Sera only. Voice and other advanced features are switched off. The community (Us) is not part of free use at Member level: it opens at Creator level, because connecting you with other members depends on the memory you have built up.

9.2 Credits unlock advanced features and more capable models. Every member receives free credits, as a base allowance plus bonuses linked to participation, as described on the Membership page. We may change the size and rules of free allowances with notice.

9.3 Buying credits. You can buy more credits pay as you go. There is no subscription and nothing renews automatically. Prices are shown before you pay, including any tax. Payments are processed by our payment provider.

9.4 What credits are. Credits are a licence to use features of algn. They have no cash value, are not money or e-money, cannot be withdrawn, and cannot be sold or transferred to anyone else. Credits you buy don’t expire while your account is open.

9.5 Your right to cancel. When you buy credits, you ask us to add them to your balance straight away, and you acknowledge that once they’re added you lose the usual 14-day right to cancel a purchase of digital content. Even so, if you haven’t used any of a purchase, you can ask us for a full refund within 14 days of buying it.

9.6 Refunds when things go wrong. If credits don’t work as described, you have rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, including a repair, replacement or refund. If we close algn, or close your account for any reason other than your breach of these terms, we will refund credits you bought and haven’t used. If you close your account, you can ask us to refund bought credits you haven’t used.

9.7 Levels and points. Your membership level (Member, Creator, Voice, Council or Steward) comes only from participation, measured as described on the Membership page. Steward level also needs approval by a community vote, as described on the Governance page. Participation points have no cash value and can’t be bought, sold or transferred. Buying credits never changes your level, points, voting rights or standing. We may adjust how participation is weighted to keep it fair and resistant to gaming, and we will publish the principles we follow.

9.8 Misuse. If credits, points or levels are obtained by breaking these terms, for example through fake activity, we may remove them.

10. Governance

10.1 Depending on your level, you may see, comment on, vote on or submit proposals, and sit on councils, as described on the Governance page.

10.2 Taking part in governance gives you influence over how algn pursues its mission, in the ways the governance rules set out. It does not give you ownership of algn technologies, shares, profits, a partnership, or any financial interest. Membership, credits and governance rights are not an investment or a security.

10.3 algn technologies remains responsible for running the service and for meeting its legal obligations. Where a proposal would require us to break the law or these terms, or put members at risk, we will not implement it and will explain why.

11. Paid contribution

11.1 At Steward level, members who take on real responsibilities may be offered paid work. Any paid work is agreed under a separate written agreement that sets out the work, the pay and the relationship. Membership, participation or reaching a level does not by itself create any employment, worker or contractor relationship, or any right to payment.

12. Research participation

12.1 Taking part in algn’s research is optional. We will only include you if you opt in under a separate consent that explains what data is used and how. You can withdraw at any time without affecting your membership.

13. Our intellectual property

13.1 algn, Sera, Us, the algn apps, website, designs and content (other than your content) belong to algn technologies or its licensors. We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the service under these terms.

13.2 Parts of algn, including the code that holds your vault, manages its keys and deletes your data, are published as open source. Those parts are also available under their own open-source licences, which apply to that code.

13.3 Our published papers and pages may carry their own licence for citation and reuse, stated on the page.

13.4 Copyright complaints. If you believe content on algn infringes your copyright or other intellectual property, email hi@algn.io with “Copyright” in the subject and include:

• your name and contact details, and whether you act for the rights holder;
• the work you say has been infringed;
• where the content is on algn, in enough detail for us to find it;
• a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn’t authorised by the rights holder, their agent or the law; and
• a statement that the information in your notice is accurate, with your physical or electronic signature.

We will remove or disable access to content we reasonably believe infringes, and tell the member who posted it. If you posted it and believe it was removed by mistake or misidentified, you can send a counter-notice to the same address, with your contact details, the content removed, a statement under penalty of perjury that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake, and your consent to the jurisdiction of the relevant court. We may restore the content unless the complainant tells us they have started legal proceedings. We close the accounts of members who repeatedly infringe. We cannot see end-to-end encrypted messages, so copyright complaints can only relate to content we can access, such as posts and profiles.

14. Other services

14.1 algn may link to services we don’t control, such as crisis lines, cloud storage you choose for your backup, or sites cited in our research. We aren’t responsible for those services.

15. Ending the agreement

15.1 You can leave at any time by closing your account in the app or emailing hi@algn.io. Before you do, export your backup if you want to keep your memory. Closing your account deletes the data we hold as described in the Privacy Policy. Your vault on your device is yours to keep or delete.

15.2 We may suspend or close your account if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, if the law requires it, or to protect members or the service. Where it’s safe and lawful, we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond, and you can appeal as described in the Community Standards.

15.3 If algn changes significantly or closes. We will give you at least 60 days’ notice before closing the service or permanently removing Sera, and time to export anything you want to keep. Your vault stays on your device and remains readable with your backup file and passphrase. We will refund unused bought credits under 9.6.

15.4 Sections that by their nature should continue after the agreement ends (including 7.4, 13, 17, 18 and 19) will continue.

16. Changes to these terms

16.1 We may update these terms, for example to reflect changes to algn or the law. If a change is significant, we will tell you at least 30 days before it takes effect, in the app or by email. If you don’t agree, you can close your account before the change takes effect and ask for a refund of unused bought credits. Continuing to use algn after that date means you accept the new terms.

17. What we are responsible for

17.1 Your statutory rights. If you are a consumer, you have legal rights in relation to digital content and services that are not as described, not of satisfactory quality or not provided with reasonable care and skill. Nothing in these terms affects those rights. For information, contact Citizens Advice.

17.2 Apart from those rights, algn is provided as it is, and we don’t make promises about it that aren’t in these terms.

18. Limits on our liability

18.1 What we never limit. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.

18.2 Foreseeable loss. We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable.

18.3 Personal use. algn is for personal use. We are not liable to you for loss of profit, business, business opportunity or business interruption.

18.4 Your memory. Because your vault is held on your device and your backup is protected by a passphrase only you know, we are not responsible for loss of your memory caused by loss of or damage to your device, loss of your backup or passphrase, or your own deletion, unless it was caused by a defect in algn.

18.5 Cap. Where the law allows a cap, our total liability to you under or in connection with these terms is limited to the greater of £100 and the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

19. Complaints and disputes

19.1 If something has gone wrong, please contact us first at hi@algn.io. We will try to resolve it quickly and fairly.

19.2 These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You can bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring proceedings in your local courts. If you live in the EU, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country and can bring proceedings in your local courts.

20. General

20.1 We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation, and will tell you if we do. Your rights under these terms won’t be reduced as a result. You may not transfer yours.

20.2 If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stays in force.

20.3 If we don’t enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.

20.4 These terms, together with the documents in 1.3, are the whole agreement between you and us about algn.

20.5 Nobody other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms.

21. Contact

21.1 algn technologies, Whitchurch, RG28 7FA. The quickest way to reach us is Report an issue. You can also email hi@algn.io.