Terms of Service

1. The parties and how this contract is formed
In short
This is the contract for using TopoTopic. It is formed when you agree to it in the step that follows sign-up. The boxes like this one summarize; the full text governs.
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are the contract between you and the operator of TopoTopic identified in the Legal Notice / Imprint ("TopoTopic", "we", "us") for the use of the service at topotopic.com (the "Service").
The contract is formed when you tick "I agree to the Terms of Service" in the acceptance step that follows sign-up and continue. You cannot use the Service before you have done so. We store the version you accepted, and every published version is kept at Document versions.
You do not need an account to view content that a user has published or shared with you. The Acceptable Use Policy applies to that use.
The Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy explain how we handle personal data. They are information we owe you by law, not contract terms.

2. Definitions
Your Content: everything you submit to the Service or create in it: recordings, uploads, imported links and documents, pasted text, notes, tasks, reminders, messages, posts and profile information.
Derived Data: what the Service generates from Your Content, for example transcripts, speaker labels, summaries, notes, questions, decisions and actions, keywords, the topics and connections shown on the Map, embeddings, learning items and reports.
AI Output: Derived Data and answers that are generated by an artificial intelligence model.
Service Data: technical and usage information about the operation of the Service, such as logs, metrics, security records and audit records. It does not include the substance of Your Content.
Workspace: a space in the Service, owned by a user or an organization, in which its members work with shared content.
Provider: a third party listed at Subprocessors that processes data for the Service.
Consumer: a natural person who uses the Service for purposes outside their trade, business or profession. Business User: every other user.
Protected Persons: the people and organizations described in section 19.

3. The Service
TopoTopic is a web application for capturing, organizing, retrieving and learning from your own material. You can record conversations, or import audio, video, documents, images, pasted text and links. The Service transcribes and analyzes them into reports with summaries, notes, insights, questions, and decisions and actions. You can search your material, ask questions about it with cited answers, see on the Map how its topics relate, review notes from it over time, and keep tasks and reminders.
You can work with other people in a Workspace through shared content, messages and posts. Live translates speech from your microphone, a browser tab or a media file, and lets two users hold an audio call that is translated as they speak.
The features available to you are the ones the product shows you. Some are limited to certain accounts while we test them.

4. Beta
The Service is in beta and is provided free of charge. During the beta we do not commit to a particular level of availability, features can change or be withdrawn as described in section 14, and errors are more likely than in a finished product. Keep your own copy of material you cannot afford to lose.
The beta status describes what we provide. It does not reduce the rights the law gives you, which sections 15 and 16 set out.

5. Who may use the Service
You must be at least 16 years old. You confirm this when you accept these Terms. The Service is not directed at children under 16, and we delete accounts that we learn belong to a child under 16.
If you are 16 or 17 and the law of your country requires a parent or guardian to agree to a contract like this one, you may use the Service only with that agreement.
If you use the Service for an organization, you confirm that you are authorized to accept these Terms for it, and "you" includes that organization.

6. Your account
You sign in with a passkey, with Google, or with your email address and a password. An account with a password must confirm its email address and enter a code from an authenticator app when signing in. We protect accounts with measures such as short session lifetimes, browser binding, sign-in checks, and re-authentication before sensitive actions.
Keep your credentials to yourself. You are responsible for activity under your account unless it results from a failure on our side. Tell us at support@topotopic.com as soon as you believe your account has been compromised.
During the beta we may limit new registrations.

7. Workspaces, sharing and visibility
In short
New content is private. What you add to a shared Workspace is visible to its members and administrators. Sharing outside a Workspace is always an explicit action you take, and what you have shared can be copied by the people who received it.
Workspaces. If you join a Workspace that another user or an organization owns, its administrators can manage membership and settings and can see the content and activity you add there. If you do not want that, do not add content to that Workspace.
Profiles and posts. Other signed-in users can open your profile through a link or a conversation. Your profile visibility setting controls whether people outside your Workspaces can find you by name and what they see on your profile; members of a Workspace you share can always see it. Profiles are not published to the open internet. Posts you publish in Connect are visible to the members of the Workspace you post in, and to others only if you share them.
Sharing. You can invite people to a memo, a collection or a Workspace, create a share link, or make a collection public. A share link works for anyone who has it, although a link to a memo can require sign-in. Links made in the Share dialog of Library expire after the period you choose, 7 days unless you change it; links made from the Share sheet of a report, and links to a collection, an item or a Workspace, work until you turn them off; links to a single source file expire after 24 hours. A public collection has its own page, which search engines can index. A memo you make public opens for anyone who has its link, but it is not offered to search engines.
After you share. Recipients can keep copies, screenshots, exports and notes after you revoke access. If you delete your account, content you added to a shared Workspace stays available to its members, without your name attached; the Privacy Policy says what is kept and what is deleted.

8. Your content and the rights you give us
In short
Your content stays yours. You give us only the permission we need to run the features you use. We do not train AI models on it. We look at it ourselves only in the four situations listed below, and each such access is recorded.
Ownership. You keep all rights in Your Content. We own the Service, its software and Service Data.
Licence. You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, convert, transcribe, translate, index, analyze and display Your Content, and to create and use Derived Data, solely to provide, secure, maintain and support the Service for you and for the people you share with. The licence covers the Providers that process data for us. It ends when the content is deleted; copies in backups expire as the Privacy Policy describes. When you share content, you instruct us to make it and its Derived Data available according to your sharing settings until you revoke them or delete the content.
No training. We do not use Your Content or Derived Data to train or fine-tune artificial intelligence models. We send Your Content to AI Providers only to produce the outputs you request. What a Provider may do with it is governed by its terms for API customers; the Privacy Policy states what we know about Provider retention.
When we look at Your Content. We use Service Data to operate, secure, measure and improve the Service. A person acting for TopoTopic looks at Your Content only:
when you ask us for support and it is needed to help you;
to diagnose and fix a failure in processing a session, and to verify that the fix works;
to investigate a report, suspected abuse or a security incident; or
where the law requires it.
Each such access is limited to what its purpose needs and is recorded with a reason, as the Privacy Policy describes.
Change history. The Service keeps a tamper-evident history of edits to the analysis of a memo (its summaries, notes, insights and questions) and of the amendments accepted or rejected there. We can use it to restore an earlier state when an owner or administrator of the Workspace asks us to. Corrections to a transcript, edited messages and context documents also keep earlier versions. The Privacy Policy states how long they are kept.
Your responsibility. You confirm that you have the rights and permissions needed for everything you submit, import, record or share, and that Your Content and your use of it do not break the law or the rights of others.
Feedback. If you send us suggestions about the Service, we may use them without restriction or payment. We will not name you publicly in connection with them without your permission.

9. Recording other people and calls
In many countries it is unlawful to record a conversation or to process a recording of a person without that person's consent. Before you record, upload, transcribe, translate, label speakers in, or share audio or video that includes other people, you must have every consent and permission the law requires. We cannot check this for you and we do not advise you on it.
Audio calls between users are translated as the participants speak, and they are not recorded. Each participant's speech is sent to an AI model for translation from the moment the call connects, and the translated speech you hear is generated by that model. The captions shown during the call, in both languages, are stored with the call. A transcript of the call and its summaries are made only after every participant has agreed in the call, and the Service refuses to store the transcript until then.
Live also translates speech from your microphone, a browser tab or a media file. If that audio includes other people, the first paragraph of this section applies.
Voice recognition across your own sessions is off unless you switch it on for yourself in Settings. You cannot enroll another person's voice.

10. AI features
In short
Parts of TopoTopic are built on AI. The assistants are automated, not people. What they produce can be wrong, and you are responsible for checking it before you rely on it.
The assistant you talk or write to in the Service, Walter, is an automated AI system, not a person. In written conversations the product labels it "AI assistant". In spoken conversations it says that it is an AI assistant when it first speaks to you and whenever you ask.
AI Output is generated by statistical models. It can be inaccurate, incomplete, outdated or unsuitable for your purpose, and it can differ each time. Check it before you rely on it, share it or act on it. An inaccurate AI Output is not by itself a defect of the Service.
AI Output is not legal, medical, psychological, financial, tax or other professional advice. Do not use the Service for emergencies, for safety-critical decisions, or for decisions about people that the law requires a qualified professional or a human to make.
When the assistant prepares a message or a calendar event for you, nothing is sent or created until you approve it. Other things you ask it to do happen when you ask, for example creating notes, tasks and reminders, or moving, copying or changing the visibility of a memo or a collection. Check what it did, as you would for any other AI Output.
The Providers that generate AI Output publish usage policies for their models. You must not use the Service in a way that those policies prohibit; the Acceptable Use Policy reflects them. The Service uses YouTube API Services for YouTube imports: by importing from YouTube you also agree to the YouTube Terms of Service.

11. Acceptable use
The Acceptable Use Policy is part of these Terms. It sets out what you must not do, how anyone can report content, and how we decide on reports. Security research that follows our Security and Responsible Disclosure policy is permitted.

12. Plans and billing
In short
TopoTopic is free during the beta. A paid plan would be a separate step: you would see the price and conditions before you commit, and Consumers would get the information and the right of withdrawal that the law requires.
During the beta the Service is free of charge and paid checkout is not offered. Plan names and allowances shown in the product describe current usage limits and intended future packaging. They create no payment obligation.
If we introduce paid plans, you will be shown the price including taxes, the billing period, the renewal and cancellation conditions and the refund terms before you commit to pay, and a paid plan starts only when you order it. Payments would be processed by Stripe; we do not store payment card numbers. Consumers in the EU or EEA would receive the pre-contractual information and the withdrawal instructions required by law in the checkout.
If a future plan reduces access or allowances you had during the beta, we will tell you at least 30 days before the change takes effect.

13. Term, suspension and termination
Term. This contract runs for an indefinite period.
You can leave at any time by requesting account deletion in Settings, Privacy. If that control is not available to you, for example because you sign in only with Google, write to support@topotopic.com. The Privacy Policy explains what happens to your data.
We can end the contract with at least 30 days' notice in the product or by email. We can end it without notice for good cause, in particular if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms, if your use endangers the Service or other users, or if the law requires it.
Suspension and restrictions. Instead of ending the contract we can remove or restrict content, disable a share link, revoke collaborator access, or suspend an account or a feature, if we have concrete grounds to believe that content or conduct breaks the law or these Terms, or while we investigate a report or a security incident. The measure will be proportionate. We tell you what we did and why, unless the law forbids it, and you can ask us to review it, as the Acceptable Use Policy describes.
Your content when the contract ends. If we end the contract with notice, you can export your content with the built-in export until the end of the notice period. If we end it without notice, we will give you an export on request unless the law or the protection of other people prevents it.
Sections 8 (feedback), 16, 17, 19 and 20 continue to apply after the contract ends.

14. Changes to the Service
We may change the Service for one of these reasons:
to adapt it to new technology, to a change of Provider, or to higher usage;
to protect security or prevent abuse;
to comply with the law or with a decision of a court or authority;
to improve a feature, or to withdraw one that is little used or still experimental.
A change never costs you anything, and we tell you about it clearly. If a change impairs your access to or use of the Service more than slightly, we tell you by email or on another durable medium, in good time before it takes effect, what changes and when, and that you can end the contract free of charge within 30 days of the notice or of the change, whichever is later.
If we discontinue the Service as a whole, we give at least 30 days' notice, during which you can export your content.

15. Warranty
Consumers. Your statutory warranty rights apply in full. Nothing in these Terms limits them. What we owe is the Service as sections 3, 4 and 10 describe it: a beta product whose AI Output can be inaccurate.
Business Users. We will correct reproducible defects of the Service within a reasonable time after you report them. Further warranty claims of Business Users are excluded.

16. Liability
In short
We are fully liable for intent, gross negligence and personal injury. For slight negligence we are liable to Consumers when we breach a main obligation of this contract. For Business Users liability for slight negligence is excluded and capped as stated below.
16.1 Unlimited liability. We are liable without limitation for damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, for defects we fraudulently concealed, for guarantees we expressly gave, and under the Austrian Product Liability Act.
16.2 Consumers. For damage caused by slight negligence we are liable to Consumers if we breach a main obligation of this contract, meaning an obligation that makes the performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfilment you may rely, such as storing Your Content and keeping it confidential. Because the Service is provided free of charge, we are not liable to Consumers for slight negligence in breaching other obligations, other than for injury to life, body or health.
16.3 Business Users. We are not liable to Business Users for slight negligence. In no case other than those in 16.1 are we liable to Business Users for lost profit, indirect or consequential damage, or loss of data that a regular backup by the Business User would have prevented. Our total liability to a Business User for all claims arising in a calendar year is limited to the fees the Business User paid us in the twelve months before the damaging event, or EUR 100 if that is higher.
16.4 Your own precautions. If damage could have been avoided by keeping your own copy of material you could not afford to lose, as section 4 asks, that counts as contributory fault on your side.
16.5 Protected Persons. The limits in this section apply equally to claims against Protected Persons (section 19).

17. Claims by others because of your use
If a third party brings a claim against us or a Protected Person because (a) Your Content is unlawful or infringes that party's rights, (b) you recorded, uploaded or shared material about a person without the consent or permission the law requires, or (c) you used the Service in breach of the law or the Acceptable Use Policy, you will compensate the damage and the reasonable costs of legal defence that result, to the extent you are at fault.
We will tell you about such a claim without undue delay, will not settle it at your expense without consulting you, and will give you the information you reasonably need to defend it. This section does not apply to the extent the claim results from our own breach of the law or of these Terms.

18. Changes to these Terms
Changes that affect your rights or obligations take effect for you only when you agree to the new version in the product. If you do not want to agree, you can end the contract; write to support@topotopic.com and we will give you an export of your content and delete your account. We may then end the contract under section 13.
Other changes take effect when we publish them. These are corrections of errors, clearer wording without a change of meaning, updated contact or company details, and descriptions of new features that do not reduce existing ones.
Every version has a version identifier and a date. Earlier versions remain available at Document versions.

19. People who are not party to this contract
People acting for the operator. The operator's founders, managers, employees and contractors act for the operator when they work on the Service. They are not parties to this contract.
Outside supporters. A person or organization that funds, hosts, advises, reviews, employs a contributor to, or otherwise supports TopoTopic without being named as operator in the Legal Notice does not operate the Service, is not a party to this contract, and does not guarantee it.
Both groups, together with the operator's legal successors, are "Protected Persons". Sections 16 and 17 are agreed also for their benefit, and each of them may rely on those sections directly. This does not limit any duty that data protection law or other mandatory law places on a Protected Person because of what that person actually does.

20. Transfer to the operating company, governing law and venue
Transfer. A company is being formed in Austria to operate TopoTopic. Once it is registered, the operator intends to transfer this contract with all rights and obligations to that company. Because the company cannot be named yet, we will ask you in the product to agree to the transfer when it happens. If you do not want to continue with the company, you can end the contract at any time under section 13. You may not transfer your account or this contract without our consent.
Governing law. Austrian law applies, without its conflict-of-law rules and without the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a Consumer habitually resident in another country of the EU or the EEA, you also keep the protection of the mandatory provisions of the law of that country.
Venue. For disputes with Business Users, the Austrian court with subject-matter jurisdiction for the operator's address stated in the Legal Notice has exclusive jurisdiction. For Consumers the courts that the law provides are competent, including the courts of their place of residence.
Invalid provisions. If a provision of these Terms is invalid, the other provisions remain in effect. These Terms are provided in English.

21. Contact
Questions about these Terms: support@topotopic.com. The Legal Notice / Imprint identifies the operator and states the points of contact for authorities and users.