Session Terms of Service
Last Updated: 15/10/2024
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the services made available by the Session Technology Foundation (referred to as “we”, “our”, “STF”) including services that we provide via the Session website (www.getsession.org and any other domain or sub domain through which Session-related services are provided from time to time, the “Session Website”) and in connection with the Session Private Messenger applications (the “Session App”), including Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Android and Mac iOS (collectively referred to as the “Services”, which expression shall include any services, or any part thereof, that STF provides from time to time) and any information, text, links, graphics, videos, audio or other material uploaded, downloaded or appearing on such Services (collectively, referred to as “Content”).
These Terms and the Session Privacy Policy form the End User Agreement between you and STF.
1. Who can use the Services
Anyone who is not barred from using the Services under the laws of any applicable jurisdiction, and is at least 18 years of age (or the age of majority, if older, in any applicable jurisdiction) can use the Services.
By using these Services, you agree to form a binding agreement between you and STF.
If you are accepting these Terms and using the Services on behalf of a company, organization, government, or other entity that is not a natural person, you represent and warrant that you are authorised to do so and have the authority to bind such entity to these Terms, in which case the words “you” and “your” as used in these Terms shall refer to such entity.
2. Our Privacy Policy
Privacy is central to our purpose and mission. For more details, please refer to the Session Privacy Policy.
3. Our Services
Our Services are intended to inform you and educate you about using the Session application, a private and secure communications app, and to facilitate private and secure communications between two or more parties, within a group, or within a community.
Availability of Our Services: Our Services may be interrupted, including for maintenance, upgrades, or network or equipment failures. We may discontinue some or all of our Services, including certain features and the support for certain devices and platforms, at any time.
3.1. Using the Session Website
The purpose of the Session Website is primarily to provide you with information about the Session App and link to download of the Session App. We have done our best to make sure this information is accurate and up-to-date, however, there may be unintentional errors that may mislead you. Therefore, we encourage you to contact us for any clarifications you may need. STF does not accept any liability for any accuracy or omission.
The Session Website also enables you to submit your contact details, so we are able to keep you informed about our work.
3.2. Using the Session App
The purpose of the Session App is to facilitate private and secure communications, without capturing or sharing any meta-data. It was created for use by individuals who require anonymity and security.
What do we mean by ‘private’? The Session App does not require you to identify yourself or associate your personally identifiable information to use the service. The Session App does not attempt to gather information or individually identify users through their use of the service.
What do we mean by ‘secure’? The messages you create on your Session App are encrypted and only the destination Session ID can decrypt the message. The encrypted messages are wrapped in multiple layers of onion encryption and routed from the Session App through our distributed onion network before reaching their destination.
While we make every effort to ensure security, we cannot guarantee interception or decryption using advanced technologies are impossible.
The Session App is a messaging app, and does not have the ability to communicate with non-Session Apps or services. Our Services do not provide access to public emergency service providers like the police, fire department, hospitals, or other public safety organizations.
4. Our Responsibilities and Commitments to You
We are committed to ensuring the delivery of our Services in a way that is accessible and reliable.
We will not sell or otherwise monetise your personal data or content in any way. We cannot access your data even if we wanted to, as Session preserves the privacy and secrecy of your messages. See our Privacy Policy for more information.
Session’s License to You — Session grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, and non-transferable license to use our Services in accordance with these Terms.
Availability of Our Services — We strive to ensure that our Services are continuously available for use. However, there may be occasions when they are interrupted, including for maintenance, upgrades, or to resolve network or equipment failures. We may discontinue some or all of our Services, including certain features and the support for certain devices and platforms, at any time.
Keeping you informed — We provide updates about our Services through various channels, including the Session Blog, Session Twitter Account and a number of communities on Session and on Telegram. Where practicable, we will keep you updated about outages and service disruptions through these channels.
5. Your Responsibilities and Rights
5.1. Account Management and General Use
Software and account — You are responsible for keeping your device, Session App and your account up-to-date, safe and secure, including being responsible for any passwords or recovery phrases.
Fees and Taxes — You are responsible for data and mobile carrier fees and taxes, and any other costs, expenses or charges, associated with the devices on which you use our Services and your use of such Services.
Terms and Policies — You must use our Services according to our Terms and policies. If we block your account for a breach of our Terms, you will not create another account without our permission.
Legal and Acceptable Use — You agree to use our Services only for legal, authorised, and acceptable purposes. You will not use (or assist others in using) our Services in ways that: (a) violate or infringe the rights of Session, our users, or others, including privacy, publicity, intellectual property, or other rights; (b) involve sending illegal or impermissible communications such as bulk messaging, auto-messaging, and auto-dialing; (c) breach the Session Content Policy described further below.
Harm to Session — You must not (or assist others to) access, use, modify, distribute, transfer, or exploit our Services in unauthorised manners, or in ways that harm Session, our Services, or systems. For example you must not (a) gain or try to gain unauthorised access to our Services or systems; (b) disrupt the integrity or performance of our Services; (c) create accounts for our Services through unauthorized or automated means; (d) collect information about other Session users in any unauthorised manner; or (e) sell, rent, or charge for our Services.
Third-party services — Our Services may allow you to access, use, or interact with third-party websites, apps, content, and other products and services run by third parties. When you use third-party services, their terms and privacy policies govern your use of those services. When using Communities operated by third-parties, these Terms as well as any terms or policies associated with the Community will govern your use. STF does not accept any liability for any third party websites, apps, content, or other products or services.
Community by Session — You may use Communities run by Session in accordance with our Terms; however, you also agree to follow the rules of the specific Community.
Your Content — You own and/or take responsibility for the content (text messages, audio, video, images) you submit through our Services. We can not access this information unless you explicitly send it to us, or it is published in a Community.
Session’s Rights — You acknowledge that STF owns all copyrights, trademarks, domains, logos, trade dress, trade secrets, patents, and other intellectual property rights associated with our Services. You may not use our copyrights, trademarks, domains, logos, trade dress, patents, and other intellectual property rights unless you have our written permission. To report copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property infringement, please contact [email protected].
5.2. Session Content Policy
STF exists to build private and secure technology, and defend individuals’ rights to privacy and security in the digital world. We are also mission-driven to uphold key democratic, media freedom and human rights principles.
To enable us to uphold our mission principles, we have identified the following activities of Session as a clear breach of these Terms.
Violent Behaviour, Violent Extremism and Terrorism
Session cannot be used:
to glorify violence, or promote violence of any form (physical, psychological, sexual) against another individual or group, or incite harm or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.
by organisations, groups and individuals designated by the United Nations as terrorist organisations or terrorists.
Child Sexual Exploitation
Session cannot be used to organise or promote child sexual exploitation. A child is defined as anyone under the age of 18 (or, if older, the age that is defined as the applicable age of majority in any applicable jurisdiction). Specifically, Session cannot be used to store or share:
visual depictions of a child engaging in sexually explicit or sexually suggestive acts;
illustrated, computer-generated or other forms of realistic depictions of a human child in a sexually explicit context, or engaging in sexually explicit acts;
sexualized commentaries about or directed at a known or unknown minor;
links to third-party sites that host child sexual exploitation material;
fantasies about or promoting engagement in child sexual exploitation;
recruiting, advertising or expressing an interest in a commercial sex act involving a child, or in harbouring and/or transporting a child for sexual purposes.
Extremely Violence and/or Graphic Content
Session cannot be used to store or share violent or gory content that is intended to shock or disgust others, or create harm or distress to the person or persons represented in the content.
Harmful and/or Unlawful Content
Session cannot be used for cyber abuse, non-consensual sharing of intimate images and abhorrent violent material.
6.0 Monitoring Session Breaches
Our Services have been created using a privacy-by-design approach which means that it is impossible for us to analyse or monitor your content you create and store on the Session App, or share it with other users.
Communities on Session, by their nature, are open to the public, and the content posted and shared through Communities can be monitored. STF does not have the capacity to monitor all Communities; however, we do make a concerted effort to monitor and where necessary moderate Communities that have been created by us.
If you become aware of any behaviour or content which you believe may breach any of our terms or principles of use, you should contact [email protected].
6.1 Third-party notification of breaches
We may be notified by third-parties of breaches to these Terms. In such cases, the evidence presented by the third-parties will be reviewed by us (or a service provider engaged by us or by the community to perform such review), to determine the severity of the breach and the required outcomes. Any decisions made by our Board will be final.
All notifications, including requests for information or take down notices, will be documented in our Transparency Report that is updated every three months.
7.0 Disclaimers and Limitations
Disclaimers — YOU USE OUR SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK AND SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMERS. WE PROVIDE OUR SERVICES ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUS OR OTHER HARMFUL CODE. STF DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED BY US IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR USEFUL, THAT OUR SERVICES WILL BE OPERATIONAL, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR SAFE, OR THAT OUR SERVICES WILL FUNCTION WITHOUT DISRUPTIONS, DELAYS, OR IMPERFECTIONS. WE DO NOT CONTROL, AND ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR, CONTROLLING HOW OR WHEN OUR USERS USE OUR SERVICES. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS OR INFORMATION (INCLUDING CONTENT) OF OUR USERS OR OTHER THIRD PARTIES. YOU RELEASE US, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, PARTNERS, AND AGENTS (TOGETHER, “SESSION PARTIES”) FROM ANY CLAIM, COMPLAINT, CAUSE OF ACTION, CONTROVERSY, OR DISPUTE (TOGETHER, “CLAIM”) AND DAMAGES, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, RELATING TO, ARISING OUT OF, OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH ANY SUCH CLAIM YOU HAVE AGAINST ANY THIRD PARTIES.
Limitation of Liability — THE SESSION PARTIES WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INDIRECT, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES RELATING TO, ARISING OUT OF, OR IN ANY WAY IN CONNECTION WITH OUR TERMS, US, OR OUR SERVICES, EVEN IF THE SESSION PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY RELATING TO, ARISING OUT OF, OR IN ANY WAY IN CONNECTION WITH OUR TERMS, US, OR OUR SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED TEN DOLLARS ($10). THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMER OF CERTAIN DAMAGES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY WILL APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. THE LAWS OF SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS SET FORTH ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY IN OUR TERMS, IN SUCH CASES, THE LIABILITY OF THE SESSION PARTIES WILL BE LIMITED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
8.0. Resolving Disputes and Ending Terms
Resolving disputes — You agree to resolve any Claim you have with us relating to or arising out of our Terms, us, or our Services exclusively in the canton of Zug, Switzerland. You also agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purpose of litigating all such disputes. The laws of Zug, Switzerland govern our Terms, as well as any disputes, whether in court or arbitration, which might arise between us and you, without regard to conflict of law provisions.
Ending these Terms — You may end these Terms with Session at any time by deleting Session from your device and discontinuing use of our Services. We may modify, suspend, or terminate your access to or use of our Services anytime for any reason at any time, such as if you violate the letter or spirit of our Terms or create harm, risk, or possible legal exposure for Session. The following provisions will survive termination of your relationship with Session: “Licenses,” “Disclaimers and Limitations,” “Your Responsibilities,” “Our Services” “Availability” and “Ending these Terms,” and “General”.
9.0 General
STF may update the Terms at any time. When we update our Terms, We will update the “Last Modified” date associated with the updated Terms. Your continued use of our Services confirms your acceptance of our updated Terms and supersedes any prior agreed Terms. You will comply with all applicable export control and trade sanctions laws. Our Terms cover the entire agreement between you and Session regarding our Services. If you do not agree with our Terms, you should stop using our Services.
If we fail to enforce our Terms, we do not waive the right to enforce them. If any provision of the Terms is deemed unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision shall be deemed severable from our Terms and shall not affect the enforceability of the remaining provisions. Our Services are not intended for distribution to or use in any country where such distribution or use would violate local law or would subject us to any regulations in another country. If you have specific questions about these Terms, please contact us at [email protected]
Session iOS – End User License Agreement
By using the Session iOS app (“App”), you agree to this End User License Agreement (“EULA”), the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of Session, but also:
Acknowledgement: You acknowledge that this EULA is concluded between Session Technology Foundation (“STF”), and not with Apple, Inc (“Apple”), and STF, not Apple, is solely responsible for the App and the content thereof.
Scope of License: Subject to your compliance with STF’s Terms of Service, STF grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to download and use the App.
Maintenance and Support: STF provides no guarantee that STF will supply you with maintenance or support beyond what already exists on STF’s documentation and github pages. Apple has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance and support services with respect to the App.
Warranty: STF’s warranty can be found in STF’s Terms of Service, which you agree to. In the event of any failure of the App to conform to the warranty, You may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price for the App (if applicable). To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the App, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to any warranty will be handled in accordance with the STF Terms of Service.
Product Claims: STF, and not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims relating to the App or its use, including, but not limited to: (i) product liability claims; (ii) any claim that the App fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement; and (iii) claims arising under consumer protection, privacy, or similar legislation. This is handled in accordance with the STF Terms of Service.
Intellectual Property Rights: STF, and not Apple, is responsible for all intellectual property issues associated with the app. This is covered in STF’s Terms of Service.
Legal Compliance: You represent and warrant that (i) he/she is not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo, or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country; and (ii) he/she is not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
Developer Name and Address: If you have questions about the Terms of Service or this EULA, you may email [email protected]
Third Party Terms of Agreement: You must comply with applicable third party terms of agreement when using the App, if any such third party applications exist.
Third Party Beneficiary: STF and You acknowledge and agree that Apple, and Apple’s subsidiaries, are third party beneficiaries of this EULA, and that, upon Your acceptance of the Terms of Service and this EULA, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce the EULA against You as a third party beneficiary thereof.
Unacceptable Content: You acknowledge that you are subject to acceptable content policies within Communities and other areas on the app and must not use the App to distribute objectionable content. If you are deemed an abusive user you may also be restricted or removed from Communities or the App if reported or discovered.
Conclusion
This page outlines the Terms of Service for the Session app, services, and website, as well as the End User License Agreement for iOS. If you’d like to read more about how we handle your privacy, you can check out the Session privacy policy. If you have any questions, opinions, or concerns about Session’s Terms, please get in touch with us via email at [email protected].