Terms of service
These terms are an agreement between you and shenas ai, Inc. ("shenas", "we"). They are short on purpose. If something here is unclear, write to us and we will explain it.
1. Who we are
shenas ai, Inc. is a Delaware corporation (Delaware file number 10591909).
- Address: shenas ai, Inc., c/o Legalinc Corporate Services Inc. (Registered Agent), 131 Continental Drive, Suite 305, Newark, DE 19713, United States
- Email: [email protected]
- Privacy questions: [email protected]
- Security reports: [email protected]
2. What shenas is, and what these terms cover
shenas is software that runs on hardware you control. The personal data you keep in shenas stays on your devices. We do not hold a copy of it, and we cannot see it unless you send it to us.
That happens only when you turn on a hosted feature. Each time your device uses one, it sends us what that feature needs for that request:
- for literature review, the kinds of data you keep (such as "sleep" or "spending") and which research findings you already have, never the data itself;
- for LLM analysis, the request your device builds, which can include some of your data. We pass it to our AI provider to get the answer.
The software is not governed by these terms. It is released under the BSD-3-Clause licence. The licence, and the disclaimer shipped with the software, are what apply when you download, run, change or share it. If you only run shenas on your own hardware, these terms do not apply to you.
These terms cover the services we run ourselves:
- the Shenas account at
auth.shenas.net, which signs you in to the services below; - the community chat at
matrix.shenas.net; - the device registry and peer directory your devices use to find each other;
- the hosted features you can turn on for an enrolled device (today: LLM analysis and literature review);
- the website at
shenas.ai; - support, when you write to us.
We do not sell anything today.
shenas is open-core. What is sold is the operation of a service: either it needs a party who is not you, or it is a convenience over something the community version already does for free.
Nothing on this list is for sale yet.
Account services
- Identity / namespaceNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: the namespace and identity operator; a name has to be issued and kept unique by whoever runs the namespace
If you leave: the community version runs with no account; keys and data are untouched; the name lapses
- RelayNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: two devices behind NATs cannot both be the relay between them
If you leave: direct paths keep working; anyone can run the same upstream relay
- MailboxNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: someone holds ciphertext for a peer that is offline
If you leave: live and relayed delivery continue; only store-and-forward for offline peers stops
- Push relayNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: the holder of the app's push credential at the platforms; a push sender is the app's publisher, not its user
If you leave: the app fetches when opened
- RecoveryNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: a witness holding a recovery shard; a user who has lost every device cannot be their own witness
If you leave: the user's own copy of their key material, kept where they choose
- InheritanceNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: custody that outlives the user; someone holds the instruction and acts when the user no longer can
If you leave: the user hands the key to a person themselves
- Signed plugin channelNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: a vouch is someone else's statement; the company reviews and signs as one signer among those the user trusts
If you leave: the trust store and every plugin stay; only the company's signature stops being renewed
Hosted compute and storage
- LLM proxy → mixnetNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: the account holder at the model provider is the company, so the provider sees the company's account, not the user's, though prompt content can still identify the person; later, the anonymity set of the other users
If you leave: the community version calls a provider with the user's own key, or a local model
- BackupNot yet for sale
Needs someone other than you: storage the user's own devices do not provide, holding ciphertext the operator cannot read
If you leave: export to a place the user holds and replication across their own devices; the company's copy is never the only copy
- Cloud workersNot yet for sale
Already free: the same worker runs on the user's own always-on machine
If you leave: the user runs the worker themselves; a hosted worker holds only a cache and its configuration
Our privacy notice explains what little data we hold about you and why. It is part of these terms.
3. Who can use the services
You must be at least 18 to create a Shenas account or use the chat. If you use the services for an organisation, you confirm you are allowed to accept these terms for it.
4. Your data is yours
You own your data. That includes what you keep in shenas on your devices and what you post in the chat.
To run the chat we need a narrow permission: you let us store, copy and show the messages you post to the people in the rooms you post them to, including people on other Matrix servers where a room is shared with them. That permission is for running the chat and nothing else, and it ends when your messages are deleted from our server.
We claim no other rights in anything you create or keep.
5. Using the services well
When you use the services, you do not:
- break the law, or help someone else break it;
- post content that is illegal where you or the people who will see it are, including child sexual abuse material, terrorist content, threats of violence and content that incites hatred;
- harass, threaten, impersonate or dox anyone;
- post another person's private information without their permission;
- send spam or malware, or try to break, overload or get around the security of the services;
- try to get into accounts, devices or data that are not yours;
- use the services from a country or for a person that United States sanctions law forbids us to serve.
Security research is welcome. Report what you find to [email protected] and do not touch other people's data while you test.
6. How the chat is moderated
The chat is run by us, on our own server. These are the rules and how we apply them.
What we act on. Content that breaks section 5, and accounts that post it.
How we find it. Mostly from reports. Moderators also read public rooms. We do not use automated tools to scan or remove messages. Every decision is made by a person.
How to report. Use your Matrix client's "report" option on the message, or email [email protected] with a link to the message and why you think it breaks the rules. You do not need an account to report by email. We will confirm we got your report and tell you what we decided.
What we can do. Depending on how serious it is: remove a message, restrict what an account can do, remove an account from a room, or suspend or close an account. If content suggests a threat to someone's life or safety, we tell the police.
We tell you why. If we act on your content or your account, we tell you what we did, which rule it broke, whether a report or our own review led to it, and how to appeal. We may skip this for spam or where telling you would put someone at risk or break the law.
Appeals. If you disagree with a decision, about your content or about a report you made, email [email protected] within six months. A person looks at it again, with your objection in front of them, and tells you the result. Where we can, that is someone who did not make the first decision. While our team is small it may be the same person, and if it is, we will tell you. If you are in the EU, you can also go to a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body or to a court.
Other servers. Messages from people on other Matrix servers are also subject to their server's rules. We can remove them from our server and block other servers, but we cannot delete a message from a server we do not run.
7. Contact point for authorities and users
Authorities in the EU and the UK, and anyone using the services, can reach us about the chat at [email protected], in English.
8. Ending things
You can leave at any time. To close your Shenas account, email [email protected] and we will delete it. Your shenas data stays on your devices. Nothing you keep there depends on an account with us.
We can suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms, as section 6 describes, and we tell you why. If we stop running a service, we will tell you at least 30 days before, unless we have to stop sooner for legal or security reasons.
9. Changes to these terms
We change these terms only when we have a reason to: a change in the law, a new or changed service, or a security or safety need. When we do, we will tell you what changed and why, at least 30 days before it takes effect, by email if you have an account and on this page. If you do not agree, you can close your account before then at no cost. Small fixes that do not change your rights, like a typo, we just make.
10. Our responsibility to you
We run the services with care, but they are provided free and "as is", and we do not promise they will always be available or free of faults.
To the extent the law allows, we are not responsible for losses you could not have expected when you started using the services, or for loss of data you chose to keep only on our services. If we are responsible for a loss, and the law allows us to limit it, our total responsibility is limited to USD 100.
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any responsibility that the law does not allow to be limited or excluded. That includes responsibility for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for harm caused deliberately or through gross negligence, for fraud, and under product liability law.
Your legal rights as a consumer are not affected. If the law where you live gives you rights that these terms cannot take away, including rights about services that are not as described or not provided with reasonable care, those rights apply.
11. Which law applies, and where disputes go
These terms are governed by the law of Delaware, United States.
If you are a consumer in the EU or the UK, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer law of the country where you live. If you are a consumer in Switzerland, Swiss law governs these terms.
If you are a consumer, you can bring a claim in the courts where you live, and we can bring a claim against you only there. Otherwise, the courts of Delaware decide disputes.
There is no arbitration clause and no class-action waiver in these terms. If something goes wrong, please write to us first; most problems are solved faster that way. Doing so is not a condition of going to court.
12. Reviews and criticism
Nothing in these terms stops you from reviewing, rating or criticising shenas, anywhere.
13. The rest
If a court finds part of these terms invalid, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later. You may not transfer these terms to someone else. We may transfer them to a company that takes over the services, and we will tell you if that happens; your rights under these terms stay the same.