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Draft — under legal review. Not the final published version.

Terms of Service — Tidings

Effective date: [Effective date] Last updated: 2026-06-20 (draft)

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you ("you", "your") and [Legal name], [Address], company/VAT number [Company number / BCE] ("Tidings", "we", "us", "our"), governing your use of the Tidings service: the iOS and macOS apps, the web dashboard/console, the marketing website, and the ingestion API (POST /api/ingest) (together, the "Service").

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

Tidings is a developer-first push-notification service. It lets you and your systems send events to an ingestion API and receive them as native push notifications on iPhone and Mac, organise them by source within workspaces, and act on them (acknowledge / resolve incidents).

The Service is provided as a service and may evolve over time. We may add, change, or remove features. Some features are limited to certain plans (see §6).

2. Accounts and workspaces

  • You need an account to use the Service. You can sign in by email or with Sign in with Apple.
  • You are responsible for the accuracy of your account information and for activity under your account. Keep your credentials secure and notify us promptly at [Contact email] of any unauthorised use.
  • On sign-up you receive a personal workspace. A Team workspace can invite additional members with roles (owner / admin / member). Workspace owners/admins are responsible for whom they invite and for the actions of their members within the workspace.
  • You must be old enough to enter into these Terms (see the Privacy Policy, "Children / minors") and must comply with all laws applicable to your use.

3. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service, the ingestion API, or your API keys to:

  • send spam, bulk unsolicited messages, or notifications to recipients who have not agreed to receive them;
  • transmit illegal, infringing, harmful, harassing, deceptive, or abusive content, or content that violates a third party's rights (including privacy or IP rights);
  • send malware, phishing, or links intended to defraud or harm;
  • attempt to circumvent quotas, rate limits, security, or access controls, or probe/scan the Service without authorisation;
  • overload or disrupt the Service or its infrastructure (including via the API);
  • use the Service to process special-category personal data without your own lawful basis, or in breach of applicable data-protection law (see §8 and the Privacy Policy);
  • reverse-engineer or resell the Service except as permitted by law.

You are responsible for the content you send through the ingestion API and for ensuring you have the right to send it and to notify the intended recipients. We may suspend or remove content, keys, sources, or accounts that we reasonably believe violate these Terms or the law, where feasible with notice.

4. API keys and your responsibility

  • API keys are issued per source via the web console. A full key is shown to you once; store it securely. We keep only a one-way hash and a short prefix.
  • You are responsible for all activity performed with your keys, including by your systems and CI. Treat keys as secrets; do not embed them where they can leak.
  • Use send_only keys for untrusted or edge environments where possible.
  • If a key is compromised, revoke it immediately in the console. Revocation takes effect immediately.
  • We may rate-limit, throttle, or block traffic to protect the Service (see §5).

5. Availability and "best-effort" delivery

  • We aim to provide a reliable Service but offer it on a "best-effort" basis. Unless a separate written service-level agreement (SLA) is signed, we do not guarantee a specific uptime.
  • Push delivery is not guaranteed. Notifications are delivered through Apple's Push Notification service (APNs), which we do not control. Delivery can be delayed, deduplicated, throttled, or dropped by APNs, the device, the OS, or the network. Tidings does not guarantee 100% delivery, ordering, or timing of notifications, and must not be relied upon as the sole channel for safety-critical or life-critical alerts.
  • We may perform maintenance, impose rate limits (e.g. per-source request limits), enforce plan quotas, and suspend the Service where necessary for security or stability.

6. Plans, quotas, and billing

  • The Service offers tiers — currently Solo, Pro, and Team — with different quotas (devices, sources, monthly events, retention) and features (e.g. Live Activities/widgets, Critical Alerts, multi-member workspaces). Current limits are described on our pricing page and in the product. [REVIEW: keep aligned with the final pricing.]
  • Billing is not yet active. During this phase, paid features may be enabled manually and no payment is charged. Quotas may be enforced softly (warnings) rather than hard blocks.
  • When billing launches, we will publish prices and payment terms, and update these Terms. Paid plans will then be subject to those terms, including (where applicable) Apple's In-App Purchase rules for purchases made through the app, or another payment processor for web purchases. Taxes (e.g. VAT) may apply. Where you are a consumer in the EU, your statutory rights — including any applicable right of withdrawal — are unaffected. [REVIEW: add concrete billing, renewal, refund, and consumer-withdrawal terms before charging.]
  • We may change plans, quotas, and prices prospectively, with reasonable notice for active paid subscribers.

7. Intellectual property

  • The Service, including its software, design, and trademarks, belongs to Tidings or its licensors. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service per these Terms.
  • You keep ownership of your content (the notifications/events you send). You grant us the limited licence needed to host, process, transmit, and display that content to deliver the Service to you and your workspace members.
  • Feedback you provide may be used by us to improve the Service without obligation to you.

8. Data protection

Our handling of personal data is described in the Privacy Policy. Where you send content containing personal data, you may act as controller and Tidings as your processor; in that case a Data Processing Agreement (Art. 28 GDPR) applies. You are responsible for having a lawful basis for the content you send and for honouring the rights of the individuals it concerns. [REVIEW: reference the DPA once available.]

9. Suspension and termination

  • You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. Account deletion triggers purge of your data as described in the Privacy Policy.
  • We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms, create risk or legal exposure, or for prolonged inactivity, where feasible with notice. We may also discontinue the Service (or a feature) with reasonable notice.
  • On termination, your right to use the Service ends and we may delete your data after any legally required retention period (see the Privacy Policy). Sections that by their nature should survive (e.g. §7, §10, §11, §12) survive termination.

10. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and uninterrupted or error-free operation. We do not warrant that notifications will always be delivered (see §5). Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or rights that cannot be excluded under applicable law, including mandatory consumer-protection rights.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

  • We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or goodwill, or for missed, delayed, or undelivered notifications (including reliance on Tidings as a sole alert channel).
  • Our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) EUR 100. [REVIEW: confirm cap, especially while the Service is free.]
  • Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law (e.g. for fraud, gross negligence, willful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or mandatory consumer rights).

Consumer note. If you use the Service as a consumer, mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence and EU consumer law continue to apply and prevail over any conflicting clause above. [REVIEW.]

12. Governing law and disputes

  • These Terms are governed by the laws of Belgium, without prejudice to mandatory consumer protections of your country of residence (EU).
  • Subject to those mandatory protections, disputes will be brought before the competent courts of [Governing court / city, e.g. Brussels, Belgium].
  • EU consumers may also use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. [REVIEW: confirm ODR reference is still applicable at launch.]

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service evolves (notably when billing launches). For material changes, we will give reasonable notice (e.g. in-app or by email). Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms; if you do not agree, stop using the Service and, if applicable, cancel.

14. Miscellaneous

  • If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
  • Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
  • You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or reorganisation.
  • These Terms (with the Privacy Policy and any DPA) are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.

15. Contact

[Legal name] — [Contact email] [Address]

This document is a draft and does not constitute legal advice. It must be reviewed and adapted by a qualified professional (Belgian/EU law, consumer law, Apple App Store requirements) before publication.