Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using EchoWithin ("the Platform"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our services.

2. Service Overview

EchoWithin provides a hybrid platform for digital expression, including:

• Public Blogs: Shared community content and discussions.
• Personal Space: Private, encrypted note-taking for personal thoughts.
• Shared Notes: Secure, temporary content sharing with optional surprise themes and access controls.

3. Privacy & Data Sovereignty

We prioritize your privacy. Personal Notes are encrypted at rest using industry-standard protocols. Our team cannot read the contents of your private personal notes. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account.

4. Shared Content & Surprises

When sharing notes via links:

• Revocation: You may revoke shared links manually, or set them to expire automatically. We do not guarantee access to shared links after expiration.
• Access Codes: If you protect a note with an access code, you are responsible for distributing that code only to intended recipients.
• Media Ethics: Any media (photos/audio) uploaded for "Surprise Themes" must be owned by you or used with permission and must comply with our safety guidelines.
• Data Persistence (Total Purge): When a recipient "Saves" a shared note, they create a personal copy. However, to ensure user safety and content control, all copies remain linked to the original. If the original owner chooses to "Delete for Everyone", all cloned copies will be permanently purged from the platform.

5. Community Guidelines & Moderation

To maintain a safe and productive community, you agree NOT to:

• Post or share illegal, abusive, harassing, or defamatory content.
• Infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others.
• Engage in automated scraping or systematic data collection without permission.

EchoWithin reserves the right to remove any content (including blog posts and comments) and suspend or terminate accounts that violate these guidelines.

6. Communications & Notifications

By creating an account, you may receive automated service emails (notifications, newsletters). We comply with RFC 8058 "One-Click Unsubscribe" standards. You may opt out of non-essential communications at any time via the unsubscribe links provided in our emails.

7. Data Removal & "Hard Delete" Policy

At EchoWithin, "Delete" means delete. When you choose to remove a blog post, a comment, or a personal note, the following occurs:

• Permanent Removal: The record is immediately purged from our active databases. We do not use "soft-deletes" or keep hidden copies of your deleted content.
• Cascading Media Cleanup: Any associated media (images/audio) stored in our cloud storage is permanently destroyed if not linked to other active content.
• Irreversibility: Once data is deleted, it cannot be recovered by our team. You are encouraged to maintain your own backups of important personal notes.

8. Limitation of Liability

EchoWithin is provided "as is." While we strive for 100% uptime and data integrity (including background sync for offline notes), we are not liable for data loss, service interruptions, or damages arising from your use of the platform.

9. Changes to Terms

We may update these terms to reflect new features or legal requirements. We will notify you of significant changes, and continued use of the Platform constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.