The deal, in plain language.

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") govern your use of the kydos iOS app, the kydos website, and the kydos backend (together, the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

What kydos is

kydos is a commitment device. You choose apps to block on your own phone and you choose a friend — your keyholder — who must approve any override. If your keyholder does not respond by the next daily reset boundary, your override request expires and the block continues. Silence is denial. Fail-closed is the product.

What kydos is not

kydos is not a security product, parental-control product, or enterprise device-management product. A determined user can delete and reinstall the app, change their phone's settings, or stop using the device. kydos cannot prevent that, and it is not designed to. The value comes from the friction and the social accountability of asking another person to override your own rule, not from technical lockdown.

Who can use the Service

You must be at least 13 years old to use kydos. If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you must have a parent or legal guardian's permission. kydos is offered for personal, non-commercial use.

Your account

Accounts are created with a phone number and a one-time SMS code. You are responsible for the phone number associated with your account — keep control of it. If you lose access to the number, contact support@kydos.app; we cannot let you back into the account without proof of phone-number control, and we will not transfer an account to a different number on the strength of an email alone.

Keyholders

A keyholder is a real person you choose. They are not an agent of kydos, and kydos does not screen, evaluate, train, or vouch for them. The relationship between you and your keyholder is social and personal. You may end a keyholder relationship by revoking their link in the app, subject to the cool-down rules described in the product.

kydos provides keyholders with the information they need to act on your override requests: the commitment's title and schedule, counts of selected apps, and the requests you send. Keyholders do not see the app-by-app contents of your selection, your screen-time data, or your other commitments.

Grants are sticky and time-boxed

Once a keyholder approves an override request, the grant runs until the time-bounded expiry the system computed at approval. There is no early-cancel button — neither you nor your keyholder can pull a grant back once issued. This is intentional: a commitment device that you can wriggle out of in the middle of a slip is no commitment device at all.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service to harass, coerce, manipulate, or surveil another person. kydos is for blocking apps on your own phone, by your own consent.
• Use the Service to enforce restrictions on a person who has not freely consented to those restrictions (for example, a partner you are pressuring, or someone whose phone is not theirs to choose).
• Probe, reverse-engineer, or attempt to bypass the integrity controls of the Service in order to release another user's grants, forge audit-log entries, or escalate access.
• Submit false or abusive support requests — particularly requests to delete or reassign someone else's account.
• Use the Service in violation of any applicable law or third-party right.

The Service may change

kydos is an evolving product. We may add, remove, or change features at any time. If we make a change that materially reduces what you can do with an existing commitment, we will surface it in the app before the change takes effect.

No warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that any particular block, grant, or push notification will be delivered on time.

In particular, you acknowledge that the Service depends on Apple Push Notification service, your wireless carrier, your keyholder's responsiveness, and the behavior of iOS itself, none of which we control.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, kydos and its operators will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or related to your use of the Service. Our aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or related to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you have paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim or (b) ten US dollars.

Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time and delete your account through our support flow (see the Support page). We may suspend or terminate access to the Service if you violate these Terms or if we are required to do so by law. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (no warranty, limitation of liability, governing law) will survive.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, and you and we consent to personal jurisdiction there.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If a change is material we will notify you in the app and update the "last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

Contact

Questions about these Terms: email support@kydos.app.