This summary helps you understand the Terms. The Terms below are the agreement.
These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and VAULTCAST, INC., a California corporation (“VAULTCAST,” “we,” “us”), governing your use of the ChimeChat service, including the web application, any future applications, and related services (the “Service”).
By creating a room, joining a room, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
1.1 ChimeChat is a private, one-to-one electronic communication service built on reply-triggered deletion (U.S. Patent No. 10,079,796): when a participant sends a response in a conversation, the message being responded to — together with all earlier messages in that conversation — is automatically removed from that participant's own device. A reply is the most common response, but using the “Clear” function or sending any message (including an empty one) counts equally. Each participant's screen clears independently, each time that participant responds.
1.2 Messages are protected by end-to-end encryption. Encryption keys are generated on your device and are shared between participants through the invite link or a direct device-to-device key exchange. The encryption keys are never transmitted to or held by VAULTCAST. Our servers relay encrypted data that we do not have the technical ability to decrypt.
1.3 The Service does not maintain user accounts in the traditional sense. Access to a conversation is based on your browser or device and the invite link or room code used to enter it. (References to a “device” in these Terms mean the browser profile in use — each browser on a machine, including a private or incognito window, functions as its own device.) Paid memberships add a narrow exception (see Section 9 and Privacy Policy Section 2.6): a membership is an account made of the details you give when you register (your name, your email address, and a mobile number if you choose to give one), stored encrypted, plus a subscription state. It is not connected to what you say in rooms, which stays end-to-end encrypted and unreadable by us. Display names and optional profile photos exist only for the life of a conversation and only on participants' devices, with two exceptions. First, with a paid membership you may choose to have your display name and your profile photo kept for you, so they are there when you log in on another device; both are optional, are stored encrypted, and are deleted from our systems if you turn them off (see Privacy Policy Section 2.6(a)). Second, when you schedule a room for a future time, or invite someone to a live one, your display name is encrypted on your device with that room's key and held by the Service so the person you invite can be told who invited them. We cannot read it — we never hold the key — and it is discarded with the room.
1.4 Conversations (“rooms”) are transient. A room ends permanently when it has been inactive for approximately 24 hours, when all participants leave, when the Service is restarted or updated, or when we close it — to enforce the operational limits in Section 4.4, or on the grounds stated in Section 11.2. When a room ends, nothing about its contents continues to exist on our systems, because nothing about its contents was ever stored on our systems.
2.1 What deletion does. Reply-triggered deletion removes message content from the responding participant's device, via the Service's software, at the moment a response is sent. VAULTCAST's servers do not store message content at any time: encrypted data is held transiently in server memory only as needed to deliver it, and is discarded upon delivery or room expiry. VAULTCAST maintains no message archives, no backups, and no message logs, and therefore cannot restore, recover, or produce message content — for you, for the other participant, or in response to legal process.
2.1a How the Service holds content on your own device. So that closing ChimeChat and returning to a room you are still in does not lose your place, the Service may keep on your own device a copy of what is currently on your screen in that room — messages and attachments not yet cleared. That copy is stored encrypted, with that room's own key, which VAULTCAST never holds. It is not sent to VAULTCAST and does not change Section 2.1: our servers still store no message content at any time.
This copy exists only for the life of the room, and is removed:
(i) at the moment reply-triggered deletion clears that content, in the same act — deletion reaches the stored copy, not only the screen;
(ii) when the room ends, for any reason; and
(iii) in any event on expiry of the room's own limit.
Removal under (ii) is performed by the Service's software on your device. If the room ends while ChimeChat is not running there, removal happens the next time it runs, and no later than (iii). On a device you mark as shared when logging in, nothing under this Section is stored at all. This Section changes how the Service holds content on your device; it does not change Show, Listen and Give under Section 2.3, which govern whether you are offered a way to save an attachment out of the Service and keep it beyond the room. A shown or listened attachment still has no keep, save, copy, or export control.
2.2 What deletion does not do. You acknowledge and agree that:
(a) Until a participant responds, messages you have sent remain visible on that participant's device, for as long as that takes;
(b) No technology can prevent the person you are talking to from keeping what you send them. A participant may photograph the screen with another device, take screenshots, copy text, record the display, or otherwise capture content before responding. Where the Service offers an explicit Keep control (see 2.3), the sender is notified of its use; the Service cannot detect or notify capture performed by other means;
(c) Deletion operates through the Service's software on each device. It cannot reach content that has left the Service — for example, content captured under (b), or copies existing on a device that is compromised by malware, subject to operating-system-level backup or screen recording, or otherwise outside the Service's control;
(d) The Service deletes content; limited operational and technical data is processed as described in the Privacy Policy;
(e) Ephemerality is mutual and symmetric. Just as others cannot rely on retaining what you send, you cannot rely on retrieving anything after you respond. If information matters to you — an address, a document, a photograph — save it before you reply. Everything not saved is unrecoverable, by design, and VAULTCAST has no ability to make exceptions.
2.3 How attachments travel: Show, Listen, and Give. When you send an attachment you choose how it travels, and that choice governs what the Service offers the other participant:
(a) Show — or Listen, for audio — means the attachment is presented in the room to be seen or heard. The Service provides the other participant no keep, save, copy, or export control for it, and it is removed on response like any other content;
(b) Give means the attachment is handed over to keep. The Service provides an explicit Keep control; a copy kept that way is written to that participant's own device, is theirs, and survives the room. When a participant uses Keep, you are notified;
(c) Open receipts. For any attachment, however it travels, the Service tells the sender when the other participant opens it — views it, plays it, or keeps it — and the sender's own copy shows the time it was received, opened, and kept. This is a receipt about that participant's use of the Service, not about the content, and it is disclosed here because they should know it is sent;
(d) Some file types cannot be presented in the room and are therefore sent as Give;
(e) Show and Listen withhold a feature; they do not create a technical guarantee. Everything in 2.2(b) applies to them unchanged — a participant may photograph, screenshot, record, or otherwise capture what is displayed or played, and the Service cannot detect or notify such capture. Choose what you send accordingly.
2.4 No use for records. The Service is intentionally unsuitable for communications you are required to retain (by law, regulation, employment policy, litigation hold, or otherwise). You are solely responsible for complying with any retention obligation that applies to you, and you agree not to use the Service to evade one.
2.5 Not for emergencies. The Service is not a substitute for telephone or emergency services and must not be relied upon for emergency communications.
3.1 You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service.
3.2 By using the Service you represent that you meet the age requirement, that you are not barred from using the Service under applicable law, and that you are not located in, or a resident of, any jurisdiction subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions.
3.3 The Service is offered from the United States. If you use it from elsewhere, you are responsible for compliance with your local law.
4.1 Invite links, QR codes, and room codes are bearer instruments: anyone who possesses one may be able to enter the room it refers to, and the encryption key for a room travels in its invite link. Treat invite links like keys, because they are keys. Send them only to the person you intend, through a channel you trust. VAULTCAST is not responsible for access by anyone to whom an invite was forwarded, shown, or exposed.
4.2 Rooms are strictly one-to-one and lock to their two participants. A room cannot be transferred.
4.3 During any closed or limited-access period, access credentials (the site access password and any personal access grant) are personal to you; sharing them beyond their stated purpose is a violation of these Terms and grounds for removal.
4.4 We may set and change operational limits — including room counts, message and file size limits, rate limits, and expiry windows — at any time, and may end a room to enforce them.
4.5 If you open an invite link and choose not to accept these Terms, the person who sent the invite is told, so that they are not left waiting. That notice includes the display name you typed on the invite screen, if you typed one, and the time you declined. It does not include your account, your device, your location, or any indication of how you answered the age confirmation. Nothing is sent if you simply close the page without answering, and opening an invite link is not itself reported.
5.1 You agree not to use the Service to:
5.2 You are solely responsible for the content you send and for your conduct toward other participants. Because of the Service's design, VAULTCAST cannot and does not review, moderate, or monitor the content of communications and has no obligation to do so.
6.1 Reporting. If you encounter conduct that violates Section 5, report it through the reporting channel given under , which sets out what to send and where to send it. Because VAULTCAST stores no content, effective reports generally must include the reporting participant's own copy of the material (for example, screenshots from the reporter's device). If you intend to report something, preserve your copy before you reply — responding clears the material from your own screen and it cannot be retrieved afterward.
6.2 What we do with reports. We review reports in good faith. Where we obtain actual knowledge of apparent CSAM or other content we are legally required to report, we report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and/or law enforcement, as required by 18 U.S.C. §2258A, and we preserve the report-related material as the law requires. We may also deny access to the Service (Section 11) and, at our discretion, refer any unlawful conduct to law enforcement.
6.3 Legal process. We respond to valid legal process. Because of the Service's architecture, the categories of information we possess are extremely limited (see the Privacy Policy); we cannot produce message content we do not have. We do not obstruct lawful investigations, and we may cooperate with them to the extent of the information we actually possess.
6.4 No duty to monitor. Nothing in these Terms creates any obligation for VAULTCAST to monitor communications, and federal law does not require it to do so (18 U.S.C. §2258A(f)).
7.1 As between you and VAULTCAST, you retain all rights in the content you send. You grant VAULTCAST only the narrow, transient license necessary to operate the Service: to transmit, route, and temporarily hold your encrypted content in memory for the purpose of delivering it. This license ends when delivery completes or the room ends, because no copy remains.
7.2 You represent that you have the necessary rights to the content you send and that your sending it does not violate law or any third party's rights.
7.3 If you send us suggestions or feedback about the Service, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use it without restriction or compensation.
8.1 Our collection and use of information is described in the Privacy Policy, which is part of these Terms. In summary and without limiting that document: we do not store message content; we process transient connection data to operate the Service; we maintain content-free, aggregate usage statistics using one-way hashed identifiers; with a paid membership, we store the registration details you provide (name, email address, and a mobile number if you give one), encrypted, as described in Privacy Policy Section 2.6; and we do not sell personal information.
8.2 Display names and profile photos. The Service is designed for privacy, not anonymity between participants. The display name and profile photo you provide are shown to the person you are meeting and are used in notices the Service itself sends to either of you — for example, when someone declines these Terms at your invitation (§4.5), or when someone steps away from or ends a room. You supply these; we do not verify them, and we do not attach them to message content, which is end-to-end encrypted and unreadable by us.
9.1 Certain features may require a paid membership. Payments are processed by our merchant of record, which is the seller of record for the transaction; your purchase is also subject to the payment terms presented at checkout.
9.2 Memberships renew automatically until cancelled. Price, term, renewal, and cancellation mechanics are stated at checkout and in your customer portal; material price changes will be notified in advance and apply at your next renewal. Cancellation stops future renewals; it does not retroactively refund the current period except as stated in the Billing Policy or required by law.
9.3 A membership admits the member; it does not transfer, and room participants' free use of a member's room conveys no rights to them.
9.4 Membership registration and email. You log in to a membership with your email address, using a log-in link we send to it. After your first log-in, we ask for your full name (required) and a mobile number (optional). These details are stored encrypted and handled as described in Privacy Policy Section 2.6. We use your email address to send log-in links and notices about your account. We send news about ChimeChat to that address only if you choose to receive it, and every such email includes an unsubscribe that we honor. The mobile number is not used by the Service today; we ask for it now so that a future account feature that needs it, such as log-in help by text, would not require asking everyone again, and the Privacy Policy will describe any such use before it begins.
10.1 The Service is offered in an evolving form: it may contain defects and may change, be interrupted, or be discontinued at any time, with or without notice. Live rooms may be terminated by maintenance, updates, or outages; where practicable we provide an in-app countdown notice before planned updates, but we do not guarantee it.
10.2 We may modify the Service — including features and limits — at any time. We are not liable for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation of the Service, including the resulting end of any room.
11.1 You may stop using the Service at any time. Leaving a room frees your seat; when all participants leave, the room is gone for good.
11.2 We may suspend or terminate your access — including by revoking rooms, invalidating invite links or codes, blocking devices or other identifiers, and (for paid members) cancelling membership — at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms or the law, pose a risk to other users or the Service, or where required by law. Where the violation is grave (including any conduct described in Section 5.1's zero-tolerance provisions), termination is immediate and without refund except where the law requires otherwise.
11.3 Because the Service stores no conversations, termination involves no return or deletion of conversation data by us; there was never any to hold. If you have a paid membership, the registration details described in Privacy Policy Section 2.6 can be corrected or deleted as the Privacy Policy describes.
The Service, including its software, design, mechanic, and branding, is protected by intellectual-property law, including U.S. Patent No. 10,079,796 and trademarks including ChimeChat™, ChimeCast™, and VAULTCAST™. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service as intended and permitted by these Terms. No other rights are granted. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the Service, nor reverse engineer it except to the extent a right to do so cannot lawfully be excluded.
We respect intellectual-property rights. Because the Service stores no user content, there is generally nothing hosted for us to remove; notices concerning infringing conduct on the Service may be sent to the contact published on this page.
14.1 THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE.
14.2 WITHOUT LIMITING 14.1, VAULTCAST DOES NOT WARRANT THAT: (a) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE; (b) ANY MESSAGE WILL BE DELIVERED; (c) DELETION WILL OCCUR IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE ON EVERY DEVICE (INCLUDING DEVICES THAT ARE COMPROMISED, MODIFIED, OR OFFLINE); OR (d) ANY PARTICIPANT WILL NOT CAPTURE OR RETAIN CONTENT BY MEANS OUTSIDE THE SERVICE'S CONTROL (SECTION 2.2). YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE — INCLUDING ANY SENSITIVE COMMUNICATION — IS AT YOUR OWN JUDGMENT AND RISK.
14.3 No advice or information obtained from us or the Service creates any warranty not expressly stated here.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (a) VAULTCAST WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA (INCLUDING ANY CONTENT THAT WAS DELETED, NOT DELIVERED, OR NOT RECOVERABLE), LOSS OF PRIVACY OR CONFIDENTIALITY ARISING FROM ANOTHER PARTICIPANT'S CONDUCT, OR REPUTATIONAL HARM, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY; AND (b) VAULTCAST'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF US $100 OR THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO VAULTCAST FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS; PORTIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION APPLY TO ALL THEORIES OF LIABILITY AND SURVIVE FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.
You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless VAULTCAST and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against claims, damages, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your content, your use of the Service, or your violation of these Terms or of any law or third-party right.
17.1 Informal resolution first. Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us through the contact published on this page and attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute within 60 days.
17.2 Arbitration. Any dispute not resolved informally will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS in Los Angeles County, California (or by videoconference), under its consumer arbitration rules, except either party may (a) bring an individual claim in small-claims court, or (b) seek injunctive relief in court for infringement or misuse of intellectual property.
17.3 Class waiver. ALL CLAIMS MUST BE BROUGHT IN THE PARTIES' INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.
17.4 Opt-out. You may opt out of Sections 17.2–17.3 by written notice to the contact published on this page within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, stating your name and intent to opt out.
17.5 Governing law; venue. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, excluding conflict-of-law rules. Subject to 17.2, exclusive venue lies in the state and federal courts of Los Angeles County, California.
We may update these Terms. The current version and its effective date are always available at this page. For material changes, we will provide reasonable notice — including by in-app notice — when the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, stop using the Service.
19.1 A handle is a public name you may choose for your account. We do not verify handles, and choosing one does not mean we have checked it against anyone else’s name, trademark, or rights. You are responsible for the handle you choose. VAULTCAST is not responsible for disputes arising from a chosen handle, including claims of impersonation, trademark infringement, or use of a personal or business name.
19.2 Handles are not reviewed before they are assigned. Except as otherwise provided in a separate written agreement between you and VAULTCAST, we may block, reassign, cancel, or reclaim any handle at our sole discretion, including on report by a third party, and including where we believe a handle infringes rights, impersonates a person or organization, or is otherwise unsuitable. Where we reclaim a handle assigned to you, we will tell you.
19.3 A handle is licensed to you for use with the Service; it is not property and it does not transfer. You may not sell, buy, exchange, lease, or transfer a handle to anyone, and any attempt to do so is void. Transfers occur only through VAULTCAST. This does not limit a transfer we make in response to a trademark claim, a court order, or other legal process.
19.4 No payment of any kind guarantees the current or future use of a handle. A paid membership does not purchase a handle, does not reserve one, and does not exempt a handle from 19.2.
19.5 If you and VAULTCAST have entered into a separate written agreement covering your use of a handle, Door, or related services, that agreement governs to the extent of any conflict with these Terms. Nothing other than a written agreement executed by both parties creates such an arrangement — no email, quotation, proposal, or discussion does so on its own.
You consent to receive notices electronically, including by in-app banner. If any provision is unenforceable, the remainder stands, and the provision is enforced to the maximum extent permitted. Failure to enforce is not waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Billing Policy are the entire agreement regarding the Service. We are not liable for delays or failures due to events beyond our reasonable control. Sections 2, 5–8, 11.3, and 12–19 survive termination.
California consumers: Under Cal. Civ. Code §1789.3, you may contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or (800) 952-5210.