Terms and Conditions of Use - Duckness

Effective Date: May 22, 2025

Welcome to Duckness (hereinafter, the "Application" or the "Service"). These Terms and Conditions (hereinafter, the "Terms") govern your access and use of our chat Application. Please read them carefully.

By accessing or using the Application, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the terms, then you may not access the Service. Your use of the Application is also subject to our Cookie Policy, which you accept separately during registration.

1. Purpose and Nature of the Service

1.1. Description: Duckness is a real-time web chat application that allows users to communicate through private channels. Access to these channels is via a unique code generated by the channel creator. Additionally, the Application implements an account recovery system based on unique recovery codes generated during registration, eliminating email dependency for this function.

1.2. Prototype/Current Version: You expressly acknowledge and agree that the Application, although functional, may be subject to future improvements and changes. As a user, you understand that:

• It may contain errors or experience unexpected interruptions, although we work to minimize them.
• Functionalities may change or be modified in future updates.
• While we strive for data security, the ultimate responsibility for shared information lies with the user.
• It is not recommended for communications of extremely critical or irreplaceable information without additional precautions by the user.
• The goal is to offer a functional and secure chat platform.

2. User Accounts and Responsibility

2.1. Registration: To use certain features of the Application, you must register by creating an account. This involves choosing a unique Nickname and setting a password.

• Nickname Policy: For your privacy and to maintain the anonymous nature of the Service, your Nickname must adhere to the following rules:
  • It must be between 3 and 8 characters long.
  • It must contain at least one number (0-9).
  • It must contain at least one special character from the set: [!@$%&#+*^_-].
  • It must only contain alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9) and the allowed special characters listed above.
  • Crucially, you agree NOT to use any part of your real name, contact information, date of birth, location, or any other information that could directly or indirectly identify you or any other person in your Nickname. Adherence to this policy is a fundamental condition of using the Service.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password.

2.2. Recovery Codes:

• During the registration process, you will be provided with unique recovery codes. It is your sole responsibility to save these codes in a secure and confidential place.
• These codes are the only method to regain access to your account if you forget your password.
• The Duckness team does not store your recovery codes in an accessible way and we cannot help you retrieve them if you lose them. Losing your recovery codes may result in permanent loss of access to your account.

2.3. Account Activity: You are fully responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security.

3. Acceptable Use of the Service

You agree not to use the Application to:

• Post or transmit any content that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, or indecent.
• Violate the intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of third parties.
• Transmit viruses, malware, or other harmful code.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to other computer systems through the Service.
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to discover the source code or underlying algorithms of the Application.

4. Intellectual Property and Copyright

4.1. Our Rights: The Duckness Application, including all software, source and object code, design, text, graphics, logos, user interfaces, visual interfaces, photographs, trademarks, sounds, music, artwork, and content (collectively, "Application Content"), is owned by The Duckness team or its licensors and is protected by copyright, patent, and trademark laws, and various other intellectual property and unfair competition laws.

4.2. Limited License: You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Application strictly in accordance with these Terms and for its intended purpose.

4.3. Restrictions: You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, rent, lease, lend, create derivative works, reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the Application, unless laws prohibit these restrictions or you have our written permission.

5. Privacy and Data

5.1. Our Commitment to Anonymity and Data Collection: The Service is engineered to operate without requiring or storing traditional personally identifiable information (PII) such as your real name, email address, or phone number for account creation, operation, or recovery. The data we collect, as detailed below, is handled in a way that, combined with your adherence to our Nickname Policy (Section 2.1), is not intended to be relatable to your real-world identity.

Data We Collect:

• Nickname: Your user-chosen, policy-compliant anonymous identifier, used to distinguish you within the Service. It is stored as entered (after being converted to lowercase for system consistency).
• Authentication Credentials: Your password is not stored by the Service. We store a cryptographically hashed representation of your password (using bcrypt) for authentication purposes only.
• Account Recovery Codes: Unique recovery codes provided to you during registration are stored using strong, one-way hashing algorithms (bcrypt). Plaintext codes are not stored by the Service and are your sole responsibility.
• Channel Information: Optional channel names (max 50 characters), system-generated unique channel codes (8 characters), and the channel creator's internal user ID (derived from the anonymous Nickname). Users are advised not to use personal information in channel names.
• Channel Membership: Records of which users (by their internal ID) are members of which channels.
• Message Data (Last Message Only): The Service is designed to be visually ephemeral in the active chat. For continuity, only the last message sent in a channel (text content up to 500 characters), its sender's anonymous Nickname, the sender's internal ID, and the timestamp are persisted in the database for each channel.
• Push Notification Subscriptions (Optional): If you choose to enable push notifications, we store the necessary subscription data provided by your browser's push service, associated with your anonymous Nickname's internal ID, solely to deliver these notifications. You can disable this at any time.
• Terms and Cookie Policy Acceptance Records: We log that your account accepted the then-current version of these Terms and Conditions and the Cookie Policy, along with a timestamp.
• Technical Operational Data (Non-Identifiable): Minimal, non-personally identifiable data such as `last_login` timestamps are recorded for purposes like enforcing our inactive account policy or ensuring service functionality. This data is not used to profile users.
• IP Addresses: As with any internet service, your IP address may be temporarily logged by our servers for essential security and operational purposes (e.g., rate limiting, abuse detection). These logs are not correlated with your Nickname for profiling and are subject to routine deletion.

5.2. Data Security: We implement security measures to protect your information (such as hashing passwords and recovery codes). However, no Internet transmission or electronic storage method is 100% secure. Use of the Application is at your own risk in this regard.

5.3. Do Not Share Sensitive Information: We strongly advise you not to share highly sensitive personal information through Duckness chat channels if you deem the risk unacceptable to you. You are responsible for the content you transmit.

6. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE APPLICATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR COURSE OF PERFORMANCE.

The Duckness team DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE APPLICATION WILL FUNCTION UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION; THAT ANY ERRORS OR DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; THAT THE APPLICATION IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS; OR THAT THE RESULTS OF USING THE APPLICATION WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS.

7. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL The Duckness team, NOR ITS DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, PARTNERS, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS, OR AFFILIATES, BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, RESULTING FROM (I) YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF OR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE THE APPLICATION; (II) ANY CONDUCT OR CONTENT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE APPLICATION; (III) ANY CONTENT OBTAINED FROM THE APPLICATION; AND (IV) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS, USE, OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR CONTENT, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF A REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

8. Modifications to Terms

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material, we will try to provide at least 15 days' notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at our sole discretion.

By continuing to access or use our Application after those revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised terms. If you do not agree to the new terms, please stop using the Application.

9. Termination

We may terminate or suspend your access to our Application immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if you breach the Terms.

All provisions of the Terms which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, and limitations of liability.

10. Inactive Account Policy

To maintain the efficiency and resource management of the Application, we reserve the right to automatically delete user accounts that remain inactive for a period exceeding ninety (90) consecutive days.

Inactivity will be determined based on the last recorded login date (`last_login`). The deletion of an inactive account is permanent and includes the removal of all data associated with said account, such as created channels, channel memberships, recovery codes, and push notification subscriptions. Chat message content is subject to the Application's ephemeral message policy (only the last message of the channel is persisted).

Users are encouraged to log in periodically if they wish to retain their account and associated data.

11. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of Spain, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of those rights. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court, the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in effect. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between us regarding our Application, and supersede and replace any prior agreements we might have between us regarding the Application.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at: duckness.chat@gmail.com