Terms of Service

1. Who this agreement is between

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between FortSeal ("we", "us"), and the person or organization that purchases, installs, or uses the FortSeal software, the fortseal.com website, the customer portal, the vendor portal, the in-app support console, and any related services (together, the "Service"). FortSeal is owned and operated by Gossip Apps LLC, a Texas limited liability company. The Privacy Policy is part of these Terms. If you accept these Terms on behalf of an organization, you confirm you have the authority to bind that organization, and "you" means that organization and every person it allows to use the Service.

Creating an account, checking the acceptance box, paying for a subscription, or using the Service after the effective date above is acceptance of these Terms. We record the version you accepted, when, and from which IP address as proof of acceptance.

2. Eligibility

You must be 18 or older and able to form a binding contract to use the Service. If you are using the Service on behalf of a business or other organization, you represent that you have the authority to bind it to these Terms. You must not be barred from receiving the Service under US sanctions or export law, and you agree to one account per person unless we state otherwise in writing.

Children. FortSeal is a business product and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13, and no one under 18 may hold an account. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will delete the account and the data we hold about it. A parent or guardian who believes a child has used the Service may write to [email protected].

3. What FortSeal is, and what it is not

FortSeal is a self-hosted, end-to-end encrypted file vault. You download a server image and optional desktop apps, run them on infrastructure you own or control, and your users seal files on their own devices before anything reaches your server.

• We do not host your server, your files, or your users' accounts.
• We do not receive, store, or have any means to read your files, file names, keys, keystores, passwords, or recovery shares.
• We cannot reset a password, rebuild a lost keystore, reconstruct recovery shares, or decrypt anything on your behalf. This is by design and is the reason the product exists.
• The only data we hold about you is described in our Privacy Policy: what you give us to buy a subscription and to ask for support.

4. License

Subject to these Terms and payment of the applicable fees, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to install and use the FortSeal software on infrastructure you own or control, for your internal business purposes, for the number of seats and the term shown on your license file. A "seat" is one user account on your server; the number of seats on your license is the number of user accounts you may have active at one time. Without a valid license file, or after your license expires, the server runs in a reduced free mode limited to reading and exporting data already stored on it; use in free mode is also governed by these Terms.

You may not, and may not allow anyone else to:

• sell, rent, lease, sublicense, host for third parties, or otherwise commercially redistribute the software or a license file;
• copy, modify, forge, or share a license file, or circumvent seat, tier, or expiry limits;
• remove or alter any proprietary notice or branding;
• reverse engineer or decompile the software except where applicable law expressly permits it despite this restriction;
• use the Service to break the law, to store or distribute unlawful material, or to infringe anyone's rights.

We and our licensors own all rights in the software, the website, and our marks. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership to you. If you send us feedback or suggestions, you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free right to use them without obligation to you.

5. Your data and your responsibilities

Everything you and your users put into your FortSeal server is yours. We claim no rights in it and have no access to it. Because you run the software, you are solely responsible for:

• deploying, operating, securing, monitoring, and updating your server, your reverse proxy and TLS certificates, and the devices your users run the apps on;
• backing up your server's database and blob store, and making sure every user backs up their keystore;
• generating, distributing, and safeguarding organization recovery shares, and deciding whether to use recovery at all;
• who you invite, what roles and policies you set, and what your users do with the software;
• determining whether the Service meets your legal, regulatory, contractual, and industry requirements, including any data-residency, retention, export, or sector-specific obligations that apply to you;
• all activity that happens under your license, your accounts, and your portal link.

Loss is permanent. If a user loses their keystore and password and no working recovery shares exist, that user's files cannot be recovered by anyone, including us. If your server disk is lost without a backup, the sealed data on it is gone. You accept that risk.

6. Compliance

FortSeal offers a FIPS build whose cryptography runs as approved services of a CMVP-validated module (AWS-LC FIPS), as detailed on the Compliance page. That validation covers the underlying cryptographic module. It is not a claim that FortSeal itself, as a product, is FIPS 140 validated, FedRAMP authorized, HIPAA certified, CMMC certified, SOC 2 audited, or ISO certified. You are responsible for assessing whether the Service meets the requirements of any regulatory or contractual regime that applies to you. A Data Processing Addendum is available on request for customers in the EEA or UK; write to [email protected].

7. Fees, billing, and renewals

• Prices are shown on the pricing page at the time of purchase, in US dollars, exclusive of taxes. You are responsible for any sales, VAT, withholding, or similar taxes; we collect them where we are required to.
• Subscriptions bill in advance, per seat, per billing period, through our payment processor (Stripe). By purchasing you authorize recurring charges to your payment method until you cancel.
• There is no seat minimum: you pay for the seats you have. Volume pricing applies automatically at the tiers shown on the pricing page.
• Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period. You can change seats or cancel at any time from your customer portal; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period.
• Seat increases are charged for the current period on a prorated basis as calculated by our payment processor; seat decreases apply from the next period.
• All fees are non-refundable except where a refund is required by law or we state otherwise in writing. Unused seats and unused time are not refunded.
• If a payment fails or a charge is disputed, we may suspend issuing or renewing your license until the balance is settled. A server with an expired license falls back to free mode; your data is not deleted by us and remains on your server.
• We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice by email; changes apply from your next renewal after the notice period.

8. Term and termination

These Terms apply from the first time you accept them and continue for as long as you use the Service. Either party may end a subscription at any time as described above. We may suspend or terminate your license immediately if you materially breach these Terms, if your use is unlawful, or if required by law. On termination or expiry your license to the paid tier ends and the server reverts to free mode. Sections 2, 5, 6, and 9 through 13 survive termination.

9. Support and availability

We provide support by email on a reasonable-efforts basis. Unless you have a separate signed agreement with us, we make no commitment to response times, uptime, fixes, feature requests, or continued development. Downloads, the customer portal, and the billing service are provided as available and may be interrupted for maintenance or reasons outside our control. Because your server runs on your infrastructure, we have no ability to monitor, patch, or repair it for you.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", with all faults, and without warranty of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.

In particular, we do not warrant that:

• the Service will be secure, error-free, uninterrupted, or free of vulnerabilities; no software is;
• the cryptography used will remain unbroken, including against future advances in computing;
• the Service will satisfy any law, regulation, certification, accreditation, or compliance framework (including, without limitation, HIPAA, GDPR, CMMC, ITAR, FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27001, or FIPS 140 validation), unless we state so in a signed agreement;
• any data will be recoverable in any circumstance.

Descriptions of what the software encrypts and what the server can and cannot see are statements of design intent, not guarantees, and are subject to the limitations published on our Security page. You are responsible for evaluating the Service and for any decision to rely on it.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, FortSeal and its owners, employees, contractors, and suppliers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, loss of access to data, loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill, or anticipated savings, or for the cost of substitute goods or services, arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service, however caused and under any theory of liability, even if we were advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service will not exceed the fees you paid to us for the Service in the twelve (12) months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim, or one hundred US dollars (US$100) if you have paid nothing.

These limits apply to data loss, unauthorized access, security incidents, service interruption, and errors in the software alike. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions; in those jurisdictions our liability is limited to the smallest amount the law allows. The limitations in this section are a fundamental basis of the bargain between you and us and apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose.

12. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless FortSeal and its owners, employees, and contractors from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to: your or your users' use of the Service; the content you store or share with it; your breach of these Terms; your violation of any law or of any third party's rights; or your failure to secure, back up, or operate your own infrastructure.

13. Export control and sanctions

FortSeal contains encryption software that may be subject to US export administration regulations and other countries' import and use rules. You agree to comply with all such laws, and you represent that you are not located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in a country or territory subject to comprehensive US sanctions, and are not on any US government restricted-party list. You may not export, re-export, or transfer the software in violation of these laws.

14. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. This is a business agreement, and disputes go to court, not arbitration. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Victoria County, Texas, and you consent to their exclusive jurisdiction and to venue there.

Both parties waive any right to a jury trial in any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service. Either party may seek injunctive relief in any court to protect its intellectual property. Any claim must be brought within one (1) year after it arises, or it is permanently barred.

15. General

• Changes. We may update these Terms. The version date at the top changes when we do, and we will notify subscribers by email of material changes at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date is acceptance of the new Terms.
• Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and your license file are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service and replace any prior discussions. Terms in your purchase orders or vendor forms do not apply unless we sign them.
• Separate agreements. Enterprise customers with a signed order form or master agreement are governed by that document where it conflicts with these Terms.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control.
• Severability and waiver. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
• Notices. We send notices to the email on your subscription. You send notices to the address below.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms, legal notices, and DMCA notices: [email protected].