Journal Thing — Terms of Use
What you write is yours. Premium is billed by the app store you bought it from, not by us. The app is provided as is, so keep your own backups of anything you would hate to lose.
These terms are the agreement between you and Things Things Things LLC ("we", "us", "our") for the Journal Thing app and its companion experiences — the Apple Watch app, the home-screen widget, and the optional dictation and sync services. Installing or using the app means you accept them. How we handle data is a separate document: the Journal Thing Privacy Policy.
Your journal is yours
You keep every right you already have in what you write. We claim no ownership of your entries, and no licence to read, publish, analyse, or train anything on them. This promise covers your journal content; it does not prevent us from measuring separate, limited app-usage events that expressly exclude that content. Your journal lives on your device unless you enable sync. The Privacy Policy describes every case where data leaves the device and what happens to it then.
Licence to use the app
We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use Journal Thing on devices you own or control, for as long as these terms are in effect. You may not resell, rent, or sublicense the app, reverse-engineer it except where the law says you may, or remove its notices or branding.
Premium, billing, and cancellation
Journal Thing is free to use. Premium unlocks Journal Thing Sync across iPhone, iPad, Android, and the web, extra themes and fonts, the adaptive text colour, and biometric unlock. It is offered as a monthly subscription, an annual subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. About payment:
- your purchase is processed by the app store you bought it from — Apple's App Store or Google Play — and is governed by that store's terms in addition to these;
- subscriptions renew automatically at the then-current price until you cancel, and cancelling takes effect at the end of the paid period;
- you cancel through your app store account settings, not through us — we cannot cancel a subscription on your behalf;
- refunds are handled by the app store under its refund policy; we never see your payment details.
Prices shown in the app come from the store, so the amount your store displays at purchase is the amount that governs. If Premium features change materially, we will not remove a feature you already paid for under a lifetime purchase.
Journal Thing Sync needs a Journal Thing account, created by signing in with Google or Apple. One Premium purchase activates one account; if you end up with two accounts, email us and we will move the purchase. An account may hold up to 100,000 journal records and 2 GB of photos. If a subscription lapses, syncing pauses; the journal stays on your devices and in your account until you delete it. You can delete the account, and everything stored in it, from Settings in any of the apps or from the web journal.
Network services and analytics
Dictation and sync reach the network only when you use them. We also collect limited app-usage analytics:
- Voice dictation sends the audio you dictate to our transcription relay, which forwards it to a speech-to-text provider and returns text. Use it for your own journaling; do not use it to transcribe material you have no right to record, and do not use it in a way that abuses the service, such as automated bulk transcription.
- Sync keeps your journal current across your own devices. iCloud sync uses your Apple Account; Journal Thing Sync uses a Journal Thing account. Either can be turned off at any time. Turning sync off never deletes what is already on your device.
- App-usage analytics measures limited events such as app launches, coarse session duration, and feature use. Journal entries and other content you create are excluded. Analytics is never used for advertising or tracking across other companies' apps or websites.
Dictation and sync are provided as a convenience. We may change, suspend, or discontinue either service, and we will not do so in a way that removes access to the journal stored on your device.
Acceptable use
Journal Thing is a private journal, so most of the usual rules simply do not apply — there is no feed, no sharing, and no other user to affect. What we do ask: do not use the app or its services to break the law, to attack or overload our infrastructure, or to attempt access to another person's data.
Backups and data loss
The app can export a backup file, and can create automatic backups on your device. Keeping a copy of anything you would hate to lose is your responsibility. Devices fail, get lost, and get wiped; an app store restore does not necessarily bring back app data. If you protect a backup with a passphrase and lose the passphrase, that backup cannot be recovered — not by you and not by us.
The app is provided "as is"
Journal Thing is provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the app will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will preserve your data.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data or lost profits, arising from your use of the app. Where liability cannot be excluded, our total liability is limited to the amount you paid us for the app in the twelve months before the claim. Some jurisdictions do not allow these exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you; nothing here limits rights you have as a consumer that cannot be waived.
Apple App Store terms
For the iOS and watchOS apps, these terms are between you and us, not Apple, and Apple is not responsible for the app or its content. Apple has no obligation to provide support or maintenance for the app. If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price; to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation. Apple is not responsible for addressing any claim relating to the app, including product-liability, regulatory, or intellectual-property claims. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you. You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
Changes to these terms
If these terms change, we will revise the "Last updated" date above and post the new version at this address. Continuing to use the app after a change means you accept the revised terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the app; your journal remains on your device and can be exported.
Ending the agreement
You can end these terms at any time by deleting the app. We may suspend access to the optional network services described above if they are being abused. The sections on your content, warranty disclaimers, liability, and governing law survive the end of this agreement.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and the state and federal courts located in New York County, New York have exclusive jurisdiction — except where the law of your country of residence requires otherwise, in which case that law and those courts apply.
Contact
Questions about these terms? Email hello@journalthing.com.