Terms of Service

Using Kinrelic

Kinrelic is a private space for a family to record, preserve, and share stories, recipes, and photos. By using it, you agree to these terms. If you're using it on behalf of your family, you're confirming you have their permission to do so.

Age, children, and permission

In short: you need to be 18 to hold a Kinrelic account. The people in your recordings can be any age, and most of them never need an account at all.

You need to be 18 to hold an account. To create an account, start a free trial, or buy a plan, you must be at least 18 and able to enter into a contract. If the law where you live sets a higher age for that, that's the age that applies to you. By opening an account, you're confirming you meet it. We ask for an adult because an account holder here takes on a paid subscription, decides what happens to other people's voices and photographs, and tells us they had permission to record them.

Most storytellers never sign up. They tap a link someone texted them, talk for half an hour, and that's the whole of their dealing with us. Talking into a Kinrelic link doesn't make anyone a customer and doesn't sign them up to anything. Your mother can talk into a link you texted her and never create an account at all — that's how most storytellers use Kinrelic, and it's exactly how it's meant to work.

Children belong in the archive. A grandchild singing, a ten-year-old in a photograph, a name and a birthday on the family tree — that's the point of Kinrelic, and it's welcome here. But a child can't agree to any of this for themselves, so an adult agrees for them. When you add a child's voice, face, name, or story, you're telling us you're that child's parent or legal guardian, or that you have their parent's or guardian's permission. If the person being recorded is under 13, an adult needs to be there — starting the recording, saving it, and deciding it belongs in the archive.

Children don't get their own login. Nobody under 13 gets an account or a workspace membership here, and we don't knowingly let one be created. Younger children can listen and watch alongside you, on your account, which is how it should be anyway. Someone aged 13 to 17 can be invited as a member, but only by their parent or legal guardian, or with that parent's or guardian's permission. The account holder stays responsible for what a young member does in the workspace, and viewer is usually the right role for them.

If a storyteller can't decide for themselves. Before you record someone, they should understand what's happening: that they're being recorded, that you're keeping it, and that the family will be able to listen. If someone can no longer understand that — if age or illness has taken it from them — then permission has to come from whoever already speaks for them: their spouse, the son or daughter who holds their power of attorney, their court-appointed guardian. If they've died, from the family member looking after their memory.

Taking someone out. Anyone who has been recorded can ask us to take their recordings out — whether or not they hold an account, and whether or not they're the one paying. So can a parent or legal guardian on behalf of a child. Email info@kinrelic.com. We'll check you are who you say you are, take it out within 14 days, and tell the workspace owner we've done it. You don't have to explain why.

If an account holder turns out to be under 18. We'll get in touch and give you 30 days to have a parent or guardian take the account over. We'll help move it, and nothing in the archive is lost. If nobody takes it on, we'll make sure an adult in the family has a copy first, then close the account, delete what's in it, and refund what you've paid for the current year. If the account holder is under 13, we have to delete the personal information we collected from them, and we will — but tell us first if there are family recordings in there that matter, and we'll help an adult in the family download a copy before the account goes.

Whose job the permission is. Ours is to keep the archive safe. Yours is to have the permission. We can't listen to a recording and know who's speaking, how old they are, or whether they agreed — only you know that.

Your content

You (and the family members you invite) own everything you record, upload, or write here. We don't claim ownership of it, and we don't use it for anything beyond providing the service back to your workspace — see the Privacy Policy for specifics. You're responsible for having the right to record and share what you upload, and for getting consent from anyone appearing in a recording or photo.

Roles and access

A workspace owner controls who's invited and what role they hold (owner, admin, contributor, viewer). Removing someone's membership or deleting your own account revokes access — it doesn't delete the family's shared content, which stays with the workspace.

Plans and billing

Some features are gated by workspace plan. Upgrading or downgrading takes effect immediately; there's no hidden auto-renewal beyond what's shown at checkout. Cancel any time from Settings.

30-day money-back guarantee. If Kinrelic isn't right for your family, email info@kinrelic.com within 30 days of your first payment and we'll refund it in full — no questions asked. This is in addition to your 30-day free trial (which never charges a card).

What's not allowed

• Uploading content you don't have the right to share.
• Using the service to harass, defame, or impersonate someone.
• Attempting to access another family's workspace without authorization.
• Reselling or reverse-engineering the service.

Availability

We aim to keep the service available and your data intact, but we can't guarantee uninterrupted access. Export your data regularly if that matters to you — Settings offers a complete export at any time, precisely so you're never dependent on us for the only copy.

Warranties and liability

Kinrelic is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We work hard to keep your data safe and the service running, but we can't promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Kinrelic and its operators won't be liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, or for lost data or profits. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain limitations, so parts of this may not apply to you.

One exception, and we mean it. Whatever else this section says, if we lose or destroy your archive our liability to you is never less than the greater of $500 or everything you have ever paid us. Your recordings are the reason you are here, and a limit that made losing them free would not be a fair bargain.

Your responsibility for content

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Kinrelic and its operators from claims arising out of content you upload or share, or your misuse of the service — for example, recording or sharing someone without the right to do so. You're responsible for having permission for what you add about other people.

Copyright and takedowns

Respect others' copyright — only upload media you have the right to use. If you believe content here infringes your copyright, email info@kinrelic.com with a description of the work, where it appears, and your contact details, and we'll review and remove infringing material.

Suspension and termination

You can stop using Kinrelic and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end access for a workspace that violates these terms (for example, unlawful content or attempts to breach another family's workspace). Where practical we'll give notice and a chance to export first, except where doing so would cause harm or isn't legally allowed.

If Kinrelic stops

If we ever decide to shut the service down, we will do all three of the following. These are commitments, not intentions.

• 90 days' notice. Every account holder is emailed, more than once, well before anything stops working.
• Your originals, downloadable throughout. Export stays open for the whole notice period — no request, no queue.
• The viewer, published openly. We release the code that reads a Kinrelic archive under an open licence, so your export stays readable without us.

We do not promise a funded escrow, or that the service will run forever. Neither is something we could honestly guarantee, and a promise we might break would be worth less than the three above.

Nothing in this section reduces what the rest of these terms already give you: your recordings stay yours, and you can export them at any time for any reason. See what happens if anything happens for how this works alongside naming a steward for your account.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of South Carolina, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Choosing South Carolina law doesn't take away any right the law where you live gives you that you can't sign away. Any claim between us that isn't arbitrated and isn't a small claims case can be brought in the state or federal courts in South Carolina.

Arbitration — how we settle a serious disagreement

In short: if something goes wrong between us and we can't fix it by email, we each agree to settle it in front of a neutral arbitrator instead of in court. You can opt out within 45 days, and nothing else about your account changes if you do.

Talk to us first. Almost everything gets fixed by email. Before either of us starts anything formal, whichever of us has the complaint writes to the other — you to info@kinrelic.com, us to the address on your account — saying what the problem is and what would put it right. You'll be writing to the person who built Kinrelic, not to a queue. For 30 days after that we'll genuinely try to sort it out, and we'll offer you a phone or video call if you'd like one. Any legal deadline that applies to your claim pauses during those 30 days, so this step never costs you time. None of this applies to a refund: ask for one by email and we'll pay it, with no notice and no waiting.

If that doesn't work, we arbitrate. After those 30 days, either of us can start an arbitration. Arbitration is a private hearing in front of a neutral professional — an arbitrator — who listens to both sides and makes a decision that binds both of us. This means you and Kinrelic are each giving up the right to sue in court and the right to a jury trial. This section covers any dispute between you and us relating to Kinrelic or to these terms, and it keeps working after you've stopped using the service. Because Kinrelic is sold and used across state lines, the Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.

Small claims court stays open. Instead of arbitration, either of us can bring an individual claim in small claims court — where you live, if you're the one filing. For a disagreement about a subscription that's usually the fastest and cheapest route there is. If you file there, we agree that court can decide it, we won't object to being sued there, and you can serve us by emailing info@kinrelic.com. Choosing small claims court, or just asking us to fix something, doesn't give up anything else in this section.

How it works. The arbitration is run by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, which exist to protect consumers and are published at adr.org. One arbitrator decides. If the AAA won't take the case, you and we will agree on another established consumer arbitration service; if we can't agree within 30 days, either of us can ask a court to pick one.

We pay for it. We pay the filing fee and all of the arbitration service's and the arbitrator's fees for any claim you bring, whatever it's worth. If you've already paid one, tell us and we'll refund it. Each of us pays for our own lawyer — unless a law that applies to your claim says otherwise, in which case the arbitrator can order us to pay yours.

You won't have to travel. You will never have to come to South Carolina. If your claim is $25,000 or less, you can have it decided entirely on written materials, with no hearing at all. If you'd rather be heard, you can do it by phone or video. If you want to be there in person, it happens where you live. The choice is yours, not ours.

What the arbitrator can do. The arbitrator applies the same law a court would, honours the same filing deadlines a court would, and can award you anything a court could award you in an individual case — money, including damages set by a statute, punitive damages and legal costs where the law allows them, and orders requiring us to do or stop doing something. The arbitrator puts the decision in writing with the reasons for it, and either of us can have it entered as a judgment in court.

One case at a time. An arbitration under this section is between you and us. The arbitrator can decide only your dispute and can award something only to you, and can't run it as a class, collective, or representative case. Your claim won't be combined with anyone else's unless you and we both agree to that in writing. This is the same idea as the class action section below.

Who decides what. The arbitrator decides questions about how this section applies to a particular dispute — for example, whether a claim has to be arbitrated. Two questions go to a court instead: whether the class action section can be enforced, and whether this section as a whole can be enforced. That holds even though the AAA's rules would otherwise send those questions to the arbitrator. We'd rather a judge answered them than ask you to argue them in front of the same person we're asking to decide your case.

What isn't arbitrated. Either of us can ask a court straight away for an urgent order to stop unauthorised access to a workspace, or to stop misuse of intellectual property — ours or yours. Asking for that doesn't give up anything else here. Nothing in this section stops you from reporting a concern to a government agency. And if a law gives you a right you're not allowed to sign away — including the right to ask a court for an order that protects the general public rather than just you — this section doesn't take it away, and you can bring that part in court.

We're not asking anyone who was simply recorded to give anything up. If you spoke into Kinrelic because someone in your family sent you a link, and you never created an account or agreed to these terms, this section doesn't apply to you at all. Neither does the next one. The same goes for a child who appears in a recording. Only the people who actually agreed to these terms are agreeing to arbitrate. We wouldn't want it to reach further than that, and it couldn't.

If a claim passes to your family. If a claim that was yours passes to your family — because you've died, or because someone is handling your affairs — this section applies to them when they bring it. It doesn't apply to a claim that's theirs in their own right.

You can say no to this section. Email info@kinrelic.com with “Arbitration opt-out” in the subject line, and tell us the name and email address on your account. That's the whole process: no form, no phone call, no reason needed. You have 45 days from the day you first agreed to these terms. If you already had an account when we added this section, your 45 days run from the day we email you about the change — and we will email you. We'll confirm we've received it within five business days, but it counts whether or not we reply. Opting out changes nothing else: same price, same plan, same features, same money-back guarantee, and we won't treat you any differently. It's permanent — you won't have to do it again when we update these terms — and it only affects you, not anyone else in your workspace. If you opt out, this section and the class action section don't apply to you, and disagreements between us get settled in court instead.

If we change this section. A change doesn't apply to a dispute you've already written to us about, and you get another 45 days to opt out, running from the day we tell you.

If part of this doesn't hold up. If a court decides the class action section can't be enforced for a particular claim, that claim goes to court and the rest of this section still applies to everything else. If any other part of this section is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. This section keeps working after you cancel, after a subscription ends, and after an account is closed.

You can talk about it. Arbitration is a private process, but we will never ask you to keep quiet about a disagreement with us. You're free to tell anyone you want what happened — before, during, and after.

Class actions — one claim at a time

In short: any claim between you and Kinrelic is brought on its own, by you, for you — not as part of a class action or a group case. We give up exactly the same thing.

You and Kinrelic each agree to bring claims only in our own name and only for our own losses. Neither of us will start, join, or take part in a class action, a collective action, or any other case brought on behalf of a group, and neither of us will act as a class representative or as a member of a class. This is mutual. We give up exactly what you give up.

An arbitrator has no authority to hear claims on a group or representative basis, to combine more than one person's claims, or to award anything to anyone who isn't a party to that individual case. Claims can be combined only if you and we both agree to it in writing. Group claims are never decided in arbitration.

A workspace owner bringing a claim about their own workspace is bringing an individual claim, even though other people in the family use it too.

This section is part of our agreement to arbitrate, and it also applies on its own to any claim that's decided in court. If a court decides it can't be enforced outside arbitration, it still applies in arbitration.

Here's what it doesn't take away. You can still bring your claim in small claims court if it qualifies there, and so can we. You can still complain about us to a government agency — the Federal Trade Commission, your own state's attorney general or consumer protection office, the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs — and that agency can still act on it, including on behalf of other people. You can still ask for everything the law gives you individually, including damages set by a statute, costs, and legal fees. And if a law gives you a right you're not allowed to sign away, including the right to ask a court for an order that protects the general public, this section doesn't take it away and you can bring that part in court.

This section doesn't apply to anyone who never agreed to these terms — someone who was recorded but never opened an account, for example.

If a court decides this section can't be enforced for a particular claim, that claim is decided in court rather than in arbitration, and everything else in these terms — including individual arbitration of every other claim — still applies. Where this paragraph and the general severability sentence elsewhere in these terms point in different directions, this paragraph is the one that applies.

If you opted out of arbitration, this section doesn't apply to you either.

General

These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Kinrelic about the service. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Our not enforcing a term isn't a waiver of it.

Changes

We'll update these terms as the service changes and note the date above. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised terms.

Questions

Contact the family workspace owner, or reach us at info@kinrelic.com.