Terms of Use

These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) are a legally binding agreement between you and the operator of the Don't Open Me website and services (together, “Don't Open Me,” “we,” “us,” or “the Service”). By creating an account, visiting the site, sealing content, making a payment, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Legal Disclaimer. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Who may use the Service

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. You represent that the information you provide is accurate. Accounts are personal and non-transferable except as required by law. You are responsible for all activity under your account and for keeping your password and devices secure.

2. The Service, in plain terms

Don't Open Me lets you store messages, photographs, quotes, letters, and similar material (your “Content”) in a time capsule with a future opening date you choose. A one-time payment of $5.99 preserves that time capsule for your account and includes a base storage allowance. The opening year is when the capsule may be opened — it is not an annual fee, and waiting longer does not multiply the price. Additional storage is sold separately as a one-time add-on. Payments are not subscriptions. A 5-day free period applies to a newly created unpaid capsule. If you do not pay within that period, unpaid Content for that capsule is deleted. A different time capsule is a separate $5.99.

Public search and lockbox pages, if you list a year, may show that a capsule exists, who you chose to display, and when it opens. Sealed contents are not shown to the public until the opening date. You can keep a year unlisted. You can view, edit, and delete your own Content at any time while your account remains active.

If you choose “open it to the world,” then on your chosen year the capsule is shared with the world. Every message, photograph, name, quote, story, letter, and other item you sealed for that year becomes public and searchable. Search engines, visitors, archives, and other websites may copy or index that material. We cannot take it back from people who already saw it. If you do not want that, keep the year private or do not seal that Content.

3. Not a vault, bank, fiduciary, or archive of record

The Service is a consumer software product. We are not a bank, escrow agent, warehouse, professional archivist, lawyer, insurer, trustee, or fiduciary. We do not take legal custody of your property. We do not guarantee that Content will exist, remain readable, or be delivered in any future year, including 2050 or later. You should keep your own copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.

4. Your Content — you own it; you are responsible for it

You retain whatever rights you already have in your Content. You grant us a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive license to host, encrypt, copy, process, transmit, and display your Content solely as needed to operate the Service (including backups, abuse review, and showing listed lockbox metadata). That license ends when your Content is deleted from our systems, except for residual copies in encrypted backups that are overwritten in the ordinary course.

You represent and warrant that: (a) you have all rights needed to store and, if listed, to publicly associate your display name with the lockbox; (b) your Content does not violate any law or anyone’s rights; (c) you will not upload illegal material, including child sexual abuse material, content that exploits minors, or content you are not authorized to store; and (d) photographs of other people are uploaded only with any consent the law requires. We may remove Content or suspend accounts that we reasonably believe violate these Terms or the law, without refund.

4A. Public capsules are searchable

Don't Open Me includes a public directory (“Find Someone” / “Who left something behind?”) and public lockbox pages. Before the opening date, a listed public lockbox may reveal only that it exists, a display name you chose, an optional username or capsule name, the created year, and the opening date. The contents stay hidden.

On the opening date of a public capsule, the contents you sealed for that year are displayed to anyone who opens the lockbox. That includes text, photographs, captions, and any other supported material. That same material may be found through our search, through the Recently Opened directory, and through third-party search engines or copies made by visitors. Unlisting after opening does not erase copies already made. Private capsules sent to a designated recipient are not listed in public search and cannot be opened from a public page.

You are solely responsible for deciding what to seal and whether it should ever be public. Do not upload anything you would not want a stranger, a future reader, a journalist, an employer, a family member, or a search engine to find.

5. Payments, taxes, and no refunds

Opening-year preservation and storage add-ons are one-time charges processed by Stripe. Prices are stated before you pay. You authorize the charge. Except where a statute requires otherwise, all payments are final and non-refundable once the entitlement is granted, including if you later delete Content, close your account, or stop using the Service. We do not prorate. Duplicate charges for the same user and opening year are not intended; contact us if a duplicate occurs. You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your purchase.

6. Storage, encryption, and deletion

Photographs are automatically optimized. Storage is measured after optimization, per user per opening year. Encryption at rest is a security measure, not a promise that Content cannot be lost, corrupted, subpoenaed, or accessed through a security incident, legal process, or your own account login. If you delete an item, a year of Content, or your stored Content, deletion is permanent and we have no obligation to recover it. Free-period expiry also permanently deletes unpaid Content for that year.

7. Availability — the Service may change or end

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, including long-term hosting. We may transfer operations, change vendors, or shut down. We have no obligation to keep the Service running until your opening year. If we discontinue the Service we may, but are not required to, attempt to notify account email addresses we have on file. You agree that you will not rely on Don't Open Me as your only copy of any Content.

8. Third-party services

Payments, hosting, authentication, and email may be provided by third parties (including Stripe and our hosting and database providers). Their terms and failures are outside our control. We are not liable for those providers except to the extent a non-waivable law says otherwise.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITH ALL FAULTS. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT CONTENT WILL BE PRESERVED, DECRYPTED, OR AVAILABLE ON ANY FUTURE DATE.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DON'T OPEN ME, ITS OWNERS, OPERATORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AND AFFILIATES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES; ANY LOSS OF DATA, CONTENT, PROFITS, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS; OR ANY COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO US FOR THE SPECIFIC OPENING YEAR OR STORAGE ADD-ON GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR (B) TWENTY-FIVE U.S. DOLLARS ($25.00). THESE LIMITS ARE AN ESSENTIAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN. SOME PLACES DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS; IN THOSE PLACES OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

11. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Don't Open Me and its owners, operators, officers, employees, contractors, and affiliates from and against any claims, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your Content; (b) your use of the Service; (c) your violation of these Terms or any law; (d) your violation of anyone’s rights; or (e) any dispute among people who claim an interest in your account or Content, including family or estate disputes. We may assume exclusive defense at your expense.

12. Release of claims you might bring against the owner

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release Don't Open Me and its owner from any and all claims, known or unknown, arising from: loss or disclosure of Content; failure of the Service to exist on an opening date; encryption or vendor failure; free-period deletion; public listing metadata you chose to show; or decisions by other people who view a listed lockbox. This release does not apply to liability that the law says cannot be released, including liability for our own willful misconduct where such a waiver is forbidden.

13. Dispute resolution; governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs arbitration. Except for claims that may be brought in small-claims court, any dispute arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms shall be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The seat is Pennsylvania. You and we waive any right to a jury trial and any right to participate in a class, collective, or representative action to the maximum extent permitted by law. If a court finds the class waiver unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim may proceed in court only on an individual basis and the rest of this section still applies. You may opt out of arbitration within 30 days of first accepting these Terms by sending a written notice that you reject arbitration, from the email on your account, describing your name and account.

14. Changes

We may update these Terms. Continued use after the effective date of a posted change is acceptance of the new Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the Service and delete your Content.

15. General

If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect and the provision is modified to the minimum extent needed to make it enforceable. These Terms are the entire agreement about the Service. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a sale or reorganization. Headings are for convenience only. “Including” means “including without limitation.”

Questions about these Terms: use the email address on your account to write to us, or the contact method posted on the Service if one is listed. The Legal Disclaimer contains additional warnings and numbered fine print that are part of this agreement even if they are easy to skip.