Legal Stuff

Last modified May 24th, 2018

TL;DR

Thing one: Liability

Intend is designed to help you achieve you goals, whatever those may be. However, while Intend or people giving coaching in the context of Intend may give you advice, you remain fully responsible for having goals that are safe, or at least for staying safe while pursuing risky goals. Intend is not responsible if you hurt yourself doing something that you motivated yourself to do using it. Also, if you find yourself becoming so productive that your social life is damaged, you agree that that was an unintended byproduct and that Intend is not responsible for your life becoming unbalanced. (Btw, potential solution to this: make a "Social" or "Community" or "Connection" goal.)

Thing two: Privacy

We'll respect your privacy, and won't sell your data or share it to benefit at your expense. You will retain control over what data of yours is shared with others, via the Visibility controls on a per-goal basis. The exact details of this may change in the future, but always in ways that give you more fine-grained control, and if serious changes to this system are made, we will err on the side of caution, as well as notify you. We may do research on anonymized data.

The bottom line

Lots of companies are Out To Get You. That is, their goals are not aligned with your goals, and therefore they're naturally inclined to use your data and their relationship with you in all sorts of ways that may compromise your privacy, security, or your own behavior! Intend is different. We don't have ads. You're the customer, and we're responsible to you. Furthermore, by definition, our goal is to help you achieve your goals! So unlike many other internet companies, we have little incentive to find (or create) loopholes in whatever legalese is written below.


 

Legalese (what you're technically agreeing to)

Both the ToS and Privacy Policy below are copied almost verbatim from these Creative Commons Sharealike documents from the folks behind WordPress. If something sounds irrelevant, it's probably leftover from that.

Terms of Service:

The following terms and conditions govern all use of the Intend.Do website and all content, services, and products available at or through the website, including, but not limited to, the app, blog, life-coaching, and workshops (taken together, the Website). The Website is owned and operated by Intend (“Intend”), unincorporated (but registered in British Columbia, Canada) sole proprietorship of Malcolm McCulloch (who is the person more commonly known as Malcolm Ocean). The Website is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, Intend’s Privacy Policy, below) and procedures that may be published from time to time on this Site by Intend (collectively, the “Agreement”).

By accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to become bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the Website or use any services. If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by Intend, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms. The Website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old.

  1. Your Intend.Do Account and Site. If you create an account on the Website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and entries, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with your account. You must not describe or assign keywords to your account in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and Intend may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause Intend liability. You must immediately notify Intend of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security. Intend will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.
  2. Responsibility of Users. If you operate an account, post material to the Website, post links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Website (any such material, “Content”), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software. By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:
    • the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
    • if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
    • you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
    • the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive content;
    • the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
    • the Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite violence, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
    • your content is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, other blogs and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;
    • your content is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your profile's URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own; and
    • you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials, whether requested to do so by Intend or otherwise.

    By submitting Content to Intend marked as visible to anyone, you grant Intend a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish that Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your productivity. If you delete Content, Intend will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Website, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

    Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Intend has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Intend’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in Intend’s reasonable opinion, violates any Intend policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in Intend’s sole discretion. Intend will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

  3. Payment and Renewal.
    • General Terms.
      Optional paid services may be available on the Website (any such services, an “Upgrade”). By selecting an Upgrade you agree to pay Intend the monthly or annual subscription fees indicated for that service. Payments will be charged on a pre-pay basis on the day you sign up for an Upgrade and will cover the use of that service for a monthly or annual subscription period as indicated. Upgrade fees are not refundable.
  4. Responsibility of Website Visitors. Intend has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Website, Intend does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Website may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. Intend disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.
  5. Content Posted on Other Websites. We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which Intend.Do links, and that link to Intend.Do. Intend does not have any control over those non-Intend websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-Intend website or webpage, Intend does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. Intend disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-Intend websites and webpages.
  6. Intellectual Property. This Agreement does not transfer from Intend to you any Intend or third party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Intend. Intend, Intend.Do, the Intend logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with Intend.Do, or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intend or Intend’s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Website may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Website grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Intend or third-party trademarks.
  7. Changes. Intend reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of this Agreement. It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. Your continued use of or access to the Website following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes. Intend may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Website (including, the release of new tools and resources). Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
  8. Termination. Intend may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your Intend.Do account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using the Website. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if you have any special kind of paid account, such account can only be terminated by Intend if you materially breach this Agreement and fail to cure such breach within thirty (30) days from Intend’s notice to you thereof; provided that, Intend can terminate the Website immediately as part of a general shut down of our service. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
  9. Disclaimer of Warranties. The Website is provided “as is”. Intend and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither Intend nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Website will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, the Website at your own discretion and risk.
  10. Limitation of Liability. In no event will Intend, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to Intend under this agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. Intend shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law. You'd think “except as prohibited by law” would just go without saying.
  11. General Representation and Warranty. You represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Website will be in strict accordance with the Intend Privacy Policy (below), with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from Canada or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Website will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.
  12. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Intend, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of the Website, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.
  13. Miscellaneous. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Intend and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Intend, or by the posting by Intend of a revised version. If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; Intend may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

 

Privacy Policy:

As stated at the top of this page, Intend is not Out To Get You. Unlike free services that make their money from selling your attention to advertisers, we're on your team. So in addition to doing our best to follow the letter of this policy and laws like the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we're also naturally incentivized to follow the spirit of it as well.

Having said that, we still need to have an official policy, which, like the Terms of Service above, is adapted from the one used by Automattic (WordPress.com). Without further ado...

What This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect about you when you use our website (intend.do) or other products and services that are available on or through our websites (eg Intend New Tab Page chrome extension)

Throughout this Privacy Policy we’ll refer to our website, mobile applications and other products and services collectively as “Services.”

Below we explain how we collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.

Creative Commons Sharealike License

This is adapted from Automattic's Privacy Policy, so it's necessarily also available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license. You can grab a copy of the original Privacy Policy and other legal documents on Github. You’re more than welcome to copy it, adapt it, and repurpose it for your own use. Just make sure to revise the language so that your policy reflects your actual practices. Also, if you do use the policy, give them a shout-out! (You can give us a shout-out too if you want.)

Information We Collect

We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so–for example, to provide our Services, to communicate with you, or to make our Services better.

We collect information in three ways: if and when you provide information to us, automatically through operating our Services, and from outside sources. Let’s go over the information that we collect.

Information You Provide to Us

It’s probably no surprise that we collect information that you provide to us. The amount and type of information depends on the context and how we use the information. Here are some examples:

Information We Collect Automatically

We also collect some information automatically:

Information We Collect from Other Sources

We may also get information about you from other sources. For example, if you create or log into your Intend.Do account through another service (like Google, although we haven't made that possible yet) or if you connect your website or account to an integration partner (like Beeminder or WorkFlowy), we will receive information from that service via the authorization procedures used by that service. The information we receive depends on which services you authorize and any options that are available.

We store a minimal amount of such information—for WorkFlowy, this is just your email and sessionid; for Beeminder, it's only the access token and names of Beeminder goals that you are sending data to from Intend. The rest is processed as-needed and then forgotten immediately.

We may also get information, such as a mailing address, from third party services about individuals who are not yet our users (…but we hope will be!), which we may use, for example, for marketing and advertising purposes like postcards and other mailers advertising our services. (This was in Automattic's policy; we haven't ever done this and don't have plans to, but we're leaving it in in case a really good opportunity like this occurs.)

How And Why We Use Information

Purposes for Using Information

We use information about you as mentioned above and for the purposes listed below:

Legal Bases for Collecting and Using Information

A note here for those in the European Union about our legal grounds for processing information about you under EU data protection laws, which is that our use of your information is based on the grounds that:

(1) The use is necessary in order to fulfill our commitments to you under our Terms of Service or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account–for example, in order to enable access to our website on your device or charge you for a paid plan; or

(2) The use is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or

(3) The use is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person; or

(4) We have a legitimate interest in using your information–for example, to provide and update our Services, to improve our Services so that we can offer you an even better user experience, to safeguard our Services, to communicate with you, to measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of our advertising, and better understand user retention and attrition, to monitor and prevent any problems with our Services, and to personalize your experience; or

(5) You have given us your consent—for example, before we send you onboarding tips and reminders to set your daily intentions.

Sharing Information

How We Share Information

We do not sell our users’ private personal information.

We share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy:

Information Shared Publicly

Information that you choose to make public is–you guessed it–disclosed publicly.

This is optional; you can make all of your goals private, or make them public or any-user-visible to share your progress with friends.

Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.

Please keep all of this in mind when deciding what you would like to share.

How Long We Keep Information

We generally discard information about you when we no longer need the information for the purposes for which we collect and use it–which are described in the section above on How and Why We Use Information–and we are not legally required to continue to keep it.

For example, we keep the web server logs that record information about a visitor to one of Intend’s websites, such as the visitor’s IP address, browser type, and operating system, for approximately 30 days. We retain the logs for this period of time in order to, among other things, analyze traffic to Intend’s websites and investigate issues if something goes wrong on one of our websites.

Another example is our coworking rooms, in which there is both video and chat. Neither the video streams nor the chat history are logged—and the video doesn't even pass through our servers in the first place.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so, such as monitoring our Services for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.

Third Party Software

If you authorize some other application to access your Intend account, via the API or a browser extension that can read the data of websites you access, please keep in mind that when you interact with them you may provide information about yourself (or your site visitors) to those third parties. We don’t own or control these third parties and they have their own rules about collection, use and sharing of information, which you should review.

Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:

Your Rights

If you are located in certain countries, including those that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (AKA the “GDPR”), data protection laws give you rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

In general, we consider all of our users to have these rights, wherever you're located. You can usually access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings and tools that we offer, but if you aren’t able to do that, or you would like to contact us about one of the other rights, contact us.

EU individuals also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority. We request that for the sake of everybody avoiding unnecessary bureaucratic tangles, contact us directly to see if we can resolve your issue first.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Intend may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. Intend encourages concerned visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the change log below, and, in some cases, we may provide additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or the Intend.Do Blog, or sending you a notification through email or the app). Your further use of the Services after a change to our Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy.

That’s it! Thanks for reading.


 

Change log:

2014 November 14: Original version is just mutatis mutandis from Beeminder's adaptation of WordPress's generously shared version. Thanks Beeminder and WordPress!

2015 May 24: Privacy Policy updated to better reflect the transition away from a semi-automated life-coaching service (what Intend was originally) to the independent app it is today.

2017 July 30: Minor phrasing changes.

2018 May 24: Updated for GDPR. Thanks again to the folks at Automattic; you saved us hours.