Terms of Service

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. By using Ciphon, you represent that you are at least 13 years of age. If you are under 18, you represent that you have your parent's or legal guardian's permission to use the Service.

2. Description of the Service

Ciphon is an AI-powered tool that helps students find professors and generate personalized cold emails referencing professors' published research and publicly funded grants. The Service:

• Aggregates publicly available faculty, research, and grant data from university websites, Semantic Scholar, the NSF, and the NIH.
• Uses artificial intelligence to generate draft email content based on your profile and selected professor data.
• Allows you to paste professor replies and generate AI-powered follow-up emails within a conversation thread.
• Does not send emails on your behalf. You are solely responsible for copying, reviewing, and sending any generated emails through your own email client.

3. Account Registration

You must create an account to use the Service. You agree to provide accurate information during registration and to keep your account credentials secure. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

4. Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Service only for legitimate academic and professional outreach. You must not:

• Use the Service to send spam, unsolicited bulk email, or commercial solicitations.
• Use generated emails to harass, threaten, stalk, or intimidate any person.
• Misrepresent your identity, credentials, or affiliations in emails generated through the Service.
• Use the Service for any commercial sales, recruiting, or marketing purpose unrelated to genuine academic or research outreach.
• Attempt to circumvent rate limits, usage caps, or other technical restrictions.
• Scrape, crawl, or programmatically access the Service outside of its intended user interface.
• Use the Service in any manner that violates applicable law or regulation, including the CAN-SPAM Act.
• Share your account or access credentials with others.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms at our sole discretion.

5. AI-Generated Content

• No guarantee of accuracy. Emails are generated by artificial intelligence and may contain inaccuracies, outdated information, or errors. You are solely responsible for reviewing, editing, and verifying all generated content before sending it.
• No guarantee of results. We do not guarantee that any email generated through the Service will receive a response or lead to any particular outcome.
• Your responsibility. Once you copy and send a generated email, you assume full responsibility for its content and any consequences that result.
• Third-party content. When you paste a professor's reply into the Service to generate a follow-up, you represent that you have received that communication and are authorized to share it. We store this content as part of your conversation thread and send it to our AI provider to generate follow-up emails. You are solely responsible for any third-party content you input.

6. Professor and Research Data

• Faculty information, research papers, and grant data displayed in the Service are sourced from publicly available databases and university websites.
• We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of this data. Professors may have changed positions, email addresses, or research focus since the data was last updated.
• We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with any university, the NSF, the NIH, or Semantic Scholar.

7. Intellectual Property

• Our Service. The Service, including its design, code, features, and branding, is owned by Ciphon and protected by applicable intellectual property laws.
• Your Content. You retain ownership of the profile information you provide and the emails you generate. By using the Service, you grant us a limited license to store, process, and display your content as necessary to operate the Service and to use anonymized or aggregated data to improve our AI and email generation quality.
• Feedback. If you provide feedback or suggestions about the Service, you grant us the right to use that feedback without restriction or compensation.

8. Usage Limits

The Service currently includes the following usage limits, which may change at any time:

• A maximum of 10 generated emails per user per week.
• A minimum 15-second cooldown between email generation requests.

We reserve the right to modify, increase, or decrease these limits at any time, with or without notice.

9. Future Paid Plans

We may offer paid subscription plans or features in the future. When paid plans are introduced:

• Pricing and terms will be communicated before you are charged.
• Paid features may include higher usage limits, additional functionality, or other benefits.
• Refund and cancellation policies will be provided at the time paid plans are launched.
• Free-tier availability and limits are subject to change.

10. Termination

• By you. You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time.
• By us. We may suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Reasons for termination may include violation of these Terms, abusive or harmful behavior, or operational necessity.
• Effect of termination. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. We may delete your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that any defects will be corrected.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Ciphon shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, or opportunities, arising out of or related to your use of the Service, regardless of the theory of liability. Our total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service shall not exceed the greater of fifty dollars ($50) or the amount you have paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Ciphon and its operators from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of: (a) your use of the Service; (b) emails you send based on content generated by the Service; (c) your violation of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any applicable law or third-party rights.

14. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising under these Terms shall be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Texas, and you consent to the jurisdiction of such courts.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the revised Terms with an updated “Last Updated” date. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

16. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full effect.

17. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Ciphon regarding your use of the Service.

18. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, contact us at:

Ciphon
Email: ciphonai@gmail.com