Terms of Service

1. What Privatus Is and Is Not

Privatus is a privacy and personal-security platform. Depending on your plan, the Service may include: scanning for and requesting removal of your personal information from data brokers and people-search sites; identity, breach, and dark-web monitoring; threat protection for links, files, and websites, including an optional browser extension; masked email addresses, masked phone numbers, and virtual payment cards; address and physical-mail tools; an AI privacy assistant; a privacy score and periodic reports; and concierge and asset-privacy assistance.

Privatus is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. We are not a bank, money transmitter, credit-repair organization, consumer-reporting agency, background-check provider, insurer, or provider of identity-theft insurance, and we do not provide financial, tax, or investment advice. We are not an emergency service. Nothing in the Service creates an attorney-client relationship.

Several features are delivered together with third-party providers, including payment processors, card issuers and banking partners, identity and breach-monitoring providers, communications carriers, mail providers, and artificial-intelligence providers. Those features are also subject to the providers' own terms, and we do not control those third parties or the parties that hold your information.

2. Eligibility and Accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Service. You may use the Service only for your own personal information or for a person for whom you are legally authorized to act.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide, for keeping your credentials secure, and for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly at admin@joinprivatus.com if you suspect unauthorized use. The Service is for personal, non-commercial use unless we agree otherwise in writing.

3. Your Authorization to Act on Your Behalf

To provide the Service, you authorize Privatus and its vendors to act as your authorized agent, including to submit opt-out, deletion, correction, and access requests to data brokers, people-search sites, and other third parties using the personal information you provide, to send correspondence on your behalf, and, where you use those features, to provision masked contact details, monitoring enrollments, and payment or banking instruments in your name.

You confirm that the information you submit is truthful and relates to you or to a person you are lawfully authorized to represent. You are solely responsible for the accuracy and lawfulness of that information, and you authorize the automated and manual processing needed to carry out these requests.

4. No Guarantee of Results

The Service is provided on a reasonable-efforts basis. We do not warrant or guarantee any specific outcome, including complete, permanent, or timely removal of your information, detection of every breach or exposure, blocking of every malicious link, file, or website, uninterrupted masking or forwarding, prevention of identity theft, fraud, or financial loss, or any particular privacy score or result.

A privacy score, risk level, monitoring result, or threat verdict is an informational estimate, not a promise or a measurement of your actual safety. You should not rely on it as your sole basis for any decision, and you remain responsible for your own security practices.

5. Assumption of Risk

You understand that information about you may exist in many places we do not control, that new exposures, breaches, and threats can occur at any time, and that privacy and security risks cannot be eliminated. You accept these inherent risks as a condition of using the Service.

6. Third-Party Services and Sub-Processors

To deliver the Service we share the information necessary to perform a feature with the third-party providers that power it. By using a feature you direct us to share your information with the relevant provider for that purpose, and you agree that your use of that feature is also subject to the provider's terms and privacy practices.

We are not responsible for the acts, omissions, availability, or content of third parties, or for information once it is held by a party we do not control. A current list of the categories of sub-processors we use, and specific providers where we are able to name them, is available on request at admin@joinprivatus.com.

7. Financial Features: Virtual Cards and Banking

Privatus is not a bank and does not itself issue cards, hold deposits, or transmit money. Virtual cards, funding, linked bank accounts, and any related banking or money-movement features are provided by third-party financial institutions and payment partners, and your use of them is governed by those partners' cardholder and account agreements in addition to these Terms.

To use these features you may be required to provide identity-verification information, including your Social Security number, date of birth, and government or financial details, so a partner can meet Know Your Customer, anti-money-laundering, and other legal requirements. You authorize us to share that information with the relevant partner for verification, issuance, funding, and transaction processing.

You agree to use virtual cards and any banking features only for lawful purposes and in compliance with the applicable card-network rules and partner agreements. We do not provide financial, tax, or investment advice, and we are not liable for a partner's decisions, holds, declines, closures, or errors.

8. Communications Features: Masked Email and Phone

Masked email addresses and masked phone numbers forward communications to your real contact details through third-party communications providers. These features are not intended for emergency communications. You must never use a masked number to contact emergency services such as 911, and masked numbers may not reliably reach or receive calls from emergency services.

If you enable SMS features, you consent to receive text messages related to the Service, standard message and data rates may apply, and you can opt out at any time by replying STOP as described in the message. You agree not to use masked email, phone, or messaging features to send spam, to harass, defraud, or impersonate others, or for any unlawful purpose, and to comply with all applicable communications and anti-spam laws and carrier requirements.

9. Threat Protection and the Browser Extension

Our threat-protection features, including the optional browser extension, check links, downloads, files, and websites for known risks and may warn you about or block content we assess as dangerous. To do this, the extension and related features process the web addresses you visit or download and information about files you choose to check.

These features are a supplement to, not a replacement for, your own security software and judgment. We do not guarantee that every threat will be detected or blocked or that safe content will never be flagged, and we are not liable for malware, phishing, fraud, or other harm that reaches you despite the Service.

10. AI Assistant

The Service may include an AI assistant that answers questions and provides general privacy guidance. To respond, the assistant may process information from your account, and your inputs and that context are sent to third-party artificial-intelligence providers to generate responses.

AI output is informational only, may be inaccurate or incomplete, and is not legal, financial, or professional advice. Do not rely on it as your sole basis for any decision, and do not submit information you do not want processed by an AI provider.

The assistant can also be used by voice. When you speak to it, your browser converts your speech to text using its own built-in speech recognition, which in most browsers means the audio is sent to the browser vendor for transcription. Privatus does not receive that audio. Only the resulting text reaches us, and it is then handled like anything else you type into the assistant. If you would rather your voice not be processed this way, type to the assistant instead.

11. Payment, Subscriptions, and Cancellation

Paid plans are billed on a recurring basis through our payment processor. By subscribing, you authorize us to charge your payment method for the plan and billing period you select until you cancel. Features and limits vary by plan tier.

You may cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and access continues until then. Except where required by law, payments are non-refundable and partial periods are not prorated. We may change prices with prior notice, effective on your next billing period.

12. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to submit information that is not yours or that you are not authorized to submit, to violate any law, to infringe the rights of others, to commit or facilitate fraud, to interfere with or attempt to breach the Service, or to reverse engineer, resell, or misuse the Service or its masked email, phone, card, or banking features.

We may suspend or terminate access, and our partners may suspend or close features they provide, for any violation of these Terms, of a partner's terms, or of law, or to protect the Service, our users, our partners, or third parties.

13. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Privatus disclaims all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement, and any warranty that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, accurate, or error-free. We are not responsible for services, decisions, or content provided by third-party financial, communications, monitoring, or AI partners.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Privatus and its officers, directors, employees, and vendors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, privacy, profits, or goodwill, or for identity theft, fraud, financial loss, exposure of your information, or malware or other threats, whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or otherwise, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or one hundred United States dollars.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you. In that case our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Privatus and its officers, directors, employees, and vendors from any claim, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your use of the Service, your use of any third-party feature or partner, your violation of these Terms, your violation of any law or third-party right, or the inaccuracy of any information you provide.

16. Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver

Please read this section carefully. You and Privatus agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will be resolved by binding individual arbitration, and not in court, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies.

The arbitration will be administered by a recognized arbitration provider under its consumer rules, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. You and Privatus waive any right to a jury trial.

You and Privatus agree that claims may be brought only in an individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, or representative proceeding. If this class-action waiver is found unenforceable, the entire arbitration agreement in this section is void.

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing admin@joinprivatus.com within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, stating your name and your intent to opt out.

17. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the arbitration agreement in Section 16.

18. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the effective date and version above and, where required, notify you. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the revised Terms.

19. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be sent to admin@joinprivatus.com.