1. Acceptance and parties

By creating a STORYTAP account or using the application, you agree to these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree, please do not use STORYTAP. These Terms form a legally binding agreement between you ("you" or "the user") and STORYTAP ("we", "us", or "our"), the operator of this application, based in France. These Terms are written to be understood, not to obscure your rights. Nothing in these Terms limits your statutory rights as a consumer under the law of your EU member state of habitual residence.

2. What STORYTAP is

STORYTAP is a personal storytelling and family memory preservation platform. It helps you capture, structure, and store spoken and written stories using proven narrative frameworks (STORYTAP, SPARK, C3, CART, SETTSE). STORYTAP is not a social network. Stories you capture are private by default and never published or visible to other users without your explicit action.

3. Your account

You must be at least 15 years old to create an account independently. In France, 15 is the minimum age for providing consent to digital services under French data protection law. If you are under 15, a parent or guardian must create and manage the account and provide consent on your behalf. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your credentials. You must notify us immediately at storytap.app@gmail.com if you suspect unauthorised access to your account. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms. Where reasonably possible, we will notify you before taking action and give you an opportunity to remedy the situation.

4. Your content

You own your stories. Full stop. By storing content in STORYTAP, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, sync, and display your content solely for the purpose of providing the service to you. We claim no intellectual property rights over your family stories beyond what is necessary to operate the app. You may export all your stories at any time in machine-readable format (JSON or CSV). This export feature is always free, regardless of your subscription tier. You are responsible for ensuring that content you record does not violate the privacy, consent, or legal rights of other individuals. You must always obtain the informed consent of any person you record before doing so.

5. Subscriptions and billing

STORYTAP offers three tiers: • Story Seed (Free): unlimited offline recording, all frameworks, automatic voice transcription, local storage only • Story Keeper (€5.99/month or €57.99/year): 5 GB cloud storage, AI writing assistance, group recording modes, 40+ language translation, and formatted PDF export per story • Family Vault (€8.99/month or €89.99/year): 10 GB cloud storage, all Keeper features, plus the ability to attach photos and documents to stories, live remote recording sessions, and full storybook export as PDF or text All prices are inclusive of VAT where applicable under EU law. Subscriptions are managed through Apple App Store or Google Play. Payment is charged to your store account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date. To cancel, go to your device's App Store (iOS: Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions) or Google Play (Play Store → Subscriptions) account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you retain access until then. We reserve the right to change prices. We will give you at least 30 days' prior notice by email and in-app notification before any price increase takes effect.

6. EU right of withdrawal and refunds

EU and EEA consumers have a statutory 14-day right of withdrawal from distance contracts under the EU Consumer Rights Directive (Directive 2011/83/EU). However, in accordance with Article 16(m) of that Directive, the right of withdrawal does not apply to digital content (including subscriptions) once the service has begun, provided you have given your prior express consent and acknowledged the loss of the right of withdrawal. By purchasing a subscription and requesting immediate access to premium features, you expressly consent to immediate commencement and acknowledge that you lose the right of withdrawal. This does not affect your right to cancel future renewals at any time (see Section 5). Technical faults: if a technical fault on our side prevents you from accessing the service during a paid period, contact us at storytap.app@gmail.com. We will review your case individually and issue a fair remedy, which may include a credit or pro-rata refund. All refund requests relating to App Store purchases are subject to Apple's refund policy. All refund requests relating to Google Play purchases are subject to Google's refund policy. We cannot override those policies, but we will support your request where possible.

7. Anti-lock-in guarantee

We believe you should never be trapped in a subscription by fear of losing your stories. Therefore: • Your stories are always stored locally on your device, independent of any subscription • Your stories are always exportable as JSON or audio — this is free on all tiers, even after downgrading or cancelling • If we ever shut down the service, we will provide at least 90 days' notice and a free full data export window This guarantee is a core commitment. Any change to this section requires direct notification to you by email with at least 90 days' notice, and will not be imposed silently by a general policy update.

8. AI features

Voice recordings are automatically transcribed to text using AssemblyAI (all tiers). Audio is sent to AssemblyAI's servers in the United States for transcription, then deleted. The transcript is stored on your device and in your cloud backup. AI narrative refinement features (Story Keeper and Family Vault tiers) use Google Gemini. These features are always opt-in. By enabling them, you consent to your text being processed by Google's API under a data-processing agreement that prohibits model training on your data. You may withdraw this consent at any time by disabling AI features in Settings. The core recording and framework functions never require AI processing. Recording, saving, and exporting stories all work fully offline.

9. Community Griot programme

NGOs, schools, oral history projects, and diaspora communities may apply for free or discounted access to STORYTAP under our Community Griot programme. Applications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Contact storytap.app@gmail.com to apply.

10. Acceptable use

You may not use STORYTAP to: • Record others without their knowledge and explicit consent • Store or transmit content that is illegal, hateful, defamatory, or violates the rights of others • Attempt to reverse-engineer, scrape, or circumvent the platform's technical measures • Use the service in a way that interferes with other users or the platform's availability • Impersonate another person or provide false information Violations may result in immediate account suspension. Where reasonably possible, we will notify you and give you an opportunity to resolve the issue before suspension.

11. Limitation of liability

STORYTAP is provided "as is". While we work hard to keep it reliable, we cannot guarantee uninterrupted availability. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, our total liability to you for any claim arising from your use of STORYTAP is limited to the greater of: (a) the total amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) €50. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for: death or personal injury caused by our negligence; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; any liability that cannot be excluded under applicable EU or French consumer protection law; or any breach of the implied terms of satisfactory quality or fitness for purpose. We strongly recommend keeping local backups and regularly using the export feature.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by in-app notification and email at least 14 days before they take effect. If you do not agree with a change, you may delete your account before it takes effect. Continued use of STORYTAP after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

13. Dispute resolution and ODR

We aim to resolve any disputes informally first. Please contact us at storytap.app@gmail.com — we will do our best to reply as quickly as we can and work towards a fair resolution. If we cannot resolve a dispute informally, you may use an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme. In France, consumer disputes may be referred to a certified Médiateur de la consommation. A list of certified French consumer mediators is available at www.economie.gouv.fr/mediation-conso. As required by EU Regulation 524/2013, we are also required to provide a link to the EU Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform: ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. We are not currently enrolled in a specific ADR entity through the ODR platform, but you may use it to contact us. Nothing in this section prevents you from exercising your statutory rights or seeking a remedy through the courts.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of France. Disputes that cannot be resolved informally will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of France. If you are a consumer resident in another EU member state, you also have the right to bring proceedings in the courts of your country of residence and to benefit from any mandatory consumer protection laws of your country that provide you with greater protection than French law.

15. Contact

For all enquiries — general, privacy, billing, and Community Griot applications — contact us at storytap.app@gmail.com We read every message and do our best to reply as quickly as we can.