Terms of Service

Effective Date: March 1, 2025

Welcome! We’re happy to have you here at Surf – a Flipboard product that runs on the federated social web (“Surf,” “we,” “our,” “us,”). These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a legal contract between you and us. These terms apply to your use of Surf.

Please read these Terms carefully because they explain important information about your use of Surf. By using Surf, you agree to be bound by these Terms (including mandatory arbitration of disputes between us, instead of class actions or jury trials), our Privacy Policy, and our Community Guidelines.

1. Understanding Surf

Surf allows you to discover content and connect with communities of people online across platforms on the federated social web.

Please be aware that when you engage in social actions on Surf some of your information (e.g., your public profile, the content you post, and your interactions with content posted by others) may be replicated and shared throughout Mastodon and other decentralized networks through a process called federation. This allows users from various servers to view and interact with your content, comments, and activities.

It is important to understand that when your information is federated we do not have direct control over how other servers handle your information, and their data protection practices may vary. Please note that these servers may be subject to different terms and conditions and privacy policies, and in such cases, your data may continue to appear on the internet if you have shared it, and others (including third parties that host other services) have not deleted it.

2. Your Account

Account. You may need to create an account to login and use all or part of Surf (by signing into Surf using your Mastodon account (any instance), and/or choosing a username and password for account creation). Your username and password are for your personal use only and should be kept confidential. You understand that you are responsible for all use (including any unauthorized use) of your username and password. Notify us immediately if your username or password is lost or stolen, or if you believe there has been unauthorized access to your account.

Account Termination. We reserve the right to terminate your account with us for any reason, at any time, at our sole discretion. For example, we may suspend or terminate your account if we suspect you do not meet the eligibility requirements, become aware of any suspicious activity, or we believe the use of your account violates these Terms or any applicable law. We may require you to verify your eligibility at any time. You acknowledge and agree that you will provide such information upon our request in order to continue to use Surf.

Account Deletion. To delete your account and learn what that means, navigate to the account deletion section in the Surf application settings and following the instructions there.

3. Your Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains our collection and use of information on Surf, including information you may consider personal. You agree that we may provide messages and notices to you within Surf or by sending such notices to the contact information you have provided to us, such as your email address, to the extent permitted by law. You must keep your contact information up to date. For more information about our privacy practices, please read our Privacy Policy.

4. You Must Be Eligible

You must be 18 or older to sign up for and use Surf.

5. Permissions for Surf

Your Use of Surf. We give you permission to use Surf according to these Terms of Service. This permission is only for your personal use. You may not transfer, sublicense, or resell Surf.

Your Feedback and Suggestions. If you give Surf any ideas, suggestions, or feedback, you give Surf permission to use it for free and without any obligation to you.

Our Intellectual Property. Neither Surf nor its licensors grant you any intellectual property rights in Surf that are not specifically stated in these Terms. For example, these Terms do not provide the right to use any copyrights, trademarks, or other distinctive brand features of Surf or its licensors.

Your Intellectual Property. You retain your rights to any content you post or submit through Surf. By submitting or posting content to Surf, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicensable, and royalty-free license to use, copy, modify, publish, and display it on Surf. This license authorizes us to make your content available publicly and to let others do the same.

For clarity, the license granted in and to your content shall also include the right to make available and share your content to and with users of other servers on the federated social web. You acknowledge that your content may be hosted on either our server or a third-party server, and that we shall only be responsible for content that is hosted on our server. You acknowledge that following deletion, any content that you post on Surf may continue to be stored and/or archived on third-party services that have accessed such content via the federated social web, which we have no control over.

6. You are Responsible for the Content You Provide

You should only post content you are comfortable sharing with others. You can learn more about who can access the content you share in Section 2 of these Terms above and as further described in our Privacy Policy.
You assume all risk associated with the content you post, including anyone else’s reliance on its accuracy or legal claims that might stem from it being posted. By posting on Surf, you represent that you have the necessary rights to publish that material, that doing so doesn’t conflict with any licenses you may have granted to others and that to the best of your knowledge the content you publish is not intentionally misleading. We don’t pre-screen anyone’s content. However, we have the right to review and remove or disable access to any content through Surf for any reason.
You agree that you will comply with our Community Guidelines. We reserve the right to remove or limit the visibility of content, and to suspend or remove any users, we reasonably believe have violated our Community Guidelines. However, we cannot take responsibility for all content posted on Surf.
You agree not to commercially exploit Surf and use it to: (a) upload, transmit, or distribute any computer viruses, worms, or any software intended to damage or alter a computer system or data; (b) send unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of duplicative or unsolicited messages, whether commercial or otherwise; (c) harvest, collect, gather or assemble information or data regarding other users, including e-mail addresses, without their consent; (d) interfere with or disrupt servers or networks connected to Surf or violate the regulations, policies or procedures of such networks; (e) attempt to gain unauthorized access to Surf, other computer systems or networks connected to or used together with Surf, through password mining or other means; or (f) harass or interfere with another user’s use and enjoyment of Surf.

7. Copyright

We comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We respond to takedown notices and have a policy of terminating repeat infringers when appropriate. For more information, see our Copyright Policy.

8. Disclaimers

Surf is provided “as is” without any warranties, express or implied. We disclaim all warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent allowed by law, we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill or other intangible losses resulting from (A) your access to, use of, inability to access or inability to use Surf; (B) any third party conduct or content on Surf, including any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of third parties; or (C) any unauthorized access, use or alteration of your content. The maximum liability of we have to you for Surf is $100.

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless for any liability or claim that results from your activities on Surf, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

10. Aribitration

If you have a dispute with us for any reason, we’d like the opportunity to work out our differences informally. We strongly encourage you to visit our Help Center, and we’ll do our best to resolve the dispute in good faith. We’re reasonable people, really. If we aren’t able to solve the problem that way, we both agree that we will resolve any claims arising from these Terms or Surf by final and binding arbitration through the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under the Commercial Arbitration Rules and Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes. The arbitration will take place in Palo Alto, California or another location we both agree upon. Either of us may file a lawsuit in court solely for injunctive relief against the other to stop misuse of Surf or intellectual property infringement without first going through arbitration. You agree to resolve any dispute you have with us on an individual basis in arbitration, and not as a class arbitration, class action or consolidated proceeding of any kind.

11. California Law Applies

California law applies to this contract, except California’s conflict of law provisions. For claims that aren’t subject to arbitration, we each agree that any such claims shall be litigated exclusively in a state court located in Santa Clara County, California or in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

12. Entire Agreement

These Terms, and our Privacy Policy, and our Community Guidelines constitute the entire agreement between you and Surf. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to be in full force and effect. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision.

13. Changes to Surf

We may introduce new features and functionality that enhance Surf and were not previously part of Surf (“New Features”), and we may also from time to may introduce updates, error corrections and other changes to Surf that enhance the functionality if user experience (“Updates”). We reserve the right to add or not add New Features or the right to make or not make Updates. If New Features involve fees, we will provide you with a choice about whether to use the New Features. If we make Updates, you agree and authorize us to implement Updates with or without notice to you.

14. You Can Contact Us

We welcome all questions, concerns and feedback you might have about these terms. If you have any questions or suggestions for us, let us know at privacy@surf.social.