Effective 10 September 2026
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of ATHEX, operated at athex.org (“we”, “us”, or “the Service”). Please read them carefully. By accessing or using the Service you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not access or use the Service.
By accessing or using the Service in any way — including visiting or browsing it, or contributing content or information to it — you represent that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms, which form a binding agreement between you and us. If you use the Service on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation, and “you” includes that organisation.
You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction if higher, and not barred from using the Service under any applicable law. By using the Service you represent and warrant that you meet these requirements and that all information you provide is accurate and current.
The Service at athex.org is an access-controlled registry and secure exchange for signed-in operators. It provides operator accounts, an encrypted vault in which you may store records, encrypted transfers between operators, and related tools. Access requires credentials issued for the Service, and certain data is encrypted in your browser under keys derived from your passcode, which is never sent to us.
The Service is provided on an evolving basis. We may add, change, suspend, limit, or discontinue any part of the Service, including any feature, content, or data, at any time, with or without notice, and we are not liable to you or any third party for doing so.
We may offer features identified as beta, preview, experimental, or otherwise not generally available. Such features are provided for evaluation only, may be changed or withdrawn at any time, may be less reliable or less secure than generally available features, and are provided without any warranty or support whatsoever. Use them at your own risk.
Nothing on or obtained through the Service is legal, financial, medical, security, or other professional advice, and you should not rely on it as such.
Except where we state otherwise, the Service is provided free of charge, and we may introduce, change, or withdraw fees for the Service or any feature of it at any time on notice. If you choose to use a paid feature, the fees, billing period, and any additional terms presented at the point of purchase apply and form part of these Terms. Unless required by law or stated otherwise at purchase, fees are payable in advance, are exclusive of taxes, which you are responsible for, and are non-refundable.
We may modify these Terms at any time. When we do, we will revise the effective date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Changes are effective when posted unless stated otherwise. It is your responsibility to review the Terms periodically. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Some features of the Service may require credentials, a passphrase, keys, or a similar means of access. You are responsible for safeguarding them, for all activity that occurs under them, and for keeping your contact and recovery information current. You must notify us promptly of any unauthorised use or suspected compromise. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your credentials, and, where the Service is designed so that we do not hold your key material, we may be unable to restore access or recover data if it is lost.
You agree not to, and not to attempt to or permit others to: use the Service in violation of any law or the rights of others; access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the Service or its systems without authorisation; probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measure; interfere with or disrupt the Service or its infrastructure, or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on it; use any robot, scraper, or other automated means to access the Service or collect data from it except as expressly permitted; upload or transmit any material that is unlawful, infringing, harmful, deceptive, or malicious, or that contains viruses or malicious code; send unsolicited or bulk communications; use the Service to harass, abuse, defame, stalk, threaten, or harm any person; impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your affiliation; or use the Service to collect, store, or process information about others in violation of applicable law or those persons’ rights. You are solely responsible for your conduct and for ensuring your use of the Service is lawful in your jurisdiction.
The Service, and any software or cryptographic functionality made available through it, may be subject to export control, import, and economic sanctions laws, including those of the United States. You represent and warrant that you are not located in, ordinarily resident in, or organised under the laws of any country or territory subject to comprehensive sanctions; that you are not identified on any restricted or denied-party list; and that you will not access, use, export, re-export, or make the Service available in violation of any such law.
The use, import, possession, or export of cryptography is restricted or prohibited in some jurisdictions. You are solely responsible for determining whether your use of the Service is lawful where you are, for obtaining any licence or authorisation required, and for complying with any lawful order that applies to you. We make no representation that the Service, or any encryption it employs, is lawful or appropriate for use in any particular jurisdiction.
You retain any rights you already hold in content you submit, post, or transmit through the Service (“Your Content”, also referred to as “User Content” in our Privacy Policy). You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, process, transmit, and display Your Content solely as necessary to operate, provide, secure, and improve the Service. You represent and warrant that you own or have all rights necessary to submit Your Content and to grant this licence, and that Your Content and our permitted use of it do not violate any law or any third-party right. You are solely responsible for Your Content and for maintaining your own copies of it. We are not a backup or archival service, we do not guarantee the retention, accuracy, or availability of any content, and we may remove or delete content in the ordinary course of operating the Service or for any reason.
If you send us suggestions, ideas, or other feedback about the Service, we may use and act on it without restriction and without any obligation to you. You grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use such feedback for any purpose, and you waive any claim that our use of it infringes any right you may have in it.
The Service, including its software, design, text, graphics, logos, and other materials we provide, and all related intellectual property rights, are and remain our property or that of our licensors and are protected by law. Except for the limited right to use the Service under these Terms, no rights, express or implied, are granted to you. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, frame, mirror, data-mine, reverse engineer, or create derivative works from any part of the Service, or use it to build a competing product, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law or you have our prior written permission.
We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement consistent with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other applicable law, and we may, in appropriate circumstances, disable or terminate access for users who repeatedly infringe. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice with the information required by law to [email protected].
You may link to the Service so long as you do so in a way that is fair and lawful, does not damage or exploit our reputation, and does not falsely imply any endorsement or association. You may not frame the Service or our trademarks without permission. The Service may interoperate with or display content and information from third-party platforms and services that we do not control; your use of any third-party service is governed by that party’s terms, and we are not responsible for third-party services, their availability, accuracy, or content.
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT ANY DATA OR CONTENT WILL BE ACCURATE, PRESERVED, OR NOT LOST. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED FROM THE SERVICE CREATES ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED HERE.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL WE OR OUR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, OR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE, THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID US TO USE THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE LIABILITY, OR ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100). THESE LIMITATIONS ARE AN ESSENTIAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND US. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless us and our officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and suppliers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of the Service, Your Content, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or any third-party right.
We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the Service at any time, for any reason or no reason, with or without notice and without liability. You may stop using the Service at any time. Upon termination, the rights granted to you will cease, and provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including ownership provisions, licences you granted, warranty disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnities, and dispute-resolution terms.
We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform arising from any cause beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disaster, epidemic, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labour action, government action or order, embargo, failure of power, telecommunications, hosting, or other third-party infrastructure, denial-of-service or other attacks, or any other event of a similar nature.
Before commencing any proceeding, you agree to first contact us at [email protected] with a written description of the dispute and the relief you seek, and to attempt in good faith to resolve it informally for at least thirty (30) days from the date we receive that notice. This requirement does not bar either party from seeking injunctive or other equitable relief, or from bringing a claim in a small-claims court, at any time.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the operator of the Service is established, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, and, where applicable, by the laws of the United States. You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved exclusively in the courts located in that jurisdiction, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts, except where applicable law grants you a non-waivable right to bring proceedings elsewhere.
To the extent permitted by law, any claim must be brought in your individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding, and you and we each waive any right to a jury trial. Any claim must be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action arises, or it is permanently barred, unless applicable law requires a longer period that cannot be waived by agreement.
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any additional terms we make available for particular features, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service and supersede any prior or contemporaneous agreements. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, it will be limited or severed to the minimum extent necessary so that the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent; we may assign them freely, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, employment, or joint-venture relationship between you and us. The Service is controlled and operated from jurisdictions that may differ from yours, and we make no representation that it is appropriate or available for use in any particular location.
You consent to receive notices from us electronically, including by posting them on the Service or sending them to any address you have given us, and you agree that such notices satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing. Notices to us must be sent to [email protected]. The parties indemnified and released under these Terms are intended third-party beneficiaries of the provisions that benefit them; otherwise these Terms create no third-party beneficiary rights. These Terms are made in the English language, and any translation is provided for convenience only; the English version governs.
Questions regarding these Terms may be sent to [email protected].