Terms of Service

alaMem has a "register layer" ethos: nothing important should be hidden in legalese. Every section below opens with a one-line plain-English gloss. If the gloss and the formal text ever seem to disagree, treat it as a bug and tell us — we'll fix it.

• What alaMem is. A private, structured place to keep your memory — personal or business. An AI you can talk to, which reads and writes it for you, is an optional upgrade; during the beta it is not offered to members.
• Your content is yours. You own what you put in. We only get the limited permission we need to store it, show it back to you, and run the features you ask for.
• The AI can be wrong. If your account includes the AI upgrade, alaMem uses AI to help you capture, organize, and recall. Treat its output as a helpful draft, not gospel — review before you rely on it.
• You control sharing. Things you make are private by default. Sharing happens only when you share it. Some things you create for an organization are owned by that organization — that's the difference between a family photo and a company sales record, and we spell it out below.
• We never sell your data, and we never use your content to train AI models. Anthropic, our AI provider, and Google Cloud may not train on it either, and our engineering assistant's working sessions aren't used for training. One provider limit: our email service, Twilio SendGrid, may use email data to train its own anti-abuse tools (Privacy Policy §3.4, §4).
• An AI assistant helps us run alaMem. During the beta, Claude, an AI engineering assistant made by Anthropic, helps the operator build and run alaMem with the operator's own access. While it works, it can see account data, including messages sent to us. It changes no one's data without the operator's approval (Privacy Policy §3.4).
• This is early software. alaMem is in a private beta: accounts come only from an invitation, from an organization's membership form, or from us directly. Things may break, change, or go away. We provide it "as is" while we build.
• If we ever charge, we'll tell you clearly before you owe anything. Today there are no fees.

Plain English: These terms are the agreement between you and the small company that runs alaMem.

alaMem (the "Service") is operated by TimeShaker, Inc., a California corporation based in Portland, Oregon, USA ("alaMem," "we," "us"). Our website is alamem.com. These Terms of Service (the "Terms") govern your access to and use of the Service, including the website, the app, the voice and AI features, the websites and forms alaMem runs for organizations, and any related tools. In these Terms, as in the Privacy Policy, "the operator" means the person who builds and runs alaMem for TimeShaker, Inc.

Please read these Terms together with our Privacy Policy, which explains what data alaMem handles, why, and who else touches it. Where these Terms mention privacy, the Privacy Policy gives the details.

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, don't use the Service. If you're using alaMem on behalf of an organization, you represent that you're authorized to accept these Terms for it.

Plain English: You sign in with Google or with an email and password. Keep your account secure; you're responsible for what happens under it.

• Getting an account (beta). alaMem is in a private beta. Accounts come only from an invitation, from an organization's membership form, or from us directly. Signing in never creates an account.
• Sign-in. You sign in on alaMem's own sign-in page, with a Google account or with an email address and a password; Google runs the sign-in for us. If you sign in with Google, Google's own terms also govern that sign-in. What the sign-in keeps is described in the Privacy Policy (§2).
• Eligibility. You must be able to form a binding contract and be at least 18 years old. The Service is not directed to anyone under 18.
• Your responsibility. You're responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your sign-in credentials secure. Tell us promptly at privacy@alamem.com if you suspect unauthorized access.
• One person, real identity. Provide accurate information and don't impersonate others or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organization.

Plain English: Use alaMem for your own legitimate memory and work. Don't attack it, abuse it, or store things you have no right to store.

You agree not to:

• Break the law, or store or share content that infringes others' rights (including intellectual-property and privacy rights) or that you don't have the right to store.
• Upload malware, attempt to breach the isolation between users or organizations, probe or bypass the rights/permission system, or access data that isn't yours.
• Reverse-engineer, scrape at scale, overload, or disrupt the Service, or use it to build a competing dataset from other users' content.
• Use the Service to harass, exploit, or harm others, or to generate or store content that is illegal to possess.
• Use the AI features to attempt to extract another user's or organization's private data, or to circumvent governance and sharing controls.

We may suspend or remove content or accounts that violate this section. Where practical and lawful, we'll try to tell you why.

Plain English: You own your content. You give us just enough permission to run the Service you asked for — nothing more.

• You own your content. "Your Content" means everything you put into alaMem — text, photos and other media, records, notes, stories, structured data, and the connections between them. As between you and us, you own it. These Terms don't transfer ownership to us. (Work you create for an organization belongs to that organization — see §5.)
• The license you grant us (license to operate). To provide the Service, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, back up, transmit, process, display, and reproduce Your Content for the sole purpose of operating and providing the Service to you and the people and organizations you share it with. This includes sending Your Content to the providers described in the Privacy Policy (§3) so the Service works: for example, cloud hosting; our AI provider and speech services, but only to serve an account that includes the AI upgrade — yours, or that of a person you've shared with (§6); and, during the beta, the AI engineering assistant that helps us build and run alaMem (§6).
• What the license does not allow. It does not let us sell your content, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models. See §6 and the Privacy Policy (§4).
• The license ends when the content does. When Your Content or your account is deleted — today, at your request (§9; Privacy Policy §8) — the operating license ends, subject to the retention and backup-purge timelines described in the Privacy Policy (§6) and to records an organization owns (see §5).
• Feedback. If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them freely to improve the Service, with no obligation to you.

Plain English: Private is the default. Family and personal things stay yours. Some work you do for an organization belongs to that organization — like a sales record you enter into a company's CRM.

alaMem serves both personal life (family memory, photos, stories) and business use (CRM: accounts, opportunities, collaboration rooms). Ownership follows the "hat" you're wearing when you create a record — working as yourself, or for an organization — and the app shows which hat you're wearing:

• Contributor-owned (personal/family). Personal and family artifacts you create as yourself stay owned by you (the contributor), even when you share them. Sharing a story or photo lets others see it; it doesn't give away ownership.
• Organization-owned (work). When you create records while working for an organization you belong to — for example, a customer account or an opportunity in that organization's CRM — those records belong to the organization, not to you personally. This is how a company keeps its business records when an employee or member leaves. The organization holds the export rights to its records (Privacy Policy §7).
• You control visibility through rights groups. Content is private by default. You share by granting access — to specific people, or to a "rights group" (a defined set of people, such as a family or a team). Removing a grant removes access going forward. Note that anyone who could already see something may have retained their own copy or memory of it; sharing can't be perfectly un-done. If you share with a person whose account includes AI, their AI features can read what you shared (Privacy Policy §3.1).
• Publishing. You can publish a record, or a whole site, to everyone. While something is public, anyone can see it, copy it, or index it, including search engines (Privacy Policy §5).
• Organizations set their own rules. If you use alaMem within an organization, that organization's administrators may manage, access, retain, export, or delete the organization-owned records within their scope, may preview what a member sees inside the organization, and may set additional rules for members. What you send an organization through its form is also governed by that organization's own rules. Your personal/family content is not subject to an organization's control.
• What outlives your account. If your account is deleted, what you own is deleted with it, even if you shared it. Records someone else owns stay with them — an organization's records, including work you created for it, and other people's own records that mention you — and they decide what happens to them. The Privacy Policy (§8) says exactly what is deleted and what stays.

Plain English: AI is an optional upgrade, not offered to members during the beta. Where it's on, it helps you capture and recall — but it can be wrong. You're in charge. Review before you rely.

• AI is an optional upgrade. AI features — conversation, voice, the ask box, the tutor, agents, AI help writing pages, and capture suggestions — are an optional upgrade, powered by third-party AI from Anthropic and by Google's speech services. If your account doesn't include it, AI is switched off for you: you won't see AI features at all, and nothing you do in alaMem sends what you store, type, or say to an AI provider or a speech service. The Privacy Policy (§3.1) states the two limits: what you share with a person whose account includes AI can be read by their AI features, and the engineering assistant described below.
• During the beta, the upgrade is not offered to members. AI is switched off for every account but the operator's own.
• When the upgrade is on. The parts of Your Content an AI request needs are sent to our AI provider to serve that request; what the provider may do with them is described in the Privacy Policy (§3.3). The AI works as the person or organization it serves: it reaches only what they can see, through the same permission checks. You can still switch your agent off.
• The AI can make mistakes. AI output may be incomplete, inaccurate, or wrong. It may mis-identify a person, mis-file a record, or misremember a detail. Always review AI-generated or AI-organized results before relying on them, especially for anything important, financial, medical, legal, or irreversible. Treat the AI's suggestions as drafts to check, not professional advice.
• You stay the author of record. You are responsible for what you choose to save, share, and act on.
• We don't train on your content. We never use Your Content to train AI models. Under Anthropic's Commercial Terms of Service, our AI provider may not train on it either, and Google Cloud's terms forbid Google from training on our data without our permission. One provider limit: our email service, Twilio SendGrid, may use email data to train its own anti-abuse tools. The engineering assistant's sessions are covered too: its plan's training setting is off. See the Privacy Policy (§3.3, §3.4, §4).
• An AI assistant helps us build and run alaMem (beta). During the beta, Claude, an AI engineering assistant made by Anthropic, works with the operator's own access. While it works, it can see account data, including messages sent to us, and what it reads goes to Anthropic as part of its working session. It changes no one's data without the operator's approval — a working practice, not a technical lock. The Privacy Policy (§3.4) gives the details.

Plain English: alaMem is early software. It may change or break. We'll do our best, but we can't promise perfection yet.

• Beta. alaMem is in a private beta: accounts come only from an invitation, from an organization's membership form, or from us directly (§2). The Service is in an early, evolving state. Features may be added, changed, limited, or removed, and the Service may be unavailable at times. We don't promise any specific uptime, capacity, or that data will never be lost (though we take backups and take durability seriously — the Privacy Policy says how long backups are kept (§6) and how we protect your data (§9)).
• Keep your own copies of anything critical. Because alaMem is early, and as a general good practice, keep independent copies of content you can't afford to lose. Export is a first-class right — today, on request: write to privacy@alamem.com, and we'll send you a copy within 30 days of confirming it's you (Privacy Policy §7).
• We may change the Service. We may modify or discontinue features. If we plan to discontinue the Service or a major feature in a way that affects your content, we'll try to give you reasonable notice and a chance to export.

Plain English: It's free right now. If that changes, we'll tell you clearly before you owe anything.

The Service is currently provided at no charge. If we introduce paid plans or fees in the future, we'll present the price and terms clearly and get your agreement before charging you. Nothing in these Terms obligates you to pay anything today. Fee terms, billing, refunds, and taxes will be added here (or in a separate order form / plan agreement) when paid plans launch.

Plain English: You can leave anytime. We can suspend or close accounts that break the rules or that we can no longer support.

• You can stop anytime. You may stop using the Service at any time, and ask us to delete your account: write to privacy@alamem.com. During the beta we do the deletion by hand, within 7 days of confirming it's you (Privacy Policy §8). Ask for a copy first if you want to keep your content (Privacy Policy §7).
• We may suspend or terminate. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms, if required by law, to protect the Service or other users, or if we discontinue the Service. Where practical and lawful, we'll give notice.
• If we close your account, we'll email you at the address you sign in with, and you'll have 30 days to ask for a copy of what you own (Privacy Policy §7). Then we delete it the same way as a deletion you ask for (Privacy Policy §8).
• If we ever shut alaMem down, everyone gets at least 30 days' notice and the same chance to take a copy.
• The exception: where the law forbids it, or someone's safety is at stake (for example, illegal content), there is no copy, and we keep only what the law requires.
• What survives. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — ownership (§4), disclaimers (§10), limitation of liability (§11), and governing law (§14) — continue to apply. What happens to your content when you ask us to delete it is described in the Privacy Policy (retention §6, export §7, deletion §8).

Plain English: We provide alaMem "as is." We can't promise it's perfect or fit for every purpose — especially in beta.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT AI OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE OR COMPLETE. YOU USE THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain disclaimers, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

Plain English: If something goes wrong, our liability is limited. This is standard for free, early software — and a lawyer needs to set the exact terms.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (a) alaMem and its founder, contractors, and providers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, goodwill, or business interruption, arising out of or related to the Service; and (b) our total liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim (currently $0) or US$100. Some jurisdictions don't allow these limits, so parts may not apply to you.

Plain English: If an organization's misuse of alaMem gets us sued, the organization helps cover it. Individual members aren't asked to.

If you use the Service on behalf of an organization, that organization agrees to defend and indemnify alaMem from third-party claims arising out of its misuse of the Service or its violation of these Terms or of law, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Individual members aren't asked to indemnify us; you remain responsible for what you choose to save, share, and act on (§6).

Plain English: If we change these Terms, we'll tell you. Continuing to use alaMem after a change means you accept the new version.

We may update these Terms as the Service evolves. If we make material changes, we'll notify you (for example, by email or an in-app notice) before they take effect, and we'll update the "version" and date at the top. If you keep using the Service after changes take effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you don't agree, stop using the Service and, if you like, ask us for a copy of your content and to delete your account (Privacy Policy §7, §8).

Plain English: We're based in Oregon, so Oregon law governs and disputes go to the courts in Multnomah County. Small-claims court is always open to you. There's no arbitration clause.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Oregon, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute relating to these Terms or the Service will be heard in the state or federal courts located in Multnomah County, Oregon, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction. Either of us may instead bring a claim in small-claims court where it qualifies.

Plain English: The usual housekeeping — the boring-but-necessary bits.

• Entire agreement. These Terms (plus the Privacy Policy and any plan or DPA you agree to) are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service.
• Severability. If any part is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a right, that's not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Contact. Questions about these Terms: legal@alamem.com. Privacy questions and requests, including export and deletion: privacy@alamem.com. By post: TimeShaker, Inc. (alaMem), 9181 NW Germantown Road, Portland, OR 97231, USA.