PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF SERVICE CAREFULLY. THEY CONTAIN AN AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE AND OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, REMEDIES, AND OBLIGATIONS. THE AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE REQUIRES (WITH LIMITED EXCEPTION) THAT YOU SUBMIT CLAIMS YOU HAVE AGAINST US TO BINDING AND FINAL ARBITRATION, AND FURTHER (1) YOU WILL ONLY BE PERMITTED TO PURSUE CLAIMS AGAINST TETHER ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR PROCEEDING, AND (2) YOU WILL ONLY BE PERMITTED TO SEEK RELIEF ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS. SEE SECTIONS 13.3 THROUGH 13.5A.
IF YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE, CONTRACTOR, ADVISOR, FOUNDER, OR AGENT OF ANY COMPETING CONTACT-MANAGEMENT, ADDRESS-BOOK, PROFESSIONAL-NETWORK, SOCIAL-NETWORK, CRM, IDENTITY-GRAPH, OR PEOPLE-DATA PRODUCT — OR OF ANY ORGANIZATION THAT IS DEVELOPING OR HAS ANNOUNCED AN INTENTION TO DEVELOP SUCH A PRODUCT — YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICE WITHOUT TETHER'S PRIOR WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION. SEE SECTIONS 1.2, 4.3, AND 6.12.
THE SERVICE EMBODIES TRADE SECRETS AND OTHER PROPRIETARY METHODOLOGIES OF TETHER. BY USING THE SERVICE YOU AGREE THAT, DURING AND FOR 24 MONTHS AFTER YOUR USE, YOU AND YOUR EMPLOYER WILL NOT DESIGN, DEVELOP, OR ADVISE ON ANY PRODUCT THAT IS SUBSTANTIALLY SIMILAR TO, DERIVED FROM, OR INSPIRED BY THOSE METHODOLOGIES (INCLUDING THE LIVE CONTACT-CARD BROADCAST MODEL, THE REVERSE-MUTUAL-MATCH AUTOCONNECT GRAPH, THE TIERED PRIVACY MODEL, AND THE MERGE INTELLIGENCE ENGINE). SEE SECTIONS 6.9 THROUGH 6.13.
AUTHENTICATION TO THE SERVICE DEPENDS ON THE SECURITY OF YOUR PHONE NUMBER, EMAIL ADDRESS, AND DEVICE — NONE OF WHICH TETHER CONTROLS. TETHER IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS ARISING FROM SIM-SWAP FRAUD, NUMBER PORTING, EMAIL ACCOUNT TAKEOVER, DEVICE THEFT, JAILBROKEN OR ROOTED DEVICES, FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD ACCESS, OR ANY OTHER COMPROMISE OF YOUR AUTHENTICATION CHANNELS. SEE SECTIONS 2.3, 2.8 THROUGH 2.11, AND 10.5 THROUGH 10.9. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR VERIFYING AND MAINTAINING A CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS — IT IS YOUR ONLY RECOVERY CHANNEL IF YOU LOSE YOUR PHONE.
These Terms of Service ("Terms," "Agreement") constitute a legally binding agreement between you ("User," "you," or "your") and Tether, LLC ("Tether," "we," "us," or "our") governing your access to and use of the Tether mobile application, website, and related services (collectively, the "Service").
BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SERVICE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND OUR PRIVACY POLICY, INCORPORATED HEREIN BY REFERENCE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, YOU MUST NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICE.
To use the Service, you must:
For Users Under 18: If you are between 13 and 18 years old, you represent that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf and accepts responsibility for your compliance with them.
For Entity/Business Accounts and Employees of Any Entity: If you are using the Service on behalf of, in the course and scope of employment by, or in any capacity related to an organization (whether for-profit, non-profit, governmental, or otherwise), you represent and warrant that (a) you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms; (b) the organization is itself bound by these Terms with respect to your use; (c) any obligations, restrictions, and acknowledgments set forth in these Terms — including, without limitation, the intellectual-property protections in Section 6, the no-derivative-use covenants in Section 6.10, and the Restricted Persons provisions in Section 6.12 — apply to that organization in addition to you personally; and (d) you have disclosed to the organization the existence and effect of these Terms before accessing the Service in any capacity related to the organization. If you cannot make these representations, you must not access or use the Service.
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will post the updated Terms in the app and on our website, update the "Last Updated" date, and notify you of material changes via in-app notification or email. Your continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, you must discontinue use and may delete your account.
Your use of certain features may be subject to supplemental terms or our Community Guidelines, available at tetherup.app/guidelines, incorporated by reference. In the event of a conflict between these Terms and supplemental terms, the supplemental terms govern for that feature.
To use Tether, you must create an account by providing a valid phone number. Authentication is performed by one-time password ("OTP"):
We do not offer password-based authentication or social sign-in (OAuth/SSO). You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to update it as necessary.
By registering and providing your phone number, you expressly consent to receive SMS text messages from Tether and our SMS service provider (Telnyx), including:
You understand that:
Tether is not responsible for delayed or undelivered messages. Carrier and network conditions affect delivery. Full SMS terms at tetherup.app/sms.
You acknowledge and agree that authentication to the Service depends on the security of (i) your phone number and SIM/eSIM, (ii) your email address and email account, (iii) the device(s) you use to access the Service, (iv) your wireless carrier and number-porting controls, (v) your email provider and any third-party password manager or authenticator you use, and (vi) any biometric or device-passcode protections you enable. Tether does not control any of these systems and is not responsible for their security.
You are solely responsible for:
(a) maintaining the confidentiality of your authentication credentials (including any one-time passwords delivered to your phone or email); (b) all activity that occurs under your account, including activity by any person to whom you grant access (whether authorized or not); (c) restricting physical and logical access to your devices, including using a strong device passcode, enabling biometric authentication, and signing out of the Service before lending or disposing of a device; (d) enabling, where available, carrier-level SIM-lock or porting-PIN protections to mitigate SIM-swap and number-porting fraud; (e) enabling multi-factor authentication on the email account you provide to Tether; (f) verifying and maintaining a current, accessible recovery email address on your account (see Section 2.7); (g) maintaining at least one other active, signed-in device where practicable so that push-notification security alerts (including the 24-hour revocation alerts described in Sections 2.8 and 2.9) can be delivered to a channel other than the affected phone number or email address; (h) promptly reviewing every security notification we send and acting upon any revocation link within the applicable 24-hour window; (i) notifying Tether immediately (and in no event later than 24 hours after discovery) of any unauthorized access, suspected unauthorized access, lost or stolen device, lost or transferred phone number, compromised email account, suspected SIM-swap, or any other event that could compromise the security of your account, by emailing [email protected] and, where the event has a reasonable likelihood of being recurring or systemic, also [email protected]; and (j) cooperating in good faith with any investigation Tether undertakes in response to such notice, including providing reasonable identity-verification information.
Compromise Disclaimer. You expressly acknowledge that Tether is not liable for any loss, damage, unauthorized action, data exposure, deletion of contacts, change to your subscription tier, change to your account information, communication sent on your behalf, or any other consequence arising from or relating to:
(1) any compromise, theft, loss, transfer (including involuntary porting), or unauthorized use of your phone number, email address, device, SIM/eSIM, or biometric credential; (2) any act, omission, breach, or failure of your wireless carrier, mobile virtual network operator, email service provider, network operator, device manufacturer, operating-system vendor, or any other third party in the authentication chain — including SIM-swap fraud, number-porting fraud, email account takeover, malware on your device, jailbreaking or rooting performed by you or any other person, and shoulder-surfing or other social-engineering attacks targeting you or your service providers; (3) any delay, non-delivery, interception, modification, throttling, blocking, spoofing, or filtering of SMS messages, email messages, or push notifications sent to or from your account, whether the failure is attributable to Tether, our third-party providers (including Telnyx for SMS, Resend for email, and Expo Push for push notifications), your carrier, your email provider, your device, or any intermediary; (4) any failure on your part to receive, read, or act upon any security notification, OTP, or revocation link within the applicable time window; (5) any unauthorized session, login, password-reset, identifier change, or change to your account that you do not promptly report under clause (i) above; or (6) any consequences flowing from your failure to maintain a verified, accessible email address on your account, including, without limitation, permanent loss of access to your account, your data, and your subscription.
You agree that the responsibilities allocated in this Section 2.3 are reasonable and that Tether has set its prices and provided the Service in reliance on this allocation.
Each user may maintain only one personal Tether account. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent subscription limits, bans, or features is prohibited and may result in termination of all accounts.
When you sign in on a device, we create a user-scoped device identifier by combining a randomly-generated, per-installation device identifier (stored securely on your device, not a hardware identifier) with your user ID via SHA-256 hashing. This ensures your data syncs only to your authenticated devices. You can sign out all of your other signed-in devices at once from Settings > Account (Log Out Other Devices).
By creating an account, you consent to receive all communications from Tether electronically, and agree that:
You may use the Service after creating an account by phone number alone, but Tether strongly recommends — and, as a condition of using the Service, you affirmatively agree — that you will provide, verify, and maintain on your account a current, accessible email address using the in-app verification flow (Settings > Account > Verify Email). Verification requires that you receive a one-time code at the email address you provide and enter that code in the app before the code expires (currently 15 minutes from issuance, subject to change).
You acknowledge that an unverified or stale email address:
(a) cannot be used to recover access to your account in the event you lose access to your phone number, your phone number is reassigned by your carrier, or your phone is lost, stolen, destroyed, or compromised; (b) cannot receive the security notifications that Tether sends when your phone number, email address, password-equivalent OTP, or other account credential is changed; (c) cannot serve as the secondary channel for the 24-hour revocation procedure described in Sections 2.8 and 2.9; and (d) will not enable discoverability by other users of the Service via the email-based handshake, meaning that your contacts who attempt to connect with you using your email address may not be matched to your account.
If you do not verify and maintain a current, accessible, and exclusively-controlled email address on your account, you accept full and sole responsibility for any loss of account access, data, content, connections, history, or subscription benefits that results from your inability to receive recovery codes or security notifications. Tether will not be liable, in any amount or under any theory, for the consequences of your failure to maintain a verified, current, and accessible email address on your account.
You further agree to: (i) promptly re-verify any change to your email address; (ii) notify Tether at [email protected] within 24 hours of becoming aware that your verified email address has been compromised, taken over, or is otherwise no longer under your exclusive control; (iii) not store the email account credentials used for your Tether recovery email in any unencrypted or shared location; and (iv) review the inbox of your verified email address regularly so that the 24-hour revocation window in Sections 2.8 and 2.9 remains an effective security control for you.
If you change the phone number associated with your account, the following procedure applies. By changing your phone number through the Service, you accept and consent to each step:
(a) OTP to new number. You must possess and respond to a one-time password sent by SMS to the new phone number. You are responsible for the security of the new phone number and SIM/eSIM, and for confirming that the OTP was not intercepted.
(b) Notification fan-out. Upon successful verification, Tether will attempt to deliver, on a fire-and-forget, best-effort basis, three independent notifications: (i) an SMS to the prior phone number, (ii) an email to your verified email address (if any), and (iii) a push notification to any other devices currently signed in to your account. Each notification includes a one-time revocation link. You acknowledge that any or all of these notifications may fail to deliver for reasons outside Tether's control, including carrier outages, spam filters, throttling, an inactive prior phone number, an unverified or stale email address, an absence of other signed-in devices, or your wireless carrier's refusal to deliver SMS from Tether's messaging provider.
(c) 24-hour revocation window. For 24 hours following the change, you (or any person in possession of any of the three notifications) may click the revocation link to roll back the phone change. After 24 hours the change is final and irrevocable through the Service and may be reversed only, if at all, by emailing [email protected] and supplying identity-verification information satisfactory to Tether in its sole discretion. Tether is under no obligation to reverse a phone change after the 24-hour window.
(d) Global session revocation. Upon a phone change, all of your active sessions on all devices (including the device on which you initiated the change) are signed out. You must re-authenticate using the new phone number to regain access. You are responsible for any consequences of this immediate sign-out, including the loss of any work or input that was not yet synchronized to Tether's servers.
(e) Account lock on revocation. If you (or any person) clicks the revocation link within the 24-hour window, Tether will (i) roll back the phone change to the prior phone number, (ii) immediately lock the account, and (iii) globally revoke all sessions. A locked account cannot be used until you contact Tether at [email protected] and successfully complete Tether's identity-verification procedures. Tether reserves the right to require government-issued identification, sworn declarations, video verification, or other proof at its sole discretion.
(f) Rate limits and pending changes. Tether enforces rate limits on phone-number changes (currently up to three (3) within any 24-hour rolling window, subject to change without notice) and prohibits initiating a new phone or email change while another change is within its 24-hour revocation window. These limits are security controls and not service guarantees.
You acknowledge that the 24-hour revocation window is a security control that depends on your prompt action and on the reliability of the notification channels listed in clause (b); failure of any notification channel does not extend the window, and Tether is not liable for any consequence of an undetected change.
If you change or add the email address associated with your account, the following procedure applies, in addition to the verification requirements in Section 2.7:
(a) Source-of-authentication gate. If you are currently signed in to the Service using an email-OTP session (rather than a phone-OTP session), the Service will refuse to allow an email change until you sign out and sign back in using your phone number. This is a security control designed to prevent an attacker who has compromised your email from locking you out of your account by changing the email address. You agree not to attempt to circumvent this gate.
(b) OTP to target email. You must possess and respond to a one-time code delivered to the email address you wish to attach to the account.
(c) Notification fan-out. Upon successful verification, Tether will attempt to deliver, on a fire-and-forget, best-effort basis: (i) an email to the prior verified email address (if any), (ii) an email to the new verified email address, (iii) a push notification to any other devices currently signed in, and (iv) where applicable, an SMS to the verified phone number. Each notification includes a one-time revocation link.
(d) 24-hour revocation window. Identical in effect to Section 2.8(c). Clicking the revocation link within 24 hours rolls back the email change and locks the account.
(e) Other-device sign-out. Email changes sign out other signed-in devices but, unlike phone changes, do not by default sign out the device on which the change was initiated. You remain responsible for any consequence of this preserved session.
(f) Rate limits and pending changes. Limits identical in effect to Section 2.8(f) apply.
You acknowledge that the disclaimers and allocations of responsibility in Sections 2.3 and 2.8 apply equally to email-address changes.
The Service performs device-integrity checks at launch and may decline to operate on a device that is jailbroken, rooted, running on a known emulator, or otherwise detected as having been modified to bypass operating-system security controls (each a "Compromised Device"). You agree that:
(a) Tether may, at its sole discretion and without notice or refund, suspend or terminate the operation of the Service on any device it determines is or has been a Compromised Device; (b) You will not knowingly use the Service on a Compromised Device, attempt to spoof integrity checks, or use any tool designed to evade them; (c) Tether is not responsible for any loss, exposure, or unauthorized action arising from the use of the Service on a Compromised Device, even if Tether's integrity check fails to detect the compromise; (d) Device-integrity detection technology is imperfect and may produce false positives; the Service's refusal to operate on a particular device does not constitute a finding that the device is unsafe for other purposes; and (e) Where required by App Store rules or applicable law, you may seek a refund of any unused subscription period during which the Service was unavailable on your device, by contacting [email protected].
In addition to the lockout triggers described in Sections 2.8 and 2.9, Tether may lock, suspend, or restrict access to your account upon (a) suspected fraud, abuse, or violation of these Terms; (b) receipt of legal process; (c) detection of patterns indicative of credential stuffing, automated abuse, or account takeover; (d) repeated failed authentication attempts; (e) detection that your phone number has been reassigned by your carrier; (f) detection that your email address has been compromised through publicly reported breach data; or (g) any other reason permitted by law.
Recovery procedure. To recover a locked account, you must email [email protected] from the verified email address on file (or, if no verified email is on file, from another address you can prove control of) and complete Tether's identity-verification procedures. Tether may, at its discretion, require any combination of: (i) a government-issued photo identification document; (ii) a brief recorded video showing you holding the document; (iii) a sworn declaration; (iv) confirmation of recent account activity; (v) confirmation of the identity of one or more connections; or (vi) such other reasonable measures as Tether deems necessary. Tether may decline to unlock an account if its verification procedures cannot, in Tether's sole judgment, establish that you are the rightful account holder.
You acknowledge that account lockout, even when triggered by a security event you did not cause, is a feature of the Service and not a defect; the lockout exists to prevent unauthorized parties from causing further damage. Tether's liability for any consequence of an account lockout — including time spent in lockout, lost productivity, lost subscription benefits, lost data, or inability to communicate with your connections — is limited as set forth in Section 10.
Free Tier: Live sync, Activity Feed, device/Google/Microsoft contact import, unlimited contacts (up to tier limit), circles (limited count), events (limited), privacy controls, data export, and duplicate detection — at no cost.
Tether+ ($2.99/month or $24.99/year): Everything in Free plus unlimited circles, large directory hosting, cloud backup, address autocomplete and validation, full CRM history, realtime sync, and power features (tags, network health).
Lifetime Plan ($99.99 one-time): All Tether+ features for the operational life of the Service. Limited Founders Edition (capped quantity). No recurring charges.
Lifetime Plan Limitations: The Lifetime Plan grants access to Tether+ features for as long as Tether, LLC operates the Service. In the event of dissolution, cessation of operations, acquisition, or transfer of the Service, the acquiring or successor entity will use commercially reasonable efforts to honor Lifetime Plan benefits for a minimum of twelve (12) months following the change of control. After that period, the successor may convert Lifetime Plan holders to an equivalent paid subscription tier at no additional cost for the remainder of the 12-month period, or offer a pro-rated refund. Tether will provide Lifetime Plan holders at least 90 days' advance written notice of any change of control that may affect their benefits.
Subscription details, pricing, and features are subject to change. Current pricing is available in the app's subscription settings.
Payments are processed through Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android) via RevenueCat. We accept all payment methods supported by those platforms. Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing cycle unless you cancel before the renewal date. We may change subscription prices with at least 30 days' notice, applicable to subsequent billing cycles.
Payment Failures: If payment fails, we will attempt re-processing multiple times. You will receive notice of payment failure. Your account may be downgraded to the Free tier if payment is not resolved within 14 days. You remain responsible for all outstanding fees.
You may cancel at any time through app settings (Settings > Subscription > Cancel) or by emailing [email protected]. You retain access to paid features until the end of the current billing period. We offer a 7-day money-back guarantee for first-time subscribers. Annual subscriptions may receive pro-rated refunds at our discretion. Refund requests must be submitted to [email protected] within 30 days of the charge.
Downgrade: If you downgrade from Tether+ to Free, circles exceeding the Free tier limit become read-only and cloud backup is disabled. Your data is retained but you cannot create new Tether+ content.
If you are a consumer resident in the European Union or United Kingdom, you have the right to withdraw from a purchase of Tether+ within 14 days of purchase without reason. To exercise this right, contact [email protected] before the end of the Cooling-Off Period with your name, phone number, and order reference. If you have already begun using paid features, we may deduct a proportionate amount. This right does not apply to Lifetime Plans after you have commenced use, or to monthly/annual subscriptions after the billing period has substantially commenced at your express request.
Australia: Nothing in these Terms restricts, excludes, or modifies rights that cannot be excluded under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or other applicable Australian consumer law.
Free trials automatically convert to paid subscriptions unless canceled before trial end. Trials are limited to one per user (tracked by phone number and device). We may revoke trial access if we detect abuse or violation of these Terms.
Subscription fees exclude applicable taxes. You are responsible for any sales, use, VAT, GST, or other taxes imposed by governmental authorities. We will add applicable taxes to your invoice where required by law.
You may use Tether to manage personal and professional contacts, sync data across your devices, import contacts from authorized sources, join shared directories and circles, share information with other users according to your privacy settings, broadcast your updated contact card, and create and manage events — for personal or internal business purposes only.
Unless specifically authorized by Tether in writing, the Service is for your personal use and your normal internal contact-management use only. You agree not to display, distribute, license, sell, resell, sublicense, lease, time-share, service-bureau, or otherwise exploit any portion of the Service for any commercial purpose outside of normal personal contact management. The restriction in the preceding sentence applies equally to (a) any organization, employer, or entity you control, work for, advise, or are otherwise affiliated with, and (b) any product, service, prototype, demonstration, internal proof-of-concept, internal tool, white-paper, presentation, or comparable activity that derives from, observes, references, or interacts with the Service. In particular, you agree not to use the Service, or any information learned through use of the Service, to design, develop, train, prompt, fine-tune, evaluate, benchmark, or build any competing product, service, feature, model, dataset, or system. See Sections 6.9 through 6.13 for additional intellectual-property restrictions.
This Section is in addition to, and not in lieu of, the eligibility requirements in Section 1.2 and the intellectual-property protections in Section 6. By accessing or using the Service, you represent, warrant, and covenant on a continuing basis — that is, at the time of account creation and continuously throughout your use of the Service — that:
(a) No employment, consulting, or advisory relationship with a Competing Enterprise. You are not, and during your use of the Service you will not become, an employee, officer, director, partner, contractor, consultant, advisor, fellow, intern, secondee, or agent of, and you do not (and will not) provide product, design, engineering, research, data-science, machine-learning, strategic, business-development, intellectual-property, or investment services to, any Competing Enterprise or any subsidiary, parent, or affiliated entity of any Competing Enterprise, except where you have obtained Tether's prior written authorization signed by an officer of Tether.
(b) Definition of "Competing Enterprise." A "Competing Enterprise" means any person or entity (including any subsidiary, parent, sister, joint-venture, or affiliated entity, and including pre-launch, stealth-mode, and unannounced ventures known to you) that operates, is developing, has internally explored, or has publicly announced an intention to develop a:
For purposes of illustration and not limitation, the categories above include offerings by, or under, all of the following families of companies and their subsidiaries: Apple, Alphabet/Google (including YouTube and Workspace), Meta (including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger), Microsoft (including LinkedIn, Outlook, Dynamics, and Teams), Amazon, Salesforce (including Slack), HubSpot, Snap, ByteDance (including TikTok and Lark), Tencent, X Corp., Reddit, Discord, Pinterest, Match Group, Bumble, Airtable, Notion, Monday.com, Affinity, Clay, Folk, Dex, Cloze, Contacts+, FullContact, Sansan, Eight, Nimble, Copper, Pipedrive, Zoho, Zoominfo, Apollo, RocketReach, Lusha, SignalHire, ContactOut, Cobalt, Boardable, Eventbrite, Partiful, Paperless Post, Punchbowl, Evite, Hobnob, BeReal, Mighty Networks, Circle, Geneva, Locket, Cocoon, and any other operator of a substantially-similar product offering. (Inclusion of a name in this illustrative list is not a representation that the named company is presently competing with Tether; the list is provided so that you may not later assert ignorance of the categories of Competing Enterprises covered by this Section.)
(c) No use for the benefit of a Competing Enterprise. You are not using, and you will not use, the Service for the benefit of any Competing Enterprise, including for purposes of competitive research, product benchmarking, feature inventorying, design study, UX teardown, behavioral analysis, scraping, data sampling, or AI training-data collection.
(d) Notice on change of status. If you become an employee, contractor, advisor, founder, or other affiliate of a Competing Enterprise after creating your account — including by reason of a hiring decision, acquisition, merger, or change in your employer's business direction — you will (i) notify Tether at [email protected] within ten (10) calendar days of such change and (ii) immediately cease use of the Service unless Tether grants you continued use in a writing signed by an officer of Tether.
(e) No shared-access workaround. You will not share access to your account with, lend or loan your device to, or otherwise permit access to the Service by, any device, login session, browser session, or person associated with any Competing Enterprise, and you will not access the Service from any network or device under the control of a Competing Enterprise.
(f) Deemed actual knowledge. You acknowledge that any current or former employee, contractor, or advisor of a Competing Enterprise who accesses the Service is, by virtue of their position, deemed to have actual or constructive knowledge of the trade secrets and confidential methodologies that they may observe through such access, and that this knowledge is presumed to inform any subsequent product-development, strategic, design, research, or investment work that they undertake for a Competing Enterprise within twenty-four (24) months after their last use of the Service, regardless of whether the individual subjectively believes they relied on Tether information. You agree not to claim that any "clean-room" or after-the-fact partition of personnel cleanses subsequent work product of trade-secret contamination derived from such use.
(g) Carve-out for bona fide consumer reviewers, journalists, and academic security researchers. This Section does not restrict bona fide consumer-product reviewers, journalists conducting ordinary-course news reporting, or academic security researchers conducting good-faith vulnerability research, provided that: (i) the individual is not using the Service for product development on behalf of a Competing Enterprise; (ii) the individual complies with all other terms of this Agreement (including Sections 4.6, 6.9, and 6.10); and (iii) any security research is conducted under Tether's then-current Responsible Disclosure Policy and does not exceed what is reasonably necessary to identify and report a specific vulnerability.
(h) Restricted Person status is binding on your employer. If you are using the Service in connection with, or in the course and scope of employment by or affiliation with, any organization, you represent that the organization has notice of, and is bound by, this Section 4.3, and you agree to indemnify Tether for any breach of this Section by such organization (in addition to your indemnification obligations under Section 11).
We may offer features that are still in "beta," "pilot," "limited release," or similar pre-release form ("Beta Features"). You may choose to try Beta Features at your sole discretion. BETA FEATURES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TETHER SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER WITH RESPECT TO YOUR ACCESS AND USE OF ANY BETA FEATURES. Beta Features may contain bugs, errors, and other problems. YOU ASSUME ALL RISKS AND ALL COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR USE OF BETA FEATURES. We are not obligated to provide maintenance, technical, or other support for Beta Features, and may discontinue them at any time without notice.
Tether is committed to providing an accessible experience for all users. We aim to comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards, including screen reader compatibility, Dynamic Type support, verified color contrast ratios, keyboard navigation support for iPad with external keyboards, and full dark mode. We welcome accessibility feedback.
You agree NOT to:
(a) Illegal Activities
(b) Scraping, Harvesting, and Data Extraction
(c) Spam, Impersonation, and Abuse
(d) Circumvention and Reverse Engineering
(e) Inappropriate Content
(f) Privacy Violations
(g) Interference and System Abuse
(h) Automated and AI-Assisted Misuse
(i) Misuse of Reporting Channels
(j) Reverse Engineering of Concepts, Methods, and Trade Dress
(k) Failure to Notify Tether of Compromise
(l) Account-Lockout Evasion
Violations may result in: a warning and request to cease; temporary suspension; permanent termination; removal of content or data; legal action and referral to law enforcement; and liability for resulting damages. We reserve the right to investigate suspected violations and cooperate with law enforcement authorities. We are not obligated to take any action against any user or in response to any content.
Tether allows users to create and join Shared Directories (e.g., school directories, neighborhood groups, professional associations) and Shared Circles (collaborative contact groups), enabling groups to maintain shared contact information.
Tether+ or Lifetime subscription is required. As a directory administrator, you are responsible for: setting directory guidelines; moderating membership and content; responding to member complaints; complying with applicable laws; and ensuring the directory's purpose is legitimate and lawful. You represent that you will not use directory member data for unauthorized purposes, including marketing, resale, or commercial exploitation.
When you join a directory, your directory profile is visible to all directory members per your privacy settings. You agree to provide accurate information, respect other members' privacy, follow directory guidelines, and not scrape or harvest member data.
You acknowledge that Tether may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Service, including the maximum period of time that data will be retained and maximum storage space. Tether has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any data. Tether reserves the right to terminate accounts that are inactive for an extended period of time and to change these practices at any time, in its sole discretion.
You retain ownership of information you contribute. You grant directory members a limited, non-exclusive license to view your shared information for directory purposes. You can remove your information by leaving the directory, though members may retain locally saved copies. Administrators may not sell, distribute, or commercially exploit member data.
You retain all rights to contact information and content you create, upload, or store in Tether ("Your Content"). By using Tether, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store and process Your Content to provide the Service, transmit it between your devices for synchronization, create backups for disaster recovery, and display it to other users according to your privacy settings. This license terminates when you delete Your Content or close your account (subject to backup retention of up to 90 days).
You represent and warrant that: (a) you own or have the necessary rights to Your Content; (b) Your Content does not violate any third party's rights; (c) Your Content complies with applicable laws; (d) you have obtained any consents required by applicable law to store and share personal information about your contacts; and (e) where required, you have obtained necessary consents before inviting a contact to a co-hosted event where co-hosts may view and save guest information. You are solely responsible for Your Content and the consequences of sharing it.
Revised 2026-07-07 (run 16) to scope the license down to operating the Service, remove the "perpetual/irrevocable" and promotional/marketing grant that contradicted Section 6.1 and the Privacy Policy, and hard-wire the termination-on-deletion rule. NOT attorney-reviewed. See
docs/audits/2026_07_07_tos_privacy_mirror_audit.md§7.3.
You grant Tether and its affiliates, successors, assigns, and service providers a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, sublicensable (solely to service providers acting on Tether's behalf) license to host, store, copy, cache, transmit, sync between your devices, reformat, resize, re-encode, back up, and display Your Content solely as necessary to operate, secure, maintain, and improve the Service and to provide it to you and to the other Users with whom you have chosen to share, in accordance with your privacy-tier and circle settings. This license does not permit Tether to sell Your Content, to use Your Content or your contacts' personal information for advertising or marketing to any person, or to disclose Your Content except as described in the Privacy Policy. This license terminates when you delete the applicable item of Your Content or close your account, subject only to (a) commercially reasonable backup-retention of up to ninety (90) days and (b) copies other Users have lawfully saved to their own address books before deletion, over which Tether has no control. You separately authorize Tether and its service providers to derive aggregated, de-identified statistical and usage data relating to your use of the Service ("Usage Data"), which Tether may use to operate and improve the Service in accordance with applicable law and the Privacy Policy; Usage Data does not include the content of your contacts, notes, photos, or health fields.
Any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, feedback, reviews, or other information about the Service ("Submissions") you provide to Tether are non-confidential. Tether is entitled to the unrestricted use and dissemination of Submissions for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment, attribution, or compensation to you.
The Service and its content (excluding Your Content) are owned by Tether and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. This includes: Tether software, code, and algorithms; user interface design and graphics; the TETHER trademark and branding (U.S. Serial No. 99740187); documentation; and database structure and organization.
You may not use Tether's name, logos, or trademarks without prior written consent, including in any domain name, product name, social media handle, advertising, or promotional materials that could suggest affiliation with or endorsement by Tether. All goodwill generated from any use of Tether Trademarks will inure to our exclusive benefit. Nominative referential use (e.g., "I use Tether") does not constitute trademark infringement.
Subject to these Terms, Tether grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to: (a) install the Tether app on your mobile device(s) per device limits applicable to your subscription tier; and (b) use the app for your own personal use solely to access the Service. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by Tether.
Tether may contain links to or integrations with third-party websites, services, or content. Tether is not responsible for such third-party content or practices. Under no circumstances will Tether be liable in any way for any third-party content, including for any errors or omissions in any content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of use of third-party content. You must evaluate and bear all risks associated with use of such content.
The Service embodies original methodologies, algorithms, user-experience flows, data architectures, system designs, and conceptual frameworks developed by Tether at substantial investment of time and capital (collectively, the "Tether Proprietary Methods"). The Tether Proprietary Methods include, without limitation:
(a) The Autoconnect / Reverse-Mutual-Match Graph. Tether's privacy-preserving method for inferring a mutual connection between two users based on the symmetric presence of each user's contact identifier in the other user's address book, executed via salted SHA-256 hashing of phone numbers and email addresses, without exposing raw identifiers to either party or to Tether's general database surface, including the conditions under which a connection is automatically promoted, suggested, or queued for confirmation; the tier-default sharing applied to a newly-promoted connection; and the "on-disconnect data return" rule by which live-sourced fields are removed when a connection is broken.
(b) The Live Contact Card and Contact-Card Broadcast Model. Tether's method by which a user's authoritative ("live") profile fields are propagated, in real time and via privacy-tier filtering, to the address-book entries that other users maintain for that user, including: the rules for read-only overlay on the recipient's address book; the source-tag taxonomy (e.g., source=live, source=device, source=import, source=synced, source=local); the field-level "owned by data subject" versus "owned by contact owner" semantics; the conflict-resolution rules between local edits and live values; the gating of live-field propagation on the recipient's privacy-tier assignment; and the post-disconnection removal of live fields from the recipient's local store.
(c) The Tiered Privacy / Sharing-Tier Model. Tether's three-tier (Community / Professional / Close) field-level disclosure architecture, including the tier-default field set, per-circle overrides, the institutional-versus-social directory distinction, the work-versus-personal field bifurcation in professional directories, the parent-child contact-linking model for school directories, and the privacy-preserving discoverability handshake that conditions identifier-based lookup on email and phone verification status.
(d) The Merge Intelligence Engine. Tether's hybrid deterministic-plus-learned-ranking duplicate detection and merge system, including: the dedup-key generation rules (E.164 normalization, dot-insensitive email-local-part matching, "+" suffix stripping, alias-domain folding such as googlemail.com↔gmail.com and me.com↔icloud.com, address composition using street number plus 5-digit ZIP, and date-type-aware important-date matching); the identity-gated additive scoring rules; the user-feedback-trained ranking adjustments; and the offline-first scoring architecture that runs primarily on-device.
(e) The Shared Directory and Circle Architecture. The institutional versus social mode distinction; role-based administration (owner/admin/member); the tiered field exposure for institutional directories; and the parent-child linking model.
(f) The Per-RSVP Snapshot Model and Past-Event-Invite Import Source. The capture of name and email at invite time as an immutable per-RSVP snapshot, the co-host visibility model, the guest-list reuse semantics for follow-up events, and the past_event_invite import-source attribution.
(g) The CardDAV Profile Provisioning Flow. The atomic single-use token model for delivering a CardDAV .mobileconfig to an iOS device, the read-only one-way export semantics, and the signing model for the configuration profile.
(h) The Cursor-Based Incremental Sync Architecture. Tether's cursor-based server-to-client sync RPC design (sync_pull_*), including the sync-version trigger pattern, the tombstone-aware delta-merge protocol, the resurrection-on-push semantics for junction tables, and the reap-trigger model for parent-child cascades.
(i) The User Interface, Visual Design, and Trade Dress. The Service's user interface, visual design, copy, screen layout, motion design, color palette, iconography, dark-mode treatment, micro-interactions, sound design (if any), and overall "look and feel," all of which constitute the trade dress of the Service and are protectable under applicable trademark, unfair-competition, and copyright laws.
(j) Confidential Documentation. Any internal documentation, design specifications, schema descriptions, security documentation, threat models, audit reports, roadmap plans, financial projections, or business plans of Tether that you may observe, deduce, or come into possession of in any manner, whether or not marked "confidential."
You acknowledge that the Tether Proprietary Methods are valuable trade secrets, copyrighted works, and intellectual property of Tether and its licensors, regardless of whether any individual element is publicly observable through ordinary use of the Service. The public observability of the user-facing manifestation of a Tether Proprietary Method does not waive Tether's rights in the underlying methodology, algorithm, architecture, design, or implementation, and you acknowledge that Tether has implemented reasonable measures (including these Terms) to protect the secrecy of those underlying elements.
You agree that, during your use of the Service and for a period of twenty-four (24) months following the latest of (a) termination of your account, (b) your last access to the Service, or (c) the date you last received any communication from Tether containing non-public information about the Service, you will not, directly or indirectly, whether alone or in concert with any other person or entity, whether for your own benefit or the benefit of any other person, and whether in your individual capacity or as an employee, contractor, consultant, advisor, founder, investor, director, officer, or agent of any other person or entity:
(a) design, develop, propose, fund, advise on, market, distribute, license, or operate any product, service, application, feature, system, or research project that is substantially similar to, derived from, inspired by, or that incorporates, in whole or in part, any of the Tether Proprietary Methods;
(b) use any information, knowledge, observation, insight, or impression you gained through your use of the Service for any purpose other than your authorized personal or internal-business use of the Service, including without limitation for competitive analysis, product development, white-paper authoring, conference-talk preparation, investor pitch preparation, hiring evaluation, due-diligence work, or training or evaluation of artificial intelligence or machine-learning systems;
(c) reverse engineer, deconstruct, replicate, transcribe, or attempt to replicate any user-interface flow, screen layout, copy treatment, design pattern, motion design, color palette, sound, or visual element of the Service for incorporation into any other product or service;
(d) disclose, communicate, transmit, post, publish, present, or otherwise make available to any third party (including any artificial-intelligence system) any non-public information about the Tether Proprietary Methods, including any non-public technical detail you may have observed, deduced, or inferred from your use of the Service or from any communication you received from Tether;
(e) file any patent application, design-patent application, trademark application, copyright registration, or other intellectual-property registration directed to any element of the Tether Proprietary Methods or any derivative thereof, and you hereby agree that any such filing made in breach of this covenant will be held in constructive trust for the benefit of Tether and may be assigned to Tether at Tether's election; or
(f) authorize, instruct, encourage, or assist any third party (including your employer, any consultancy you engage with, or any artificial-intelligence system) to do any of the foregoing.
These obligations are in addition to, and do not supplant, any obligations you may owe Tether under applicable trade-secret, unfair-competition, copyright, trademark, patent, or contract law. The duration of these obligations reflects Tether's reasonable estimate of the period during which the Tether Proprietary Methods will retain their commercial value as trade secrets.
Severability of duration. If any court of competent jurisdiction determines that the 24-month duration is unenforceable or overbroad as applied to a particular Tether Proprietary Method, then that duration shall be deemed reduced to the longest period the court will enforce — but in no event less than twelve (12) months — and the remaining provisions of this Section shall continue in full force.
(a) Trade secret status. You acknowledge that the Tether Proprietary Methods constitute trade secrets within the meaning of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (18 U.S.C. § 1836 et seq.), the Uniform Trade Secrets Act as enacted in any applicable state, and the New York common law of trade secrets, and that Tether has taken reasonable measures to maintain their secrecy, including by means of these Terms.
(b) Irreparable harm. You acknowledge that any breach of Section 6.9 or Section 6.10 would cause Tether irreparable harm for which monetary damages would be an inadequate remedy. Accordingly, you agree that, in addition to any other remedies available, Tether shall be entitled to seek and obtain temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, permanent injunctions, specific performance, accountings of profits, and any other equitable remedy from any court of competent jurisdiction without the necessity of posting bond, and that such relief may be sought notwithstanding the arbitration provisions in Section 13.
(c) DTSA notice. Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1833(b), an individual shall not be held criminally or civilly liable under any federal or state trade-secret law for the disclosure of a trade secret that is made (i) in confidence to a federal, state, or local government official, either directly or indirectly, or to an attorney, and (ii) solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law; or that is made in a complaint or other document filed in a lawsuit or other proceeding if the filing is made under seal. Nothing in these Terms abrogates this immunity.
(d) Liquidated damages placeholder [SUBJECT TO ATTORNEY REVIEW]. In addition to equitable relief, the parties acknowledge that quantifying actual damages from a breach of Sections 6.9–6.10 will be difficult and that, accordingly, a court of competent jurisdiction may award liquidated damages in an amount and on terms to be specified by separate agreement or by court order, provided that any such liquidated damages shall be a reasonable estimate of probable harm and not a penalty.
(e) Attorney's fees. In any successful action by Tether to enforce Sections 6.9–6.13, Tether shall be entitled to recover its reasonable attorneys' fees, expert fees, and costs, in addition to any other relief awarded, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
This Section is incorporated by reference into Section 4.3 and applies in addition to the representations made there. You further agree that:
(a) Trade-secret presumption. Any Restricted Person who accesses the Service is presumed to have come into possession of Tether's trade secrets to a degree commensurate with the duration and depth of such access. The presumption is rebuttable only by clear and convincing evidence.
(b) Notification to subsequent employers. If you have used the Service and you later accept a position with, or undertake a consulting engagement for, any Competing Enterprise, you agree to disclose the existence of these Terms (and in particular Sections 4.3, 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, and this Section 6.12) to the Competing Enterprise prior to commencing work, and to provide a copy of these Terms upon Tether's request.
(c) No "clean-room" defense without disclosure. If a Competing Enterprise asserts that its product was developed via a "clean-room" or "Chinese-wall" process insulated from any Restricted Person who used the Service, that assertion shall not be a defense to any claim under these Terms unless the Competing Enterprise can prove, by clear and convincing evidence and with contemporaneous written documentation, that no Restricted Person who used the Service had any input, review, or knowledge of the development of the product, design, or feature alleged to infringe.
(d) Tolling. Each obligation in this Section 6.12 is tolled during any period in which Tether is unaware of, or is investigating, an alleged breach.
(e) Equitable enforcement. A breach of this Section 6.12 by you or by a Competing Enterprise with which you are affiliated is a basis for the equitable relief described in Section 6.11(b).
(a) No license, right, or interest in any Tether Proprietary Method, Tether trademark, Tether trade dress, or Tether-copyrighted work is granted by implication, estoppel, or otherwise. All rights not expressly granted in these Terms are reserved by Tether.
(b) Your use of the Service does not entitle you to claim any endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, or partnership with Tether, and you may not represent yourself as such. Section 6.6 (Trademark Use) governs nominative referential use.
(c) The omission of any specific methodology, algorithm, design, or feature from the list in Section 6.9 does not mean that such methodology, algorithm, design, or feature is not a Tether Proprietary Method; the list is illustrative and not exhaustive.
Our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, incorporated by reference. By using the Service, you consent to our privacy practices.
By syncing your device contacts with Tether, you consent to our comparing your contacts' verified phone numbers against those of other Tether users using privacy-preserving hashing techniques. When two users have each other's verified phone numbers saved, a connection may be automatically created ("Autoconnect"). Upon connection, each user's shared profile information becomes visible to the other per their respective circle and sharing tier settings. You may remove any connection at any time and adjust sharing preferences in Settings > Privacy > Tier Defaults.
By using contact management features, you represent and warrant that:
You acknowledge that contacts whose information you store may have privacy rights and agree to cooperate in fulfilling valid data subject requests.
By storing health-related information about contacts (including allergies, medical conditions, emergency designations), you:
Tether is a general-purpose contact management tool. You should not rely on Tether for clinical or medical record-keeping.
When you upload photos or images, we automatically strip EXIF metadata (including GPS location coordinates, device information, and timestamps) from those images prior to storage. You should not rely on Tether to preserve image metadata.
Tether uses machine learning and automated processing for: duplicate detection (identity-gated scoring models and pattern learning from your merge decisions); circle auto-suggestion (analysis of contact signals to suggest circle placements); and spam/fraud detection. These functions produce suggestions for your review. You retain control over all suggestions. We do not use your contact data to train general-purpose AI models for sale or licensing to third parties.
If a person whose information you have stored submits a data subject request to us, we may forward that request to you. You agree to cooperate and respond within required legal timeframes. We may delete or restrict access to information pending resolution of valid data subject requests.
Tether is not responsible for the actions, content, information, or data of third parties, including other users. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Service, including disputes arising from content in shared directories, events, or connections. Tether reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor or become involved in disputes between users. If you have a dispute with another user, you release Tether, its officers, employees, agents, and successors from any and all claims, demands, and damages of every kind or nature arising out of or in connection with such disputes.
Tether respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects users to do the same. It is our policy to respond promptly to claims of intellectual property infringement that comply with applicable law.
If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, submit a written notice to:
Tether, LLC — Copyright Agent Email: [email protected] (Subject: "DMCA Takedown Notice") Postal: Tether, LLC, Attn: Legal/Copyright, [POSTAL ADDRESS REQUIRED BEFORE LAUNCH — insert Tether, LLC's registered agent address; a real address is needed to perfect the DMCA §512(c) safe harbor and to register the agent with the U.S. Copyright Office]
Your notice must include:
Please be advised that under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing may be subject to liability.
If you believe removed content was taken down by mistake or misidentification, submit a counter-notice to our Copyright Agent containing:
Upon receipt of a valid counter-notice, we will forward it to the original complainant and reinstate content within 10–14 business days unless we receive notice of a legal action.
In accordance with the DMCA and other applicable law, Tether has adopted a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances and at Tether's sole discretion, the accounts of users who are deemed to be repeat infringers. Tether may also limit access to the Service and/or terminate the accounts of any users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is repeat infringement.
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DATA SYNCHRONIZATION WILL ALWAYS BE INSTANTANEOUS OR CONFLICT-FREE.
WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT:
We are not responsible for the availability, reliability, or accuracy of third-party services (Google Contacts, Microsoft Contacts, payment processors), changes to third-party APIs or terms, or privacy practices of third-party services. We are not responsible for third-party content accessed via the Service.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TETHER SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR CONTACT INFORMATION; COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES; REPUTATIONAL HARM; OR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO TETHER IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) $100 USD.
These limitations do not apply to: our gross negligence or willful misconduct; death or personal injury caused by our negligence; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or liabilities that cannot be excluded under applicable law.
You acknowledge that we have set our prices and entered into this Agreement in reliance upon these disclaimers and limitations, which form an essential basis of the bargain between us.
We shall not be liable for failure or delay due to: acts of God; war, terrorism, civil unrest; government actions; internet or telecommunications failures; third-party service outages; cyberattacks; pandemics; or other circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
In addition to Sections 2.3 and 2.8 through 2.11, Tether expressly disclaims, to the maximum extent permitted by law, any and all liability for any loss, damage, or harm — direct, indirect, consequential, special, incidental, exemplary, or punitive — arising from or relating to:
(a) Compromise of your phone number, SIM/eSIM, or wireless-carrier account, including without limitation: SIM-swap fraud (whether initiated by your carrier, by an insider at your carrier, by social engineering, or by any other means); involuntary number porting; "smishing" attacks against you; carrier-level credential theft; reassignment of your phone number by your carrier following non-use; interception of SMS messages in transit; SS7 or signaling-system attacks; rogue base station ("IMSI catcher") attacks; or any other vulnerability of the SMS channel or the cellular infrastructure;
(b) Compromise of your email account, including without limitation: account takeover via reused or weak credentials; account takeover via a third-party breach affecting your email provider; phishing attacks targeting your email; misconfiguration of your email forwarding rules by you or by a third party; or any vulnerability of the email channel, of your email provider, or of any intermediary email relay;
(c) Compromise of your device, including without limitation: physical theft or loss; unlocking of your device by another person (whether through your passcode, through biometric coercion, or otherwise); installation of malware, spyware, or "stalkerware" (whether by you, by a household member, by an employer, or by any other person); jailbreaking or rooting (whether performed by you or by another person, and whether or not Tether's integrity check in Section 2.10 detects it); or any other compromise of the secrecy of credentials, sessions, or biometric templates stored on the device;
(d) Actions taken under a compromised account, including without limitation: changes to your phone number or email address; revocation of pending changes; changes to your circle assignments, sharing tiers, or privacy settings; modifications to or deletion of your contacts, events, or other content; communications sent on your behalf (including event invitations, contact-card broadcasts, and circle invites); purchases of paid subscriptions; cancellation of paid subscriptions; export of your data via the in-app export tool; deletion of your account; or any other action that could be performed by an authenticated user;
(e) Notification non-delivery, including without limitation: failure of an OTP SMS to reach your phone; failure of an OTP email to reach your inbox (or its routing to a spam folder); failure of a push notification to reach a previously-signed-in device (whether due to that device being offline, the operating system suppressing the notification, the user having muted notifications, or any other reason); failure of a phone-change or email-change revocation link to reach any of the three notification channels described in Sections 2.8(b) and 2.9(c); delay in delivery beyond the 24-hour revocation window; or modification, spoofing, or interception of any such notification in transit; and
(f) Family, household, and shared-device access, including without limitation: another member of your household accessing your unlocked device and taking action on your account; a custodial parent, guardian, or other person with authority over a minor user's device accessing the account; a workplace IT administrator accessing your account through device-management tooling you consented to outside of Tether; or any other situation in which a person with physical or logical access to your device takes action you did not intend.
You acknowledge and agree that the foregoing risks are inherent to the use of a phone-based authentication system over public infrastructure, and that you assume those risks as a condition of using the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, you also acknowledge that Tether is not your wireless carrier, your email provider, your device manufacturer, your operating-system vendor, your password manager, or your security advisor, and Tether owes you no duty in those capacities.
Tether's notifications — including OTPs, security alerts, revocation links, event invitations, push notifications, and other transactional and non-transactional messages — are sent on a best-effort, fire-and-forget basis through third-party service providers (currently Telnyx for SMS, Resend for email, and Expo Push for push notifications, each subject to change without notice). Tether does not warrant that any notification will be delivered, will be delivered to the intended channel, will be delivered within any particular time, will be delivered to the exclusion of any spam or junk folder, or will be free from interception or modification in transit. Each notification stands alone; the failure of one notification does not entitle you to a re-send of any other.
The Service is an interactive mobile application that performs background synchronization when operating-system conditions permit. Tether does not warrant that data will sync, that pending writes will be flushed, or that the application will receive push notifications when the user has force-quit the application, has revoked background-execution privileges, has put the device in a low-power state, has cleared the application from memory, or has disabled cellular or Wi-Fi. You acknowledge that synchronization, while designed to be eventually consistent, is not guaranteed to be instantaneous, complete, or conflict-free under all conditions.
The Service permits you to store health-related information about your contacts, including allergies, medical conditions, medications, and emergency designations (the "Health Fields"). The Health Fields are provided as a personal-record-keeping convenience and are not a clinical, diagnostic, or medical record-keeping system. The Service is not HIPAA-compliant. Tether is not a covered entity, a business associate, or a healthcare provider, and the Service is not intended for use in emergency medical decision-making. You must not rely on the Health Fields, or the absence of information in them, for any medical, emergency, or healthcare decision. Section 7.4 governs your obligations with respect to the storage of health information about third parties.
The Service propagates "live" contact-card updates between connected users on a best-effort basis. Tether does not warrant that any live update will be received by, applied to, or visible to any particular connection, or that any live update will be timely or accurate. Live updates are subject to network conditions, the recipient's privacy-tier settings (which may filter or block fields), the recipient's connection status (active or stale), and the recipient's device state. Do not rely on a live update to convey time-sensitive information; use a direct communication channel for any communication that must be received.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Tether, its affiliates, successors, and assigns, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, contractors, and representatives (collectively, the "Indemnified Parties") from and against any and all claims, demands, suits, actions, proceedings, damages, losses, liabilities, fines, penalties, judgments, awards, costs, and expenses of every kind (including reasonable attorneys' fees, expert fees, and court costs) arising from or relating to:
We reserve the right to assume exclusive defense and control of any indemnifiable matter. You agree to cooperate fully with our defense. You may not settle any claim without our prior written consent.
These Terms commence when you create your Tether account and continue until terminated by you or us.
Delete your account through Settings > Account > Delete Account, or email [email protected]. Your data will be deleted per our Privacy Policy.
We may suspend or terminate your account immediately, with or without notice, for: breach of these Terms; legal or safety concerns; extended inactivity (12 months, with notice); payment issues; fraudulent activity; or engagement in prohibited conduct.
Where we take enforcement action, we will let you know and explain any options for review, unless doing so would expose us to legal liability, harm our user community, compromise the integrity of our systems, or is prohibited for legal or technical reasons.
Upon termination: your right to access the Service ceases immediately; your content will be deleted per our retention schedule (Privacy Policy Section 6); and you remain liable for obligations incurred before termination. No refund of prepaid subscription fees upon termination for cause.
The following provisions survive termination: Section 2.3 (Compromise Disclaimer); Section 6 in its entirety (Content Ownership and Intellectual Property), including specifically Sections 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, 6.12, and 6.13 for the durations stated therein; Sections 7.3–7.4 (Data Obligations); Section 8 (User Disputes); Section 9 (DMCA); Section 10 in its entirety (Disclaimers, including the Compromise, Notification-Delivery, Sync, Health-Information, and Live-Update disclaimers); Section 11 (Indemnification); Section 13 (Dispute Resolution); and Section 14 (General Provisions); as well as any obligations and liabilities accrued before termination. For the avoidance of doubt, the non-derivative-use covenants in Section 6.10 and the Restricted-Persons confidentiality extension in Section 6.12 survive termination for the durations expressly stated therein, even though you are no longer a user of the Service.
Before filing a formal claim, you agree to contact us at [email protected] to attempt informal resolution in good faith. If we are unable to resolve the dispute informally, either party may proceed to arbitration as described below.
If informal resolution fails, the party intending to pursue arbitration must send written notice ("Notice of Dispute") to the other party (for Tether: [email protected]; for you: the address on your account) describing the nature and basis of the claim and the relief sought. If the parties are unable to resolve the dispute within 60 days after receipt of a complete Notice of Dispute, either party may commence arbitration. Neither party may commence arbitration during this 60-day period. If any aspect of these notice requirements has not been met, a court may enjoin the filing or prosecution of arbitration.
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING YOUR RIGHT TO FILE A LAWSUIT IN COURT.
You and Tether agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service ("Disputes") will be resolved through binding individual arbitration rather than in court, except as set forth below. Arbitration will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding, and judgment may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Arbitration will take place in New York, New York, or another mutually agreed location. For claims of $10,000 or less, arbitration will be conducted on written submissions unless you request an in-person hearing.
The following are NOT subject to arbitration and may be brought in court:
YOU AND TETHER AGREE THAT DISPUTES WILL BE RESOLVED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS ONLY. YOU WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION, COLLECTIVE ACTION, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. IF THIS WAIVER IS FOUND UNENFORCEABLE, THE ARBITRATION AGREEMENT WILL BE NULL AND VOID WITH RESPECT TO THAT DISPUTE, AND THE PARTIES AGREE THAT COURTS, NOT ARBITRATORS, SHALL DETERMINE THE ENFORCEABILITY OF THE CLASS ACTION WAIVER.
If twenty-five (25) or more individuals submit substantially similar Notices of Dispute, or substantially similar arbitration demands, against Tether through the same or coordinated counsel within a 60-day period (a "Mass Arbitration"), the following procedures apply notwithstanding any conflicting rule of the American Arbitration Association ("AAA"):
(a) Counsel and process. The parties agree that the demands constitute a Mass Arbitration and shall be administered as such. The parties may, by mutual written agreement, designate JAMS as an alternative arbitral forum for some or all of the Mass Arbitration.
(b) Batching and bellwether. The AAA (or JAMS, if selected) shall, upon request of either party, batch the demands into groups of no more than 50 cases per batch and select up to ten (10) bellwether cases per batch for initial arbitration. The results of the bellwether cases shall inform — but not bind — the resolution of the remaining cases.
(c) Tolling. All applicable statutes of limitations and contractual limitations periods (including the one-year period in Section 13.8) are tolled for all claimants during the bellwether process.
(d) Pre-arbitration mediation. Following completion of the bellwether process, the parties shall participate in a single mediation, administered by the AAA or JAMS, before any additional cases proceed to arbitration. The cost of mediation shall be split equally between Tether and the group of claimants.
(e) Fee allocation. For the avoidance of doubt, the standard consumer-arbitration filing-fee rules of the AAA (or JAMS) apply on a per-case basis, but the parties may agree to alternative fee structures in a Mass Arbitration to discourage abusive filings.
(f) Survival of class-action waiver. Nothing in this Section 13.5A operates as a waiver of the class-action waiver in Section 13.5, which remains in full force in a Mass Arbitration.
Nothing in this Section 13.5A is intended to deny any claimant a meaningful opportunity to be heard. If a court of competent jurisdiction finds this Section unenforceable in whole or in part, the unenforceable portion shall be severed and the remainder shall continue in effect.
You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to [email protected] within 30 days of creating your account, including your name, phone number, and a clear statement opting out. Opting out of arbitration does not affect any other provision of these Terms.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict of law principles. If arbitration does not apply, you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts in New York County, New York.
Any claim arising out of or related to the Service must be filed within one (1) year after the claim arose, or it will be permanently barred.
Added 2026-07-07 (run 16). Adapted in shape (not text) from a peer policy; NOT attorney-reviewed. See
docs/audits/2026_07_07_tos_privacy_mirror_audit.md§7.1.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU AND TETHER EACH KNOWINGLY, VOLUNTARILY, AND IRREVOCABLY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION, PROCEEDING, OR COUNTERCLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE. This waiver applies to any Dispute that is heard in a court of law rather than in arbitration — including, without limitation, the disputes carved out of arbitration under Section 13.4 (small-claims actions, intellectual-property and trade-secret claims, and actions for injunctive or equitable relief under Sections 6.9 through 6.13), any Dispute for which the Arbitration Agreement is held unenforceable, and any Dispute brought by a User who has opted out of arbitration under Section 13.6. Each party acknowledges that this is a material inducement to enter into these Terms. This Section survives termination.
Added 2026-07-07 (run 16). NOT attorney-reviewed. See
docs/audits/2026_07_07_tos_privacy_mirror_audit.md§7.2.
Notwithstanding Section 1.3 (Changes to Terms), if Tether makes any material change to Sections 13.1 through 13.9 (the arbitration, class-action-waiver, mass-arbitration, opt-out, jury-waiver, and governing-law provisions) while you are a User — other than a change to a notice address or contact email — you may reject that change by sending written notice to [email protected] within thirty (30) days after the change becomes effective, including your name, the phone number on your account, and a clear statement that you reject the change. If you timely reject a future change, the version of Sections 13.1 through 13.9 in effect immediately before that change will continue to govern any Dispute between you and Tether, and your rejection will not affect any other provision of these Terms or your continued use of the Service. This right is in addition to, and does not shorten, the 30-day arbitration opt-out in Section 13.6.
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any supplemental terms, constitute the entire agreement between you and Tether regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements.
If any provision is found invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force. The invalid provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable.
Our failure to enforce any right does not constitute a waiver. Any waiver must be in writing and signed by an authorized Tether representative.
You may not assign these Terms or your account without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, and our past, present, and future affiliates and agents may invoke our rights under this agreement in the event they become involved in a dispute.
We may send notices via email, in-app notification, push notification, or posting on our website. You consent to receive electronic communications and agree they satisfy any legal requirement for written notice. Legal notices to Tether must be sent to: [email protected], or Tether, LLC, Attn: Legal Department, [Address to be provided].
You agree to comply with all applicable U.S. and international export and import control laws. You represent that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any country subject to U.S. embargo or export restrictions, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties. Software available in connection with the Service is subject to U.S. export controls and may not be downloaded or used in violation of U.S. export laws.
If you are a U.S. government entity, or accessing the Service on behalf of a government entity, the Service constitutes "Commercial Computer Software" and "Commercial Computer Software Documentation" as defined in FAR 12.212 and DFARS 227.7202. Use, reproduction, and disclosure are governed by these Terms.
If you download Tether from the Apple App Store: (a) these Terms are between you and Tether, not Apple; (b) Apple has no obligation to provide support or maintenance; (c) Apple is not responsible for any claims related to the Service; (d) in the event of a third-party claim that the app infringes intellectual property rights, Tether (not Apple) is solely responsible; (e) Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you as third-party beneficiaries; (f) you represent that you are not in a U.S.-embargoed country and are not on a U.S. Government prohibited parties list; and (g) you must comply with applicable third-party terms of agreement when using the app (e.g., your wireless data service agreement).
If you download Tether from Google Play: (a) these Terms are between you and Tether, not Google; (b) your use of Google-Sourced Software must comply with Google's then-current Google Play Terms of Service; (c) Google is only a provider of the distribution channel; (d) Tether, not Google, is solely responsible for the app; (e) Google has no obligation or liability to you; and (f) Google is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms as it relates to Google-Sourced Software.
Tether may include open source software components subject to their respective licenses, available upon request. Such licenses govern those components to the extent they conflict with these Terms.
These Terms do not create third-party beneficiary rights except for Tether's affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents (who may enforce limitation of liability and indemnification provisions), and as expressly provided for Apple and Google in Sections 14.8–14.9.
| Purpose | Contact |
|---|---|
| General support | [email protected] |
| Legal matters | [email protected] |
| Billing | [email protected] |
| Privacy | [email protected] |
| Abuse reports | [email protected] |
| DMCA/Copyright | [email protected] (Subject: DMCA) |
| Phone | +1 (214) 286-5678 |
BY CLICKING "I AGREE," CREATING AN ACCOUNT, OR USING THE SERVICE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF SERVICE AND OUR PRIVACY POLICY. YOU FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU:
(a) consent to electronic communications; (b) agree to the arbitration agreement (Section 13.3), the class-action waiver (Section 13.5), and the mass-arbitration procedures (Section 13.5A); (c) understand the limitations of liability (Section 10) and the disclaimers regarding compromise of your phone, email, device, and authentication channels (Sections 2.3, 2.10, and 10.5–10.9); (d) understand and accept the 24-hour revocation windows applicable to phone-number and email-address changes (Sections 2.8 and 2.9), and the automatic account-lockout consequences of revocation (Sections 2.8(e), 2.9(d), and 2.11); (e) understand that maintaining a verified email address is your responsibility, and that an unverified email cannot be used for account recovery (Section 2.7); (f) understand and agree to the intellectual-property, trade-secret, no-derivative-use, and Restricted-Persons provisions (Sections 4.3 and 6.9 through 6.13), including the post-termination obligations stated therein; (g) represent that you are not a Restricted Person (Sections 1.2 and 4.3) and, if your status changes, that you will promptly notify Tether and cease use of the Service; (h) are at least 13 years old; and (i) have the authority to enter into these Terms, on your own behalf and on behalf of any organization to which Section 1.2 applies.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ANY OF THE FOREGOING, YOU MUST NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICE.
Account: Your Tether user account accessed via phone number OTP authentication.
Autoconnect: The automatic creation of a mutual connection between two users who have each other's verified phone numbers in their respective contact lists, triggered via privacy-preserving phone number hashing.
Beta Features: Features offered in a pre-release form (beta, pilot, limited release, etc.) before general availability.
Community Guidelines: Supplemental rules and standards for engaging with the platform and other users, available at tetherup.app/guidelines.
Competing Enterprise: Has the meaning given in Section 4.3(b).
Compromised Device: Has the meaning given in Section 2.10.
Contact: A person whose information you store in Tether.
Contact-Card Broadcast: Has the meaning given in Section 6.9(b).
Contact Data / Your Content: Information about contacts that you create, import, upload, or store in Tether.
Custom Circle: A user-created organizational group for contacts.
Device: Any mobile device, tablet, or computer capable of running the Tether application.
Directory / Shared Directory: A collaborative space where multiple Tether users share contact information based on common affiliation.
Free Tier: The basic Tether subscription at no monthly fee.
Health Information: Allergies, medical conditions, emergency contact designations, and other health-related data.
Lifetime Plan: The one-time-purchase subscription providing Tether+ features.
Mass Arbitration: Has the meaning given in Section 13.5A.
Notice of Dispute: Has the meaning given in Section 13.2.
Personal Information: Information that identifies, relates to, or could reasonably be linked with you or your contacts.
Phone OTP: One-time password delivered via SMS; Tether's primary sign-in method.
Restricted Person: A person to whom Section 4.3 applies — including any employee, contractor, advisor, founder, investor, director, or agent of a Competing Enterprise, and any person otherwise prohibited from accessing the Service under Section 4.3.
Revocation Window: The 24-hour period following a phone-number or email-address change during which the change may be undone via the revocation link; see Sections 2.8(c) and 2.9(d).
Privacy Circle / Sharing Tier: One of three type categories (Community, Professional, Close) controlling information sharing.
Sensitive Personal Information (SPI): Personal information including health data, biometric data, precise geolocation, and other categories defined under CCPA/CPRA and similar laws.
Service: The Tether mobile application, website, and all related services.
Tether+ Tier: The paid subscription with expanded features.
Tether Proprietary Methods: Has the meaning given in Section 6.9.
Usage Data: Aggregated, statistical data derived from your use of the Service.
User / You: The individual or entity using Tether.
We / Us / Our / Tether: Tether, LLC, the company providing the Service.
These Terms are effective as of May 13, 2026.