Terms of use

Version 1.0 · effective [LEGAL_EFFECTIVE_DATE]

These terms are a plain agreement between you and us. Please read them before you use Sibona, and ask us if anything is unclear.

1. Who we are
2. What Sibona and Vera are, and what they are not
3. Age
4. Your account and sign-in
5. How you may use the Service
6. Answers, balance and payments
7. Refunds and cancellation
8. AI-generated answers and AI disclosure
9. Privacy and health information
10. Availability and changes
11. Liability
12. Governing law and disputes
13. Country-specific terms
14. Changes to these terms
15. Contact

1. Who we are

Sibona is operated by [COMPANY_LEGAL_NAME], a company registered in the [COMPANY_JURISDICTION] under registration number [COMPANY_REGISTRATION_NUMBER], with its registered address at [COMPANY_PHYSICAL_ADDRESS] (“we”, “us”). The AI assistant inside the service is called Vera. In these terms, the “Service” means the Sibona website, the Vera assistant and everything connected to them.

These terms, the privacy notice, the health-information consent, the payments and refunds page and the cookie notice together form the agreement between you and us. By using the Service you agree to all of them. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

2. What Sibona and Vera are, and what they are not

Vera is an AI chat assistant. You write a message, and Vera writes a reply. The reply is generated by a large language model. Vera is built for everyday support: stress, worry, loneliness, relationships, sorting out your thoughts, and self-help ideas.

Vera is an AI. It is not a person. It is not a licensed therapist, psychologist, counselor, doctor or other health professional. We describe Vera as an “AI therapist” in some of our marketing, but nothing Vera writes is therapy, treatment, diagnosis or medical advice.

The Service is not a medical service. It does not diagnose, treat or prescribe. It cannot advise you about any health condition or about medicines, and it does not replace care from a qualified professional.

The Service is not a crisis or emergency service. We cannot send help, contact anyone for you, or know where you are. If you are in danger, or you think someone else is, call your local emergency number now. The app shows the crisis lines for your country.

No person watches your conversation as it happens. Automated safety checks run on conversations to spot signs of danger and to show crisis lines. Nobody reads along live and steps in.

3. Age

You must be 18 or older to use the Service. Before your first message you confirm that you are 18 or older. If you tell us you are under 18, or we learn that you are, we stop the service for that person, show resources for young people, and delete the conversations and data linked to that account.

4. Your account and sign-in

You can use Vera before you sign in, within the free answers the app shows you. To keep your history, or to top up your balance, you sign in with a Google account or with a one-time code sent to your email address.

Keep your sign-in details to yourself. You are responsible for what happens on your account. Tell us at once if you think someone else has access to it.

You can close your account at any time from the account page. Closing it deletes your conversations, as the privacy notice describes. What happens to any balance you still hold is set out in section 6.6 of the payments and refunds page.

5. How you may use the Service

Use the Service for yourself, lawfully, and in a way that does not harm other people. You may not:

• use it to plan or carry out anything unlawful, or to harm or threaten anyone;
• try to extract the underlying prompts or models, scrape the Service, or resell access to it;
• use it on behalf of another person, or put another person’s personal information into it, without a lawful reason;
• use bots, scripts or other automated means to reach the Service without our written permission;
• overload, probe or interfere with the Service or the systems it runs on.

Automated safety checks may interrupt a conversation and show you crisis lines. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these rules. We will tell you why, unless the law stops us.

6. Answers, balance and payments

• One answer, one price. Each answer Vera gives is charged to your balance once it has been delivered to you. The price of one answer is shown in the app. There is no monthly fee for access and no subscription.
• Free answers. New visitors get a welcome allowance of free answers. Signed-in users get a further allowance. The amounts are shown in the app and may change. A change never affects answers you have already received.
• Bonus credit. We may add bonus credit to your balance without charge, as shown in the app, including a bonus part of some top-ups. Bonus credit is not money. It can be used only for answers. It cannot be withdrawn, exchanged for money, or refunded.
• Top-ups. You top up with a one-time payment. The amount added to your balance, including any bonus part, is shown before you pay. Top-ups need a signed-in account.
• No automatic renewal. At launch we do not renew top-ups automatically, and there is no subscription. Nothing is charged again unless you top up again.
• Price you see. The price shown before you pay is the price you pay, including any sales tax, VAT or GST shown at checkout.
• Balance. Paid balance does not expire while your account is open.
• Payment processing. Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not receive or store your card number.
• Price changes. We may change prices. A change does not reduce your balance, and it does not change answers you have already received.

7. Refunds and cancellation

You can stop using Vera at any time. There is nothing to cancel.

Refunds. Within 14 days of a top-up, you can ask for a refund of the unused paid part of your balance. Bonus credit is never refunded. Answers you have already received are not refunded. The payments and refunds page explains how to ask and what happens next.

Statutory rights. Nothing in these terms takes away a right you have under the consumer law of your country. Where such a right gives you more than the 14 days above, that right applies.

Cancelling an electronic transaction in South Africa. If you are a consumer in South Africa, section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 may let you cancel an electronic transaction within 7 days, subject to the exceptions in that Act. Nothing in these terms reduces that right.

8. AI-generated answers and AI disclosure

Answers come from a language model. Automated checks also review some answers. Answers can be wrong, incomplete, out of date or unsuitable for your situation. Two similar questions can get different answers. Check anything important with a qualified person before you act on it.

You are responsible for the decisions you make. We do not promise any result, such as feeling better or solving a problem.

AI disclosure. Vera tells you that you are talking with an AI at the start of each conversation, and again at least every three hours while the conversation continues. If you ask whether you are talking to a person, Vera says that it is an AI.

Your words and our models. You keep the rights you have in what you write. You allow us to process it to run the Service, as the privacy notice describes. We do not use your conversations to train our own models, and our contracts with model providers do not allow them to train on your content.

9. Privacy and health information

How we handle personal information is set out in the privacy notice. What you write about your health or state of mind may be treated as special or sensitive information in many countries. For that reason we ask for a separate consent, the health-information consent, before your first message. Without that consent we cannot run the Service for you.

10. Availability and changes

We aim to keep the Service available, but we do not promise that it will always work. Maintenance, failures at our providers, and events outside our control may interrupt it. We may add, change or remove features.

If we end the Service. We tell you at least 14 days before the end date, by email or in the app. You can then ask for a refund of the unused paid part of your balance at any time up to 14 days after the end date, whatever the date of your top-up. The amount is worked out as in section 6.2 of the payments and refunds page. Bonus credit is not refunded. We pay an approved refund within 10 business days. After that window we consider a request, and we refund where the law requires it. Nothing here reduces a right you have under consumer law.

11. Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability for any claim connected with the Service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for decisions you make on the basis of an answer from Vera.

Nothing in these terms limits a liability that the law does not allow us to limit. That includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, and liability for fraud.

12. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of [GOVERNING_LAW_JURISDICTION]. Any dispute is subject to the courts of [LEGAL_FORUM].

If you are a consumer, you keep the mandatory protections of the country where you live. Where those protections require a different law or a different court, they apply in place of this section.

Please email us first. Most problems are solved that way.

13. Country-specific terms

The terms above apply everywhere. The sections below add what is different for people in each country. Only the section for your country applies to you on top of the terms above.

13.1 United States

• Where Vera is not offered. We will not offer Vera to people located in Illinois or Nevada. We will block access from those two states, by location or account country, before Vera is offered in the United States.
• California. Vera is a companion chatbot under California law. We tell you that you are talking with an AI. If a conversation shows signs of suicidal thoughts or self-harm, Vera follows a safety protocol that directs you to crisis services and to emergency help.
• New York. We tell you at the start of each conversation, and at least every three hours, that you are talking with an AI. When a conversation shows signs of suicidal thoughts, Vera follows a safety protocol that refers you to a crisis line.
• Utah. We tell you that Vera is an AI. We do not transfer the health information you write to third parties, except the service providers listed in the privacy notice that process it for us under contract to run the Service.

13.2 Canada

Canadian consumers keep the protections of their province or territory. Quebec residents also have the rights described in the privacy notice.

13.3 United Kingdom and Ireland

UK and Irish consumers keep their statutory rights, including the right to cancel digital services in the cases the law sets out. Section 7 gives the refund terms that apply on top of those rights. Vera is not a medical device or a regulated health service.

13.4 Australia

Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to you and cannot be excluded by these terms. Nothing here limits them. Vera is not a registered health practitioner, and we do not use the title psychologist to describe Vera.

13.5 New Zealand

Where the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986 apply to you, nothing in these terms limits your rights under them. Vera is not a registered health service in New Zealand.

13.6 Singapore

Vera is not a healthcare service under Singapore law. Singapore consumers keep the protections of the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act 2003, where they apply.

13.7 South Africa

The Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 give South African consumers rights. Where those rights apply, they apply in place of anything in these terms that is less favorable to you. Section 7 explains the cancellation rights for electronic transactions.

13.8 United Arab Emirates

The company is established in the United Arab Emirates. UAE law applies to the company as seller, including the UAE data protection law described in the privacy notice.

13.9 India

The Service is for people aged 18 and over only. We do not offer Vera to anyone under 18, and we do not collect or ask for the personal data of children. Indian consumers keep their rights under the Consumer Protection Act 2019.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change materially affects you, we tell you by email or in the app at least 14 days before it takes effect. If you do not accept the change, you can close your account before it takes effect. Earlier versions are available on request.

15. Contact

[COMPANY_LEGAL_NAME], [COMPANY_PHYSICAL_ADDRESS], [COMPANY_JURISDICTION]. Email: [SUPPORT_EMAIL].