# Terms of use Last updated 10 October 2026. These are the terms for using Chitmonk: the app at chitmonk.com, these pages, and Chitmonk+ when it exists. "Chitmonk", "we" and "us" mean the people who make and publish it. Using Chitmonk means you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use it. ## The short version This summary is here to help. The sections after it are the terms. - The app is free to use, for yourself or for work. - Your meetings are yours. They stay on your device and we never receive them. - Chitmonk, its name, its code and its chipmunk are ours. - You are the one recording. Telling people, and getting their consent where the law asks for it, is your job. - A machine wrote the transcript. Check it before you rely on it. - Your meetings live in your browser. If the browser loses them, we cannot get them back, so export what matters. - Chitmonk comes as it is, with no warranty, and our liability is limited. ## 1. Who may use Chitmonk You must be at least 18, or the age at which you can enter a contract where you live. If you use Chitmonk for a company or other organisation, you are agreeing for it, and you confirm you are allowed to. ## 2. What you may do We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable permission, which we can withdraw, to use the app as we offer it, for your own purposes or your organisation's. You may not: - copy, sell, rent, sublicense or redistribute the app, or offer it to others as your own service; - reverse engineer, decompile or take the app apart, except where the law gives you that right regardless of these terms; - remove or hide any copyright, trademark or licence notice; - use Chitmonk to break the law or anyone's rights, including by recording people unlawfully; - attack, overload or interfere with the site, or get around its limits, such as the limit on sign-ups; - use the name, the logo or the chipmunk in a way that suggests we made, approved or sponsor something we did not. Reading and writing your own meetings with other tools is welcome. The `.chit` file is documented for exactly that: [what you may build on](/licence/). ## 3. What is yours Everything you record and write in Chitmonk is yours: the audio, the transcript, the names, the notes, the action items and every file you export. It stays on your device. Chitmonk has no server that receives meetings, so we do not hold a copy, we claim no rights in what you record, and we could not hand it to anyone, because we do not have it. That also makes it yours to look after. You are responsible for what you record, for having the right to record it, and for keeping copies of anything you need. ## 4. What is ours Chitmonk belongs to us and stays ours. That covers the app and its source code, its design, the name "Chitmonk", the logo and wordmark, Chet the chipmunk in every drawing and costume, and the words and pictures on these pages. They are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. These terms let you use Chitmonk. They do not transfer ownership of any part of it, and every right we have not expressly given you here is kept by us. If you send us ideas or suggestions, thank you. You agree we may use them freely, without owing you anything, and that sending them gives you no rights in Chitmonk. The app also runs speech models and software libraries made by other people, each under its own licence. Those notices are in the app under Settings, About. Nothing here takes away rights those licences give you. ## 5. Telling people you are recording Chitmonk records a room because you asked it to. You are the person recording, not us. Laws about recording differ from place to place. Some need only one person in the conversation to agree. Others, California among them, require every person's consent before a private conversation is recorded. Workplaces, schools and clinics often have rules of their own. People in the room may be covered by the law of a different place from yours. You agree to tell the people present that you are recording before you start, and to get whatever consent the law requires where you are and where they are. Chitmonk asks you to confirm this once, when you set it up. It cannot check that you did, and it is not responsible if you did not. ## 6. What Chitmonk is not The transcript is written by speech-recognition software running on your device. It mishears words, misses some, and sometimes writes things nobody said. Its guesses about who is speaking are guesses until a person confirms them. The action items and decisions it lists are suggestions picked out by simple rules, and it can miss real ones. So a Chitmonk transcript or receipt is not an official record, not verbatim minutes, and not evidence of what was said unless a person has checked it. Nothing in Chitmonk is legal, medical, financial or other professional advice. Read what it wrote before you act on it or send it to anyone. ## 7. Your meetings live in your browser Meetings are stored by your browser, on that device, and nowhere else. They can be lost if you or the browser clear the site's data, if the browser removes it when the device runs low on space, if the device is lost, replaced or reset, or if you turn on passcode protection and forget the passcode. A forgotten passcode cannot be recovered by anyone. We cannot restore a lost meeting, because we never had it. Export what you need to keep. ## 8. Chitmonk+ and the beta Signing up for the Chitmonk+ beta puts your email address on a waiting list. It is not a purchase and it promises nothing: not that Chitmonk+ will be released, not when, not what it will include, and not what it will cost. Anything offered as a beta may change, break or end without notice. If Chitmonk+ later has terms of its own, those will apply to it as well. ## 9. Changes to Chitmonk We may change Chitmonk, add or remove features, or stop offering it, at any time and without notice. We try not to break things people rely on, but we do not promise that the app or the site will always be available. ## 10. Disclaimer of warranties **Chitmonk is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE", with all its faults and without warranty of any kind. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied or arising by law or custom, including the implied warranties of MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE and NON-INFRINGEMENT.** **We do not warrant that Chitmonk will be accurate, complete, uninterrupted, secure or free of errors; that a transcript, a speaker's name, an action item or a decision will be correct; that your meetings will be stored without loss; or that Chitmonk will meet your needs or work on your device.** Some places do not allow some warranties to be excluded. Where that is so, the exclusions above apply only as far as the law permits, and you keep any rights that cannot lawfully be taken away. ## 11. Limitation of liability **To the fullest extent the law allows, Chitmonk and the people who make it will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill or data, arising from or related to Chitmonk or these terms, whatever the legal theory and even if we were told such loss was possible.** **That includes loss arising from a recording or transcript that is lost, incomplete or wrong; from reliance on anything Chitmonk wrote; and from any claim made by a person you recorded.** **Our total liability for all claims arising from or related to Chitmonk or these terms will not be more than the greater of the amount you paid us for Chitmonk in the twelve months before the claim arose, or fifty US dollars (US$50).** Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for fraud, for intentional misconduct, for gross negligence, or for anything else that the law does not allow to be limited or excluded. Some places do not allow certain limits on liability, so some of the above may not apply to you. ## 12. If your use causes a claim against us If someone brings a claim against Chitmonk because of a recording you made, because you broke these terms, or because you broke the law while using Chitmonk, you agree to cover the reasonable costs and losses that claim causes us, including reasonable legal fees. We will tell you about the claim promptly and will not settle it in a way that puts obligations on you without asking you. ## 13. Ending You can stop using Chitmonk at any time. "Delete all data" in Settings removes every meeting from that device. If you break these terms, your permission to use Chitmonk ends, and we may refuse you access to the site or to Chitmonk+. Sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 to 16 continue to apply after you stop. ## 14. Changes to these terms We may update these terms. When we do, we change the date at the top of this page, and if a change is significant we say so at the top as well. Using Chitmonk after a change means you accept the updated terms. If you do not, stop using it. ## 15. Governing law These terms, and any dispute about them or about Chitmonk, are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its rules on conflicts of law. Disputes will be heard only in the state or federal courts located in California, and you and we agree to those courts. If you are a consumer living somewhere whose law gives you protections that cannot be given up by contract, you keep them. ## 16. General These terms, with the [privacy page](/privacy/) and the [ownership page](/licence/), are the whole agreement between you and us about Chitmonk. If a court finds part of them unenforceable, that part is applied as far as it can be and the rest stay in force. If we do not enforce something, we have not given up the right to do so later. You may not transfer these terms to anyone else. We may transfer them to whoever takes over Chitmonk. They create no rights for anyone other than you and us. ## 17. Contact Questions about these terms: [legal@chitmonk.com](mailto:legal@chitmonk.com).