Terms of Service

Section 00

Acceptance of Terms

By creating an Account, claiming or entering a Burrow, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organisation, you represent and warrant that you are authorised to bind that organisation to these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

Section 01

Definitions

In these Terms:

• “RatelKey”, “we” and “us” mean the provider of the Service.
• “Service” means the website at ratelkey.com, the account and sign-in service, the relay, the update service, and the documentation.
• “Burrow” means an instance of the RatelKey server software installed and operated by you on infrastructure you control. A Burrow does not form part of the Service.
• “Account” means your RatelKey credentials and the record of the Burrows you are permitted to enter.
• “Member” means an Account permitted to enter a Burrow.
• “Machine” means an application, server or process enrolled into a Burrow, which authenticates to that Burrow by signing each request with an Ed25519 key generated on that machine.
• “Secret” means a value stored in a Burrow.
• “Relay” means the forwarding service described in section 06.
• “Personal Data” has the meaning given in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation).

Section 02

Scope of the Service

RatelKey provides the Service. The Service comprises the account and sign-in service against which a Burrow authenticates its users, the relay, the update service from which a Burrow retrieves releases, and the website and documentation.

You operate your Burrow. You are responsible for the infrastructure it runs on, its configuration, its network exposure, its database, its backups, its encryption key, and the membership and machine enrolments within it.

Secrets are stored in your Burrow. RatelKey does not receive, store or process Secrets. Section 08 states in full what the Service holds.

Section 03

Accounts and Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years of age, or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction, to create an Account. By registering you represent that you meet this requirement and that the information you provide is accurate and complete.

You are solely responsible for the confidentiality of your Account credentials and for all activity conducted under your Account. You must notify us without undue delay if you become aware of unauthorised use of your Account.

RatelKey is not liable for unauthorised access resulting from credentials compromised while under your control.

If you use the Service on behalf of an organisation, you represent and warrant that you are authorised to bind that organisation to these Terms, and that organisation is responsible for all Accounts and Burrows operating under it.

Section 04

Encryption and Keys

Secrets are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM envelope encryption. Each stored version is encrypted under its own data key, which is wrapped by a key-encryption key belonging to your Burrow. The key-encryption key is supplied to the Burrow through its environment and is not written to its database.

RatelKey does not receive or store the key-encryption key used by your Burrow, and cannot recover it. You are responsible for maintaining a backup of that key. If it is lost, the Secrets encrypted under it cannot be recovered by you, by RatelKey, or by any other party.

Machine key pairs are generated on the machine during enrolment. The private key remains on that machine. Only the public key is transmitted to your Burrow, and no part of a machine key pair is transmitted to RatelKey.

You are responsible for securing machine private keys. If a private key is compromised, you should revoke the affected machine from your Burrow. RatelKey is not liable for unauthorised access to a Burrow resulting from compromised machine credentials.

Section 05

Sign-in and Dependency on the Service

A Burrow does not maintain its own user accounts or sessions. On each request made by a user, the Burrow queries the RatelKey sign-in service to determine whether the session is valid, whether the Account is active, and whether the Account is a Member of that Burrow. The Burrow retains no result of that query.

A revoked session, a suspended Account, or a removed Member therefore takes effect on the next request.

While the sign-in service is unavailable, or while an Account is suspended, that Account cannot sign in to a Burrow or use its dashboard. This applies irrespective of the availability of the Burrow itself.

Machine authentication does not depend on the Service. A Machine authenticates directly to your Burrow, which verifies the signature without contacting RatelKey. Machine access to Secrets is unaffected by the unavailability of the Service or by the suspension of an Account.

RatelKey does not obtain access to your Burrow, its database or its Secrets in any circumstance described in this section.

Section 06

The Relay

Use of the relay is optional. A Burrow that is not directly reachable may maintain a connection to the relay and be reached through it. A Burrow reached at its own address or domain does not use the relay.

The relay forwards the encrypted bytes of a connection. TLS is terminated by your Burrow and not by the relay. RatelKey records connection metadata as set out in section 08 and does not have access to the contents of relayed connections.

RatelKey issues the certificate for the relay domain and transmits it to your Burrow over its tunnel. RatelKey holds the private key for that certificate. If you require that no RatelKey-held certificate is used, operate your Burrow on your own domain with your own certificate.

The relay is provided for reaching a Burrow. You must not use it to carry traffic for any other purpose, and you must not resell or sublicense access to it. RatelKey may limit or refuse forwarding that does not comply with this section.

Section 07

Updates

A Burrow may query the update service for available releases and install a release when instructed by its operator. RatelKey does not install software on your Burrow and does not initiate updates.

Installing an update restarts the Burrow, which is unavailable during the restart. You are responsible for determining when to apply an update.

RatelKey does not undertake to support previous releases indefinitely. A Burrow running a superseded release may cease to be compatible with the sign-in service or the relay. Where a release requires action by an operator, RatelKey will state that requirement in the release notes.

Section 08

Ownership of Burrow Contents

You retain all rights in the contents of your Burrow. RatelKey claims no rights in them and does not access, read, index, analyse or disclose them.

Where the contents of your Burrow include Personal Data, you are the controller of that data. RatelKey is not a processor of that data and does not receive it. A data processing agreement covering the Account data listed in section 08 is available on request to the address in section 17.

You are responsible for backing up your Burrow, including its database and the key-encryption key described in section 04. RatelKey holds no backup of either and cannot restore a Burrow.

Section 09

Data Held by the Service

RatelKey holds the following in operating the Service:

• Account data. Email address, username, password hash, profile image selection, and email confirmation status.
• Passkey data. Where a passkey is registered, its public key, credential identifier and device label.
• Session data. For each session, the originating IP address and user agent, the time of creation and the time of expiry. Sign-in attempts are recorded with their outcome.
• Burrow registration data. For each Burrow claimed by an Account, its identifier, the callback address it supplied, and its Members.
• Sign-in service records. Actions performed against the Service, including claiming a Burrow, entering a Burrow, signing out and membership changes, recorded with the Account and source IP address responsible.
• Relay connection metadata. Where the relay is used, the Burrow a connection was destined for, its time, and the volume of data transferred.
• Email records. Recipient address, message type and delivery outcome.

The audit trail of a Burrow is stored in that Burrow’s database and is not transmitted to RatelKey.

Account data and Burrow registration data are processed for the performance of this agreement (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR). Session, sign-in, relay and email records are processed for security, abuse prevention and the operation of the Service (Article 6(1)(f)). The Privacy Policy states retention periods, transfers, processors and your rights in full.

Section 10

Retention and Deletion

• Account data is retained for the lifetime of the Account.
• Sessions are deleted on expiry or revocation.
• Burrow registration data is retained while the Burrow remains claimed. Deregistering a Burrow removes the registration from the Service and does not affect the Burrow.
• Sign-in service records are retained for 12 months.
• Relay connection metadata is retained for 90 days.
• Email records are retained for 30 days.

You may delete your Account at any time from your account settings. Deletion is irreversible and removes the data listed above within 30 days, subject to any legal obligation requiring continued retention.

Deleting an Account does not affect a Burrow, its database or its Secrets. It removes that Account’s ability to sign in to any Burrow.

Section 11

Acceptable Use

You must not:

• Use the Service in violation of any applicable law.
• Access or attempt to access an Account, Burrow or session that you are not authorised to access.
• Interfere with the operation, availability or integrity of the Service, including by denial-of-service attack or deliberate resource exhaustion.
• Circumvent or attempt to circumvent rate limits, quotas, authentication or any other control.
• Create Accounts in bulk, or by automated means, in order to evade a limit.
• Use the relay other than as permitted by section 06.
• Use the Service to host or distribute malware, phishing infrastructure or tooling intended to harm others.
• Provide false or misleading information on registration or in support correspondence.

Testing the security of a Burrow you operate is not restricted by this section. You must not conduct security testing against RatelKey infrastructure. Vulnerabilities affecting the Service should be reported to the address in section 17. RatelKey will not pursue a claim arising from good-faith research reported in accordance with this paragraph.

Breach of this section may result in suspension or termination under section 12.

Section 12

Intellectual Property

The Service, the RatelKey server software, the documentation, and the RatelKey name and marks are owned by RatelKey. No transfer of ownership is effected by these Terms or by your use of the Service.

RatelKey grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to operate the RatelKey server software as a Burrow for your own internal use, and to use the Service in connection with it, for so long as you comply with these Terms. This licence does not extend to redistribution, resale, or sublicensing.

The command-line tool and the SDKs are published under the open-source licences stated in their repositories. Those licences govern the code they cover independently of these Terms.

Section 13

Suspension and Termination

RatelKey may suspend or terminate an Account if you breach these Terms or use the Service in a manner that harms RatelKey, the Service or other users. Where reasonably practicable, we will notify you of the reason.

Suspension of an Account prevents that Account from signing in to a Burrow. Suspension does not disable the Burrow, alter or delete its data, or prevent enrolled Machines from authenticating directly to it. RatelKey does not obtain access to a Burrow on suspension or termination.

On termination, your right to use the Service ceases and the data listed in section 08 is deleted in accordance with section 09.

You may cease using the Service and delete your Account at any time.

Section 14

Plans and Fees

The Service is offered on plans. The features and price of each plan are stated on the pricing page and presented before purchase. Where an Account is on a plan provided at no charge, the remainder of this section does not apply to it.

Paid plans are billed in advance for the selected period and renew automatically until cancelled. Prices are exclusive of VAT and other applicable taxes, which are added where RatelKey is required to charge them.

You may cancel at any time from your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for. Fees already paid are non-refundable except where applicable law requires otherwise. If you are a consumer in the European Union, your statutory right of withdrawal is unaffected.

RatelKey will give at least 30 days’ notice by email before a change in price takes effect for your subscription. A price change does not apply to a period already paid for.

If a payment fails, RatelKey will notify you and a notice period of at least seven days begins, during which the Account continues to operate normally. You may resolve the payment at any point during that period. If the payment remains unresolved at the end of it, the Account is moved to the free plan and paid features cease. Non-payment results in a change of plan and does not result in suspension under section 12. Sign-in and Machine authentication are unaffected.

If you initiate a chargeback in respect of a payment, RatelKey may terminate the subscription and move the Account to the free plan. Where you consider a charge to be incorrect, contact us at the address in section 17.

Section 15

Service Availability

RatelKey does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. Scheduled maintenance will be notified in advance where practicable. No service level agreement applies unless separately agreed in writing.

The availability of your Burrow is determined by the infrastructure on which you operate it and is your responsibility. Section 05 states which functions depend on the availability of the Service.

RatelKey is not liable for interruption or degradation caused by matters outside its reasonable control, including infrastructure provider outages, network and DNS failures, and events of force majeure.

Section 16

Disclaimers

THE SERVICE AND THE RATELKEY SERVER SOFTWARE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Cryptographic standards evolve. RatelKey uses established algorithms and does not warrant that any cryptographic mechanism will remain free of vulnerabilities indefinitely.

RatelKey is not liable for loss arising from decisions or actions taken on the basis of the availability or unavailability of a Burrow or of the Secrets it holds, including deployment failures and configuration errors.

Section 17

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, RatelKey’s total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service shall not exceed the greater of the amount paid by you to RatelKey in the 12 months preceding the claim and EUR 100.

RatelKey shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, including loss of profit, loss of data, business interruption, the cost of substitute services, or loss arising from the loss of an encryption key held by you, regardless of the theory of liability.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that may not be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Section 18

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless RatelKey, its officers, employees and agents from and against any claim, damage, loss, cost or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising from your use of the Service, your operation of a Burrow, your breach of these Terms, or your infringement of the rights of a third party.

Section 19

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Denmark, without regard to conflict of law principles. Disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Denmark.

For consumers resident in the European Union, this does not affect rights under the mandatory consumer protection law of your country of residence. Where these Terms conflict with a mandatory provision of applicable law, that provision prevails.

Section 20

Changes to These Terms

RatelKey may modify these Terms. Material changes will be notified by email to the address associated with your Account, or by notice in the dashboard, at least 30 days before they take effect.

Continued use of the Service after the effective date of a modification constitutes acceptance of it. If you do not accept a modification, you must cease using the Service and delete your Account.

Section 21

Contact

For questions regarding these Terms, data protection requests, or to report a vulnerability:

RatelKey
[email protected]
ratelkey.com