Terms of Service

1. The Service

Blockout is a document redaction tool. You upload a document; the Service uses automated detection to identify personal and sensitive information; you review what has been found; and you download a redacted copy. Paid plans also offer additional redaction styles, generalisation of certain details, and end-to-end encrypted sharing of redacted documents.

2. Account registration

Some features require an account, which you create by signing in through a supported identity provider. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and for all activity that takes place under it. You must provide accurate information, and you must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, and able to enter into a binding contract, to use the Service.

3. Plans and pricing

The Service is offered on the following plans:

• Free — a limited number of redactions, with a watermark and the standard black redaction style.
• Pro — £4.99 per month — a higher redaction allowance, all redaction styles, generalisation, encrypted sharing, and no watermark.
• Team — £29 per month — the highest allowance, larger batch processing, and password-protected sharing.

Prices are stated in pounds sterling and may be subject to VAT or other taxes where applicable. Plan features and prices may change; where they do, we will give reasonable notice, and changes will not affect the price of a subscription period you have already paid for.

4. Billing and payment

Paid plans are billed through our payment processor, Stripe. Subscriptions are recurring: unless cancelled, they renew automatically at the end of each billing period, and you authorise us, through Stripe, to charge the applicable fee for each renewal. We do not store your full card details; these are handled by Stripe. If a payment fails, we may suspend access to paid features until payment is resolved.

5. Cancellation and your right to cancel

You may cancel your subscription at any time. Cancellation stops future renewals; your plan remains active until the end of the period you have already paid for, after which it reverts to the Free plan.

If you are a consumer in the UK, you have a legal right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 to cancel within 14 days of starting your subscription, without giving a reason. Because the Service is supplied digitally and made available immediately, by starting to use a paid feature within this period you ask us to begin supplying the Service during the cancellation period and acknowledge that your right to cancel may be lost once the Service has been fully supplied. Where the right applies, we will refund you in accordance with the Regulations. To exercise this right, contact us at the address below.

6. Acceptable use

You agree to use the Service lawfully and only for documents you own or are authorised to process. You must not: upload content you have no right to use; use the Service for any unlawful, infringing, or harmful purpose; attempt to exceed or circumvent plan limits or security controls; or attempt to disrupt, reverse-engineer, or gain unauthorised access to the Service. We may suspend or terminate accounts that breach this section.

7. Redaction disclaimer

8. Your documents and data

Documents you upload are processed in memory to provide the Service and are not stored permanently; session data is deleted automatically after processing. You retain all rights in your documents. You grant us only the limited licence needed to process them to provide the Service to you. Our handling of personal data is described in the Blockout Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

9. AI-assisted features

If you use the optional natural-language instruction feature, the text of your document is sent to our AI processing provider, Groq, to identify the phrases to redact. This happens only when you use that specific feature; standard automatic detection runs on our own servers. This processing is described further in the Blockout Privacy Policy.

10. Encrypted sharing

Encrypted sharing lets you create a link to a redacted document that is encrypted so that only someone with the link (or, for password-protected shares, the password) can open it. The decryption key is held by you — in the link itself or protected by your password — and is not recoverable by us. This means:

• if you lose the link or password, the shared document cannot be recovered;
• anyone you give the link (and password) to can access the document, so you are responsible for who you share it with; and
• shared documents are stored only in encrypted form and are deleted when the link expires, reaches its view limit, or is revoked.

11. Intellectual property

The Service, including its software, design, and the Blockout name and logo, is owned by or licensed to Particle AI Labs Ltd and is protected by intellectual property laws. These Terms grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service in accordance with them; they do not transfer any ownership in the Service to you.

12. Warranties and disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties and do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for any particular purpose. The Service is a tool to assist with redaction and does not constitute legal, compliance, or professional advice.

13. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud. Nothing in these Terms affects the statutory rights of consumers. Subject to that, to the fullest extent permitted by law:

• we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, data, goodwill, or business arising out of or in connection with the Service; and
• our total liability arising out of or in connection with the Service in any 12-month period is limited to the total amount you paid us for the Service in that period.

14. Termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the Service. On termination, your right to use the Service ends; sections that by their nature should survive (including intellectual property, disclaimers, and limitation of liability) continue to apply.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Where changes are material, we will give reasonable notice. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms; the “Last updated” date above shows when they were last changed.

16. Governing law

These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, are governed by the laws of England and Wales and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, you may also benefit from any mandatory protections of the law of your country of residence.

17. Contact

For any question about these Terms, or to exercise a right under them, contact us at hello@particlelabs.ai.