Terms of service

Who we are and these terms

Empti is run by Dylan Tazawa-Lim, a sole trader in Australia trading as Empti, ABN 58 237 629 332 ("Empti", "we", "us"). You can reach us by email at [email protected].

These terms cover the Empti app for Mac, the Empti drive it shows in Finder, the service it talks to, share links, the empti command and the website (together, "Empti"). By making an account or using Empti, you agree to them. If you use Empti for a business or a team, you agree for that organisation too, and you confirm you're allowed to.

These terms work alongside two other pages: the privacy policy, which says what we collect and why, and the acceptable use policy, which says what Empti mustn't be used for.

You must be at least 18 to make an account.

What Empti does

Empti keeps your files in encrypted cloud storage and shows them in Finder as a drive. When an app opens a file, Empti fetches only the parts it reads. Files are encrypted on your Mac before they're uploaded, stored on Cloudflare R2 as sealed chunks, and decrypted on your Mac when you open them.

The app runs on Macs with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later. We may update the app and the service to fix problems, improve security or add features. Some updates may be needed to keep using Empti.

Your account and your passphrase

You sign in with Apple or Google. Keep your sign-in details to yourself, and tell us if you think someone else has used your account. You're responsible for what happens under your account, including what your scripts and agents do with it (see the empti command).

Separately from signing in, your files are locked with a random key that only your passphrase (or your recovery key) can unlock. The key lives in a vault on your Mac. We store only an encrypted copy of that vault, which we can't open. You're given the recovery key at setup, for when you forget the passphrase.

For the same reason, we can't check what's in your files, recover a file you deleted after the time it's kept, or tell what a file is from its name, because we don't see file names.

Your files and what you let us do with them

You own your files. Nothing in these terms gives us ownership of anything you store or share.

To run Empti, you give us a limited permission to store, copy, move between our storage locations, transmit and delete the encrypted bytes you upload, and the information the service needs about them (such as object ids, sizes and times), only as needed to provide Empti to you and to the people you share with. This permission ends when the encrypted data is deleted, apart from any copies we must keep by law. We don't use your files for anything else, and because they're encrypted, we can't read them.

You're responsible for having the right to store and share what you put in Empti.

If you send us ideas or feedback about Empti, we may use them without owing you anything.

Acceptable use

You agree to follow the acceptable use policy. It forms part of these terms. In short: don't use Empti for anything illegal or harmful, don't attack the service or other people's accounts, and don't get around the limits of your plan. Anyone can report a share link that breaks it, at acceptable-use.html#report.

Plans and prices

Paid plans

Prices are in US dollars. Taxes such as GST aren't included. If tax applies where you live, it's added at checkout and shown on your invoice.

• Storage is measured in decimal units, as macOS shows it: 1 TB is 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. Earlier versions of your files (kept for 30 days) and files in Recently deleted count towards it, and so do versions kept for a live share link.
• More storage comes in 500 GB steps, up to 100 TB in all. It's billed on the same interval as the plan.
• Drives: Individual includes 3 drives, counting your main drive. A drive in Recently deleted still counts until it's emptied.
• When storage is full, new uploads stop until you free space or add storage. Your files stay readable.

Free trial

• Your first plan starts with a 14-day free trial, with up to 100 GB of storage. On Teams, up to 3 seats can be used during the trial.
• You add a card to start the trial. When the trial ends, the plan starts and your card is charged, unless you cancel before then. The app reminds you 3 days and 1 day before the trial ends.
• The trial is once per person: if you've had any Empti plan before, a new one starts paid.
• Any extra storage you choose at checkout starts when the trial ends.

Paying

Payments are handled by Stripe. You pay at the start of each month or year, and the plan renews automatically until you cancel. You manage your card, invoices and cancellation in the app, in Settings → Plan & Storage → Manage billing.

• Adding storage or seats, or switching between monthly and yearly, is charged straight away for the rest of the current period. When you switch interval, the unused part of the old period is credited.
• Removing storage or seats is credited against your next payment, not refunded. You can't go below what you're storing, or below the seats in use.

Price changes

We may change our prices. We'll email you at least 30 days before a new price applies to you, and it will start from your next renewal after that notice, not in the middle of a period you've already paid for. If you don't want to pay the new price, cancel before it starts.

Test accounts from before launch

If we invited you to test Empti before launch, your test account may have been free. We'll give you at least 60 days' notice by email before that ends.

Refunds and cancelling

Refund of your first payment

If Empti isn't for you, you can get your first payment back within 7 days of making it. Email [email protected] within those 7 days, from the email on your account. This is:

• Once per person, and only for the first payment you make to Empti, monthly or yearly, Individual or Teams. If you started with a trial, it's the first payment after the trial.
• Not for renewals or later charges, such as added storage or seats, except where the law requires it.
• The end of that plan. The plan stops straight away, and its files go read-only for 30 days and are then deleted, as described in when a plan ends.

Cancelling

You can cancel any time in the app, in Settings → Plan & Storage → Manage billing. Your plan keeps working until the end of the period you've paid for, then ends. If you cancel during a free trial, you aren't charged.

Apart from the first-payment refund above and your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, we don't refund the rest of a period after you cancel.

If a payment fails

We'll retry your card and email you. For the first 7 days after a payment fails, everything keeps working. After that, your files are read-only until the payment goes through. Update your card in Settings → Plan & Storage → Manage billing. If the retries all fail, the plan ends.

When a plan ends

Whether it was cancelled, refunded, or ended after failed payments, the same steps follow, counted from the day the plan actually ends:

1. Read-only for 30 days. You can open, download and delete files, but not upload new ones. For a team, this applies to every member, and nobody new can join.
2. Three emails. We email the person who paid 1, 7 and 21 days after the plan ends, each with the date the files will be deleted.
3. Deleted on day 30. The plan's files are deleted from storage and can't be recovered. Your account, your vault and any teams stay, so you can start again.

Renew any time before day 30 and everything carries on as it was.

Teams

• The owner pays. A team's owner buys its plan, and is the only person who can change its seats, storage or billing. The owner is responsible for who they invite and for the team's use of Empti.
• Everyone takes a seat. Members, admins and viewers each take one, and so does an invite that hasn't been used or expired yet. A team needs at least 2 seats.
• Storage is shared across the team: 1 TB per seat plus any added storage. A seat doesn't come with personal storage; private drives go in the team.
• Removing someone stops their access straight away and changes the team's key for new files. Files they could open before stay readable to them if they kept copies, and we can't take those back.
• Deleting a team ends its plan straight away, and its unused time is credited to the owner's account. The team's drives are kept for 30 days and then deleted. A deleted team can't be restored.
• Handing a team over. An owner can make an admin the new owner, once they accept. The old owner's plan runs to the end of its paid period without a refund, and the new owner starts their own plan to keep the team writable after that. If they don't, the steps in when a plan ends apply.
• Someone invited to a team doesn't need a plan of their own. The team pays for their seat.
• One person can own up to 10 teams.

Share links

A share link lets anyone who has it open the files in a browser, without an account. The key to the files is in the part of the link after #, which never reaches our servers, so we can't see what you share.

• You're responsible for what you share and who you send the link to. Anyone with the link (and the password, if you set one) can view and download the files.
• A link shows the files as they were when you made it. It lasts 1, 7 or 30 days at most, and you can add a password or a download limit.
• You can turn a link off any time. New downloads stop at once; a download that has already started can finish within 15 minutes.
• The shared version is kept until the link ends, even if you change or delete the file, and it counts towards your storage.
• Up to 2,000 files in one link and 1,000 live links per account.
• We may turn off a link that's reported to us under the acceptable use policy, or that we're required to remove by law.

The empti command and automated use

The empti command reads and writes your drive from a terminal, a script or an AI agent. It signs in with your account and unlocks with your passphrase on that computer, so it holds your full key: anything that can run it there can read and change every file on your drive. To give an agent only one folder, use Settings → Agents instead.

• What a script or agent does through empti or the mounted drive counts as you using your account.
• empti rm sends things to Recently deleted, where they're kept for 30 days, as when you delete them on a Mac.
• Automated use is welcome within your plan. Don't use it to overload the service, get around limits, or share one account between people who should each have their own. We may slow down or limit requests to keep Empti working for everyone.

Availability

We work to keep Empti running and your data safe, but we don't promise any particular uptime. The service, or the storage and payment providers it depends on, may sometimes be slow or unavailable, including for maintenance. Files you've marked Keep on this Mac, and ones you opened recently, open without a connection; everything else opens again when you're back online.

Empti stores your files once, in encrypted storage, with earlier versions and deleted files kept for 30 days. It isn't a replacement for a separate backup of anything you can't afford to lose.

Changes to Empti and to these terms

Empti will change as we build it. We may add, change or remove features. If we remove something you pay for, or make a change that clearly makes your plan worse, we'll tell you first, and you can cancel and get back the unused part of what you've paid.

We may update these terms. For a change that matters, we'll email you and show it in the app at least 30 days before it takes effect. Small fixes, such as wording or contact details, take effect when we post them. If you keep using Empti after a change takes effect, the new terms apply. If you don't agree, you can cancel and stop using Empti.

If we ever stop running Empti altogether, we'll give at least 60 days' notice so you can download your files, and refund the unused part of any period you've paid for.

Suspension and ending your account

If you leave

You can stop using Empti whenever you like. Download what you want to keep, then delete your account in Settings → Account → Delete account…. This ends any plan you pay for, deletes your files from storage straight away, and can't be undone. If you own a team with other people in it, deleting your account deletes that team for everyone, so hand it over to another admin first if they should keep it.

If we suspend or end your account

We may suspend or close an account, or turn off a share link, if:

• it breaks these terms or the acceptable use policy in a serious way, or keeps breaking them after we've asked it to stop;
• the law requires it; or
• it puts the service, our providers or other people at risk.

Unless the law or the risk stops us, we'll tell you first, say why, and give you a reasonable chance to fix it or download your files. If you think we got it wrong, email [email protected] and a person will look at it.

Not paying isn't handled as a suspension: it follows the steps in if a payment fails and when a plan ends.

Liability and your rights under the Australian Consumer Law

Our services come with guarantees that can't be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you're entitled to cancel your service contract with us and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You're also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If a failure doesn't amount to a major failure, you're entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or changes those guarantees, or any other right you have that the law says can't be excluded. The rest of this section applies only as far as the law allows.

• Apart from those guarantees, Empti is provided as it is and as available, without other promises, whether stated or implied.
• Where the law lets us limit our liability for a failure to meet a guarantee, and the service isn't of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, our liability is limited to supplying the service again or paying the cost of having it supplied again.
• Otherwise, our total liability to you for anything to do with Empti is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.
• We aren't liable for loss that comes from you losing your passphrase and recovery key, from what you share or who you share it with, or from what your scripts and agents do with your account.
• We aren't liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as lost profits or lost opportunities, except where the law says otherwise.

You agree to cover our reasonable costs if someone makes a claim against us because of what you stored or shared in breach of these terms.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia, and you and we submit to the courts of New South Wales. If you're a consumer, this doesn't take away any protection you have under the law where you live.

If something goes wrong, email us first at [email protected]. Most problems can be fixed that way.

General

• These terms, with the privacy policy and the acceptable use policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about Empti.
• If part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.
• You can't transfer your account or these terms to someone else without our agreement. We may transfer them to whoever takes over Empti, and we'll tell you if we do.
• We send notices to the email on your account, so keep it current. You can send notices to us by email to [email protected].

Contact

Dylan Tazawa-Lim, trading as Empti. Email [email protected]; we reply within 2 working days. For help using Empti, see the help centre or contact support.